The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-12-24
(copyrieht 1899, by Allen sangree)

/
a good Christmas dinner. In a country
where bread costs l shilling per loaf.
| fried chicken is Sweeter to the human
being than much gold
For a month provisions had been very
low, and the appearance of the schooner
from Madagascar was awaited with
keen Impotence. The Beach hotel had
a great advantage over the Royal in
owning a little steam launch from
which the proprietor with several sharp
eyed Portuguese sailors scanned the
horizon daily. Early Christmas morning
their vigilance was rewarded by a dot
on the water, which proved TO be a
felucca, laden with vegetables and
chicken. Boarding 1t outside the bay,
our host was able to buy up all the
poultry, the transaction being watched
in bredthless suspense by 100 guests
from the shore. When the news
spread that Beach hotel would have a
chicken dinner, men shook hands with
one another and treated to drinks. A
group of the more experienced had COL
lected to discuss some fair method by
which the chickens could be distributed
fairly, and made to go as far as pos
sible.
In these arrangements the bishop OF
Hongkong was active. Similar crises,
he explained, had been happily man.
aged by a system of pool drawings. and
this method was finally adopted. 1t
was agreed that each regular guest
and every outsider who paid a sover-
eign into the hotel exchequer should
be entitled to draw a number, the
chicken to be dealt out impartially as
it came along, and not by giving the
white meat TO blondes and the dark
to "brunettes," as had been first pro-
posed.
In the secrecy Of the billiard room
the bishop and two other responsible
looking men made up a hatful of slips.
You put your hand through a hole in
the board partition and grabbed one.
In a short time a disturbance arose
between two men who had the same
number. and before they could be sep
arated both We're so badly bruised as
10 have little appetite for dinner. Two
other sets of drawers were bound TO
have numbers identical, and fraud was
openly charged. The bishop of Hong
kong. however, smoothed things over
by giving each of the six men another
draw. 1t was significant that they all
got numbers much higher than before,
and it was then that the transcendsnt
genius of the bishop evinced itself
Great suspicion rested on him when
he had eaten his third dinner and there
was some demand to know whether the
disputed numbers had been ratified off
again or others substituted. The ar
rival OF a German east coast steamer,
which meant iced drinks TO cool
parched tongues, averted attention for
the afternoon, however, and as we hur-
ried to the beach 1 noticed the bishop
sleeping on a chair with a courterance
Of unctious resignation.
The foregoing, however, was but a
trifiing breach of the ethical code. for
the most renowned character twixt the
LimpOpo and ZambeSi, for a man who
from the Murchison range to Gwelo
is known better than Cecil Rhodes him
self. Though his sins have been many.
a jolly, clean shaven face, genialty of
soul and readiness of wit seem to have
been talisInans equal to disarm even
an irate mob. Ready to undertake
he derived equal enjoyment
from gambling for a gold mine or play
ing the accordion in a Wesleyan mis-
sion His endeavors knew no limita-
-.S.-
Seidlitz Powder Crime.
AS to his real name or whence he
came there was no answer. Questions
Of that sort were taboced out there. The
man who tells the story of his life is
considered weak of mind. On the regis
ter of the Beach hotel he was down |
simply as THE Bishop of Hongkong,"
5lme as the one-eyed man signed him |
self Danger" and the cavalry sergeant !
Boots and Saddles"
By the black tribes he was known as
Mafuta, great man." literally fat /
MAN. So highly did they regard him !
north of Sofala that he was made chief |
The bishops exploit there was what [
irst marked him in South Africa. !
Sofala, as you may know, is supposed |
20 be ancient Ophir, famous in King
Solomon's days, the land of gold and /
worry. In company with a Scotch ply i
'ician named Allaire this man went in
and from the Sabi river and after a
ime reports came of a white hippo
ootamus' and pale eyed lynx that
we're living in luxury in Sabiland. The
wo scampS played their hands SD well
hat they got possession of a cave full
If ivory, enough to make both i'm
nensely rich, but lost this opportunity |
II a. life time through the bishops
ipirit of playfulness. Aliaire, being
lim a medicine chest. and from it one
day took a seidlitz pow
Ter which the bishop fed to a very
Id induna- Instead of mixing the pow
lers, however, he rendered them one at
time, rolling on the earth with laugh
er at the old negroes internal surprise.
When the chief died that night, how
yer, the tribe took it more seriously,
nd the witch doctor was commanded
o smell out the culprits with the result
hat guilt rested on the bishop and the
Ioctor.
Their position was not enviable. One
black Indians in war paint
nd half drunk on Kaffir beer surround
d them in great circle, dancing about
With assa gals. 1t was only question
f time when a nervous hand would
-
In this crisis the bishop summoned
II his dignity and appealed to the old
st chief, clothing his words in usual
linguistic verdure. THE little hyena
peaks to the mighty elephant" he
aid. Thou alone, o Separator of
'ulls. know if 1 speak wisdom. My
rfend and I are accused of a crime.
let us prove our innocence or guilt. AT
he waters edge will we eat of the
butt root If it kills then are you
venged. If not, Oh leader of the herd,
hen must we be Innocent"
After long indaaba the chiefs per-
lifted this trial. The bishop had no
1sention of eating ubuti. which is so
ankly poison that it surely kills, but
hen he and Allaire reached the Sabi
iver they dived in, captured a canoe.
nd under cover of the night escaped
wo weeks later they signaled a
teamer off Imam Bane and landed
I Beira- The bishop secured the vest
lents Of missionary who died at sea
nd from that raiment, it was sldd,
rise his name. He loudly reproacf1e,i
ne heather Africans for refusing to
ear the word and told how they had
spulsed him.
Bishop of what?' some one asked
hen he announced his high position.
"Hongkong," he replied with dig
fly.
An Australian miner thought he rec