The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1896-03-02
EMIGRANTS ON THE WATER,
THE STEAMSHIP LAURADA NOW AT
FORT OGLETHORPE.

waiting There 10 Get Her Third En-
Efneer Before Going TO Sea-ThOu
sands of People Witness the De
parture of the Emigrants-Ad
dresses by Bishop Turner ant
Other CoIOred Divines-They Pre-
diet Great Things for the Emigra'
tIOn Movement. Including the
Spread of ChristIanity and the
development of COmmerce-The
Vessel Delayed for Lack of an
Engineer.
The steamship Laurada. with the 81
Lfberian emigrants aboard, is now in the
river below the city at Fort Oglethorpe,
awaiting the arrival OF a third assistant
engineer. who will complete the compile
ment Of the vessels officers.
An engineer is expected to arrive from
Charleston this morning. and viii be i'm
mediately taken 10 the ship Deputy Col
lector Paul Johnson waited at the Gus
tom house the best part of yesterday to
clear the vessel. but could no do so until
the full complement Of men required by
the ships papers had been secured.
Capt Dickman OF the Laurada has had
a most vexatious time of it in endeavor-
room. He evidently took it for granted
that there would be no trouble in picking
up an engineer in a port like Savannah,
but in this he was mistaken. There are
a number of frst-class marine engineers
in Savannah, but they all have good jobs,
and the small pay offered by the Laura
da's captain was no inducement to them.
Mr.. s. p. McCauley, who contemplated
making the trip was dissuaded from doing
So Mr. p. A. Vandeveer partially agreed
TO make the trip but later on concluded
ne wouldn't go. Capt Dickman brought
forward one Of his men, who was said
TO have practical experience in the engine
room, but the man was unable TO stand
the examination.
Chief Engineer Thurston of the Lau-
rada is a Charleston man, and spent a
day in that city after the Laurada ar
rived here. Finding that an engineer
could not be obtained in Savannah, and
that the vessels would have to remain
another day, he telegraphed TO. an ac-
Quaintance there, who, II is unders TODD
has accepted the place.
The departure of the Laurada from her
wharf was witnessed by thousands Of
people. Not less than ten thousand col
ored people were crowded on the cotton
press wharf and the adjoining lumber
wharf, while thousands more lined the
wharves further down. Hundreds of white
people also visited the ship during the
morning.
The colored people began gathering on
River street in the early morning. and
when the doors of the warehouse on the
wharf where the Laurada was moored
were opened shortly after o'clock, there
were fully five thousand on hand. At s
O'Clock the space around the vessel was
so packed that il was hard to make
ones way through the crowd. The tug
Jacob Paulsen was lying alongside to turn
the vessel around and head her down
stream. on board the. vessel the emf,
grants were getting their breakfast, and
some of them growing because there did
not seem to be enough rationS to 90
around. Numerous friends of the emf
grants were on board bidding them good
by and urging them to write back and
tell of their experiences in Liberia.
Everybody who could claim any con-
necton with the affair or scrape an ac-
quaintance with the officers OF the soci-
ETY. was on board. Places on the vessel
were at a premium, and 1t was necessary
70 station men at the gang plank to keep
the crowd back. Down in the hold the
babies were playing about, and evident
ly just as much at home as # they
were in the cabins on the Arkansas
plantations, from whence they came. The
dogs made music on the deck. Capt. Dick
man relented at the last moment and al
lowed the dogs to be taken on board.
There would have been a mutiny among
the emigrants had he persisted in his re-
iusal to carry the dogs. Some of them
valued their CANNES more than all their
other possessions and they were not 60
ing to be parted from such valuable prop
1--WE done got our dogs on board" said
one of them to a Morning News report
er. I'VE got most 200 guns and rifles, too,
some of EN- l6-shooters. We had kegs
of gunpowder, twenty-five and 1tty-pound
kegs, but they would not let us bring II
on board. There is plenty of gunpowder
on board, though, that they don't know
nothing about"
The emigrant intimated that the gun
powder had been concealed in the bag
gage. He was a loud-mouthed fellow,
who had refused TO do any work the day
before, claiming that he had paid his pas
work.
after S o'clock, when Rev. A. J. Warner
of Birmingham addressed the crowd on
the work of the Migration Society. DIT
Warner is pastor of one of the largest col
ored churches in Birmingham, and is also
supervisor of agencies for the society. He
praised the society without stint but al
a number of witty hits, which were en-.
3oyed. He spoke of the opposition with
which the society had met, and the sue
ton. DIR. Warner declared that Africa
was the true home of the negro, that he
would never be recognized by the white
man as an equal in this country, and thai
IL was to his interest to go where he could
assert his own manhood and be the equa
of every man.
Liberian, addressed the crowd on the re
sources of LibeHia and the reat future be
fore it when properly developed.
Bishop Turner of the African Methods
Episcopal church. was the principa
speaker. He spoke over an hour on tn
future of Liberia and Africa generally
when civilized and Christianized by Amer
lean negroes, and the great benefits tina
would result to both white and black il
this country by such development H
drew an alluring picture OF the commerce
and the wealth which would flow from
awaiting this development.
If our southern white people woult
throw away some of their prejudice an,
make right use of the negro" he de
clared, you would have white billion
aires here instead of white millionaires
and some of we negroes could be million
aires. Savannah could become a secon
Philadelphia by Selling her opportunit
to develop this traffic. If the merchant
of Savannah were alive to their interest
they would put on a line of steamers a
once between Savannah and Liberia
Commerce is there awaiting them. Ever
country in Europe sends its ships by tn
hundreds to the coast of Africa and the
come back loaded down to the masts al
most The English, the French, the Gel
mans, the Italians and the Portuguese
HI sc acf fr.saf