The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1918-04-29
TWAS A JUBILEE
Negro Soldiers From Funston
Entertained TOpekans Sunday.
Big Crowds Heard Community
and "Slave Day" Songs.

Sunday dinners had not yet had time
to settle comfortably when thousands
of citizens of Topeka began to pour
into the auditorium to hear the con-
cert given by the Glee club of the
92nd division of the national army I'M
der the auspices of the Topeka Rotary
club. Half an hour before the concert
was to start every nook and Granny in
the big room was filled and people on
the outside were clamoring for what
was left of the standing room.
Time and again has Topeka re-
sponded to the lure of a military con-
cert but Sunday the attraction was not
only the uniform but the assurance of
a concert of the highest musical order.
1t is an admitted fact that none but
the members of the colored races can
infuse a weird, wailing and mournful
cadence into the most joyous of songs
without impairing either the beauty or
the joy of the song.
Popular patriotic airs, mixed with
community singing by the audience,
and old time jubilee songs of the slave
days made up the program. There were
few specialties and solos scattered
thru the afternoon, partly to break the
monotony of choral singing, and partly
to give the Topeka people an enter
tainment the equal of any vaudeville
Negro Soldiers Promising.
Henry Bennett, president of the Ro-
tary club, presided at the meeting. In
brief Introductory address he spoke
of the deeds of valor and steadfast-
ness performed by the negroes during
the Civil war, and he predicted that
the cOlored soldiers of the army of
1918 would uphold the best traditions
of their race and the honor of the
American flag.
Bennett turned the meeting over to
Capt. Sam Buckley. who in his open
ing statement to the audience aired
his private opinion of the worth of the
colored men as soldiers. MANY white
men who are now in the uniform of
the United States army would do we'll
to pattern themselves after their COL
ored comrades The men of the col
ored race are staunch and sturdy and
willing soldiers, the equal of any in the
allied armies, and / for one believe
that when the boys come marching
home no small part of the honors of
the battle will rest on the heads of
the members of this race America
and the cause of liberty has no more
partisan defenders than the members
of this once deSpiSed race
During the whole program Captain
Buckley was very much in evidence
acting in the capacity of official in
PRODUCTION agent-and in practically
every Introduction he made he took a
great deal of care to impress on the
audience that the particular member
who might be the object of his talk
was the one bright particular star of
the occasion.
Wilson a Speaker.
The principal speech of the day was
made by Rotarian H. B. Wilson, su-
perintendent of the city schools. Con-
sidering that the greater part of the
audience came especially to listen to
the Glee club sing, Wilson cut his
speech short and made what was prac-
tically four minute speech
Wilson'S talk was essentially a re-
sumo of the history of the causes of
the war, the object of the war, and the
determination of the allied peoples to
forever stamp out any recurrence of
the outrage of Belgium and the con-
quest of Serbia.
The afternoons entertainment
closed with the Star Spangled Ban
ner" sung by the audience and the
G1ee club and led by Chester A Guth-
RE, song leader of Camp Funston