THE ODD FELLOWS' CELEBRATION.

MR. EDITOR:—The fourth of September was
a gala day in New York City. The fourteenth
meeting of the Annual Moveable Committee of
the Grand United Order of Odd Fellows was
celebrated by a Procession, by addressed and
singing in the Tabernacle, and by a Promenade
Concert and Supper in the
And, first of all,

THE PROCESSION

formed on Washington Square, at 10 1/2 A.M.—marched
through the principal streets, Broad
way and the Park, and then entered the Tab
ernacle. There were some six hundred men in
the line; they marched four abreast, the offi
cers with swords in their hands, all decked,
rank and file in gorgeous regalia, with their
magnificent standards floating, in the breeze, and
three splendid bands discoursing eloquent mu
sic; they looked, in all respects, like an "." They moved, perhaps, a trifle
too fast; and with dashing Edward Tracy, with
a short Roman sword, and a dare-devil look, at
their head seemed rather charging than march
ing;—yet they looked good—made one feel
good—and set the imagination to work, inquir
ing how far South such an army might march,
if well drilled and well marched, and how such
an army would increase, and its members be
come officers. Not the least pleasant part of
the spectacle was the evident good feeling with
which every body regarded it. On the most
crowded thoroughfares, room was made as if by
magic; and the evident respectability and
wealth of the turn out was freely and pleasant
ly descanted on. Even the Jehus, who drive
the Broadway omnibuses, made way with alac
rity, turning off to the side streets.

Where all looked so well it is hard to partic
ularize; yet one lodge, which seemed mostly
composed of tall and splendid looking black
men, and which hailed from south of Mason &
Dixon's line, was the observed of all observers.
I should so liked to have seen them in grena
dier caps, and arms to match. The Pennsyl
vanians and Marylanders had the most beauti
ful and tasteful banners, and composed three
fourths of the entire turn-out. Twenty-one of
the forty lodges in the Order were represented,
some of the delegates being from Bermuda,
and others from Canada. Regarded simply as

a meeting, it was the largest, and represented
more States and more distant territory, than
any thing which ever occurred among the col
ored people on this continent. When the Pro
cession had entered and were seated.

IN THE TABERNACLE,

the Odd Fellows sat in the nave, the officers
and speakers on the platform, and the ladies in
the spacious gallery, surrounded by the beaux.
There must have been two thousand and over.
I did not hear the speeches of Brothers Patrick
H. Reason, Cunningham, Grand Master Bow
ser, Brother Handy, of Baltimore, nor the elo
quent prayer of P. G. M. John Peterson. The
papers say they were all first rate, and espec
ially praise the unction with which Brother
Peterson besought that the Order might be
made a means of breaking the shackles of those
held in bonds in the South. Brother Handy
it may be remembered, is the author of the fa
mous Memorial on Colonization, which the
Philadelphia Convention voted to the flames in
October last. But I did hear the speech of
Rev. Henry Highland Garnet; and a capital
speech it was. After treating in his peculiar
vein of beauty and power, the cardinal princi
ples of the Order, he dwelt with great force and
eloquence on the capacities of the Order for
accomplishing the great work of Emancipation—self-emancipation
in devoting their energies
to the support of tangible institutions with a
local habitation and a name, such as an Odd
Fellows' Hall, Widows' and Orphans' Asylums;
and the emancipation of them in bonds, by
combining to overthrow, by whatever force, the
giant system of Slavery in the slave States.—The
tall and noble form, the lofty bearing and
fiery words of the orator brought down the
house, or rather raised it to a pitch of enthusi
asm which it would have done a slaveholder
good to witness.

The closing song by the brothers, was given
with wonderful beauty and precision; before I
knew it, my hands were seeking the mystic
grip, and my voice joining the mystic chorus,
which is apt to make one "once an Odd Fel
low—always an Odd Fellow." At such mo
ments, the swimming eyes will seek, in the ranks,
for those who filled them of old, whose voices,
if they have ceased to swell the earthly anthem,
are yet not lost, but gone before to hymn the
praises of the GRAND MASTER ABOVE.

The ceremonies at the Tabernacle over, the
procession marched to St. John's Park and

dismissed. One very pleasant feature of the
occasion, was, that among the thousands of col
ored men and women who turned out to witness
the celebration, all were sober and neatly ap
parelled, which is a great improvement on a
similar occasion some six years ago. Do we
advance?

THE SIXTH AVENUE RAILROAD COMPANY

deserve especial mention on this day. The
odious exclusion which it perpetrates on colored
persons from their care was for the day abolish
ed, and many of the cards were surmounted with
flags, announcing ";" and the way in which
"our folks" availed themselves of the "remis
sion of sins" of the company, was a warm com
ment on the sagacity of the operation, which
not a few of us took occasion to "improve,"
when we caught the Superintendent, Mr. Eb
bits, in the Palace; it seems that he assumed
the responsibility of abolishing the exclusion,
and deserves credit therefore—a credit which
he may indefinitely increase by perpetuating
the abolition aforesaid. But we must haste to

THE CRYSTAL PALACE.

It was real fun, on the way thither, to see the
tables turned in the cards; the inside filled with
well-dressed colored people, and the outside
front and rear crowded with equally well-dress
ed white people. The fusion was complete, in
side and out—black ladies and white gentle
men—black gentlemen and white ladies—yet
there was no disturbance, no quarelling, no
confusion—

"all went merrily as a marriage bell."

Distinguished looking black gentleman did
thousands of courtesies to elegant looking
white ladies, and ; the only wound
on the occasion was received by a Captain of
Police whose was pierced, cut and trun
cated by the dazzling beauties of a "yaller
gal," whom he pronounced the most beautiful
and perfect creature that ever lived.

These facts prove the downright absurdity,
as well as sinfulness of excluding decently dress
ed persons from any of our city cars. The
second, third, and fourth avenue cars make no
such exclusion. But here we are at the Pal
ace. Can it be? Is that gorgeous blaze of
light illuminating the largest edifice in the land?
can it be that this vision of beauty is for col
ored people? It light my pipe, sit down on the
vestibule, and begin to listen and think. In all
the crowd attracted, and composed almost exclusively

of whites on the outside, there is no
other token save of respect and admiration!—Car
after car stops; the conductors hand out
sable dames in a beautiful array with great care
and gallantry; coach after coach rolls up to
the gates, the massive iron gates, and pour out
their throng of dark beauty and chivalry, and
there is not one word of unpleasant import ut
tered, except by one little knot of Irishmen, who
"hush up" as a dozen stalwart "brothers" who
had come up on foot, with military tread, march
by them. I did not, after patiently watching
and listening a full hour, hear the word "nig
ger" uttered once.

So satisfied on one point, I knock the ashes
out of my third pipe, "titivate" a little, and
enter the Palace. Now, Mr. Editor, it can
hardly be expected that a man like you, who is
engaged in stern business of "giving and
receiving the hardest blows" in the great and
absorbing contest of the day—it can hardly be
expected that you take the least interest in
a bright eye, or a well-turned ancle, or in the
poetry of motion, when performed by the
sweetest and loveliest of their sex. No, sir!—You
have no interest in such frivolities; your
wise head and frowning eye are set apart for
more rugged work: but we youngsters, you
know, have softer hearts, more tender suscepti
bilities, and I can only say that I envy neither
you nor any other man whose eye would not
have brightened, whose heart would not have
gladdened at the brilliant array of manhood
and beauty which for the first time in its exis
tence waked up the echoes of the Crystal Pal
ace to music's mirthful measure in the giddy
dance and the ravishing waltz!

You see, it happened in this way: in giving
notices in the churches, of the Festival at the
Palace, it was distinctly announced that there
would be a "Promenade Concert," but no danc
ing. , said Brother Valentine in
old Zion. NO DANCING, said Brother Raymond
in the Baptist Church. So the church broth
ers and sisters came in great numbers, in their
plain, tasteful dresses, and enjoyed the sight of
the Palace and the statuary, (which one aged
maiden lady though would have looked better
with clothes on,) and the splendid promenade of
the brothers of the Order, in their regalia.—Well,
you see it was Straub's fault; just as a
very lovely portion of the promenade passed by
the music corner, Straub struck up a waltz—
and the floor was so nice and springy, and the
Palace so enchanting, that beautiful fee incon
tenantly kept time with the music, and there

was dancing done all unconsciously on the part
of the dancers. The church sisters who caught
the unseemly vision, rushed to the Committee
of Management; the Committee, with stern
ness on their brows, rushed to the infected cor
ner, and—caught the infection, which ran thro'
the Palace like wild fire, licking up, in its re
moreseless embrace, even not a few of the church
members, who had at first entered protest.

Then Straub was in his glory; his instru
ments were in their glory; his men were in
their glory, for in all their long musical lives
they had never seen such glorious dancing in
such a glorious palace. I, sir, your New York
Correspondent, stood by, calm as a philosopher,
with one eye shut. EthiopWilson, William Joseph ("Ethiop")

William Joseph Wilson (1818–?), a free black man from New Jersey, operated a bootmaking shop in New York City as early as the 1830s. In the 1840s he became a secondary school teacher and later a principal of a black school in Brooklyn. He was an activist on behalf of black education, encouraging access and attendance, and even opened his own library. Wilson also campaigned to secure the franchise for New York African Americans. He served as a member of the Committee of Thirteen, organized by New York black leaders to stop enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act. In the early 1850s Wilson’s letters appeared frequently in Frederick Douglass’ Paper, and Douglass referred to him as the newspaper’s “Brooklyn correspondent.” Wilson’s letters to the newspaper, published under the pseudonym “Ethiop,” were often part of an ongoing debate about the condition of blacks in New York and the United States. Wilson’s most frequent sparring partner in the war of letters was “Communipaw,” actually James McCune Smith, a prominent black physician in New York City. Carleton Mabee, Black Education in New York State: From Colonial to Modern Times (Syracuse, N.Y., 1979), 54, 63-67, 123, 129, 155, 158; Foner and Walker, Black State Conventions, 1:79-88; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 87, 212, 229; Ripley, Black Abolitionist Papers, 4:144-45n. and Fylbel stole
away to a recess and had a quiet little dance to
themselves, Ethiop doing "the bones." I say,
sir, that I stood by, calm as a philosopher, look
ing into the Ethnological Instincts of the hour;
here was the royal blood of Africa, yielding up
every sense to music, and joy, and revelry, while
the men of another stock lie stark and stiff on
the plains of Kansas, or are bubbling out their
life blood in behalf of free speech! free
thought! It is true that these men and these
women are shut out from all participation in
that terrible contest,—shut out by both parties—yet
our hearts should be with those who,
however dimly, defend the right; and we migh
given an hour to silence and prayer while we
know that the battle is raging.

Yours,

COMMUNIPAWSmith, James McCune

James McCune Smith (1813–65), a prominent black physician, abolitionist, and writer, was born in New York City to an enslaved father and a self-emancipated mother. He attended the New York African Free School, but was denied admission to Columbia University, Geneva Medical College, and the New York Academy of Medicine. He turned to the University of Glasgow in Scotland, where he received a B.A. (1835), M.A. (1836), and M.D. (1837). Upon returning to New York, he opened a pharmacy and medical practice that catered to both blacks and whites. He became involved in the abolitionist movement, serving as an associate editor of the Colored American in 1839, contributed regularly to the Anglo-African Magazine, and wrote correspondence for the North Star and Frederick Douglass’ Paper under the pseudonym “Communipaw.” Smith also wrote the introduction to Douglass’s second autobiography, My Bondage and My Freedom (1855). In 1861, Smith helped finance the revival of the Weekly Anglo-African to oppose black colonization and emigration, and he was a prominent member of the New York City Young Men’s Association, the American and Foreign Anti-Slavery Society, and the New York African Society for Mutual Relief. He was the sole attending physician of the Society for the Promotion of Education Among Colored Children, a member and vestryman of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church, and a trustee of the New York Society for the Promotion of Education Among Colored Children. In 1863 Wilberforce College appointed Smith professor of anthropology, but illness kept him from assuming his post. Lib., 1 June 1838; FDP, 18 May 1855; Douglass Papers, ser. 2:7–19; Miller, Search for a Black Nationality, 243; Pease and Pease, They Who Would Be Free, 90–92, 103, 110; Quarles, Black Abolitionists, 115, 134; Rhoda G. Freeman, “The Free Negro in New York City in the Era before the Civil War” (Ph.D. diss., Columbia University, 1966), 40–42, 177, 186, 195, 200, 247, 276, 286, 325, 353, 393; DAB, 27:288–89. .