Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1890-07-25

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directors reminded him that It had been
adopted on impulse, and decided that Il
was their duty to give him little time for
consideration.
In the meanwhile some of the gentlemen
assembled at the bedside. looking at Ok
bye and then looking at Lord Harry, had
observed q certain accidental likeness be-
anthropist," who was willing to receive
him. The restraints of politeness had
only permitted them to speak of this cur
ious discovery among themselves. At tho
later time, however, when the gentlemen
had taken leave of each other, Mr.. Vimp-
any-finding himself alone with Lord
Harry-had no hesitation In introducing
the subject. on which delicacy had pre-
vented the Frenchmen from entering.
did you look at tho Dane" he began,
abruptly.
AUSTRALIAN NATIVES.
q had Lot, worshiping the Devil and
Eating Human Flesh.
Upon the whole, life among tho
northern Australians could hardly be
desirable on any terms. and on theiD
own it seems not acceptable. says an
article in Harper's Magazine. Their
religion is fear; their existence a series
of escapes from starvation and homi-
eide; their morality a mere tribal
obligation to the most crementarv
fealties; their polity an ultimation Of
the principle that might makes right
within the tribe as we'll as with
out, despotism of the strong hand
tempered by cunning. In the society
of these children of nature certain per-
sons skilled in devil-devil. as they call
the invocation of their supreme
demon, and certain old ladies accom-
plished in catering to their simple APP
petite for human flesh, are the ruling
influences.
They are all cannibals as opportunity
offers, and in default of enemies to eat
they will sometimes eat their friends.
They will eat their children, though
this is exceptional. Otherwise they
live mostly upon poisonous roots,
which have to be carefully prepared,
upon worms and grubs. upon snakes
and lizards. and upon such birds and
beasts as they can kill, though they are
not good hunters and are poorly
weaponed for the chase. They 20
naked and almost houseless. A shelter
of boughs is their conception of q house.
After four years among them and tho
bestowal of inestimable benefits in to-
bacco Mr.. Lumholtz could not fatter
himself that he had ever succeeded in
appealing to any sentiment but fear in
them; they did not kill him, because
they imagined him an adept in devil
devil. and because they are afraid Of
the baby of the gun, as they called his
revolver; but they would not have
eaten him, because they had found.
upon the whole, white men did not
agree with them. In spite of their
fears they had accesses of treachery In
which they longed SO much to kill him
that it was never safe to let them get
behind him; and apparently no kind.
ness could win them to affection. On
such conditions life began to be for him
at moments the poor possession that it
seemed to them, and he experienced
q deep dependency. mixed with in
difference. from which he had to pull
himself together with strong effort Of
the will. in order to escape from tho
psychicalmiasm of their most misera.
BILE existence. They were children and
bad children, with no loveable traits
that he could discover. and cruel and
filthy in their ignorance.
In spite of their abominable customs
and their squalid conditions. the life of
the open air and of the woods and hills
is so wholesome that fine physical types
are not rare. and in this fact there
might he some hope for the race if it
met the least justice in contact with
the whites. But on the frontiers, says
Mr.. Lumholtz, 'any savage discovered
by the white man runs the risk of be-
ing shot. Poison was laid in the way
of the blacks once Uhen was in
Queensland. A squatter
shot all the men on his run be-
cause they were cattle-killers. the
women because they gave birth to
cattle-killers, and the children because
they would in time become cattlc-kill-
orc ~