The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-02-05
MERRY AFRICAN WAR
Frightened the Savage Troops by
Brilliant Display of Fireworks.
TO CONQUER THE SAVAGES
King Prempeh's Soldiers Thought
the Devil Was After Them and
an-Surrendered at
Discretion.
From the New York World.

FROM the New 1OTk w OTlO.
The most extraordinary war of mod
ern times has just closed. The fero-
cious barbarian king of Ashantee has
surrendered TO the British expedition.
The funniest part of it all is the way
the English troops frightened the
brave African monarch and his war
riors to death without even firing
gun.
The path from the coast to the int1e-
rior led through a dense African jun
CLEAN ideal place for an ambush.
The army engineers went ahead Of the
troops with a corps of woodchoppers
the clear the way for the army. As
the expedition approached the king
dom of the brave King prempeh they
found the woods full of armed saw
ages.
Suddenly the engineering corps. af-
ter darkness had settled on the forest.
set off an enormous display of sky
rockets. Roman candles, aerial bombs,
pinwheels and firecrackers. They sent
the rockets whizZing into the under
brush and exploded the many -colored
bombs among the trees. Red, blue and
yellow lights glowed here and there.
and Roman candles shot their eXplod-
ing balls up over the heads of King
Prempehs ambushed braves.
SURRENDERED AT DISCRETION.
The warriors were astonished. Their
eyes bulged with terror and in five
minutes there wasn't a corporal's
guard Of the valiant army to be seen.
The fireworks were kept up all night
and at daybreak a courier from King
Prempeh crept up to the British picket
line and begged to announce that the
king was ready to agree TO anything
the English commander wanted.
England has been quietly pushing
her conquest of Ashantee. while the
attention of the world was directed to
another part of Africa Thus n Brit
ish tentacle in the form of an army
of conquest has stretched out from the
great central octopus and another
kingdom is to be quietly added to the
British possessions.
The English propose to "delimit the
boundary" of Ashantee by absorbing
such of IL as possesses gold fields, just
as the Schomburgk line moved around
i'm a mysterious manner in Venezuela
until stopped by the United states
government. The purpose Of the pres
ent campaign against the king Of Ash
antee. as the English alege, is to stop
the inhuman sacrifices of that funny
monarch. As was recently described
i'm these columns, King Prcmpeh has
been maintaining a private slaughter
yard for his enemies He has 1888
off whenever il suits his within. This,
it is true. had been going on FOR a
good many years without the British
desiring to put "A stop to IL until gold
was discovered within Ashantce's Dor
ders.
As soon as the presence of the gold
was known the offenses of this inhu-
man monster cried to heaven for Ven-
Reance.
Clergymen all over England were
shocked and Mortified as they read OF
the human sacrifices going on i'm the
neiEhborhood of Coomassie, and as Tu-
mors of the new gold fields were circu-
lated a strong desire sprang up for
advancing civilization" I'm that neigh
borhood.
NOVEL METHODS OF WARFARE.
Nowhere in the history Of war. per-
haps, Is there record Of a campaign 50
remarkable as this FOR the methods by
which IL has been conducted. For once
the English have shown great military
intelligence in foreign campaign.
Perhaps the reason for this is that
they went to Coomassie once before
and that the present commander IN
chief Of the British army is the gentle
man who led that expedition. Lord
Wolseley knew what was before the
troops
He knew that a large army Of inva-
sion would be useless incumbrancc.
and the ordinary British methods
would be wholly out of place in Ash
antee. lie also knew that the follow
ers of King Prempeh were up to date
so far as firearms We're concerned, but
that their knowledge of science was
somewhat deficient. The Ashantee
warrior will fight when you place a
rifle In his hands. but when you con-
u IrF.
lantern or a penny in-the- slot ma
chine he gOes all TO pieces.
The way this war has been carried
one IS the funniest part of the whole
opera-bouffe performance. Little or
nothing has been said about il in the
English newspapers. These publica-
tions took the expedition seriously and
published lengthy detailed accounts of
the preparations as IL they were di-
rected against a real military power
The steamer Angola left Liverpool
and arrived at Cape Coast Castle ear
ly In December with the first detach-
ment of the expedition. Hidden away
in her hold was an immense quantity
Of skyrockets and Roman candles.
She had tons of these Fourth of July
fireworks among her cargo OF warlike
implements. There We're skyrockets
of every size, fire balloons. shooting
stars. red, white and blue powders,
pinwheels. snakes" and Chinese fire.
crackers.
Another ship followed the Angola
similarly loaded and containing no RI
fies or cartridges whatever The ship
bore to the gold coast simply an enor-
nous consignment of fireworks
Long wooden boxes that looked as II
they contained rifles with which To
shoot down the Ashantee really had
within them harmless sky rockets with
patent tails that made fiery strea mers
Of sparks through the African Jungle
and exploded in gorgeous clusters Of
stars Of every hue Some Of these sky
rockets released strings % red balloons
OF fire 10 float serenely over the dense
Ashantee forests.
PARALYZED THE NATIVES.
Other rockets had bombs in their
heads and would finally terminate
their career with a loud explosion far