The National tribune., 1909-06-24

|
| Mrs. Taft, wife of President Taft, is
able to be downstairs at the White
| House for the first time since she was
SO suddenly stricken few weeks ago.
Just as soon as she is able 10 travel
Mrs. Taft will go to the Taft Summer
home at Beverly. Mass.
PRESIDENT TAFT TO STUDENTS.
Hope and Hustle Will Help the COlored
Race Thru All Their Trials-Have
Done Well Thus Far.
President Taft last Friday evening
made a speech to and presented to the
graduating class of three of the colored
schools of Washington their diplomas.
The schools were the M Street High
School. the Armstrong Manual Training
School and the Normal School No. 2.
The exercises were held in Convention
Hall, and fully 5000 people were gath
cred to listen to the words of comfort
and wisdom which fell from the Presi-
dents lips. The graduates numbered
1913, and the President gave each di-
ploma and shook hands with each
graduate. 1t was a great evening for
ALL The President said:
II am honored to be allowed to be
present on an occasion like this, when
1913 well-educated young colored men
and women are stepping out into the
world to meet trouble and obstacles
and to achieve the success that 1 hope
lies before them.
Il am an optimist about most things.
am glad that have good digestion
that enables me to be an optimist, be-
cause if you are not an optimist you
are not looking forward to progress in
the human race, and a man who is not
doing that has not much to look for
ward to.
Il don't for a moment minimize the
burdens that your race has to carry in
the future, but the burdens that you
will carry in the future are nothing to
be compared to the burdens that you
have carried in the past, and how have
you dealt with them in the last 40
years? Consult the statistics. Look
back 40 years, and see where your race
was, as it came out of bondage, with
only five per cent able to read and
write, and now consider it's condition.
And it is such schools as these that are
sending out men and women to lie the
leaders of your race that may well give
you hope.
They don't represent the average of
your race. They are to be its leaders
1t is the great uneducated part of your
race in the South with whom they must
deal and whom they must lead on. and
to whom they must teach the doctrine
of hope and hustle, as my friend An
derson characterizes it; to whom they
must teach. what is so true. that each
negro carries within himself the oppor-
tunity to establish the right of his race
TO live in this country and to be con-
sidered a part of it.
If We do our duty each day and con-
duct ourselves according to certain
rules with a view to developing our
onfa nd sv,ta
cles, We cannot see that development,
but after six months trial or after a
year or after decade, if we look back
to our previous condition then we can
see the progress that is made, and it is
in that way that we ought to measure
the progress of the negro race"
President Taft Will be the guest of
honor at a reception to be given by the
faculty Of the Catholic Summer School
OF America at Cliff Haven, n. Y. on
the morning of July Z. The reception
will be given in connection with the
celebration of the discov-
cry of Lake Champrain. The exercises
at the Summer school. bel inning July |
4. will last one week.
Revisiting the Crater.
D. ]. Byrne, HOO o street, Washing |
S.,
burg on the occasion of the dedication |
Of the monument to his dear old COM |
mander, Gen. Hartranft. Comrade
Byrne was very much in those opera |
tions He helped build the approach |
to the Crater. and charged on 1t after
1t was blown up late in the morning of
July 80, 1864. He felt strong desire |
which he remembered as honeycombed |
with bomb-proofs, mortar batteries and
The change was remark
able, and he Is glad he saw it. He |
feels that 1t was honor enough to re-
view the ground in company with the |
President of the United States
Early Again.
The case of early. the leper," as
most people call him. is getting on the
nerves OF the people of the District |
But there is likely TO be more rather |
than less of the talk. Is Early leper? |
An eminent German surgeon has pro- |
nounced his disease leprosy. DIR. Bulk |
ley, of New York, says he isn't. and he |
Is about as eminent as they grow 'em, |
and SO what are you going to do about |
it? Early and his wife were Salvation |
Army people, and in that work they |
met. When Early returned from the |
Spanish War he went into a paper mill |
to work, and spilled some of the acid |
used there upon one of his hands, and |
from that he says blood poisoning en-
sued. That is probable theory, and not |
at all impossible. But the trouble is |
Early, who came to Washington to get |
a pension, was quite resigned to his |
fate, when a physician hurriedly exam |
!ned him and declared that 1t was lep- |
rosy that allied him. Early was hustled |
into comfortable quarters, the city went |
wild over him, fed him luxuries that |
were enough to kill him, raised over |
81 900 in money for him, sent him |
books and papers and magazines, and |
called on him. Yes, indeedy. 1t was |
quite the fashion to go out and sit on |
the grass outside his tent and sing and |
pray with him. Early had his picture |
taken with his Bible in his hand, and |
a few texts of Scripture in the story |
which he repeated for that purpose to |
show how resigned he was to his fare |
He played the humble and resigned |
game to perfection. The public is tickle. |
however, very fckle, and six weeks of |
Early was enough. The dear people |
another sensation, and dropped |
Early. That did not suit Early at all. |
He got lonesome; then he accused the |
people of neglecting him That was
not true. He has cost the District Gov
ernment thousands of dollars. A house |
was specially fixed for him and for his
wife. 1t was practically furnished by |
the people Of the town. One-haIf the |
house was for Early himself and the