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Newspaper Page Text
THE PASSING THRONG Abraham Lincoln's emancipation act was remembered by the colored citizens of Se attle last Sunday evening in the shape of a goodly number coming out to listen to ad dresses made by some of our well known citizens. The exercises were held at the First A. M. K. church, which was tastefully decorated with flowers and flags, giving the spacious auditorium a most pleasing ap pearance. The selections rendered by the choir of Hie church were very sweet and well worthy of a packed house had there been nothing else on the program. Owing to the absence of the pastor and no one to fill his pulpit on that occasion it was the concensus of opinion that, the emancipation speeches in conjunction with the sacred concert given by the choir, the house would be packed from pit to dome but it was not, and the only reason that this paper can give for it not having been so, was that somebody had tried to have a public meet ing in the interest of the colored folk of the city and they did not appreciate any one trying to in any way connect them with the people emancipated by Lincoln in 1862. On the whole, however, the meeting was quite a success and Mr. Stone and his com mittee are to be congratulated. The Post-Intelligencer condescended to mention the Emancipation meeting last Sunday morning and in the future a ma jority of the colored citizens of this section would much prefer that, it not waste its valuable space in publishing news notes as to other coming events. The notice as written, was like all such notices that have apepared in the P.-I. under its present edi torial management, an appology for its ap pearance in its columns. It's too bad that the editorial management of the P.-I. does not go out {md listen to some of the speeches made by colored men and women on some such occasions and it would hear just as choice language and just as classi cal music delivered and rendered as could be heard among the whites, and further, if the editor himself was curtained off so he could not see the complexion of those par ticipating he would not be able to honestly tell whether what he heard was said by white or colored men and women. The colored citizens have learned that there is nothing too good for colored people in the way of culture and intelligence and those selected to speak or sing on such occasions fully prepare themselves and they would feel no more embarrassed to appear before an nil white audience than before an all colored audience. But, the editor of the P.-I. is just born that way and perhaps he has been unable to overcome his an tipathy for the colored man, which is char acteristic of any former Knight of the ({olden Circle. Sampson Valley, whose former home was in Lexa, Arkansas, is a repent arrival in the city and holds a T> S. Government cer tificate as meat inspector and for the pres ent will be stationed at Barton & Com pany's slaughter house. Valley is a pro bationer, but if he makes good in at the expiration of his probationary period he Avill be regularly employed. He is stop ping at the home of Mr. and Mrs. George A. Wright and Mr. Wright is rendering him all the assistance posbisle to get off right. This class of work is a new field for colored men in the West and it is the hope of knowing of the efforts of Mr. Valley that he will make good. Clarence R. Anderson gave much *trf. dence last Sunday evening in his masterly address, that he is a thinker as well as an attorney at law. If he prepares his court papers with as much thought and logic as did he the paper, which he read on the occasion mentioned above, then sooner or later he will develop into one of the eminent lawyers of the Northwest, Ad mitting the weak points in his race, but proving the members thereof quite capable of developing into just as strong minded men and women as are to be found among the whites was the thread that ran through out his entire address. Evidently the pub lic is finding out that he is full of meat for thought and it is seeing to it that the grass does not grow under his feet, as he spoke in Spokane last Saturday, was back to Seattle Sunday evening in time to fill his place on the program and found himself on his return from Spokane, on the program of the Business Men's meeting last Tuesday evening under the auspices of the Brother hood of the Mt. Zion Baptist church. Ninety Drunks in Seattle last Sunday, and that, too, in a "bone dry" state and community, is almost astounding, and yet that is a million per cent improvement over what the general state of affairs were under the open saloon regime. That there is boot legging going on in Seattle almost on the wholesale no one with common sense will deny, but that the bootlegging is nothing in comparison to the all-night brawls that the town saw when men and women could stag ger from one drink resort to another and go home in the wee small hours of the morning so heavily loaded that it generally took two well proportioned horses to pull them there, must also be admitted. Let the booze vendor make much of the ninety drunks in Seattle last Sunday, but at that the sentiment of the state is three to one in favor of keeping booze from being sold in open saloons and it will not be again soon, if ever. James Gayton is now employed in the chemical department of the Stewart & Holmes Drug Co., and plans to stick to the job until he has mastered it, which, it is truly hoped, he will do, not so much for his individual self, but for the opening it will make for other colored boys. Every time the son of some one of us get a job like the one now being held by young Gayton and make good, it broadens the field for others to find like employment and even different employment, and all because the young man with Stewart & Holmes made good. First class chemists are always in demand and if young Gayton becomes proficient in this line of work by the time he is twenty one years of age he will be able to com mand a princely salary. He starts out with ten dollars per week and a promise of a raise if he gives any evidence of growing in his work. Let the young colored men get ready to meet any emergency that may arise and the door of hope will not stay closed against all of them. Lieutenant Boston is to the front with new fields of labor for such colored men as want to work. Eecently he has been given an opportunity to place colored men in the Campbell saw mills at Ballard and there are already a dozen or more at work there, and they earn from $3.50 to $4.50 per day. The Stimson mills at Ballard have likewise opened its doors to colored labor ers and not being able to get native colored men in sufficient quantities, as many were taken as could be had and some eighty odd Filipinos have been employed. In compari son to the wages colored men have been getting in this section of the country in the past the wages these men are getting at these mills are almost fabulous. Just sup pose those colored men in the South could get such wages they would be the happiest souls in the world. Last week this paper took occasion to speak about the colored men employed at the Pacific Coast Steel Company and the wages the men received. There are colored men working over there that draw not less than $150 per month. Mrs. Zoe Graves Young is to be con gratulated on the excellent paper she read last Sunday evening at the Emancipation meeting. It dealt with the evolution of the colored man from the time he was first brought to the United States and sold as a slave to the present and a most beautiful picture did she depict to the entire audience as it sat in rapt attention. It was her maiden public effort in Seattle, but from the many congratulations she received from those present at the adjournment of the meeting it will hardly be her last. Mrs. Young is a graduate of Oberlin and is quite qualified to make herself useful as well as ornamental, and it is hoped that other pro gram makers will utilize the talent she so clearly demonstrated last Sunday evening that she possesses. Henry J. Asberry lives in Tacoma and is a barber by trade, but those who heard his "Unity" address last Sunday evening were thoroughly convinced that neither of those handicaps militated against him in deliver ing one of the most pleasing talks that has ever been heard in Seattle. Every word and every sentence hit the bull's eye and as he neared his close those who had hung on his each and every word regretted that he would not continue to speak words of wisdom mingled with cheerfulness. His subject within itself was a sermon and it was doubly so, after he had so fluently por trayed its application. The only regretable thing about the address was that the house was not packed to hear it, but it is here predicted that, if ever he repeats the ad dress in Seattle he will have a full house to listen to him. He was accompanied by his wife and sister-in-law, Mrs. ToAvnsend, who came o*er from Tacoma Sunday after noon and returned the same evening. Rev. W. D. Carter and Mrs. Carter will return to the city today, after a month's absence, a part of which time was spent at the National Baptist Convention, one of the largest deliberative bodies among the colored folks in the United States. He will take up his pastoral work at once and will occupy his pulpit Sunday and the presump tion is that he will tell his audience of the general workings of the convention, either in the forenoon or in the evening. Rev. Carter is one of the broadest gagued col ored preachers that ever pastored in Se attle, he being ready and willing at all times to lend a helping hand to any meri torious cause. Mrs. Carter has been very active in the work of women since she has lived in the city, but the work which she feels the greatest amount of interest in is that among the young women of the city m the way of forming them into a Culture Club, which is an adjunct to the Young Women's Christian Asosciation. This work she plans to take up with renewed vigor this season and will endeavor to interest even more young women in it than in the past. Rev. D. A. Graham, who left for the Puget Sound annual conference of the A. M. E. church, which convened at Great Falls, Montana, nearly a month ago, and who, after its adjournment, went to Indi ana to visit with relatives and friends of his childhood, will occupy his pulpit next Sunday to the delight of his entire member ship. He will begin his second year as pastor of the church of his connection in this city under far more favorable auspices than his first, and if his second is as suc cessful as his first, his report at the next annual conference will be one of the most flattering in the history of this particular church. He found the church in bad finan cial condition when he first became its pas tor and while its condition is still bad enough, it is far from the chaotic condition it was in when he took hold of it. Some day, it is hoped, this church will be com pletely out of debt and then it will be in a position to take care of its pastor as is fit ting a pastor over so large a flock. BURR WILLIAMS RUSSELL SMITH President Secretary DUMAS CLUB, INC. 209 Fifth Avenue South CAFE IN CONNECTION Phone Elliott 3763 SEATTLE WASHINGTON