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THE ADVERTISER—JOURNAL,
FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 1914
MEMORIAL TO HARRIET TUBMAN
TO BE UNVEILED;
BOOKER T. WASHINGTON TO
DELIVER ADDRESS
Exercises in Honor of
Heroine of Civil War Times to Be Held in Auditorium
Tonight—Mayor Brister to Accept Tablet on Behalf of
City—Doctor Washington to Arrive This Afternoon.
_________________________
Booker T. Washington,
who will deliver an address at the unveiling of the Harriet
Tubman Davis memorial in this Auditorium this evening, will
arrive in this city at 5:25 o’clock this afternoon. He so
wired C.G. Adams, secretary of the Business Men’s
Association last evening, from Chicago. Doctor Washington
will come here directly from the latter place and as he will
have to make close connections to catch the afternoon train
at Rochester, Mr.
Adams asked the Central officials to hold the train on the
Auburn branch for him
in case he met with delay. This will be done, Mr. Adams was
promised.
Doctor Washington will
be met by a committee and taken at once to The Birches,
where he will be the guest of Mr. and Mrs. E. Clarence
Aiken, during his stay in the city. They will give a
luncheon in his honor Saturday at 1 o’clock.
Saturday afternoon at 3
o’clock the distinguished visitor will attend a reception
given by the colored people of the city at the First M.E. Church in his
honor. At this reception Mary B. Talbert, the president of
the Colored Women’s Federation of the Empire State, also will be a
guest of honor. Saturday night Doctor Washington will speak
in Skaneateles. Sunday morning at the prison he will
probably speak from the steps at the west end of the main
hall. The scarlet fever quarantine making it impossible to
speak in the prison. It will be an open air meeting. T.M.
Osborne will take care of Doctor Washington while he is at
the prison, it is announced. The visitor will speak later at
Zion Church. Sunday night he will
address a meeting at Geneva.
Program
of Exercises.
The memorial exercises
tonight will be notable in character. The address of Doctor
Washington will be but one of the features. There are many
distinguished visitors in the city for the occasion and the
colored people of the country and their friends are
cognizant of the event which is to honor the name and
perpetuate the memory of the noble woman who did so much for
the men and women of her race when they needed a helping
hand. Harriet Tubman’s activities to better the conditions
of the freed slaves following the war and her tireless
efforts during the war to guide refugees from the South to
safety are well known. A notable audience is expected to
witness the memorial exercises this evening. E. Clarence
Aiken will preside and Mayor Brister will accept the tablet
on behalf of the city.
The Festival Chorus
will sing and a number of other attractive features are on
the program. A beautiful twelve page souvenir booklet will
be presented to each person who contributes the price of
admission, 25
cents. The receipts will go
toward the balance required to pay the expenses connected
with the unveiling of the memorial.
“Many have contributed
to the fund and a good many more have not,” said the
secretary of the Business Men’s Association. “All should go
tonight and encourage the committee that has worked so hard
to bring the project to so satisfactory a termination.
Auburn is getting the public spirit, but we need more of it.
Other memorials of a similar character should follow this
one and they will if the citizens of Auburn will give these
efforts the encouragement they are worthy of.”
The chorus held its
rehearsal last evening with the orchestra and some fine
music can be expected tonight. This will be the last
appearance this season of the Festival Chorus.
The theater boxes are
all taken for this evening except the top tiers which will
probably be disposed of before evening. The Boy Scouts will
have seats reserved for them in the gallery, and the colored
organizations, St. Peters’s Lodge, No. 3,970, G. U. O. of O.
F. and the Rizpah Household of Ruth, will attend in a body
and a section of the Auditorium has been reserved for their
use. Except for these reservations the seats are
unreserved.
Doctor
Washington to Be Principal Speaker.
Dr. Booker T.
Washington who delivered the oration at the Tubman Memorial
exercises this evening at the Auditorium is equally as noted
as a writer as a gifted orator. Some of the books from his
pen are “Up from Slavery,” “Sowing and Reaping.” “Future of
American Negro,” “Character Building” and other books. In
his autobiography he says:
“The first knowledge
that I got of the fact that we were slaves and that freedom
of slaves was being discussed, was early one morning before
daylight, when I was awakened by my mother kneeling over her
children and fervently praying that Lincoln and his armies
might be successful and that one day she and her children
might go free. I cannot remember a single instance during my
childhood or early boyhood when our family sat down to the
table together, and God’s blessing was asked and the family
ate a meal in a civilized manner. The first pair of shoes I
recall wearing were wooden ones.
“In the part of
Virginia where I lived it was common to use flax as a part
of the clothing for slaves. A flax shirt is almost equal to
the feeling that one would experience if he had a dozen or
more chestnut burs in contact with his flesh. Even to this
day I recall the torture I underwent when putting on one of
these garments, and until I had grown to be quite a youth,
this single garment was all that I wore. My brother John
would sometimes generously put it on when I had a new one
and wear it for a few days until it was ‘broken in.’ I had a
feeling when a boy that to get into a schoolhouse and study
would be about the same as getting into paradise.
Ambition
of Doctor Washington
“Years ago I resolved that because
I had no ancestry myself I would leave a record of which my
children would be proud and which might encourage them to
still higher effort. I have learned that success is not to
be measured so much by the position that one has reached in
life as by the obstacles which he has overcome while trying
to succeed. How often I have wanted to say to white
students that they lift themselves up in proportion as they
help to lift others. I have found that the happiest people
are those who do the most for others. No man whose vision
is bounded by color can come into contact with what is
highest and best in the world.”
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