1080

The Advocate-Verdict,
Harrisburg, Pa.,
July 31.

The Giles B. Jackson show at
Richmond I will go down in history
as the most monumental failure
of its kind that the country has
ever known.

This [?] the unanimous verdict
of the handful of people who
wasted their time and money
journeying to Richmond to see—
an "exposition" that was not
there. The outcome was no sur-
prise to those who had given the
matter careful study from the
time Congress voted the propria-
tion of $55,000 in aid of what was
put forward as a concrete display
of the progress the Negro has
made in the fifty years since his
emancipation. As has been point-
ed out in these columns no one
ever heard until the last moment
that any such thing as a field agent
was gathering up exhibits of
a character worth looking at. The
press exploitation was negligible
quantity at the time the public
was making up its mind as to
whether they should take stock in
the affair. The advertising was
not plaed systematically nor
where it would do the most good,
Even when the placards and seat-
tering display of "ads" made
their appearance at the eleventh
hour. In the great centers of
Negro life there was not a scin-
tilla of interest in the proposed
show. Even in Richmond, where
the enthusiasm of the masses should
have been aroused to fever heat,
no one seemed to know anything
about the "exposition." Every-
thing was done behind closed doors
and the bulk of the endorsements,
such as they were, came from
white people, who tried to be
sympathetic, without knowing a
line of the inside facts.

While giving the gentlemen am-
ple appreciation for good inten-
tions, it is but telling the truth
to say that the proclamations of
the President of the United States
and the Governor of Virginia were
received with a quiet, sad smile.
Now that it is over, there is
a feeling of relief on the part of
the people of the country that the
state of public business was such
that the people of the country
was such that the President and
the Negro race were spared the
humiliation and chagrin that
would have come out of his attend-
ing such an inadequate display of
our progress in fifty years of free-
dom. The surface of the Negro's
achievements in the arts, sciences,
the industries, invention, agricul-
ture, manufactures, literature, and
one thousand and one of the ac-
tivities of civilization was scarce-
ly scratched.

The rest of the inglorious story
will be told by a million tongues
when the news of the fiasco reaches
the ears of the