Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-06-16
LIBERIA HEARD FROM
What a Monroe County Darby, who
has been there, has to Say OF
the Country.

tieman residing In Aberdeen, having business
in the upper or northern portion of our county,
and learning that Sam White, colored, who,
in company with his family and quite num-
Der of colored people, left Bud Gillespie's
farm for Liberia some time In December last,
had returned, took occasion to interview Sam,
and hear what he had to say of the new
country of milk and honey" Sam said on
leaving he took the cars at Okolona for New
York city; to reach New York it cost him
one hundred and sixty-four dollars. There
the Liberia emigration society took them in
hand, and sent them to Liberia free of charge.
Their voyage was continuous, not touching
land until they arrived at their destination.
On arriving they were furnished tents and
food by the society Tor six months, the fare
being rather rough" He said the natives
look about like our home darkies; the
men are generally very large and the W omen
small. They are not more than half-civil
lied, and wear no clothing save fure-apron
made of calico. Their food consists prin-
cipally of cosote, kind of plant that grows
there, similar to the sweet potato, which they
cultivate with hoes, they having no horses.
Their houses consist of a small thatch with
dirt floors. There are several tribes-about
seven-among the inhabitants, each tribe
governed by king, similar to the mode of
our American Indians. The entire republic
Is governed by a president. There is but one
tribe among them that speaks the English
language, ahd they very imperfectly. The
women are bought and sold as wives, their
beauty" regulating the price. The climate
is very hot, varying but little with the sea-
sons. The soil is black rich sandy loan.
Rice and coffee are the principal staples-cof
fee being the only article raised from which
they can realize. 1t bears about a pound
to the bush and about eight thousand
bushes to the acre. They have but
two seasons-six months rain and six
months dry. The water is clear but salt
even the atmosphere Is so salt that piece of
iron hung up will rust In twenty-four hours.
The brush is so thick that it is impossible to
get about until paths have been cut out. The
climate is very unhealthy, especially for
Americans. Fevers are very frequent and
fatal If you get 81 k, the native doctors
give you brush tea, which kills eight out of
every ten Americans. The country is full of
insects, the most troublesome being bug re-
sembling large ant, and travels very rapid
ly, called the racer. They go into houses at
night after rain and give person 20 rest,
their bite being both poisonous and painful
There are no horses, except in the interior of
the country, where they also have small cows,
which give about one pint of milk per day.
But few hogs are raised there, owing to the
scarcity of feed, and the few that are
raised never go one hundred and fifty
pounds. Bacon sells for twenty-five cents
per pound; coffee, twenty cents; -four,
twelve cents per pound; calico, twenty FIVE
cents per yard. Labor is worth thirty cents
per day. The town at which Sam stopped
the capital of the republic, has about thir-
teen thousand inhabitants, represented by all
nations-thePo Portuguese predominating. They
have both colored and white merchants The
principal traffic is rum. Colored people, who
are now meditating change of homes,
would do well to confer with Sam before fur
Their preparation. Sam seems to have acted
the wise part by leaving before his money
gave out; otherwise he would have been a
fixture there for all time, where, he says, not
one in every fifty who 90 from this country
are satisfied to stay under any circumstances.
Games and Their Origin.
Pail Mall Gazette: "Men," said Leibnitz,
"have never shown so much ingenuity as in
the invention of games.'' This is not quite
true, for they displayed at least equal ingenu-
ity for devising methods for destroying or
torturing one another. Nor can it be alleged
that purely utilitarian inventions, like the
mangle or the smoke-jack, show less sagacity
In conception than the bat or the battledore
Rabelais mentions about a hundred games
which Pantagruel could play, and he seems
to have cudgeled his brains for every pastime
which he had witnessed or heard of. This
was more than three centuries ago, but the
list has not received many important addi-
lions since. Cricket and rackets are improve
which Pantagruel knew; whist would have
been novelty to him, but he could hold a
hand at plquet, ecarte, cribbage and baccarat;
he played chess, draughts, dominoes, back
CANNON, skittles and bowls, and he might
have waltzed Though this is not specified
among his ccompllshments), for this dance
was invented so far back as 400, although
it did not actually become fashionable in
Paris until 1910, when it was imported from
Germany in honor of the Empress Marie
Louise. Dancing is one of the Oldest of re-
creations. Homer speaks of new dance in
vented by Dedalus for Ariadne; Theseus was
immoderately fond of the reel or fandango,
in which the arms move with the legs. The
Normans revived rather than invented round
dances in the twelfth century; the Bohemi-
ans invented the redowa; the Poles the polka,
first danced in England in 1910; the Hunga-
rians the mazurka and .galop. The cotillon
owes its origin to the courtly Due de Lauzun,
who, for his audacity IN contracting a clan
destine marriage with the ''Grande Madem-
oiselle," was imprisoned for ten years by
Louis XIV. To this now popular and long
wlnded dance many figures were added by
Marie Antoinette, and some more by the En-
press Eugene. Under the second empire the
post of conductor of cotillions at the Tulleries
balls was one of considerable social impor-
lance, and was long held by one of the EN-
peror's equerries, the Marquis de Caux. Dice
and knuckle-b bones were known to the Lyd-
ians tabout 1900 B. G. Perseus is credited
with the invention Of quoits, and the Hindoo
Tessa with that of chess. Ardschio, king of
Persia, invented backgammon; Palemedes
draughts, Pyrrhus tennis, and the Greeks the
noble game of goose. Lotto Is comparatively
recent discovery, due to an Italian, Celestino
Gallant, in 1853. Dominoes owe their name
to the piety OF a monk who originated them,
and who was happy to pronounce a holy
word while taking his amusement: and 1t is
a nun who is believed to have invented both
the game of battledore and shuttlecock and
the catgut racket used in playing tennis. Ex
cavations at Hlssarlik, the presumed site of
Troy, have brought earthenware marbles
to light, and those at Pompeii have yielded
number of jointed dolls in ivory, which
prove that the custom of giving costly toys
to children Is not one of modern develop
ment. Aenophon was acquainted with
hoops, and we are told that Gbalus, father
of Penelope, was a proficient in the gymnas-
tics of the trapeze, which he had possibly
learned from seeing monkeys swing from
branch to branch by their tails. Gbalus'
grandson, Telemachus, was versed in box
ing, wrestling and chariot-racing, which,
along with the riding of races, Is supposed
to date from the Thurians; but he also con-
trived a sport of his own, which has been
improved upon in multitude of ways up to
these times. We read in the Odyssey that
he set up twelve pillars, to each of which
was suspended a ring, and that from his
bow he sent an arrow wh1stling through all
the twelve rings-no mean feat. Here we
surely have the rudiments of fitting at the
ring, at the quintain, tent-pegging, ETC.;
besides getting precedent for the diff
cultles by which 1t Is always sought to test
the merit of good marksmen. The Swiss
in their Stands rifle alleys still have some
thing akin to the young Greek s rings, for
they aim at their targets through loop-holes
pierced in a series of walls; but if Telemachus
really did send his arrow through twelve
rings he achieved more than most of the best
shots from the Bernes Overland could do
with rifle bullets. Six loopholes, ten yards
apart, are considered enough to try any man.
steadiness of hand and eye. The invention
of cards has often been enormously attribut-
ed to a French physician, who designed them
for the amusement of the mad King Charles
VI. They are of much more ancient origin,
having come from China to Persia in the
twelfth century, and thence into Europe
through the Arabs. They are mentioned In
a proclamation of Louis TX (St. LOUISE in
1854, among the ungodly pastimes which the
pious should avoid but Charles WIS doctor.
who was abbot, restored them to the favor of
the church, and thus licensed game which
has undoubtedly excelled all others in uni
,-orsoI ropularifv Hardo o-o