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Lucretia Williams, the charming young lady on the frontispiece. By Gene Mays.

On the frontispiece appears the picture of the charming Lucretia Williams, who is acclaimed by nite lifers of St. Louis as "The Queen of Nite Clubs".

Lucretia, who is often referred to as "Pat", is endowed by nature with a beautiful voice, which holds one in a trance as she gives her rendition of the latest sweet numbers in her own style. She is admired by all for her outstanding personality, which is not always possessed by members of the profession. This is a point that has carried "Pat" so far in her work.

Before coming to St. Louis, "Pat" worked in all of the exclusive spots in Chicago, which is her home, after leaving Chicago she was grabbed by Club Forest in Milwaukee, where she scored heavily and was held over after being there ten weeks, for the entire season.

"Pat" loves to travel, so at the close of that season, she desired to see the "Key City to The Golden West" (K. C.). On entering the city she was given a contract by The Cherry Blossom Nite Club, which at that time was the most prominent rendezvous in the city . . . Again she won the hearts of the people, taking the city by storm with her wierd singing and dancing which is so different and so sophisticated. After spending a year in K. C. "Pat" decided to change cities again. And now we find this sweet and lovable character in the City of St. Louis, sharing all honors at the fashionable Four Roses Breakfast Club, where she has been pleasing the patrons for the past year. 

"Pat" is a "regular fellow" at all times. She gets her largest thrill out of riding a bicycle in the wee hours of the morning smoking her collegiate pipe, which is one of the latest fads in St. Louis for women. She is not married, although, she someday, after she has reached her point in her career, wishes to marry and settle down in the country and have some little ones of her own, as she is very fond of children. 

Lucretia, "The Queen," should reach her goal soon, as she has the foundation and making of a star. 

When a Smart Man's Land Is Flooded, He Gets Rich Raising Frogs

By Robert Quillen

You have heard many stories concerning people who turned a misfortune or handicap into an asset. Here is another of the rags-to-riches types that shows how a smart lad can harness an afflication.

Twenty years ago the colored population in our village included an Emma Bates who earned $1.25 a week cooking for the white folks.

Emma had a boy named Clayton who became a town character by the time he was breeched. While other black children were kept at home by their watchful mammies, and never were seen on the streets unattended, Clayton roamed the village as he pleased.

Machinery fascinated him and he usually underfoot wherever flying wheels and belts provided an easy way to get hurt. Daily esape merely delayed the inevitable. When he was about seven years old, he investigated a well pump back of one of the stables. It was a slow-chugging contrivance, driven by a gasoline engine, and the cogs of the gear wheels were not covered. Nobody ever knew how it happened, but Clayton somehow got one hand in the gears and left most of it there. The doctors saved a thumb and two fingers.

This experience made no change in the boy's way of life. Two years later he wandered into the oil mill, where cotton seed is transformed into meal and the oil that makes imitation lard, and lay down on a great pile of seed to sleep.

He didn't know that a conveyor was carrying the seed into grinding jaws. He didn't wake up till he was sliding down with the seed,and then it was too late. Some friends saved his life, but he lost a leg.

After that, people quit calling him Clayton and began to call him "Peg-leg."

Now the point of the story is that two sound legs would have doomed him to the life that Fate and environment provided for others of his race : Trouble and the chan gang, pick and shovel work at six bits a day, or a life between plow handles looking at the south end of a mule.

The peg leg made him an eccentric dancer and now he is on Broadway, billed as "Peg-leg Bates," probably earning $500 a week. O. O. McIntyre says he is a sensation and the equal of Astaire.

That isn't bad for a cripple.

-St. Louis Star-Times

"THE BIG APRIL PARADE IN CHATTANOOGA"
By Douglas E. Walker

Exit the Lion March and enter the month of April, I will say my say and nobody's going to say my saying about the "Big Parade." A roaming mid-west wind swept into the south and with it came Walter Barnes and his Royal Creolians Orchestra, direct from the "Windy City." Off comes the lid of the most torrid music you have ever heard, with low moaning saxophones, riffing trumpets, and a clicking  rhythm section which rocked the season's largest dance fan's parade at the Cotton Club. Barne's aggregation are noted for rhythm similar to that of Duke Ellington's Orchestra, and the melody of Claude Hopkin's band. They are marching on into the southern territory with "dat" rhythm parade. It ain't no use to grumble and complain about the weather.

It's just as cheap and easy to rejoice now when Old Mighty sorts out the weather and sends sushine and sweeping away any stay clouds with the Mills Brothers' style, The "Four Moonglow Boys" Station WDOD artists, are spellbound in this parade with their melodious voices and are storming the south with their harmonizing rhythm. In this April parade the young kids sent their kites into the sky.

April atmosphere didn't fail to raise the kite of Arthur (Greek) Bell, a peg leg tap dancer, who is a great entertainer with his style of dancing at the Blue Room (ofay) Nite Club. April weather so far is violent and treacherous. I kinda got an eyeful when Frank (Pie) Betts, a comedian with the "Black Dot Revue" came from his hiding  place to rehearsal.

The big April Parade paraded the south and got in some tight places, but failed to get into the Blue Room Nite Club and blow out the Royal Knights Orchestra, where they are playing nightly. 

Northeast winds blow into the south during lamb like weather and the Sunset Royal entertainers dance orchestra from Pittsburgh,  Pa., a nationally known aggregation are touring the south. The Big April Parade dance fans await their arrival.

Easter greetings are extended to my readers. Will page more for you next month.

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