The Monitor
f A National Weekly Newspaper Devoted to the Interests of Colored
Americana.
Publfe’ied Every Thursday at Omaha, Nebraska, by The Monitor Pub- j
| 11 shin* Company.
Entered aa Second-Class Mail Matter July 2, 1916, at the Postoffice at
Omaha. Neb., under the Act of March 3. 1879.
THE REV. JOHN ALBERT WILLIAMS, Editor.
I George H. W. Bullock. Circulation Manager and Associate Editor.
M Wrigth. Advertising Manager.
TRAGO T. McWILLIAMS, Associate Editor, Lincoln, Neb.
SUBSCRIPTION RATES, $3 00 A YEAR; $1.50 6 MONTHS; $1.00 3 MONTHS
I Advertising Rates, 75 cents an Inch per Issue.
Address, The Monitor, 201 kaffir Block, Omaha, 5eb,
Telephone Douglas 3224.
AMERICA AWAKENING
f I hdK fact that during the part year
A fourteen mobs bent on lynching
were stopped by armed forces and
sever, members of attacking mobs
slain shows that America has awak
ened to the necessity of putting down
mobocracy with a strong hand. She
must do this in self defense. The
menace of the mob, because its activ
ities have been almost exclusively di
rected against hapless and apparently
helpless black folk, has not been fully
grasped by the American people. The
tendency to condone mobs has been
all too prevalent and has been a pro
lific propagator of this vicious species
of lawlessness. America must destroy
the mob or the mob will destroy
Amei 'ca. America is awakening to
this fact.
A SIGNIFICANT EVENT
LAST Wednesday W. G. Moore took
his oath of office as a member
of the Missouri legislature, the first
of his race to be so honored in that
state. When one recalls that Mis
souri was one of the slave states and
was ranked with “the solid South,”
until she earned the cognomen of
“mysterious stranger” by casting her
vote for a republican president in the
person of Roosevelt, the seating of
Representative Moore becomes the
more strikingly significant. That with
in a little more than half a century
the descendant of an enslaved people
should become a legislator in the very
state in which his ancestors were
Slaves shows how rapidly we are mak
ing' progress.
POOR ARGUMENT
REPRESENTATIVE Clark of Flor
ida, instead of frothing at the
mouth concerning the activities of the
National Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People, would serve
his constituents and his country much
better by frankly acknowledging that
large numbers of Negro voters were
not permitted to vote in his state at
the last election and by devoting his
influence to prevent a want on recur
rence of this violation of the consti
tution of the United States, the pro
visions of which he has taken solemn
oath to uphold. Evasion and denial
do not alter the facts. Denunciation
of organizations or individuals who
present evidence to substantiate their
charges will not pass for argument
with the public. Denunciation is pool
argument.
CONSCIENCE CRIES
TT7ITHIN the last few months The
VV Monitor has carried several
news itemR in which white women,
smitten by an accusing conscience,
have admitted that they had lied when
they had raised the sensational and
damning cry that they had been vic
tims of rape or attempted rape by
Negroes. Among the more recent of
such cases will be readily recalled—
that of Miss Fannie Brasher, night
telephone operator at Middlesboro,
Kv., reported in our issue of Decem
ber 23, who was forced to admit by
the authorities, after they had made a
fruitless effort to apprehend the
“nigger” in the case and asked her to
explain the presence of the red hair in
her teeth, taken from the head of her
assailant, that James Thompson,
white, her jilted lover, had been her
assailant. Conscience had iittle to do
with this confession, but tell-tale evi
dence. Another case that will be re
called was that of the Washington
woman who had the police scouring
the suburbs of the capitol city for
“two Negroes” who had attacked her
as she “was leaving the carnival
grounds.” New Jersey gave us a
similar case. Two or three southern
and one western state have furnished
like stories,- which were subsequently
repudiated We carry in this issue tjro
news items of a similar nature, one
from Dallas, Tex., where the confes
sion of Mrs. Gertrude Clark, that she
had framed charges of attempted
criminal assault against an innodlnt
man, resulted in his being given his
freedom, and another from Pitts
burgh, Pa.
It is horrible to contemplate how
many innocent Negroes have been
lynched and given to the flames by
the accusation of some conscienceless
woman who perhaps to protect some
jilted lover, as in the case of the Ken
tucky girl, or to shield themselves
when overtaken in sin, has wilfully
and deliberately lied.
That so many cases have come to
light recently' where confessions of
this character have been made should
make the American public realize that
there should not be too much alacrity
in giving charges of this character
credence. It should also serve as a
warning to men of our race to main
tain circumspection and to be most
cautious of their actions toward
women of the opposite race. They'
should be careful to avoid anything
that seems to approach familiarity.
SNYCOPATED SPASMS
' SOCIETY
JN every city and hamlet of these
little old United States of America,
we find a small crowd of eullud peo
ple calling themselves the “society
folks.” It is the same everywhere.
Try it out in Noo York, Bostun, Chi,
K. C., Omyha, Denvuh, Los Angee
leeze. o*- anywhere else and tney are
..il the same. Usually they have ac
cumulated a little dough, bought quite
a bit of furniture on the installment
plan and dressed up in a few duds
from a credit house. They tilt their
proboscuses at an angle of forty-five
degrees and look upon the rest of their
race as necessary evils. But ask them
what they know and that moment they
get scared and start making it for
cover. Now real society is something
worth while, but it takes something
besides dough, nice furniture and a
few glad rags to make real society
folks. In fact, the qualities that go
to make up society are real inside ma
terials. The first necessity is & hu
mane disposition that wants to see
everybody up and nobody down. This
doesn't mean that you must go along
the highways and hug every hobo you
see and invite him into your parlor.
But it does mean that you must not
pass everybody by as if you were the
only puffy persimmon in the world.
Secondly, society requires that you
have something in your bean besides
garbage. You should know something
about life, literature and the finer
arts. If you don’t you have no more
reason tc claim yourself a society bug
that a bedbug has to claim himself a
butterfly. You’re phony. What you
need to do is to buy a thousand or so
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books and sit down and give your
brain some exercise. Another thing
to go hefty on is the moral side. You
can’t bust up the decalogue and still
expect to be called a social light.
You’ve got to come clean. When you
try to tell the public that you are bel
ter than most people, it is up to you
to live better, do better and act bet
ter. If you are a man, you can’t make
love to every female you see, and if
you are a woman, you can’t make goo
goo eyes at every man you see. You
have got to be decent, and if you are
not. Good-bye!
DON'T KNOCK
By James H. Patrick
Don’t criticize your neighbor’s fault
no matter what they do.
Don’t ridicule the masses, or malign
the chosen few.
Don’t think yourself a censor of the
silly human flock,
And just remember, as you go, that
any chump can knock.
Don’t laugh at those who make mis
takes, or stumble by the way,
For you are apt to follow them, and
almost any day.
Don’t think that others are shifting
sand, and you a solid rock.
And don’t forget, for heaven’s sake,
that any chump ran knock.
•
Don’t be a puller-down of fame on
other men conferred.
Don’t give a parting knock to iffie who
fell because he erred.
Don’t think you are perfect, and the
only size in stock.
And now, once more, just bear in mind
that any chump can knock.
OMAHA ASKED TO HELP
IN FIGHT FOR JI’STICE
A Self-Explanatory Letter to Loral
Branch N. A. A. C. P.
New York. Jan. 6, 1921.
Deal Mr. Black: In June of last!
year, three colored men were lynched
by a mob in Duluth, Minn., on the
charpe that they had criminally as
saulted a $ocnp white pirl of the com
munity while other colored men held
a pistol to the head of the white man
who was the pirl’s escort.
Subsequent investipation by the Na
tional Association for the Advance
ment of Colored People cast verv
prave doubts on the truthfulness of
the pirl’s statements. After beinp as
saulted by six “burly” Nee roes, as she
claims, she walked a half mile to .1
street car, rode home and said noth
inp to her parents. Medical examina
tion later showed that she had not
ben raped. Thirteen colored men were
arrested charped with the crime. The
Duluth branch, orpanized after the
lynchinps, and aided by the St. Paul
and Minneapolis branches immediately
started raisinp a fund with which they
employed Attorneys F. L. Barnett of
Chicapo, R. C. MeCullouph of Duluth
and Charles Bcrutchins of Bemid.ii.
Up to the present time, these branches
have raised $1,200. As a result of
their efforts, one of the defendants
was fred by the verdict of the jun
which thorouphly discredited the
stories of the alleped rape^five were
discharped by order of the court an<'
on December 17 six men were dis
missed at the request of the proseeut
inp attorney. The thirteenth man was
convicted on the testimony of a physi
cian that he was infected with vene
real disease. Later, examination !>;•
a specialist, proved that he was not
infected.
After his conviction, his case was
appealed and comes up for trial on
January 17, and with the final effort
now beinp made will undoubtedly be
acquitted, thus provinp that the Du
luth lynchinps were not caused by the
charpe oripinally made.
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To complete the case requires $1,000.
The cost of the transcript of the court
record for the state supreme court will
be $400 and the other expenses, such
as court costs, the furnishing of ab
stracts, briefs and arguments, should
not exceed $500. The national office
has contributed $100 to this defense
fund. It would have given more had
not heavy expenditures made that im
possible. We are appealing to the
Omaha branch, asking that you make ■
an appeal through the branch and the
local churches immediately for funds
to complete so great a victory. I do
not need to point out to you that the
acquittals will not affect Duluth alone, j
Thev will mean that the colored peo
ple accused of crime will be defended
in all northern states and that there |
will not be a substitution of Missis
sippi conditions in the north.
Contributions should be sent direct
ly to H. R. Merry, president of the
Duluth branch of the N. A. A. C. P.,
at 718 Eighth Avenue East, Duluth
Minn., at the same time advising this
office of the amount sent.
Very truly yours,
WALTER F. WHITE,
Assistant Secretary.
PARADED IN WEDDING FINERY
Peculiar Custom of Eighteenth-Cen.
tury New England Would Seem to
Put Premium on Vanity.
An unusual custom in vogue In New
England In the Eighteenth century
which caused newly married couples
to appear at church ou the four Sun- |
days following their union dressed in
all the bridal finery they could get
together, is recorded by Edward J. '
Morris In his book, “The Psychology
of Dress."
“This, of course, stimulated a rival
ry between families, not likely to fur
ther the Puritan uiui of modesty In
appearance. Those who could afford
• had four distinct sets of finery, one
for each Sunday, that there might
be no monotony for those who formed
the audience. In many communities
a pew was set apart In which the bri
dal pair was shown, so that the con
gregalion knew just where to look
for the objects of interest. *
‘"These selected seats were often in J
the gallery, sometimes the front pews
of the center aisle, and at times in
other prominent places. The couple
generally arrived a bit late, that the
observers might all be seated before
their arrival; then they walked slow
ly arm in arm to the assigned seats,
while the entire congregation gave
their hushed and respectful attention.
At an appointed time, generally just
before the sermon, the couple arose
and turned slowly around two or three
times, that every angle of their ap
pearance might be viewed; they then
aat down.”
The Puzzling Twins.
The new baby twins looked ns alike j
is two peas In a pod. Harold stood
poking at them and. looking up at his
'uther he asked, "and nren't there even
efts or rights to 'em?''
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