Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1923-03-17
Interesting All Day
Meeting of w. M. S.
with Good Program

The WOmanS Missionary socle'S "
the First Baptist church held an all
day meeting at the vestry Oh the
church yesterday. Although the
weather man seemed to pc oolilS
everything possible to keep as many
of the members as he could at honle'
the ladies' braved the steady down
pour of rain and the icy streets and
came in large numbers to help ana
listen to the meeting. From 10 o'clock
until lunch hour was devoted TO
White Cross work all the members
assisting. At noon a picnic luncn
was served. At two o'clock the mem
hers all gathered in the vestry ana
one hour was passed with Mrs. Phil
brick who gave a very interesting
and educational paper on the suoJec1
Building with India"
The following program was carried
out during the afternoon session
which was very humorous as the en-
tertainers were dressed in negro cos :
tune and spoke in the negro nialect
which they did in true southern stEle.
Selection, quartet; lmpersonatloll u
Bertha II. DobinS, n student at SIla"
University. Mrs. Bishop: jamie Pof-
ter Darrell, by Mrs. Mower: singing.
Bertha Adams Moore. Mr.. Foster
gave a paper on the Fiske Juniiee
singers. the first colored jubilee tnat
started out: Frederick Douglas. the
orator. by Mrs. Hall; singing, Nam
NV" Mrs. Bowler; poem, Mrs. Bro"h'
AN Appeal a Nv,
The following paper was feao W
Mrs. E. c. Whittemore:
The deepest of all our common
possessions is the capacity 1or LOU
This the negro brought WIN nm
from Africa, but it was chiefly the
Christian white women of America,
esneciallv those in the south, VINO
kindled in the negro women's souls
that for which this capacity was
waiting. even the light of CHRISTIAN
ideals. Notwithstanding the eviis
and wrongs of slavery in thousands
of kitchens and nurseries, the mousse
ne old DAYS found God through their
mistresses lives and then they Went
ont to make Him real ana loFap'e ~
their own people. so, In the oeepes'
matters of religion, the race "o
yanced, even in slavery. ,.,
When we think how few genera
lions ago the negro had TO oesin ~
thn yery beginning and then OF the
centuries through which our own
white women have been nltlns up
orr ideals, we must admit that tl,e
negro women are entitled, not only
TO our sympathy but to our respect
and admiration. o,,,
The advance of both races largely
denends upon the progress tnat ID
made bv our negro fellow citizens,
we are all familiar with the
stories about the negro as a Save;
Mrs. Stoves "tncle Toms Capln
was one of the most popular DOCKS
Of the world and is selling in large
editions still. Perhaps the study OF
fine negro as a slave may be more
Fascinating than the study OF ms
later experience. But today we are
going to look at him or her as they
stand after sixty years OF s1russit.
Booker Il. Washington has salu:
NEARLY sixteen millions OF hand VIII
aid you in pulling the load upward;
or they will pull the load DOWNWARD
against YOU" A.,
The time has come when the
negro must be reckoned with in
every department of the Nation S
life. In Maine we do not realize that
one out of every nine in the popula-
ton of the United States is negro.
Perhaps. as, members of this BAPTIST
Church we do not realize that the
largest Baptist church in the world
is a negro church. namely the Oll!et
Baptist church in Chicago, WIN
over ten thousand members. In all
your reading about the great men
and women of the race, I am sure
you have noted this: that. at the
vital turning points in their lives.
the mothers character and influence
has shaped the decision. Her stand
ards of faith. conscience, and self
forgetfulness. have determined those
of her children and the race and are
a light upon the long hard path over
which it has come.
The finest of all human tasks af-
ter all, is that of the mother.
1t would be interesting to study
the negro as a poet. an artist,
banker, an educator, business
man, or as a musician, for the con-
tribution of the negro to American
music is not small. Time forblds.
so 1 have asked few of our special
friends from the negro race to tell
their own story.