LANGSTON HUGHES

CHICAGO DEFENDER

WORDS THAT ECHO IN THE MIND

In the days of my youth I read a great deal. But now that I
write twelve hours a day for a living, it seems impossible for me to
read anything any more — except my own writing. From the first
drafts of one's own work through the final typed manuscript, a great
deal of rewriting and rereading must be done. Then, if it is a book,
the galley proofs eventually arrive to be read and corrected, and a
few weeks later come the page proofs. So, by the time a professional
writer finishes reading his own writing, his eyes are tired.

But, from my reading days, a great many vivid words, thoughts,
and half thoughts echo in the mind. From pages perused long ago I
sometimes remember whole verses of poems, phrases of prose, or perhaps
only the gist of a provocative thought without the flavor of its
original phraseology. The greater writers like Shakespeare, Whitman,
Thoreau, Thomas Mann, DuBois, Somerset Maugham, Carson McCullers, leave
whole shadows of emotion wrapped around one's psyche. But often less
famous writers leave memories and shadows, too — leave echoes that come
back at the oddest moments. The childless Dunbar's sympathy for grieving
parents who have lost an offspring: "How much more happy I — who have no
child to die."

There's Gwendolyn Brooks speaking of dreams in a Chicago kitchenette,
but suddenly closing her poem with: "We wonder. But not well, not for a
minute! Since number Five is out of the bathroom now, we think of lukewarm
water, hope to get in it."

Sometimes I recall the quiet assurance of Ella Wheeler Wilcox:

## Words that echo - 2

"Everything you long for, whether good or ill, shall at length be given if you have the will, if you have the patience and are very still."

I smile at the humor of "Why The Saints Were Saints" whose author I do not know: "Because they were cheerful when it was difficult to be cheerful; and patient when it was difficult to be patient; and because they pushed on when they wanted to stand still; and kept silent when they wanted to talk; and were agreeable when they wanted to be disagreeable. That was why they were Saints."

And from the Bible there is this great passage in Corinthians:
> "Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long, and is kind, Charity envieth not. Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil, rejoiceth not in iniquity but rejoiceth in the truth, beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Charity never faileth.... Faith, Hope, Charity, these three - but the greatest of these is Charity."

Then there is this old English prayer that contains a wealth of wisdom:
> "Give me a good digestion, Lord, and also something to digest. Give me a healthy body, Lord, with sense to keep it at its best. Give me a mind that is not bored, that does not whimper, whine, or sigh. Don't let me worry overmuch about the fussy thing called I. Give me a sense of humor, Lord. Give me the grace to see a joke, to get some happiness from life and pass it on to other folk."

- 30 -

CHICAGO DEFENDER COLUMNS IDEAS:

LITTLE STORIES OF HARLEM

VIGENETTES OF HARLEM STREETS

PROFITEERING IN RACE

C.P. TIME — AND WHY

WHITES AND NEGROES WORKING TOGETHER IN HARLEM (See Notes)

AGAIN NEGRO HOTELS

SEGREGATION IN WASHINGTON D.C.

DO YOU WANT TO DIE WITHOUT A FIGHTING CHANCE?

(The Horrors Of Modern Warfare for Civilians, and
Ways of Preventing It)

THE JEWS — Palestine ETC.,

WORDS TO REMEMBER:

SHAKESPEARE — "TO BE OR NOT TO BE, THAT IS THE QUESTION"
"YOU'RE WRONG IF YOU DO AND YOU'RE WRONG IF YOU DON'T".

To do or not, to act or not to act.

WALT WHITMAN — "LIBERTY IS THE LAST TO GO"

RICHARD WRIGHT — "THE KITCHENETTE IS OUR DEATH SENTENCE
WITHOUT TRIAL"

BIBLE — "THE GREATEST OF THESE IS CHARITY"

WILLIAM LLOYD GARRISON — "OUR COUNTRY IS THE WORLD — OUR
COUNTRYMEN ARE ALL MANKIND."

THE RUBYIAT — "THE MOVING FINGER WRITES, AND HAVING WRIT MOVES ON."

SIMPLE NOTES & IDEAS FOR COLUMNS

SIGN IN PHOTOGRAPHER'S WINDOW:

IF YOU MOVE—

YOU LOOSE.

IF YOU SHAKE—

NO RE-TAKE!

**COLUMN IDEA:** SIMPLE GOES BACK HOME WHEN DISTANT RELATIVE DIES EXPECTING TO BE WELL REMEMBERED IN HIS WILL. SOMETHING OF COLOR OF SMALL COUNTRY FUNERALS.

**STORY NOTES:**

"She's ugly as a bull-buggy."

"I may give out, but I'll never give up."

"It's a mighty poor chicken can't scratch up his own food."

"Hush, Satan! Else the great Lord God, who sits high and looks low, will slap your face one-sided."

BACK TO SLEEPY HOLLOW

WHERE YOU CAN HOLLER

LOUD AS YOU WANT TO—

'CAUSE YOU'RE HOME.

"Gimme an order of water—in a clean glass."

"That dog don't bite nobody but that ugly old postman."

"They tell me up the line

I'm fine. I'm fine

That's all I'm the best

That ever come out of the west."

"You must have set in the laundry and put your clothes on in the bag."

"Like the man in the coffin—dead in there."

"An Uncle Tom buck naked."

"Do you dig that jive? It's frantic."

"It stunk like a skunk."