An Easter Voice.
By Rose Lerry Cooke.
They covered my bed with roses
And laid it under the snow
But I was not there my darlings
Through men may tell you so.
Do you see the broken eggshell
Where the young bird flies away? 
Is it there in that poor prison
An singing to the day?
Do you see the swinging cradle
That held the butterfly,
That now is soaring gladly
Up in the asure sky?
Do you know the flinty cover
That wraps the seed, men set
Deep in the darkness underground,
And leave to cold and wet?
When comes the spring and sunshine
The wheat will grow and wave.
But the husk that held the kernel
Still lieth in the grave.
My sweets! it was my broken shell
My cradle, and my husk,
They covered up with blossoms
And bore away at dusk,
I've done with pain and sorry:
High in the heaven above
I live, and love, and wait for you.
Can mothers cease to love?

The heaped and dying roses
were shadows faint and dim
of heaven's unfading garlands
That wreathe the seraphim.
The sad and trembling music
Was but the the echo here
Of heaven's eternal gladness
That singeth loud and clear.
To smile again my darlings!
Be glad that I am free:
God hath you in his keeping,
To bring you safe to me.
Nor wander sad and lonely,
Above that mortal prison;
Hear God's dear angel say to you,
"She is not here! She hath risen!"found in my mothers chest
several days after her death 
Nov. - 1906. 
it brought to her devoted children much comfort. 
Frederick MAY WRIGHT SEWALL, PRESIDENT,
   343 N. PENNSYLVANIA ST., INDIANAPOLIS, IND,
FRANCES E. BAGLEY, VICE-PRESIDENT,
   113 WASHINGTON ST., DETROIT MICH.
LILLIAN M. N. STEVENS, TREASURER,
   STROUDWATER, MAINE.
RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, COR. SECRETARY,
   SOMERTON, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
ISABELLA CHARLES DAVIS, REC. SECRETARY,
   158 W. 23D STREET, NEW YORK.

National Council of Women
OF THE UNITED STATES
[HEADQUARTERS OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN
WOMAN'S BUILDING, JACKSON PARK, CHICAGO]

ORGANIZED 1888.
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN
OF THE UNITED STATES
LEAD KINDLY LIGHT
INCORPORATED 1891.

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT.
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.

Frederic Douglass,

I
Swing wide, O Shining portal,
     That opes to God's new day!
Make room, ye ranks immortal
     A conqueror comes your way.
With greeting meet for victors
     Your hands and hearts outreach;
Break, with glad song, his silence,
     Too deep and grand for speech.

II
Greet him with mortal music
     That fits a Soldier's rest; -
For braver heart for battle
     Ne'er beat in warrior's breast;
A great white heart of pity -\
     At war with sin and gloom, -
His home is with the heroes
     Stand back to give him room!
MAY WRIGHT SEWALL, PRESIDENT,
343 N. PENNSYLVANIA ST, INDIANAPOLIS, IND.
FRANCES E. BAGLEY, VICE-PRESIDENT,
113 WASHINGTON ST., DETROIT, MICH.
LILLIAN M. N. STEVENS, TREASURER,
STROUDWATER, MAINE.
RACHEL FOSTER AVERY, COR. SECRETARY,
SOMERTON, PHILADELPHIA, PA.
ISABELLA CHARLES DAVIS, REC. SECRETARY,
158 W. 23D STREET, NEW YORK.

National Council of Women
OF THE UNITED STATES

ORGANIZED 1888.
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOEMN
OF THE UNITED STATES
LEAD KINDLY LIGHT
INCORPORATED 1891.

[HEADQUARTERS OF THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF WOMEN
WOMAN’S BUILDING, JACKSON PARK, CHICAGO
??? WORLD’S FAIR]

OFFICE OF THE PRESIDENT,
INDIANAPOLIS, IND.

III
Room for the stricken millions,
Unbound by freedom's wars,
To whom his strife meant light and life,
And broken prison-bars;
The love outpoured in prayers and tears
Along the conqueror's track,
Is his spent love and life of years,
Bringing their blessing back.

IV
To live that - freedom, truth, and light
Might-never know eclipse, -
To die, with woman's work and words
Aglow upon his lips, -
To face the foes of humankind
Through years of wounds and scars, -
It is Enough! Lead on, - to find
Thy place amid the stars.

Mary Lowe DickinsonEyes which the tyrant could not blind,
Hands breaking from their fetters thrall,
Souls groping out of mists-to-God,
Take heart from thee, and strength for all. 

Around thee Egypt's tawny sands
Stretch their long weary lengths away.
Before thee, desolately grand, 
Her pyramids and temples lay; 

And Sphynx, from her entombing sands,
With Solemn brow, and questioning face
Seeks the deep mystery to resolve
The strange sad riddle of the race. 

But what the Sybil cannot read, 
Thy love of man and trust make plain.
The oppressor in the dust shall sit 
And freedom oer the earth shall reign.

And Egypt, from her crucial fires
A Phoenix, rise to life again
Her future's Memnon chants the day
And thy great heart responds, Amen. 

H.E.D.
Naples Italy
Feb. 13, 1887.To the Hon., Frederick Douglass,
on celebrating his 70 birthday in Egypt.

Thy native sky, my honored friend, 
Bends not oer thee, this natal day,
Ocean and continent divide
The friends that would their homage pay.

But he, to highest manhood true,
Finds, though he rove from pole to pole, 
In every realm, in every clime
Kindred beloved, in heart and soul.

And thou who wore the bondman's chain, 
Today erect and proudly free,
Grandly compassionate thou stands
Beacon of hope, for what may be.

[* Wonderful *]Beyond the Fog
To Berry Jones, young pioneer of the air

Beyond the fog 
There is no mist at all: 
Only the great heart of God
Where children never fall. 

Beyond the fog no mortal flight, 
No mortal danger there:
Only every-shining space
And vast eternal air. 

So do not grieve for one who soars
On everlasting wings
Into the heart of sun and stars
And all immortal things. 

O, let there be no mist of tears–––
But only eyes of joy 
To follow ever the spirit flight 
Of this immortal boy. 

––Langston Hughes
Kansas City, Missouri,
March 16, 1938Lift Every Voice and Sing

Words by 
JAMES WELDON JOHNSON

Music by 
J. ROSAMOND JOHNSON

Lift ev'ry voice and sing, Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise high as the list'ning skies. 
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the Faith that the dark past has 
taught us.
Sing a song full of the Hope that the present has 
brought us.
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun, 
Let us march on 'till Victory is won!    [*Ranking*]

Stony the road we trod, Bitter the chast'ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat, have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been 
watered 
We have come, treading the path thro' the blood 
of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past, Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright stars is cast. 

God of our weary years, God of our silent tears,
Thou who has brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who hast by Thy might, Led us into light, 
Keep us for ever in the path, we pray
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where 
we met Thee,
Lest out hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, 
we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand, may we forever stand, 
True to our God, True to our Native land.A
New 
Year 
GreetingReflection

It is the stroke of twelve. The moments flee, 
But pausing greet the day that is to be. 
From the deserted heart, the feeble light 
Of dying embers casts a fitful glow 
On holly boughs and berries darkly bright,
 Entwined with Yuletide's mystic mistletoe. 
The year is dying, but in dying gives 
The joyous Christmas to a Christian world, 
And while we still prolong the festal day 
The year that brought it passes on its way. 
The Old Year with its countless prayers and 
tears, 
Its hopes deferred, its heartaches and its fears, 
Is dying, and the New Year comes instead 
To offer living hopes for those now dead. 

Rejection 

If in the heart there lives an unkind thought,— 
The Old Year's growth,— or bitterness or aught 
That jars upon the Christmas spirit true,— 
Then with the dying year let that die too. 
And if, perchance, between us there has been 
Unholy strivings, fed by hate or greed, 
Revenge for fancied wrong, or seeming slight, 
Or careless uttered word, or thoughtless deed, 
Oh friend! pray let these also die tonight. 

Selection 

So shall we enter on the glad New Year 
Unshackled from the spirit of the dead 
Departed days; brave for the tasks ahead 
Wherein we strive the nobler life to find 
In “Peace on Earth, Good Will to all Mankind." 

WILIAM A. JOINER 
HOWARD UNIVERSITY.To A. S. on his Sixty-third Birthday,
17th August, 1890.

What shall I give thee?--We are past the age 
Of childhood's hoarded treasure, kept for love
Of having, more than for some use or need-- 
Possessions that the dust lies thick upon, 
If yet we find them looking through our tears 
And kept for memories of long ago. 
    Nearing the dim horizon, lacking strength 
And verve of youth, we fain would travel light, 
And free from useless burthens. Shall I give 
Thee aught or better birthday gift than Love?--
Love and the only prayer I dare to ask 
Of God for me and mine: "Give purity and strength"? 
The rest we leave with Him--if pure in heart 
To meet the daily joys of health and life
Using and not abusing His rich gifts, 
And by His strength made strong to bear the pain 
And sorrow that we cannot choose but share,
With faith to trust the changeless Love of God. 

L. S.Deepest Impressions
Soliloquy as slave boy on ship leaving moorings. 
Pathos of longing. 
Determination from then on to be free.
First attempt and failure.
Second attempt and success.
Sensations as a free man.
Visit to New Bedford etc.

Lessons
Courage even as slave boy.
Learned to read at great risk- dared to 
think and reason and never stopped.
Questioned right to hold him a slave-or 
his fellowmen.
Unselfish- freed self and turned back to
fight to free others.
Work an honorable institution, not ashamed to 
know how to work.

First attempt at public speaking- stammering etc., 
until forgot self. Utterances grew so eloquent
as to cause white co-workers to remonstrate
with him. "Keep to crude expression etc.," and for 
public to denounce him as an imposter. But he
kept on- his people were still slaves. No 
white man could tell him what his fellow slaves 
were suffering- they had never tasted the curse
slavery. Every drop of blood tingled in righteuus
rebellion and indignation over the fact. He 
must fight on and on.

John Brown heard of him etc., but Mr. D had 
known etc. Courageous to the end.
No white man fooled him.
Fond of Abraham Lincoln but Mr. L. did not 
deceive him as to where his real interest lay.
Proud of grand children because they loved work.

Lessons learned
Reared never to shirk.
To regard rights of others. 
Never to be a snob- Arrogance.
He delighted to punish snobs which he could
do effectively. "Mr. Popin Jay."

6th St. Station.

Best known to me after death.
Before, just playmate and one we loved to 
"show off" before. Always tender, kind, 
gentle. Full of fun play hr. and work hr.

"Fair play is pretty play" was his cry at all 
times. Give you generously except is 
largest sweet potato or water melon.