The colored American., 1902-03-08
professionally, and in all lines of race
development.
NEW BRITAIN, Conn.

4 NEW DKlIAlNJ SONN-
Rev. Charles M. Sheldon, author of
''In His Steps" and other works of note,
is to be highly commended for the great
work he is doing among the members of
our race in Topeka and especially in that
section familiarly called Tennessee
Town. but properly Kings Addition" 4"
Here Rev. Sheldon has established a
sort of Village Improvement Society,
which is working wonders. Here is a
| free kindergarten for colored children,
which is we'll attended, the salaries of
the teachers being paid by the founder,
Mir. Sheldon; a reading room, tastily
hung with fine works of art, and con-
tanning a library of about two thousand
well selected books, tables we'll supplied
with the best newspapers and perlOdI-
Gals. This room is opened to the public
FIVE nights during the week from seven
to ten IN the evening, and someone is
present to read for older persons who
may not be able to read for themselves,
or to select suitable books for younger
persons who may drop in to pass a
pleasant hour On Sunday an excellent
Sunday School is conducted. During a
recent lecture trip in Topeka it was our
of the Sheldon League of American
Mothers held in the kindergarten
rooms. This league as we'll as the Kin
dergarten is several years old and num-
bers about forty members, all mothers
whose children are supposed to be about
kindergarten age; but many of them
have become so highly interested that
they have remained in the club long af-
ter the children nave passed out into the
grades. Questions are asked and dis
cuSSed as to the best methods of rearing
children into VlrtuOuS, intelligent citi-
ZenS, and as we listened to these moth
erS, some of them past the prime of life,
talking or listening with such eagerneSs,
we earnestly wished that a similar club,
yes, several of them, could be found in
every community, with just such devoted
leaders as Rev. Sheldon, the founder,
and Mrs. Clark, the president of the
Sheldon League, which, by the way, is
a member of the National kindergarten
Association, but did not hesitate also to
vote for membership in the n. A. 6. W.
The Peoples Forum of Kansas CITY,
inaugurated by DR.. Scott, and before
mentioned in these columns, entirely
in character, its
Board of Directors being made up of
individuals from all denominations rep
resented in the city, is gaining weekly
in power and effect
Judge ]. w Wofford of the Criminal
Court, Georgian by birth, and in every
sense a friend of the Negro, made his
subject, "Criminology," a very practical
discussion of the Home as the unit of
government" and in the course of his
remarks said, Soap and water are
cheap, mighty cheap. Everything is
practical in this world Colored children
that are kept clean do not want to asso-
ciate with dirty ones. A dirty boy will
steal hundred times quicker than a
clean boy.
have never known boy brought
before me who was regular attendant
at church and Sunday school,"
AT still more recent meeting of the
Forum, Farmer Groves" the Potato
King of Kansas, a man who has forced
an apparently insignificant tubre to yield
him competence and to place him in
the list of successful farmers and busi-
ness men, gave the address of the oc-
caSiOn.
In plain, pointed language he empha-
sized the value to the Negro of the own
ership of land; of bringing the combined
effort of energy, economy and thrift to
bear upon the acres acquired; the ne
ceSs1ty of being an up-to-date farmer,
with advanced methods and machinery
that takes the tiliing of the soil out of
the dull labOrOuS nrOcesS of the oact