The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1919-06-21

hlcnmonQ mas IOSIeFeQ one Tdu1
Lawrence Dunbar, for the great
Negro poet received much Of his early
inspiration, help and training here; is
she to foster another?
You have seen "A bond man or a
bondsman, say which would you be ?'
| and you have heard "a Thrift Stamp
IS your bit, but a bond is your part Z. Z
! but perhaps you didn't know that the
author of these two nation-rung slo-
gans, a poet and short story writer,
and besides that, q colored man, is in
! Richmond, soon to become one Of her
/ citizens.
| Leon r. Harris, not yet 80 years
old, married and the father Of young
daughter, is soon to bring his family
| to Richmond. That is merely bare
statement of facts about him; but a
history Of long upward pull to en-
viable success from life in an orphan
asylum in Cambridge, Ohio, to q posi-
ton in the world of writing which the
Century magazine, and many Of the
most intelligent people OF the country
have acknowledged is also his.
Helped Make Ohio Dry
/ When he was eleven years old, a
Cincinnati daily newspaper printed
one Of his poems At the end Of the
lpoem were the words-"Author un.
known. From that day Harris has
written and studied continually He
has proved what man, and color
led man can do. When the Prohi
bitionists in Ohio wanted help in put
/ ting forward their campaign in 1911
they called upon Harris to help them
Through the pages Of "The Singer
published every once in awhile ir
Portsmouth, Ohio, Harris put the wei
and dry proposition squarely ant
strongly before the colored people O.
the state. Ohio went dry with the
eolored people voting strongly fol
prohibition.
When Liberty Bond officials wanted
to increase the sale of bonds, Harris
. wrote poem under the title, "A Trib
ute to Men Who Bought Libert,
Bonds" Throughout America certain
parts of this short poem were quoted
and requoted, and became large fac
tor in the propaganda work of selling
bonds
There's steel in your eyes, in you
furnaces steel;
J know by your looks just how 20,
feel;
There's sweat on your face, ant
!, LneTeS nalr on your cn0SL,
} What chance has Hun got to caus'
t you unrest
| The heartless. the soulless, the pitt
less Hun,
: Who wants all the earth, and tn
stars, and the SUM-"
) And at the end of the next stanza
: And every bond bought was a thrus
through his heart;
A Thrift Stamps your Bit but bont
is your part,
Beginning the final stanza:
"A slaoker's a traitor 'mongst mel
who are free.
A BOND MAN or a bondsman, sa.
which would you be?
And people who had bought bonds
bought more bonds, while lot of pee
pie who hadn't bought any at all pu1
chased few.
Dedicated to the Fourth Libert,
Loan Parade was: "The Marchers.
Marching through the city streets
To the brass drums rhythmic beats;
With step now quick, now slow,
See the sons of freedom CO.
In 1910, 1911, when the Centur
magazine wanted some real negr
s. dialect stories they asked Leon F
! Harris to write them series, whic
he did. They appeared in issues @
this magazine during those two years
: a present he writes continuously 70
: magazines and nothing ever come
!, back, he says. He resolved long ag
never to have any Of his works pull
lished in book form until after he wa
thirty years old, when he says, he wi
: have much more perfected style, b
u ~ oil ID4 =
: his war poems written during tn