Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-04-03
AFRICA'S BLACK MEN
Will Be Paralyzed When Monkey
Expert Garner Gets There.
HE'LL SPRING A PH0N0GRAPH
Loaded With Messages From Glave, du
Chaillu and Stanley.
SOME OTHER SURPRISES FOR THEM
HE'LL SPRING A PHONOGRAPH
SOME OTHER SURPRISES FOR THEM
WRITTEN FOR THE DISPATCH. /

In preparing Tor my long and lonely
journey among the deep, dense jungles Of
West Africa. expect to avail myself Of
any and all means which may conduce to the
success of such On undertaking.
Looking forward to the time when may
come in contact with some tribe of savage
men whose ears may be closed to entreaty,
and whose hearts may be hardened against
all friendly approach, the voice of some one
whom they know and trust NAV intercede
for me with success, while the voice of an
interpreter would fail to impress them at
all, I have provided myself with the most
novel letter of introduction that any stranger
ever carried to foreign court.
have message from Mr.. E. j. Glave,
who spent three years at the village of Luz
kolela, about 500 miles from the mouth of
the Kongo, and about one degree south of
the equator. Mr. Glave was then with one
of the Stanley expeditions, and he explored
the surrounding country very extensively,
and has an extensive acquaintance among
the tribes of the Ba Lolo people who occupy
the central parts of the Kongo State.
Among these people, as with many other
tribes of Africans, there is a very solemn
rite known as the blood brotherhood, which
is conferred by making an incision in the
left forearm of those with whom the order Is
to be established, and drawing thence a
small quantity of blood, and this each one
takes from the wound of the other and rubs
on his own wound, and by this mutual trans
fusion of blood each one is committed to a
VOW to defend the other from all harm, even
at the cost of his own life. When this bond
is once entered into It is irrevocable.
A Blood Brother With Iuks.
Mr.. Glave holds this very important reIa-
tion to the great Iuka, of the Lukolela
tribe, and by the same friendly tie is bound
to the hearts of many of the great men of
the Ba Lolo tribes of the Kongo Valley.
The message which shall carry with me is
recorded on the phonograph cylinder, and
was dictated to it by Mr.. Glave in the XII
Kongo language, which is the vernacular of
those people 1t Is addressed to luka, the
chief, but it includes the names of several
of the men of the tribe with whom he was
on the warmest terms of friendship. A Gus
tom among those tribes, not unlike that
among the American savages, is to give to
stranger a name indicating the chief trait of
his character and the name which they gave
to Mr.. Glave was Makula, and he intro
duces me as Ncossi, his blood brother in the
land of the white man.
The message commends me to the love
and confidence Of the chief and all his peo-
pie; it tells them of the wonderful powers
which I possess, but assures them that none
of the wonders which I may perform for
them shall harm or humble the great chief
himself or any of his good and loyal people,
but that everything that 1 shall do shall be
for the good and the honor of Iuka and
Upuke and the people of Lukolela They
are asked to receive and treat me kindly, to
aid me in my work, to believe and trust me
that will not deceive them, and above all
make me the blood brother of Iuka that he
and may remain good friends forever.
They are requested to give me none but
good advice, always to tell me the truth
and If desired to send his people with me.
Garner Expects to Pose as a God.
With such a message delivered in the
natural voice of the friend of the great chief
1t may be expected that he will be surprised
beyond measure, and that his superstition
will at once attribute to me the powers of q
god; and that their imagination will help
them to enlarge upon what they really do
hear, until they will regard me as real
god.
shall record his reply to the message,
and bring this back with me and deliver 1t
to Mr.. Glave, who, being adept in the Ki-
Congo tongue, will of course be able to in
terpret it Whatever may be the reply
made by the Lolo chief, it will be treasure
to add to nv store of sounds, and the feat
will be triumph which will add another
leaf to the coronet Of the phonograph as 9
factor in linguistic studies
Mr. Paul du Chaillu has also very kindly
to dictate a cylinder for me, with
o similar message addressed to the chief of
the Osbeba people and one to the Loango
tribe. Many years ago he had many friends
frfh has md of
them are doubtless living yet and may re-
call him.
1t is my purpose while in London to get
Mr. Henry NJ. Stanley also to dictate q mes
sage to some of the chiefs in the Upper
Kongo basin. Some of those tribes are quite
friendly with Bula Matadi, as he is called
oy them, and others of them fear him as q
god.
VIII Paralyze the Natives.
These friendly messages brought by 8
stranger and delivered in the voice of the
friend will doubtless impress them still
more than ever with the great power of the
white man, whom they believe to be able to
10 all things. Imagine such machine
brought without word of warning to pre-
pare us for it and placed before us in the
7ery midst of our sublime civilization and,
our constant contact with
he inventions of our race, we would scarcely
lare believe our own eyes and ears. Then
We may dimly picture to ourselves the awful
urprise of those wild people when phono-
,raph is caused to speak the words of their
yernacular.
Imagine, if you can, what the children of
he forest will think to hear each other talk
With telephone, even at a distance of
ew hundred yards, while others standing
,etween them will not hear word. Pict-
ire their surprise when turn on an cleo
ric light 200 or 200 feet away from me, or
ause it to burn under water, or when I
nap Kodak quarter of mile away, or
horten the distance by the aid of my field
lass
So tardy is the growth of the intellect
hat it has required thousands of years for
he Caucasian mind to reach the present
orizon from condition in early historic
ime very far above the present state of the
able sons of Ham who roam the primeval
orest of the Kongo, and during that time
re have been surprised at every step, and
ven yet are filled with wonder at our own
eeds every day, hence cannot expect any
hing else from those children of nature
tho do not understand the simplest prob
Ems of our philosophy.
RICHARD L. GARNER.