The new dominion. [volume] (Morgantown, W. Va.) 1876-1904, 1889-06-29

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modated with high tariff and IL
hours work.
Across Africa by Railroad and
steam boat.
New York Herald
1t has been stated in the Euro
pean edition of the Herald that a
railway is to be built at once from
Stanley Pool to the lower falls of the
Congo
This railway, though only two
hundred and sixty-two miles in
length, is first step toward opening
up Central Africa and the establish
ment of commercial relations with
the vast population on the banks of
the mighty Congo and it's tributaries.
Stanley has always believed that
a road Of this kind would pay good
dividends from the start. In a chap
ter on this great river he ventured to
predict that "on the islands of the
Congo, which in the aggregate cover
an area of three thousand square
miles, with eight thousand square
miles of the banks Of the main river,
enough rubber could be collected in
one year to pay for Congo rail
way"
Sir William McKinnon, who is a
shrewd and long headed Scotchman,
and who looks at h business project
from purely business standpoint,
so far agrees with Stanley as to
make large investment in the road
now to be constructed.
The-same view of the subject is
taken by foreign capitalists general
ly, for of the five millions or there
abouts which is the estimated cost
of the road only two hundred thous-
and dollars remained to be subscrib-
ed week or two since, and that sum
has now been reduced by fifty thous-
and dollars worth of stock which
stands in the name of our country
man, Mr.. G. P. Huntington.
We may therefore look forward to
the practical development of the
Dark Continent. The entering
wedge of civilization is railway sta
ton. Without disparagement we
may safely assert that there is more
evangelical orthodoxy In the whistle
of a locomotive than in the whole
Westminster Catechism. A con-
version to the commerce of the out
side world is the preliminary to a
conversion to its Christianity. 1t
has heretofore been the rule to send
the missionary first. We have learn
ed better; 1t is like putting the cart
before the horse. The natural order
of progress begins with the trader.
When his relations have become
firmly established then the mission
airy can do effective work, but not
before.
This opening up of Africa's ap-
peals to the imagination. That vast
continent, with its untold population,
has only had fringe of civilization
along it's extended sea coast On
the east, the south and the west, as
well as the north, there are settle
ments where white men live and con-
duct their traffic But the whole
inland region has been an unsolved
puzzle. Explorers have taken their
lives in their hands, penetrated into
the wildernesses and emerged with
astounding stories of the people, the
climate, the scenery and the fertility
of the soil. But Central Africa still
remained the mystery of mysteries
Now it is possible that in addition
to this railway on the Congo an
other may be built from the east
coast to some point on the Victoria
Nyanza. In the course of the next
forty or fifty years the tourist may
land at the mouth of the Congo, trav
ell by rail and steamboats, safely
as he would on the Mississippi
clear across the continent, and end
his journey in the terminal station
on the shore of the Indian Ocean.
A new market will be opened for
manufactures, in which American
merchants will be careful to get
their share. A population estimated
at scores of millions, throwing aside
their tribal relations and their bar
barisms, DOMINIC the garments, as
Stunning the habits and engaging in
the occupations of civilization, afford
an opportunity which may well ex-
cite the ambition of the business
community.
But besides all this, and of great
er Importance, is the fact that with
the advent of railway enterprise
the infamous slave trade of Africa
will be doomed. The Arab brutes
capture their slaves in the very re-
gion through which this route is laid.
They have burned hundreds of villa
ges, ruined tens of thousands of fami-
lies and left numberless victims,
worn out by hot journey over the
desert, to die of thirst and hunger
on the way to the auction block. 1t
is said that the traveller can keep
the road over the otherwise track
less sands, in certain sections, by the
bleaching bones of those who were
unable to bear the hardships Of their