The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1888-02-23
LATEST NEWS FROM LIB ERIA.

john Norman Reports Bishop Taylor.
tho Missionaries, Government aud Trade.
New York Sun./
John Norman, q passenger from Liberia, q
short, intelligent looking negro, with swapping
eyes. spent his first day ashore In close com.
munion with the stove In the inspectors Office.
Liberia has been much abused" he said
"The accounts published of 1t would make it
ont a hot-bed Of snakes and malaria. and totally
unfit for habitation. The climate has
changed much in tho last few years. The
swAmps have been drained. land cleared. and
We have mono OF the killing heat which former
ly made 1t place to be Stunned. 1t Is almost
mated. Even the negro has the fever when he
first goes there. ltma peculiar fact that a
white man with negro blood in his veins-no
matter how little-can stand the climate
There are men living and thriving there who
cannot be distinguished from white men. Yet
every one Of them has some negro blood in him.
:sn6 ono child in 1882. After the war I kept
grocery in Kansas for eleven years, and reading
about the opening in Liberia, sold out and went
there. In 1885 l brought my wife and child
back to this country aud have como after
them again. as have good home for them
there. and also intend TO take back some of my
is no better. l have 1S5 acres twenty miles in
the interior from the capital, Monrovia and at
presant have sixty acres under cultivation. I
raise coffee, bananas, potatoes, cocoanuts, GIN
ger. arrow root and lemons We can
raise crop of potatoes in three months,
and. as We have no winter. there il always
by the natives We pay them about twenty.
fve cents day, and they supply their own
food. They care very little about money, and
would rather have tobacco and fancy articles.
These they often trade with those further in the
interior for ivory and gold dust, which they in
turn sell to us for moro knick-knacks. 1t is
folly to give q native monev, for the bills they
will mutilate and stick all over their bodies,
while the coins they beat into rings for them-
selves or bracelets for their women.
EVERY negro that smigratss of his own
mi nd frnf fat Ia v-hy anf
land from the government, and every ono that
10 sent by the Colonization Society gets twenty
five acres from the society. Additional uncleared
land can be bought for about twenty-five cents
an acre.
'Bishop Taylor has been doing a good work
there and 10 beloved by all tho people. He has
enemies, but they ara mostly among the mis-
sionaries who came there ana expected TO he
supported by the church. When a new mission
is started and gets to be self-supporting, the
bishop cuts OF the allowance OF money and
tells the missionary that he has good fertile
land and great natural resources, and he must
make his living from them. This, Of course,
angers the mission aries, and they often make
false reports about him. / tell you Liberia 10
place for lazy people or old people. The old
ones die and do ~ no good, while the lazy
only drag on Us, and We have enough OF them
now. What We want is intelligent. hard work
ing men, and if they will come us can
rant them a-good living. There 10 a good open
me goods 70 start store AS we get more land
cleared our trade will increase. We cannot be-
gin now to supply the dmands of the vessels
that come in for provisions High prices
charged for all commodities, and even after
paying for transportation a handsome profit
mains to tho trader. have hired white man
10 take charge Of my plantation, and expecs to
return in about year.
'Of course. our government IL as yet crude.
and, like all new govern ments, rather weak
The leaders are not the best men, but after we
have cleared our land and established u flourish
ing business we can fnd good enough men to
take the lead. Now. we don's need tnem. We
have militia and drill once a month, with
musters once In three months. The hostile
natives in the interior afraid of cannon
and muskets, or. as they call them, pickaninny
guns They tell that we dare not throw
them away and fight with knives in square
hand-to-hand battle. and i guess they're right"