The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., May 19, 1919, Page 6, Image 6

About The Bridgeport times and evening farmer. (Bridgeport, Conn.) 1918-1924

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THE TIMES i HAY' 19, 1919
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TFB , BRIDGE PORT TIMES
. And Evening Farmer
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Th Associated press la exclusively entitled to te nasi tor repabllcaUoa
all Dm dlapatohee credited to It or not otherwise, credited tm thia pass!
M4 also tba local news published herein.
" Post Office. Bridgeport. CoaaaeHeat. as second
MONDAY, MAY 19, 1919.
GIVE THE (X)LORED MAN JUSTICE
HERE IS A letter which Tho Times-Farmer has received.
It is written by one whose heart beats for the colored
race. Tho communication is a protest against the well known
picture, The Birth of a Nation. It is also a eulogy of the color
ed man, who deserves, it will be found, when the count is fin
ished, all the good things that have been said about him. Here
is the letter. It will repay a careful perusal.
For the last three weeks, evenings, when going
home after tho theatre let out I hear many comments
on that so-called wonderful play, "The Birth of a Na
tion." Surely those who do so are not ones who know
American History. The very first blood shed for this
great Country's independence was that of a black man
Christucko Altucks, whose tatue stands on State SL,
Boston, Mass. In the war of 1812 we picture the great
warrior, John Paul Jones, standing on his flag ship
looking down on the body of Ben Doves, that black sea
man. And there are the words of Mr. Jones, "This
black man was" a seaman and a warrior of the sea, and
has died not knowing his value."
Dear readers, wijl you picture a people for two and
a half centuries oppressed with slavery, deprived of all
social and educational privileges, yet whose labor made
possible the agricultural centers, and in many cases the
commercial enterprises of this country. Draw a pic
ture of those black men who protected their masters'
homes while their masters were fighting to keep them
slaves, while other black men stole their way to the
Union soldiers to help them preserve the Union and
not free the slaves altogether, but as the Union could
not be united half free and half slave, slavery was abol
ished. Most historians know just after the Civil War
that the carpet baggers of the South tried to put inex- ,
perienced negroes in office to make the North think
they made a mistake by giving the negro his freedom.
This is where Mr. Dixon writes that false play "The
Birth of a Nation." '
I ask the question, Has any race in fifty years,
under similar circumstances, shown the progress the
.negro has in this country or any other? In business
he shows ability, in education he shows the qualifica
tions, in professions ho proves himself a worthy mas
ter. Physically he holds his own wherever he is plac
ed, and religiously he shows mankind that he loves his
(Jod. Do not these prove to the world that the negro is
worthy of more than that picture of Mr. Dixon's play,
"The Birth of a Nation"?
Call that Great American and friend of the negro
from tho reddened clay of Sagamore Hill, Theodore
Roosevelt and ask him of the war of '98. If it were
possible for his dead tongue to answer he would tell
you of the 9th and 10th Cavalries of black soldiers who
saved his life at San Juan hill, also tell, to you that it
. was through them the victory of that battle was won.
', Last, but not least, in this great world's war that
,, has just dosed,, has the negro not shown in every way.
his loyalty and Patriotism in helping America to be a .
; country to stand out as an example for coming gener- .
ations? Does not the black boy sleep in Flander's field
as much any other? This being true, is it fair for the
laws of this country or any other country to allow a
picture lo be shown representing the negro as Mr. Dix-
on does in that picture "The Birth of a Nation." I deem v
it unfair, and the work of tho black man in this coun-
try unappreciated. Do you find the red flag among
i 1 the negroes? Do you find Bolsheviki among the
; blacks? Or do you find a loyal, enthusiastic people? I
am sure tho latter will be found among the American
negroes. All who commend Mr. Dixon's play "The
Birth of a Nation" are people who do not know Amer- -ican
History and would do well to study the same.
While congratulating the writer upon his splendid presen
tation of his case, yet it seems that perhaps he errs in two par
ticulars. He does less than justice to the colored man as an
American soldier. He places too much weight upon the
things that are said about the colored man, which ridicule, or
hold him up to less than respectful attention. In so far as plays
like the Birth of a Nation are concerned ; they will do the col
ored man no harm. Though the play much exaggerates the
evil of the colored race during reconstruction days, it yet forms
a background against which the thoughtful will see the colored
man, not in, a worse, but in a better light.
The days of reconstruction were not the first anarchy. t Be
fore the reconstruction of the South there was the French Rev
olution. Afterward came the great war, and the anarchy in
Russia and throughout Central Europe.
In later days there will be pictures of Russians, showing
how the Bolsheviks acted. There have been such pictures. The
pictures will show some awful things; such as assassination,
wholesale legal murder; women organized in regiments to ccr
ry on a war that the nien were deserting; sections organized
for the legal overthrow of marriage; all things which show
man in his worst nature.
We suggest to the colored people that when these Bolshe
vik pictures come along, they, suggest that pictures like the
Birth of a Nation be shown in the same places at the same
time. . ' .
Let Americans in this way see the white rrjan at his worst.
Let Americans see the negro at his worst
It is to the enduring credit of the colored race in the South
tfyat during the legal anarchy of the reconstruction period it
never-tried as a race to abolish marriage; never indulged in
wholesale massacre; never in any numbers anywhere descend
ed to'.'the level of social infamy which the white man falls to
when social 'authority is disorganized. .
Viewed in its proper perspective the Birth of a Nation
shows' the negro as a pretty decent citizen. ; , ,
. - (Continued in last two columns) ' ' . ,
Sketches from Life
By Temple
Petof the. Good
By J. B. STERNDALE BENNET
(Copyright, 1919, by International News Bureau, Inc.)
LOOKING BACK 50 YEARS
(From The Farmer, Monday, May 19, 18G9) -
The sloop "Mary" which left here a few days since under.
sealed orders, had to put into Norwalk., the crew having muti- '
nied. ; ,
The city churches were well filled yesterday, Trinity Sun- ;
day. .... " ' "'1
The senior takes this opportunity to return Ms fhanks to" t .
Mrs. Nathaniel Wheeler for the present of a Beautiful Chinese v.
Salver the only article that remained unsold, out of the large ;
assortment at her table. t
Some idea of the extensive demand for nails in this city '. S
may be formed by the large receipt of T. Haw ley & Co. of the:;
celebrated Parker Nails, they having received 1,000 kegs in the '
last few weeks, which they dispose as fast almost as they re
ceive them.
The walks at Seaside Park and the water scenery1 there
presented were enjoyed by many at various times during the
day yesterday. This has already become the most frequent
ed and popular part of the city. Newport has no spot that sur
passes it, and. in a few years, for sunshine and- shade, in con- '
neotion with its water views, it will be without an equal in
New England. ,
The Arcade Billiard hall, next the post office, will be open
ed tonight under the able superintendance of the justly popu
lar Frank Roach; let him have a rouser. Several scientific
players from New York will be on hand to exhibit their skill in
handling the cue. The hall has been entirely renovated, and
the five tables cut down to Western size.
The enterprising newspaper and periodical man, H. G.
Husted, has started a novel description of velocipede by which
he delivers his papers. It consists of one wheel only is very
simple in construction and effective in action.
Why is a locomotive easily controlled by a switch?
cause it has a tender behind.
Be-
4
I spent the- greater part of my captivity of
nine months at the officers' prison camp at Schwel
duitz, 'a small manufacturing town in Silesia not
far from Breslau. With the exception of three
weeks comparative liberty granted after the arm
istice, and before we were repatriated, the whole of
this time was spent behind the barbed wire, afford
ing only very limited opportunities of studying
either the conditions or methods of German com
merce and industry. And yet those opportunities
were not absent. w were able to buy early every
German -newspaper, and thus keep constantly in
touch with affairs. We constantly met Germans of
all grades of society, and (especially during the
brief period of liberty in December) were able to
form a very clear idea of what Germany today is
thinking and hoping for the future.
The Proposed Boycott
In the camp itself the German personal was al
most entirely composed of business men of varying
degree. The Commandant owned a sugar factory on
the outskirts of the town, and after the revolution
had discarded him on November 10 returned at once
to civilian clothes and the control of his business.
The interpreters (lit the German Army they hold the
rank of sergeant) had both been employed Jn Amer
ica, one as a traveller for a German firm, the other
in a house of business in the United Status. Our
Sanitary Sergeant had spent a year before the war
in a German firm in Manchester, and had lived so
closely in the German colony there that he had
learned no English. Amongst the sentries we met
Germans of all stations, from the managing direc
tor of a steel factory (who would willingly exchange
his best razors for a small piece of soap or a pac
ket of cocoa) to merchant seamen with affectionate
recollections of Leith andh Hull, and small mer
chants who had traded with England In such com
modities as tea and cotton goods.
Among these various and typical business Ger
mans one recognized a common faith that as soon
as the war was over they would regain their Eng
lish markets. I have constantly questioned Germans
on the subject, and have always received the same
answer. Tney rejected utterly the idea of a com
mercial boycott after the war. They failed com
pletely to realize the world's attitude towards Ger
many. The interpreters entertained no question
that they would be admitted into America again,
' and roundly declared this to be the rosiest of their
ambitions. All whom I asked: "Are you coming to
England after the war?" whether their reply waa
"Yes" or "No" had not the smallest doubt that
such an emigration would again be possible and
profitable.
The Official Mind
Before I leave this question of commercial boy
cott it is only fair to say that in the official mind
one noticed considerable doubts and fears on the
subject. The papers have for the past months giv-.
en great prominence to the question, and the small
est sympathethic pronouncement from England or
America has been vigorously displayed. The German
people have been told that such a measure is Im
possible, and an idea conceived in French and Eng
lish councils of hate, which Wilson will not tolerate
nor their saner enemies countenance. Every good
German believes what he is told to believe, and it la
a part of his curious psychological training that this
does not prevent him reserving a detached opinion
of his own beliefs.
A' phrase which illuminates this double mind
is one I have heard used about their cumulative
defeats in the summer and the sufferings through
the blockade "One thing written and the other
spoken." Even ' the humblest German has a share
in the official mind, and while he sometimes iden
tifies hiinself with it completely, one is occasional
ly able to detect the dividing line between the spok
en and the written word. Therefore. I suspect that
behind their apparent confidence there is insin
uated a misgiving which, is growing daily.
One thing remains to be said.
The average German has no conception of any
guilt attaching to him in making or the methods of
the war.
Often it was said to us prisoners after the ar
mistice and the revolution, "We have done every
thing you asked. We have abandoned Kaiserdom,
Prussianism, and Militarism. Yet you will not be
friends again." We reminded them of Belgium. "It
was necessary." Of the "Lusitanla." Our starving
women and children besides that many of them
have already died of starvation." For what it is
worth,- this point would be borne in mind. It ex
plains a good deal. The average non-German has
forgotten.
The Internal Situation.
No consideration of Germany's commercial or in
dustrial outlook would be of value that did not take
into account the internal condition of Germany at
present. This has been fully enough dealt with in
the Press to remove any need for detail on the sub
ject but the devastating success of the British
blockade must be clearly borne in mind in any prop
er understanding of the subject. In the small and
prosperous town we knew we grew accustomed to
shops which contained paper boots with wooden
soles and every form of 'subs'titute" from imita
tion coffee to imitation bootlaces, to streets swarm
ing with shoeless children, to soldiers with variegat
ed and patched uniforms, to every form of shift
and device to meet the impossible situation. How
i impossible perhaps, we were better able to judge
than the war correspondent or the occupying offi
cer, who sees only the most prosperous side of life
in the bigger towns.
The moral of this I believe, that for some
years to come all available energy in Germany win
be occupied in repairing the war damage done to
her own people. Her needs in the way of leather and
dry goods will be enormous and whenever and from
wherever she can obtain raw materials, every fac
tory in the country will be busy for years repairing
internal wastage.
Until this is done it would be fundamentally im
possible for her under the most advantageous condi
tions of free trade to enter into serious competi
tion in world markets. The fact is very much over
looked by many Germans, Further, It Is inconceiv
able that Germany has large stocks of goods to
dump abroad when for three years her own people
have been crying out for the essential manufac- -tures,
and have been prevented from manufactur
ing luxuries. The only dumping that Germany will
attempt is a dumping of cheap Jack goods and
cheap labor.
The Menace of Imigratlon.
Both tnese I believe to be a serious menace,
the last far more serious than the first. There are
today in Germany thousands of men' who have liv
ed for the past four years a life of enforced mili
tarism, conscription unfortified by even the barest
luxuries of existence. The new Germany, beaten
and dishonored offers no future to them that con
tains anything but the hardships and. suffering of
the past four years. I believe that many of them,
if they are not prevented, will strenuously strive
to enter even enemy countries where food is more
plentiful and the conditions of life far easier. They
will, come offering their labor as they did In the
past,, at a far cheaper rate than the ordinary Brit
ish or American standard, unless some farseelng '
legislation is introduced to prevent the influx. The
undercutting of wages by cheap German labor is a
menace which, remote as it seems today, may very
easily become real in two or three years' time.
The' new pantomime of "Hickory Dickory Dock," is taking '
the place of "Humpty Dumpty" at the Olympic theatre, New ;
York. ,i
......
A man from the country invested five onls in the pur
chase of an orange, and preparatory to getting himself outside S
of it, threw the peel on the sidewalk. Soon after a young l
woman came along, slipped upon the peel, and fell, breaking :
her leg. The woman was to have been married the next day
but wasn't. The man who was to marry her had to come from :
St. Paul, Minn., and was obliged to return, on account of busr- ,:
ness, to await the recovery of the girl. On his way back he 1
unfortunately took a train on the Erie railroad, which ran off :
the urack and his shoulder blade was broken, forcing him to
stop at Dunkirk for repairs. The Insurance company in which
he was insured, had to pay $250 in weekly installments before
he recovered. On getting back to St. Paul he found that his
forced absence had upset a business arrangement which he had
expected to complete, at a pecuniary loss to him of $5,000.
Meantime the injured girl suffered a relapse, which so 'en
feebled her health that her marriage was delayed, which had.'
a bad effect on the young man, and he finally broke the en--gagement
and married a widow in Minnesota with four small
children. This so worked on the mind of the girl, that she is
now in the insane asylum in Middletown. Her father enraged
at the conduct of the young man, brought suit for breach of
promise, and has just recovered .$10,000. The anxiety and ex
pense of the whole matter has been enormous as any one can
see. Similar cases are likely to occur as long as people will
persist in throwing orange peel around loose. ,
A HORSESHOE FOR LICK.
r :
Aldermen Will Dine
At Greenlawn, May 21
Wednesday evening, May 21, Is the
big night for the Bridgeport Board of
Aldermen and a host of their friends.
On that night the annual Aldermanic
dinner will be held at the Greenlawn
Country crab, starting promptly at
7:30 o'clock, and ' Alderman Edward
Hamilton, who la chairman . of the
that the
affair will be the best ever..
Theatrical talent has been arranged
for and the artists will visit the din
ers at various hours during the even
ing, depending on the time they com
plete their performance at the local
theaters. In addition to this, several
New Tork stars may appear.
Music win . be furnished and a fine
meal Is promised. - Mayor Clifford B.
Wilson will fee toaatmaater, and It ia
understood be will call on most of tho
aldermen tor short addresses In addi
tion to .several prominent Bridge
port rs who J a ad.
FIREMEN'S OONITLVTIOX.
Watertown, May 1 Aoall for the
38th annual convenUon of the Con
necticut State Firemen's Association
at Wentworth hall. Chapel street. New
Haven, on Sept. 1 and 4, waa iaaued
today by Robert V. Magee. secretary.
The association goes to New Haven
this year ..... at invitation of Chief
Fancher.
Another performer to meet with an
accident on tho training track at Bel
mont Park was WHfred Visa's Westy
Hogan, who pulled - up tame after
working. .
Today is the restlval of St. Dun
stan. a tenth century Archbishop of
Canterbury, to whom the English at
tribute the enshrinement or tne norse
shoe as a symbol of good fortune.
For centuries St. Dunstan's Day. the
nineteenth of May. was celebrated
by the blacksmiths and farriers of
England in honor of their patron.
The smiths organized processions of
the head of which they carried great
floral horseshoes. Cp to within a
century' ago there were many women
blacksmiths in England. These
brawny feminine Vulcans toiled at
their forces stripped naked to the
waist, and in a similar state of un
dress they marched in the procession
on the day dedicated to St.- Dunstan.
The French also attribute occult and
magic powers to the horseshoe, but
with them it is the emblem, not of
St. Dunstan, but of St. Eloy. the pa
tron saint of French farriers.
The biography of St. Dunstan, the
patron of smiths and farriers, as set
forth in monkish legends, is most
remarkable and romantic. He was of
noble birth, and received an excel
lent' education, becoming a young
man of brilliant parts. At the court
of Athelstan he was for a time a
favoiite, but at length his tricks of
parlor magic, in which he was an
adept, resulted in his being driven
from the court, an'dJ great indignit
ies were heaped upon him in . the be
lief that he was a wizard who had
sold his soul to the devil. He ' was
madly in love with a fair maiden at
court, and his heart was broken by
the enforced separation.
The young man sought refuge with
his uncle, Elpherge the Bald, Bishop
of Winchester, and was induced to
enter the service of the church as a
monk. Finding that the monastic
garb effected no immediate change
: i ;
In his character, Dunstan determined
to subject his body to the stern reg
imen of an anchorite. He set up m
forge in a little roadside cell, ana
toiled early and late as a blacksmith.
In spite of toil and fasting the" old
worldly desires tormented him. On
one occasion the devil visited him In
the form of a beautiful woman, and
Dunstan was sorely tempted, but he
bore it until the pincers were, red
hot, when he used the instrument to
seize his fair, false visitor Iby
the nose, at which she fled
away shrieking in pain. On another
occasion, the devil, in his proper
form, stopped at Dunstan'e forge
and demanded that the pious smith
put a shoe on his cloven hoof. Dun
stan made the process very painful
and would not release his visitor un
til Satan had promised that he would
never enter a house which had a
horseshoe nailed to the door. Ever
since then the belief has been pre
valent that the Horseshoe is a -charm -t
against th Evil One although much
confidence is based ' on faith In .the
Devil as a gentleman who respects
pledges even when wrung from hlv
by torture. . -
GOV. STANIiEY RESIGNS.
SVamkfort, Ky., May 19 Governov
Stanley yesterday filed his resignation
and left for Washington to take the
oath of Senator from Kentucky, ia
auccesslon to the late Ollle M. James.
Lieutenant-Governor Black -win
assume the duties of Governor this
noon, when the resignation of his pre
decessor will be entered in the execu
tive journal.
. A single, bas on balls, stolen baa
and error gave Pittsfleld two runs I ,
the seventh inning. . No trouble ws
encountered - retiring the enamy t
the ninth frame. - -v -
. (Continued from first two columns)' '. f
' History is this way; It must show what happened; man i
at his best and man at his worst., .. I', ..' ".ys. ' X.
Men must not be sensitive about history'. The delinquent i t
cies of the, dead do not blemish the living; only the faultsf
the living can blemish them. , - - 'j''
The colored man must not feel 'sensitive abtfut the thi;
that slander him. If the truth is in the picture, the truth, hel,
him. If the picture slanders him, he obtains the sympathy r
others. .; . ; : i
'We hope this editorial will help a little- Bridgeport
negro population, useful, worthy and industrious. It wi!'
well to understand this population; to aid it on; the upward
and all that. A good way to aid' the colored people in T '
port will be to find them decent houses' to live in. It -a
curious thing, would it not, if, as a result c r
hat slavered the colored people, r -sm'
1