St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-08-30

on the walls hung portraits of the founders
of the Colonization society, and also photo
graphs OF the principal men i'm
THE REPUBLIC OF LIBERIA,
its legislature, its supreme court, the presi-
dent of its college. who is spoken of as the
most highly-educated man in the world, and
others.
I'VE have no photograph of the present
president of the republic" said Mr.. Coppin-
ger. as he glanced along the line of photo
graphs of black men which hung against the
wall. HE is a native of Liberia and is
proving a wise and able president"
''How many people has Liberia now,
Mr.. Coppinger?"
THAT is pretty hard TO answer. for the
boundaries of Liberia are not well defined
in the interior. 1t stretches along the coast
some six hundred miles, and far back into
the interior, and includes in its territory a
good many of the native tribes there"
How do these natives conduct them
selves towards the Liberians and their hab-
its of civilization"
lin manner highly satisfactory. Those
who are brought into contact with them see
the advantages of civilization and education.
and are quite willing and i'm many cases
anxious to take advantage of the opportu-
nifty to
ADOPT THESE CUSTOMS.
''Some of the chiefs of the tribes in and
near Liberia are encouraging their people
TO adopt the customs of civilized life, and
are sending their children to the schools in
Liberia"
There are schools there. them"
''Oh, yes. and good ones. The general
system of government there is based upon
that OF this country, and the schools are
good. There are higher institutions of
learning. the most important among them
being the college. over which the Rev. Ed
ward Blyden preSideS. He is a native of
st. Thomas, of pure negro blood. and the
most finely-educated col0red man living. He
was partly educated in his native island, and
came here to complete his education, but
finding difficulties and prejudices to encoun-
ter, went to Europe, where he attended the
best institutions of learning. He is a fine
scholar, a fine orator and an able man."
How many colOred people have been
sent from this country to Liberia?'
About sixteen thousand, most of them
natives of this country. Besides these,
there are some five thousand natives of At
RIGA, who are sent there from
CAPTURED SLAVE VESSELS
during slavery days so that there have
been over 90. 600 sent there in all. OF
/ course these have multiplied so that there
are many more than this number there now,
counting the descendants of those sent
from here. They have all the institutions
of civilization and good government, their
| congress. cabinets. courts and supreme
court, cities municipal governments. Do
lice business facilities. etc. so that those
who 90 there now do not 90 to the new
and uncomfortable surroundings that char
acterized the earlier days of Liberia"
Are there many going nOw?"
"a couple of ship loads a year. We
have sent one ship load this year and are
to send another this fall. We send all we
can get money to send. The number is
only limited by our means"
Are there many applications, then, for
the privilege of going?"
''Yes. thousands of them. You would
be surprised to see the number of applica-
tiOns we get for opportunity to 60 to Lii
IBERIA"
"Wheue do they come frOm?-
''All parts of the country, but princi-
pally from the South. OF course there is
the reason for this that there are more black
people in that section, and besides il is
generally the case that the colored people
in the North are doing better than in the
South.
THE CALLS FOR HELP
come from all parts of the South. but
especially from the colored people of South
Carolina. Lots of these appeals, too. seem
TO come from better and more intelligent
class of colored people. and many of them
are very urgent. The twenty-year's exper-