Nebraska Newspapers

    The Monitor
A Weakly Newspaper devoted to the civic, social and religious interests
of the Colored People of Nebraska and the West, with the desire to con
tribute something to the general good and upbuilding of the community and
of the race.
Published Every Saturday.
Entered as Second-Claas Mail Matter July 2. 1916, at the Poet Office at
Omaha. Neb., under the act of March 3, 1179
THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor and Publisher.
Lucille Skaggs Edwards and William Garnett Haynes, Associate Editors.
George Welle Parker. Contributing Editor. Bert Patrick, Business
Manager. Fred C. Williams, Traveling Representative
SUBSCRIPTION RATES, $2.00 A YEAR; $1.00 6 MONTHS; 60c 3 MONTHS
Advertising Rates, 60 cents an Inch per Issue.
Address, The Monitor, 1119 North Twenty-first street. Omehs.
Telephone Webster 424$.
Bl'Y A LIBERTY BOND
TVTHAT have you done for your
YY country? Have you "given a
father, a son, a brother, a sweetheart ?
If so, back him up and as soon as you
can reach an official BUY A LIB
ERTY' BOND. When you back them
up, you back up your country, and
your country needs your backing. No
man or woman is too small, too incon‘
sequential, to help the nation. If you
have not yet given up a loved one to
defend our country over there, more is
the reason that you should BUY A
LIBERTY BOND and help. There is
but one slogan now and do not forget
it: BUY A LIBERTY BOND!
THE CONFLICT OF REASON
A N I) SENT1 M ENT
LIFE is an eternal conflict between
reason and sentiment. In this
hour of world war. when our country
is doing all possible to preserve civil
ization and make the earth a decent
home, reason dictates that our race
has no other part to play than that of
patriotic loyalty and unvarying devo
tion. This is the only country we
know and the Stars and Stripes is the
only flag for which ye have ever felt
a passion. We are Americans all, and
it is up to everyone of us to do an
American’s part.
Yet it cannot be denied that senti
ment plays its part. The heart has
a language and sometimes it screams
aloud and almost drowns the voice of
reason. As a persecuted people we
have, peihaps, more delicacy of .-oul
than other peoples, and the slightest
injustice never passes unnoticed. It
is as though a music maker tunes his
harp to sweetest harmony and sud
denly a hidden hand strikes and brings
forth discord. Our supposed leaders
say that we must forget our wrongs,
but CAN WE ? Can we view with
voiceless tongue and unwavering eye
the subtle workings of prejudice as
they are rife today? If our beloved
country is big enough to be great,
is it not also big enough to be gen
erous? Our nation has put fear into
the hearts of all who would dare as
sail our purpose and our aims; can it
not p't'; fear into the hearts of those
who try to make it a crime to be
black? Whatever may be done or
said, now is the time for the executive
department of our government to
strike at the hydra headed demon of
prejudice and keep it silent during
the war. Then after the war it might
revive, but revive with such a weak
ness and frail it y that men might help
one another to try and forget it. We
wonder if such a thing may not be
possible?
GETTING IN THE GAME
The World-Herald reprints a selec
tion called ‘‘Us Angry Saxom’s,” from
the Atlantic Monthly and it is about
the cheapest attempt at Negro dialect
we have ever read. It purports to be
a dialogue indulged in by members of
the Eighth Illinois and is certainly a
monument to the white man’s ignor
ance. We did not expect such a thing
from the Atlantic Monthly, but when
it stoops to such ignorant jargon and
attempts to saddle it upon such a regi
ment as the Eighth, we beg to be ex
cused. Of course the “Us AngKy
Saxom’s,” was copied from one of
Charles W. Chestnut’s books and used
by some white pen acrobat who is
making an attempt to be funny. But
there isn’t any humor in it. When
you want real Negro humor, you must
first of all learn how he talks. No
Negro in the woild ever talked like
those written up in the Atlantic
Monthly. If this New England maga
zine wants to deal in southern dialect,
it had better put a Colored man or
woman on the staff and have them
censor such stuff as “Us Angry Sax
oms." Get in the game right.
THE ETERNAL AFRICAN
When the war came at last the
Negro rare rose to the occasion with
really touching simplicity. No ob
server could fail to see that the Ne
groes thrilled deeply to the thought
that the American flag was their flag
and that it was not only their duty,
but their privilege to defend it. What
ever we may feel them, the Colored
people feel themselves not African hut
American. Have they not indeed
itiunk of our wells and eaten of our
bread for three centuries? The Ger
man propagandists told them the flag
was not theirs. But it is the only flag
they have ever had. and under it, in
spite of adverse conditions, they have
attained to a degree of civilization
and prosperity and happiness which
their fellows have reached under no
other. We must remember too that
American citizenship, of which some
of its white possessors think lightly
enough, is for the Negro still a great,
almost romantic privilege, and that
all his hopes for the future as sum
med up in complete attainment of it
and full enjoyment of all its rights
and advantages. The race is emo
tional and the days are propitious for
an emotianal patriotism.—Harrison
Rhodes in the Metropolitan.
PROCESSION OF THE SLAIN
If we sat dav and night and saw
the ghostly procession of those slain
in the war file by in ranks of four,
minute by minute, ten years would
pass and still the tale of the world’s
sacrifice of its youth and strength
and hope would not have been told.
And if behind the dead, there filed the
host of the maimed, the halt, the
blind, the dumb, the paralyzed, fifty
years would hardly exhaust the dread
ful spectacle. The material costs we
do not yet realize. We are burning
down the house of Bobo and it makes
a fine blaze—plenty of work, plenty
of money, plenty of profits. We shall
have to wait till the fire is out and
we survey the map of ashes before we
appreciate the meaning of these thou
sands of millions of debt which Bonar
Law announces to a house that used
to be seized with visions of national
I bankruptcy if any one asked for one
million dollars to build schools or
house the poor, or heal the sick.—The
London Daily News.
QI'ESTIONS BY THE WAY
- N
When will Colonel Young be re
called to active service?
When is the first contingent of Col
ored Red Cross nurses to be cal'ed?
Are we getting our full quota of
commissioned officers for our Colored
soldiers?
When will the Jim Crow law be
abolished on government controlled
rail roads.
When will lynching cease to be a
southern pastime?
When will the ninety-second divis
ion get to Berlin?
The nineteenth Colored soldier was
hung this week to expiate the Hous
ton crime. Georgia this week has
lynched her nineteenth Negro victim
in nine months. Not a single Georgis
Hun has been molested for his crime.
• Buy a Liberty bond and make the
world safe for democracy.
THE METROPOLITAN ON THE
NEGRO
THE October number of the Metro
politan Magazine contains a very
inclusive article cn the Negro and the
war, by Harrison Rhodes. We say in
clusive, because the author has includ
ed almost every phase of war activity
as it touches the race in America. It
is a sympathetic and deeply apprecia
tive article and has none of that course
vulgarism that typified the “Mobiliz
ing Rastus” that appeared in Collier’s
sometime ago. Particularly interest
ing is the manner in which the author
takes up the matter of the Red Cross.
He says that this national society has
usually prided itself upon assuming a
certain social and aristocratic tinge
and when it was first suggested that
Colored women be made Red Cross
w’orkers, there was a considerable fight
on hand. The organization even went
to the length of turning down the work
of Colored chapters by the wholesale
and that thousands of knitted goods
were thrown out for the reason that
the Red Cross wanted nothing from
Colored women. The author also states
that the Colored soldier has shown
himself a veteran under shell fire, the
one point where many said he would
fall down. The article is a good one
and well worth reading.
Buy a Liberty bond to beat the Hun.
I
Obvious Observations
Same pen scribbling bother said in
the paper las* week that while dollars
] are cheap, you'd better get a collec
tion. Dear brother, you said a mouth
ful.
We never saw so many cullud folks
buying Metropolitan Magazines since
we have been sons of Ham. What was
cooking?
Colonel Hayward sure bets all this
poker chips on those shady boys of
I his, eh ?
Two more jumps, then Metz, then
PLUNK!
Press dispatches say that Bulgaria
I has accumulated a mess of cold dogs.
; Well, one thing is certain: the allies
aren’t going to give her a chance to
warm them unless they get hot feet
via the rear speedway.
Ye editor hath gone down to glim
the great consecration. Well, let him
slip off this one time, beause its the
first event of its kind in the old U. S.
A. But we hope he won’t get the idea
that The Monitor can get along with
out him.
It is rumored that Link Sam is soon
to add the packing plants to his col
lection of industries. Please hurry,
Unk. because this six bit bacon has
about disturbed our serenity.
Genera! Forh is sure *he worring
est mar we ever heard of.
Fine weather, brother; but don’t
th'nk this is April instead of October.
Business is good, thank you! Even
over there.
Whoa! Suspender button slipped.
Will continue in our next.
SKITS OF SOLOMON
Himself
Mr. Solomn has been with you sev
eral days by the old calendar on
the wall. Week by week he has been
wheezing out desecrated English for
your edification and hasn’t tried to
borrow a dime or a drink. But now
old Soi ha.- about bankrupted h's ex
chequer bringing cut a nifty I ooklet
known as The Children of the Sun.
In the whole regiments of type he
hasn’t said a word about himself, but
what he said about you is a caution.
Legend has it that old man Darwin
claimed you descended from a simian
called monkey, but Sol has hit Darwy
such a blow that his progeny for one
hundred vears will have a headache.
Old Sol has gone through the dark
and devious ways of history and
; nnked loose more ancestral timber
’bun Noah h-d on his who e blooming
Ark. Of course folks don’t say much
when a eullud student sticks around
the dark continent for family tradi- j
♦ions, but when he sticks Greece in
his watch pocket, Rome in his inside
coat pock ;t and then collects the rest
of the big show and hangs it on hi*
hip, there is bound to be a holler. But
that is just what Solomon has done.
He has been long nn the foolish stuff,
but brothers end iseers, he hasn’t let
tic heavy bass slip by. For twenty
years he has been nosing around dusty
tombs and library corners where he
had no business, and now he is going
to give you an earful of his awful ac
cumulations; not aw-ful on you, but aw
ful on the guy who has been telling
you for several moons that you were
nothing but the wart behind the neck
of history. Sol shows you where
\ cu’re the face, the symetrical arms,
the big chest, the dainty waist, the
shape !y legs, and the number eleven
feet. In fact, old Sol has crowded
everybody off the lines but >0u, and
it is up *o you to manifest apprecia
tion. Grab onto the book while its
hot and then put in some spare time
accumulating its salt and pepper.
TO A KOSEBIO
Dear little rose, I hold thee in my
hand—
A cast-away, a spumed and lifeless
thing;
A few days since, I saw thee wet with
dew,
A bud o’ promise, to th> parent cling.
Now tholi art dead, yet fragrant as
before,
The adverse winds but waft thy frag
rance more! -
: How frail art thou! I tread thee un
der foot.
And leave thee helpless on the reeking
ground;
Perchance someone, in pity for thy
state,
j Doth pick thee up in reverence pro
found.
Lo! thou art rich, in sweetness more
intense,
Thy perfume grows from earthly det
riments.
Why do we grieve? I^et each afflic
t;on bare.
A nobler beauty neath the surface
sod;
Our thoughts like incense from the
urn.
Which wafted up, enshrouds the
throne o? God.
Envoy of hope, this message I dis
close;
“Be ever sweet”—O, humble, fragrant
rose.
EVA ALBERTA JESSIA.
_
1 Letters from Our Readers
ABOUT THE OLD FOLKS HOME?
Some time ago one of the ladies
conected with the Old Folks’ Home
(for Colored people), came to our
manager. Mr. William Lewis, to En
gage the First Regimental band U. R.
of K. P., to play for an entertain- |
ment to be given at the home com- :
mencing September 9.
Mr. Lewis informed the lady that
her cause was too sacred to have to
pay for the services of the band, and j
therefore he would furnish the said j
band free.
On the opening night thirty mem
bers of the band met and played for
two hours in the yard of the home.
I regret to say that a band that drew
at least ten thousand citizens on the
<ourthou.se lawn on September 12 only
drew fifteen persons at the entertain
ment given for the best movement
now being conducted for" our people
in this city. 1 am not going to as
sume that you don’t care, because 1
believe you would care if you only
knew the facts, or if you would stop
and think what this home might mean
to you or yours. Now keep in mind
the fact that what I write here is only
food for thought. For example, therr
is one inmate there that has lived in
this city for possibly fifty years or
more. As I understand her husband
was a man of affairs in the old days,
but through some misfortune reverses
came and he died and left his widow
in the hands of kind friends.. She has
lived on and on until the friends are
dead, gone or reduced to circum
stances that made it impossible for
them to continue to look after her. So
now she is spending her last days in
a home created by her people and
needless to say that she is happy. Now
the point is this. The committee is
in need of funds very badly. They
were compelled to let the matron go,
they are behind with all bills that are
essential to the maintenance of the
place.
Are we going to sit by and see this
splendid institution die for the want
of bare necessities? 1 don’t want to j
think so.
My friends, you that are read.ng >
this, may outlive all of your relatives
and friends, then where will you turn j
for comfort?
Don’t you think it will be wise to I
invest a little time and money to per- ,
petuate something that will be wait
ing for you should you need it ?
Now you ask what can I do?
Well it will cost you twenty cents
to become a member and ten cents per
month dues.
Not very much, even if the cost of
living is high. In America we think
only of dollars, we never think of ten
cents as being very much, but if one
thousand of the present population
will donate ten cents per month that
will support the home very nicely.
Let’s all rally to the home and keep
her going on safe waters.
Now if you want to join this organ
ization just get in touch with the fol
lowing ladies: Mesdames Martha
Smith. 1920 North 34th street; A. L.
Bowlei, 2709 North 28th avenue; Kate
Wilson, 521 North 33d street.
Oh, yes, you should join; you’re
not compelled to attend meetings, only
send vour dues. Respectfully,
DAN DFSDUNF.S.
THE COLORED PRESS
The Negro newspaper is beginning
to wield great power. It required th»
great white race centuries to reach a
place of merit which we have reached
in less than half a century. One hun
dred years ago there was not a news
paper in America as well printed as
the Broad Ax, nor better edited, and
perhaps not as extensively read. Edu
cation of the masses has been the
slogan upon which it has predicated
its potency.
Progress has risen out of oblivion
to shine forever against the old order
which Abraham Lincoln annihilated
with his immortal pen.
The Negro press is becoming forci
ble and mighty, and has built itself
upon the foundation of truth and hon
or, defying envy and all supping time.
Today it stands intrenched by every
noble qualification. Capable and j
praiseworthy, in fact, it has become a
determining factor of our steady de
velopment and progress, besides being
a monitor, a guide, and defender of
our race escutcneon, points the way
like a sentinel on a watch tower or
guiding like a lighthouse pointing the
shoals and quicksands,—The Chicago
Broad Ax.
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biandeis Stores
OVER-SEAS SERVICE
Rendered
We will take orders at our OVERSEAS BOOTH on the
Main Floor, fr om anyone who desires to send anything over
seas and our Par is office will buy and send direct.
This Service Is Rendered Absolutely Without One Cent of
Profit by This Store.
Come to the Over-Seas booth on the Main Floor, and you
will find a printed list of the merchandise carried by our’
Paris Office—
1. —You select the gift you wish to send.
2. —We mail order to Paris.
3. —Our Paris office finds out where your bov is stationed.
4. —Our Paris office sends the present to your boy, asking
him for a receipt.
3.—The receipt is returned to us and sent to you.
Buy Your Copy of
The
Children
of the Sun
NOW!
In this book George Wells
Parker, author and historian,
smashes traditions, overturns
historians and proves the
African Race the Great
est Race of History
25 cents per copy
Cash or money order. No stamps
The Hamitic League of the World
933 North 27th Street
Omaha, Nebraska
i %
UNCLE SAM NEEDS OUR MEN. LET THE ff
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