The Washington bee., 1888-05-19
PROF. }. T. l. >YTON'S
REJOINDER.

REJOINDER.
HE MAKES A STINGING REPLY TO
THE CHANGES OF Mr.. TO MPKINs.
Washington D, c.,
May 18th, '88.
Editor Washington BEE:
Sir
Last week your paper con-
tanned two articles: one headed
ga mean trick" and the other
appeared as an ed t, rial under
the c,ption of "Mr. Tompkin's
etter." I have ascertained that
both of these specimens of school,
boy composition are from the
pen of one Richard w. ,Tompkins
of this city who in his ipse di1d
style takes me to task because a
little scheme in which he was
the great head G) failed to be
financial success: [ was not
aware, until read the two artic-
les. that l Was such a vast guam
tity that my passiveness could
change the veal of good and
worthy cause into woe, yet it
seems that such is the case. Mr..
Tompkins would have it appear
to the public mind that I am an
migrate, that sought the assistance
of others when | needed them,
and then refused to reciprocate;
that I owe what little success /
have attained in life to him; that
l am unable to distinguish the
difference between retaliation"
and "consis ency:" in substance
MIR. Tompkins states that l was
the beneficiary in a testimonial
concert gwen May 10th 'S7, at
the Metropolitan A. M. E. Church
of which he was the manager (?)
and that on account of the i'm
possibility of Mrs. Sallie Waring
and Mrs. Lena Miller Mckinney
to assist in making my testimon-
ial a success, l retaliated by
refusing to sing at testimonial
which was recently given them.
Now. what are the flcts in the
case? DR.. T. L. Upshaw was the
first person to sugg, st the
propriety and feasibility of get
ting up a testimonial in my
behalf and it was under his man
agement, and not that of Mr..
Tornpkins, the C ,ncert Was given.
The members of the choir ap-
proved of his (Upshaw's) sugges-
ton, gave their aid and was
seconded by the Metropolitan
church and other churches in the
city The most valuble assistance
rendered me in this affair by Mr..
Tompkins was to take twenty five
tickets to sell, two of which he
g We to friends as "comps'' and
returned twenty-three.
His capacity to distinguish
between retaliation" aud econ
sistency'' may enable him to
discover how much cash / receiv
ed. In the matter of the two
ladies mentioned above, I did
refuse 10 take part in the concert
given for their benefit for the
following reasons: Long before
the benefit which was given me
took place, Miss Chanie Paters IN
called on Mrs. Mckinney in its
interest but failed to find her at
home. She then sent her a
written Communication asking
her to take part in the concert;
to this Mrs. Mckinney made no
reply. By sheer accident 1.-TWO
days before the concert) they met
in the street and Mrs. Mckinney
then told Miss Paterson that she
would be unable to assist but
gave no reason whatever for this
flat refusual. 1t could not be,
as iMr. Tompkins says, that her
child was ill as she made no men,
ton of this to Miss Paterson.
She must probably had her rea-
sons though she refused to make
them known. About three weeks
before the concert Miss Paterson
and DR.. Upshaw called on Mrs.
Waring and solicited her aid, but
she refused to give them a de-
cided answer. Several subsequent
calls proved as unsuccessful as the
first; finally Mrs. Waring said
she had been engaged to sing on
the evening following the bsne-
tit for me May 17th-a concert