The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1898-11-26

BESIDES. DR. Jameson gave me a pass
on b POSTCARD and OF ! went
Two hundred miles further south
was another British post. close by the
ruins of zinbabye. where Rider Hag-
gard has laid the scene Of many Of his
romances- These mines are older than
history and are supposed to have been
built by the Phoenicians In
ime The whole thing made excellent
newspaper p both then and later.
and has just furnished me with the
basis OF a novel called The Fail OF
Ophir.' which ! have nearly completed
and which my friends are KIND enoug
20 admire.
Some 200 miles further south. in the
T~ransvaal. our oxen fell sick and the
cart had to stop until they got well or
died i was not willing TO delay 80 long
and determined to 60 ahead on foot
II had a Martini Henry carbine. but
had traded II OF for curiosfties. ex-
~pectiong to stick 20 my cart until 1
reach civilization. SO now. here 1 was.
starting m n 1s0-mile trip through a
desolate country. infested with Wild
beasts. with nothing at all TO protect
myself with except a native assegai
or spear Nevertheless ] couldn't walt
there until I ate up all my money, and
so I lung my little bundle OF food over
my shoulder on the spear ana started
II don like to think OF that trip.
There were stag stations 0 30
miles apart. and for the most part there
was no water except at these. The
intervening country was uninhabitated
except for a few natives and the wild
beasts. i used to walk by night In
order to escape the heat OF the lay, ana
towards morning I used to punctuate
every step l Dol with curses. On. put
I was tired and thirsty.
This passage took GO days and was a
$500. ~ -At- x.aa nxvnad nv Nor.
wegians and was very old. The rest
can be Inferred. When at last We
reached Savannah. / found there the
none for my newspaper work. PAID
for my passage n went to my home
In Kentucky for a rest.
Il went to New York. where ! easily
obtained work on the strength OF my
travels in Africa. I was marine re-
porter on one of the big papers there
for six months. and then was chosen
by the Associated Press to 60 to Brazil
on the dynamite cruiser Nictheroy.
This ship (Which was recently pur-
chased by the United States and re-
| christened the Buffalo) was then the
FL Cid. She. with others. was bought
by President Piexoty of Brazil. fitted
with a 15-inch dynamite gun and sent
down to suppress the rebellion In that
country. The navy had revolted against
the army. you remember.
The crew of the Nictheroy was chos-
en- from the toughs OF New
| York. her officers were for the
most part naval academy men,
| piosives aboard. Many is the time I
wished I was safe ashore before ] got
there.
1.-THE Aquidaban. a battleship belong
ing to the rebels. was said to be look
ing for US. and our crew was much
disposed to mutiny. We did not know
whether we were Americans. Dagoes
or pirates. but rather thought that we
were legally the latter. l and another
reporter were put In charge of the
range finders only to learn that they
were out of order and wouldn't work.
Further, the ships were manned by
Brazilians. who really favored the reb-
els and were only watching for a
chance to run us down in the night or
to get themselves wrecked, so as to
avoid the fight which we all knew was
coming Seven out of the Is with which
we finally started to go-4o miles over a
smooth sea. managed to wreck them-
selves before we arrivedat Rio Then
we found that the rebels had surren-
dered or fled and HAD the war was
over. ram
ION my o the Record chose me
to go to Cuba as its correspondent. L
went to Placetas, in the center Of the
island. looking for some opening and
speedily found one. a rebel mail car
rier had just been captured and shot.
but his friends had saved his mail. Il
learned Of this and offered to carry II
on II / were permitted TO read all the
official documents. This permission was
granted and through this lucky incident
there grew up a regular system OF
transmission. Twice each month L
would go down to Remedies and get a
thick wad of letters which / carried to
Havana and sent TO Key West. BY this
means / got many scoops
MY first attempt came near proving
fatal to me. / had the letters con-
cealed in a camera that 1 carried, and
was getting along nicely when i was
arrested for taking pictures without per-
mission. l had to take my flm put and
surrender IL TO the jefe without letting
him see the letters lying under IL. 1
managed to do IL. but / had cold chills
for a month afterwards whenever i
thought of IL.
Now i am back in Washington
again, taking up my Old work. / have
promised my wife that I will never go
OFF travelling again and 1 mean to keep
my word. Hereafter / intend to do
Washington newspaper work in the
winter and draw on my abundant ex-
perience for topics for, novels In the
u days of the ummer.
II don't know whether you a base
any argument on these travels of mine.
or find an answer to your query in
them IL Won can | shall be very glad"