Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1884-08-28
PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AFRICA

PEOPLE OF CENTRAL AFRICA
facts Concerning so-Cslled
saVages' Told by a Traveller.
Pail Mall Gazette.
one Railway" said Mr.. Capper, the
o'her day on his way to the house Of
commons, where he was expected IN
give evidence ON q Welsh railway bill
and Thames communications zone rail.
way Is worth 10 bishops in Africa
lhat is what Sir Lyon Plaifair nee said,
"na l entirely agree with him. think
That II all the missionary societies were
10 devote a years income to the CON
S'ructlon OF a Central African line of
railway from the highest navigable point
OF the Niger to the Congo, they would
do more for the Discrimination and civ.
lllzatlon Of the dark continent than all
the efforts Of the missionaries for tbo
NEXT oO years. 1t is a great delusion 10
imagine that the African native is not
quite as good q man as many Europeans.
and a good deal better than some Euro.
peans, | have travelled on
foot 1000 miles down the
African coast, going in at the Niger and
coming out at Loando, and my xpo
lence Is that in manliness and shrewd-
ness, IN Intelligence and honesty. and in
the essentials Of government, the black
man Is quite as good as the white. Boil
down your idea of civilization as much
as you please. and unless you make it
consist Of the mere use of pocket hand.
kerchiefs you will find that these So
called sayages are as civilized as any of
ourselves. They are traders, and Keen
traders, too. They have their own re-.
hglon, their own laws, and their
patriarchal methods of life. All the
best of them are M0hammedans. They
administer justice in their own way. and
show more hospitality to the stranger
and the traveller than the ordinary
knglishman or foreigner. Through all
my travels in those parts-and ! have
lived for many years in Central Africa
L was never molested, nor had any &C.
caslon to modest a native. Only once
was anything stolen from me, and the
man who did it made amistake. II was
IN one of the creeks running into the Nj
ger, where / lodged for the night
in the grounds of one of the traders.
In the morning l found that nv
clothes and all my belongings had dis
appeared. / simply sent word to the
local king of what had happened, andin
a very short time every missing article
was restored. Stolen goods are always
recovered, provided you go the right
way TO work, and some of the African
chiefs might give Scotland-yard q hint
in that matter. They have not, il is
~true-these so-callod uncivilized black
fellows-our conception OF the value Of
time. Neither have they the penny
newspapers, but they have what, until
the last 100 years, served as a very eff
fective substitute, and still, serves the
Spanish and the Portuguese, in the
shape of their BARRIERS shops, which are
the accepted news centers of the neigh
borhood. Every one goes TO the bar
bers' shops to learn the news, and these
establishments fulfill a great social want.
So particular are many of the natives in
the matter of personal neatness that in
many districts besides shaving and
shearing mis- customers, trims the nails
of both his feet and hands. Nor are
they far behind us in the art
Of transmitting intelligence.
News travels from mouth TO
mouth through the villages more
rapidly than it could be bfoaght by
steamers along the rivers. / heard of
the Franeo-P RUSSIAN wal in 1870 from
the months of natives who had passed
il on from one TO the other from the
seaboard of the Mediterranean to the
upper waters of the Niger. Then as TO
trade, | would like to take those who
think that these unsophisticated natives
are mere children TO an African horse
fair. They know IS much about a
horse as any Yorkshireman, and are up
to all the tricks Of the trade of the pro-
fessional horse copper.
The wealth of these regions is simply
boundless. The amount of money that
is to be made by an intelligent application
of British enterprise and British capital
is beyond belief, though il rs not as il
you had to do there what you have to do
elsewhere, that is, to plow your land and
sow your seed for the harvest. The
harvest smiles around on every hand
and only wants to be gathered. Look,
for instance, at the development OF
the oil rivers. A few years ago it used
to be thought a great thing to get
el. 900 worth OF oil nov El00, 900 worth
of oil is collected every year, and this
is but a mere foreshadowing of what
might be done along the whole coast of
West Africa il the country was only
opened up. The great disadvantage in
the way of trade with Africa is the TACT
that the coast line Is inhabited by a set
of very inferior natives, who are middle
men between the tribes and the nations
of the interior and the foreign trader.
As YOU approach the sea in Africa from
the interior you find that the population
becomes blacker, both morally and
physically. Why it should be | do not
know, but the skin of the coast tribe is
OF = much darker tint than that of his
inland brother, aud his immortality is
immeasurably worse. What you have
10 do, therefore, is to pierce through
this evil fringe of sayagery and You find
a whole virgin continent waiting to well
come the advent Of British goods. There
i no n who they esteem more highly
than a trader. They have a great de-
sire to purchase European goods, and
when one a market is opened there is
no fear of its being closed unless you
LET some European rival in, who will
bolt and bar the door against you.
Mrs. Lockwood, the Washington law
YER. WHO makes her way from her house