The times., 1899-07-09

one man in the direction of that appeal,
and saw a sort of black haycock of consid-
cradle size in the middle of the field From
the heart of that haycock came English
words-great, strong words. The awesome
presence of the powers scattered the hay
cock, and the employer Of the English lam
guage in question got up and continued lis
remarks, to the accompaniments OF Get
along, white man," Suppose you dandy
boy" Head big too much" yah! Chez
Hei." You dirty water-price bundle" 81
spectacle married woman" Boom Dios." !"
and much more in African.
The head agent commanded calm, and all
ended happily. 1t seems that the under
junior assistant, desiring to carry out or
ders, found great difficulty in doing SO.
owing to the ladies who were planting
manioc gathering into groups, and placing
the slips too close together while they car
ried on conversation. OF course this would
not end in a sufficient area being brought
under cultivation, so he had strlven, all
through a long, hot morning, to break
up the groups. The ladies -obeyed, UP to
a point; but when 1t came to the use Of
swear words TO the effect that they must
plant "one, one" namely. far apart and
out of convenient conversational range
with each other, they would not stand it,
and they went for" him. Those women
who titled the soil were not worms.
Tragedy number two took place under
our own Government. There was beau
tiful young black Government official, in
uniform complete, and Fate ordained one
day that he should be told off to superin-
tend the coaling of little gunboat. The
coaling was being done by ladies. He, full
of zeal and desirous of demonstrating it,
shouted, talked, and gave directions to
those ladies, as he stood, uniform and all.
under the Government flag, on the Govern
ment quay. They went on with their work
merrily, and paid no attention to him.
Presently other Government officials being
about, he, still desirous of demonstrating
zeal, cuffed one of the ladies and said
something disagreeable. They turned upon
him, threw him into the thin black batter
that goes for water in that part of Her
Majesty's dominions, and went on with
their work A sicker chicken than that
man when he returned to society you
never saw; his uniform you could not see
for mud, and the other Government Off
cials behaved In an unfeeling way. They
roared with laughter.
so much" as old Peter Heylin would
say, for the working class African woman.
The African aristocrat women l Will tell
you about some day If you desire 1t. In
conclusion, l must draw your attention to
the fact that there was one African ex-
no less than the man who first discovered
the outfalls of the Niger River, Richard
Lander. l beg to give you his own words
Il take this opportunity OF expressing
my high admiration of the amiable con-
duct of the African females toward me.
In sickness and in health, in prosperity
and adversely their kindness and anection
were ever the same. They have danced
and sung with me in health, grieved with
me in sorrow, and shed tears OF compass
sion at the recital of my misfortunes.
When quite boy, and suffering from fever
in the West Indies, women of the same
race used to take me in their arms or on
their knees, sing and weep over me and
tell me not to die, for that my mother
| would break her heart to hear the news,
and pointing to the ocean they cheered my
| spirits by saying that 1t layed the shores
! OF England, and would shortly bear me on
| its bosom to my distant home. In fine,
through whatever region l have wandered,
whether slave or free, l have invariably
| found q chord of tenderness and trem-
bling pity to vibrate in the breast OF an
| African woman; a spirit ever alive to
soothe my sorrows and compassionate my
Affections, and / never in my life knew
one of them to bestow on me single un-
| pleasant look or angry word.
| infinitely inferior to Lander, and only
| a woman of his race at best. yet with 9
wide knowledge of African women, say
with all my heart, his appreciation OF then
| has been justified in my experience; and
never a single unpleasant look or angry
word have / had from an African woman
] Many a time have ! had angry words from
I African men, and have just said stun
don't make a fool of yourself. Where Is
your mother?"
IN tell your mother is no IDLE threa
| to a West African, who is man, ana mo-
a mere by-product, as chemists would say
| of what is called civilization, FOR the Al
rican man loves his mother with a love
he gives no other living being. Elsewhert
have tried to tell you how, IN Wes
Africa, women have their private property
legally on an equality with man; how theN
have great tribal societies; how they car
only be kept in order by the men playing
some variety of Mumbo Jumbo upon them
They never completely believe that th'
mems secret society is really great spirit
They have a great secret society OF thel
own you see; but, nevertheless they lea
the secret society of the men because /
can take their children and their chickens
and hit them with whips. nay, even xii
them and. similarly, their secret societ,
is feared by the men, for the women d
the cooking. and can put bush In thei
chop, and the West African man know
what that means-sickness and trouble
The unsolicited editorial OF the "America
Journal of Health gives Heurich's beer the hr'