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302 THE CRISIS
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While at Miami, Fla., the other day I noticed a sign in the postoffice which read as follows: "No Negroes Allowed at This Desk." There is another sign, however, which informs Negroes that they may use a certain desk in the lobby of the office. 
Is such a discrimination constitutional in such a place of that kind? If you will look into this matter it will be highly appreciated by me.     Yours very truly,

A letter to THE CRISIS says: 
"This is only among the few atrocious acts committed by white officers down here: The fourth Sunday morning in November, at Beaumont, East of Hattiesburg (Miss.), at the Kansas City Railroad junction, a marshal killed a young colored man because he made a mistake in entering a white waiting room."

           "IT PAYS TO KICK"
DEAR SIR,
It may be of interest to you or to some of your readers to know that the poem quoted in full in THE CRISIS for January and said to be entitled "It Pays to Kick," and to have been attributed by the Woman's Journal to Cotton's Weekly, was written by Major Holman F. Day, whom I regard as the most gifted and original yankee humorist now living. It is to be found on page 87 of his volume of verse "Up in Maine" (Small, Maynard & Co., Boston, 1904), where it is called "The True Story of a Kicker."
  Holman Day was not reared in an atmosphere like that of the classic city of Cambridge. He was born in the little village of Vassalboro, Me., and educated at the "fresh-water college," Colby, at Waterville. When the writer first knew him he was the editor of a typical country weekly called the Dexter Gazette, and his genial personality made him a universal favorite in that portion of Penobscot County, where at least nine-tenths of the population  speak  Yankee  pure  and  undefiled.
  The little poem quoted by you is by no means one of Day's best, but it partakes somewhat of the general qualities of his work, as above outlined. Some of your readers might be interested in the foregoing estimate. 
             Yours truly,
          (Signed) SAMUEL C. WORTHEN.

TELLING A STORY
To friends who know you, may be easy, but "putting one over" to strangers is quite different.
Telling a busy, business man about your services or your merchandise is still less a "cinch", for he hears the same story every day a dozen or more times.
A clever speaker, before a sleepy or hostile audience, puts a good, stiff punch into his very first remark. This "knocks" 'em off their feet" and they listen.
Your business letters may be good, if they lack the "punch" they won't "pull." Correct business stationery is the "punch" that hits the busy man "right in the eye" and makes him read your letter. 
We'll show you the sort of stationery we create, if you write us.
We print for Mr. Condé Nast, of Vogue; we print THE CRISIS.
ROBERT N. WOOD, Pinting and Engraving
202 EAST 99th STREET  NEW YORK
'Phone 6667 Lenox
Mention THE CRISIS.

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THE CRISIS ADVERTISER 303
Publisher's Chat
THE GROWTH OF "THE CRISIS"
COPIES PRINTED
I hereby certify that I have printed the following numbers of copies of THE CRISIS for the months indicated:
1910-November.................. 1,000
1911-March.................... 6,000
     July .................... 15,000
1912-April ................... 22,000
     December ................ 24,000
1913-April ................... 30,000
Sworn to before me this 15th day of March, 1913. 
FRANK J. DALY,
Commissioner of Deeds, New York City.
ROBERT N. WOOD.
NET CIRCULATION
The net paid circulation of THE CRISIS for March was 23,250 copies. Three days after publication there was not a copy left in the office for sale. THE CRISIS has to-day a circulation twice as large as that of any other Nergo publication-weekly or monthly.
COMING NUMBERS
The May number will contain the starting climax of H.H. Pace's story, an interesting pictorial study of marriage among colored folk, and other articles and features.
In the near future expect the unpublished letters of Robert Gould Shaw, a study of crime among Negroes, and a few good short stories.
Mention THE CRISIS.