Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-04-06
Yonng Johnston and His Travels

a little slip of boy, apparently -
years Of age, with a pleasant smile and
intelligent blue eyes, standing a little
more than feet in height, and with a
chin tapering of TO a point and contrast
ing strongly with the JrOad jaw behind
that is Mr.. Johnston, the chief authority
on the Congo, and the latest Of African
travellers. Inreallty he is %, but he talks
as if he were 50. When he started the
other day en- route for Zanzibar and the
Kilimaujaro Mountain, one Of me
most remarkable young men Of
our time betook himself to the
Dark Continent. Since Gordon
left England we have met few more in
teresting individualities than Mr.. John
stOn, bur no contrast could possibly be
more marked than that which is pre-
scented by these two men-the Governor
General Of the Soudan and the author Of
THE River Congo" The one is to the
other what Cromwell is to Darwin. In
their own way they represent the two
great forces Of religion and science; ;
Gordon full Of an intense and enthusiastic
belief in the unseen, constantly regarding
himself and all his fellOwmen but as
passive instruments in the hands of an
Almighty Power, yet ever glowing with
a ferYid philanthropy; Johnston, cool,
calm, fun of intelligence, and though not
without some of the enthusiasm insepara-
BILE from youth, yet looking out upon the
world and all things therein as a great la
bOratOry in which nature ruthlessly
pursues those murderOus experiments
which result in the survival of the fittest,
''Mercy for the weak he will say, look
ing mildly out Of his blue eyes, "nature
has none; the weak must perish. The pro-
gress Of the race demands the elimination
Of the weak. The future belongs to the
efrouo That UriOpinln no carries ont
logically to It's extreme consequences. In
all his conversation and his observations
about the politics and the society of the
regions in which he has Travelled so much
YOU feel that he is, in the true sense of the
world, agnOstic, not merely in relation to
the world in meditating on which Gordon
spends his life, but also TO all conventional
morality. He is a man emancipated in
the Nihilist sense of the word, sans culOtte,
and yet so mild or placid or amiable that
it only is with an effort you can realize
the full significance of some of his re-
marks. A fine aboriginal Pagan, whose
ideal of life and conduct is as catholic as
that of nature, that is the man whose book
on the Congo is running through its
second edition, and who has now gone to
climb the highest peak in the whole Of the
African continent. ''The race of the
future" said he, "Will be somewhat Of an
olive tint, with more OF African blood in
its veins than at present, but it will have
a white brain. The old continents are
overcrowded; Africa will yet be peopled
with the swarming surplus of Europe and
Asia. The pliable organism which can
adapt themselves to an altered environ
ment will survive; those that cannot will
perish. We may not want the Congo,
nor the fertile valleys of Central Africa;
but it Will be needed for our children or
our children's children, who viii require
the outlet which we should take care is
not barred against them.'