Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1918-07-30
HEROISM OF NEGROES
INSPIRES BLIND POET
Tribute Paid in Verse to First
Two Black Soldiers
Killed

Members Of more than one group of lis.
teners have been deeply moved by the sem
tment and feeling Irwin w. Cnderhill
blind negro poet puts into his own poem.
1.-TWO Heroes" in reciting the lines written
In honor of Henry Johnson and Needham
Roberts. the first American negroes to fall
in battle in France.
Blindness that came in the very prime of
life and cut him off from much of the work
he had hoped to accomplish in the uplift OF
his race made a poet of tnderhill He COM
poses. corrects and completes his poems
mentally and then repeats them TO his daugh
ter, who typewrites them.
Though he has learned to read Braille print
he has not learned to write since his hlino'
ness but he does not let this interfere with
his poetic muse which. he declares. has
made his acquaintance since his aftiiction.
He keeps a small grocery at SIS South
Eighteenth street. from which he makes a
living. AS he deals out vegetables ana
staples to his customers he thinks out his
poems One volume has already been pub
ished.
Back Home" D8rky's Prayer
While his dialect verses are perhaps TIL,
better he has written some in pure English
with a depth of meaning. Back Home
is a favorte with audiences before which he
often reads 1t follows:
"I"s g,cine back home T ole Virginny,
Among dem fields oh yclloW corn;
Back to stay uith my LnCindy,
De sUeetost gal dat e'er rdS born"
This as well as his "Shake Dat 'Simmon
Tree" are typical of the old southern
darkys simple wants:
"Dafs all rite bout youh math million,
Chicken or ;ouh ham,
or turkey lax de Uhite foxes cat,
or little baby lam
But honey. il it's prah delight
Dat you poald feed to me.
Jest let me. Whcm de possum's ripe,
Go shake dat 'simmOn tree.
All sutirly ,Cunt e 90 + hebin,
An lay nah troubles dotcn;
To sit upon dat pearly throne
An pedh a starry croUh.
But u it's milk an honey dat
Dey's g,oine Z feed + me,
All prays day All might stay right hyeah
An shake dat 'stnnOn tree.
To johnson and Roberts
Underhill's latest poem, Two Heroes,
dedicated to johnson and Roberts follows
An kneD it, PUe been tOditing
For those joyous bells to ring,
To catch the toOnd'rouS message
That Uould set my muse to sing.
To learn Of deeds heroic
Done by colored boys in bic.e:
Tho the blue has changed to Khaki
StiIl their hearts are just as true,
As the hearts OF Crspus Attucks,
Peter Salem or the boys
Who at Pillo,o and Fort Wagner
Earned a share in freedoms JOYS
These boys are no exceptions
To million sous OF Ham
Who uould gladly don the khaki,
And fight for Uncle Sam.
And tphen this tour is OUer,
Sure as earth is meath the sky,
They'll treat the negro as man
Or Sdmbo's bound to die!
Our coiored boys had not been tried
Upon this foreign soil,
We kneU not tUhdt Ue might erpect
From those young sons Of toll.
At last the bugle called for them,
In trench they found a place,
with French to right and French to left
And Germans face to face.
And recognised at last as men
Despite their darker hue;
I'm France, the test Of manhood is
That heart aud hand be trueL
In vdin they sought BY night aud day,
Across the top to climb.
Till Henry johnson aud his friend
Improved the chance sublime
with Needham Roberts, johnson stood
As sentinels one night,