The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1901-10-18
Rev. H. Charles Pope of Washing
ton Addresses an Audience on
the Treatment Accorded Ne
groes in All Parts of Country
TRUTH OF HIS STORY
SHOWN BY PICTURES
Race Prejudice in Buffalo Was
Alleged to be so Strong as to
Prevent Parker From Testify
ing in the CzoIgosz Trial Lest
He Gain Honor For His Race

The horrors of lynch law were vivid
ly depicted last night both in words
and on canvas at the first of two
stereopticon lectures to be given for
the benefit of Zion A. M. E. Church on
Belmont Street, by Rev. H. Charles
Pope of Washington, D. c.
His pictures showed colored men
hanging from telegraph poles and
various kinds of trees, some by the
neck, some by the feet. Others were
being burned at the stake, while their
white murderers, both male and female,
looked on. The burning of Postmaster
Bakers home in Lake City, S. c., was
shown in a series of lurid pictures
eliminating in the shooting of Baker
and his family while they were at
tempting to escape from the flames.
One picture showed four women and
one man hung up and left to die on
suspicion that they had poisoned
man.
There is no need" said the speaker
for me to tell you the alleged crimes
for which these negroes were burned
and lynched. If this was a free coun-
try and law ruled there would be no
Ilynchings nor burnings, no matter what
crimes were charged" Mr.. Pope made
the terrible scenes which he threw on
the canvas more realistic and horrible
by his reiteration of the fact that they
were true to life.
This was the second part of the lee
ture. The first was devoted to a de-
scription of the rise of the race from
slavery, Abraham Lincoln, the great
est of the whites, was contrasted with
the greatest of the blacks, Frederick
Douglass. other colored men of prom
ipa in civil and military life
were shown and their pictures were
greeted with cheers by the audience
At one point Mr. Pope said: "Some
of us are getting highminded and
stuck up nowadays. 1t is well for US
to remember where we came FROM"
and showed a picture of a rude log
cabin set in the luXuriant vegetable
growth which prevails in the states of
the far South. His next picture, a
handsome modern dwelling, showed
the house that the negro lives in
now"
Mr. Pope said the negro could do
everything but count money, but he
lessened the force of this fact by
showing a colored man who was the
paymaster in a Southern regiment.
He said that the soldiers protested at
first at being paid off by negro, but
on receiving word that they must
either take their pay from him or not
at all, they acquiesced gracefully.
The military career of the negro in
the Civil and Spanish-American Wars
was illustrated by a number of screens.
The speaker claimed that the first
blood spilled in the Boston massacre,
in the Civil War and the Spanish
American War was the blood of ne
groes. "a negro" he said, was the
first man to scale the heights of San
Juan, and had it not been for the aid
of negro regiment, President Roose-
welt and his Rough Riders would
have been annihilated."
The period of reconstruction after
the Civil War was scantily dealt with.
Mr.. Pope said that since the war the
presidents chair had been occupied by
only two men, Gen. Grant and Grover
Cleveland. This statement was greeted
with a half-hearted cheer. He eX-
planned that he meant these were the
only two presidents with enough back
bone to protect the negro.
A picture of the scene in the Temple
of Music ct Buffalo when President
Mckinley was shot was shown. Mr.
Pope said it had cost him $25 to get
it. His reference to the fact that a
colored man knocked Czolgosz down
was heartily applauded. And then"
said Mr.. Pope, "at the trial of
Czolgosz race prejudice was so strong
in Buffalo that they would not let
Parker testify, lest he should add
little honor to the negro race"
The lecture was a long one, lasting
more than two hours. At intervals
Mr.. Pope would throw a song on the
screen, and the audience would relieve
their feelings by hearty singing. The
tragedy of the lecture was equalled by
its comedy. Mr.. Pope can tell some
good jokes, and he kept the audience
in roars of laughter in the less serious
parts of his address.
The lecture tonight will be entirely
different. and of a more religious and
distinctively moral character It is en-
titled The DEVILS Cook Kitchen"
Mr.. Pope, in asking for a large audi
ence tonight, promised to show the
bad man" himself and his abode
The following is from the printed
program of tonight's entertainments
1.-The dancing lady on the downward
road will be illustrated on canvas.
From mourner's bench to the ballroom !;
from the ballroom to hell. This is a
true and wonderful story of an only
daughter. She danced she played her
days away, and still put off her dying
day"
The dancing LADY, in her progress
from the mourner's bench to hell, passes
through IA stations. all of which will
be illustrated on the canvas. There
will be singing tonight also. The en-
tertainment begins at 7:45 O'Clock.
Tickets are 25 cents.