St. Paul recorder. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1934-2000, 1940-04-05
THISWORLD
Along This Way
Will Smith
Fannie Pierre Lewis

writer James Weldon JOhnsOn's
along This Way" just of the
press. At that time We were edit
ing the Twin City Herald. We read
the volume hastily, skimming
through it without getting the feel
of it.
Lately we borrowed an auto
graphed copy of the great book
from Juanita Jackson Mitchell.
During the period which DR.. w. D.
Brown insisted that we spend more
time in repose and relaxation we
reread the volume. It's an expert
ence which we recommend to every
person who reads these lines.
For several months the editorial
page of this paper has seemed to
have something missing from it.
Last week on press day when w.
M. Smith walked in the office we
remembered that for months our
pages had been without his column
Here and There" a weekly stint
which gained many friends for this
paper. 'Will' Smith as the "Old-
timers" call him, has been i'll for
many months but the indOmitable
will which has always crowned his
white-crested head has made him
continue to defy RELOCATION to the
comfortable arm chair. His long
years of toll for civic causes have
earned him any rest which he
might desire. but still he keeps
working. It's quite a few years
since the writer told him in 1928
in the Vinegar Bros. barber shop
across from the Minneapolis court
house, next door to Simmons old
restaurant that some day we would
have a newspaper and wanted him
to work with us. His disbelief was
evident in every line of his face
but he said nothing. Since 1927
we have been associated with only
brief separations on three news
papers and an Inflated magazine,
Timely Digest"
Two Sundays ago we gazed
across a church aisle. Our gaze
halted on the person of good
woman who has meant more than
any other person to the Negro in
mates of this states penal insti-
tuition. AS we looked at her she
was in process of extracting cur
rency from her purse to give in
the church collection of her funds
as she has for years given of her
time and counsel to those. oft for
gotten ones in Saltwater prison and
Shakopee State Reformatory for
Women. Fannie Pierre Lewis is
one of our finest characters. She
has constantly remembered those
whom many of US have forgotten.
You don't have to be rich to re-
member those less fortunate. Fan
ME Pierre Lewis is not rich in
money but her wealth is in the ex-
perience of helping others. Who is
richer than she?
When we think of Mrs. Lewis
life, our mind recalls Georgia
Douglass Johnson's poem:
When we count out our gold at
the end of the day,
And have filtered the dross
that has numbered the way,
Oh, what were the hold of our
treasury then
Save the love we have shown
the children of men?
Thomas Dewey is the most pop
ular Republican presidential can
didate among Minnesota Negroes.
In the south Robert Taft is popu-
lar. Perry Howard, veteran Missis-
sippi national committee (who lives
in Washington, D. c., practically
all of the time) has been travelling
through the south button-holing
Republican Negro politicians,
preachers and editors.
It was at the Armory fights over
a year ago. Two American youths
were in the ring. One was a
bronzed skin son of Ham. The
others paleskinned foreparents
came from some part Of Europe.
Up in the ringside section sat
well dressed white man who repeat
edly urged the white lad to "kill
the IT." Isaac L. Moore,
Jr., postal employe and active
American Legionnaire, who was
seated at the ringside, after few
minutes of the bloody bleating from
the ringside gladiator could stand
it no longer. AS the lights rose
between rounds he looked back at
the epithet caster and called him a
poor sport and offered to "take him
on" to prove it. The verbal fighter
clustered, turned red and shut up.
The ringsiders, of course, predomi-