Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1874-10-07
LIBERIA.
One of DIR. James A. Hunts Pencil Pictures
of Liberia, i'm Western Africa.

Monrovla is the Capital and seat of
government of the Negro republic of
Liberia. It is nearly five degrees
north OF the equatorial line, and is
within purely tropical climate, hav-
ing but two seasons of six months
each, the LIST of December being the
beginning of the African summer and
| the 18th of May the commencement of
| the African winter, or the rainy season
as it is called. Monrovia is the largest
and wealthiest city in the republic,
situated on Cape Mesurado, the highest
point of which is more than three
thousand feet above the level of the
sea. 1t is high, dry and beautiful
city, of which the Negro ought to be
proud, being, as it is, one of the high
est points of land on the northern coast
OF Africa, and therefore free from
many of the diseases common to
parts lying lower on the west coast.
The population must at this time be
more than fifteen thousand, and not
more than thirty of that number are
white persons, who are commercial
agents representing the trade firms of
England, France, and Germany, with
here and there q missionary man or
woman laboring in the cause of the
Lord, and actuated by the highest of
Christian motives. The city is regu-
larly laid out after the fashion OF cities
in America, and some of the buildings
would ornament any city on this side
Of the Atlantic. Trinity Church, which
built of stone, is the most stately
structure in the country, and was built
by funds furnished by st. Georges
Church, New York, of which Rev. DR..
Stephen II. Tying is pastor. More than
1000 people could be seated in it. The
First Methodist Church is also large
and well-built house, and is capable of
seating eight hundred people. The
Providence Baptist Church and the
Presbyterian Church are also stone
structures capable of seating 600 each.
The House OF Representatives the Sen
ate, and the Courthouse are stone
buildings, which put to shame many
similar erections in great America.
There are many residences, occupied
by the weather. citizens and foreign
ministers and commercial agents, that
are not less than elegant. The mansion
of the President, built of brick, would
not disgrace any square in London. T
am often asked where these people
found architects and builders? I an
swer that the same black mechanics
who built New Orleans, Charleston, and
Savannah built Monrovia, as hundreds
of such were liberated by humane
shareholders and sent to Liberia.
The poorer classes are improving in
their style of building; and instead of
the log cabin and bamboo house. they
are beginning to build frame, brick and
stone houses. It would look curious to
an American to step into the hall of the
House of Representatives or the Senate
and see none but the sable sons of At
RIGA administering law and Justice
And it is remarkable to know that in
Africa at the present time are the best
educated negroes in the wide world
live men like Bishop Crowther, Profess
sor Crumell, Professor Freeman, Pro
lessor Blyden, and Professor Johnson.
The latter and the hrst named are both
natives of Africa, and all of them in
learning could lead Fred Douglass by
the hand into fields of thought he never
reached before. Liberia is 100 miles
long on the sea coast, and no line is de-
fined interiorward. We claim indefi-
nitely east and west.
The British possessions in West At
RIGA are Sierra Leone, Gambia, Cape
Coast, Legor, Comasoons, Brass River,
Boney Acorde, Elmena, and now Ash
antee. The inhabitants under British
rule can be numbered by millions.
Liberia is the American Republic
settled by negroes from the United
States, beginning as far back as 1926.
Who, and what they we're, and why
they were not fitted for pioneers, is
easily explained. The colored popula-
ton in the United States, with the single
exception of the fields hands of. the
south, and few rare cases in the
north, have been employed in every
way imaginable to unfit them for
pioneering. Even here, in the United
States, surrounded by civilizing infu
ences and the restraint of law, much
less to think of such a class pioneering
in tropical country, where they are as
distant from a brotherly sympathy with
the aborogine as any white nation could
be as class. Here and there negro
may be found who is proud of his an
cestry, and only here and there.
Driven to Death by Curse.
Miss Cross, school teacher in Stark,
N. H., lately committed suicide by
drowning, under the following circum-
stances, as related by local paper: She
had charge of the school for several
weeks. The scholars thought much of
her, and until short time before her
death she kept an orderly and excellent
school. But during the last week all
seemed disorder and confusion in the
school. The Committee-Dr. A Thomp-
son and NJ. T. Pike, Esq.-having heard
Of the fact, visited the school on Friday,
and found it much as above described,
on which, after the school was dismissed,
they kindly talked with her privately
relative to the school, told her how it
seemed to them, and advised her, as she
appeared pale and nearly sick, quietly
to 60 to the agent and resign her posi-
ton; or if she felt strong enough to go
on with the schooland thought she could
inonrOva in the partiou larp thav mem