The evening times., 1899-08-01
LOBENGULA's VIEWS.
The Notable Warrior, Now in Lon
don, Says He Is Happy.
(From the London Daily Mail.)


I'm my own country / was one day the
kings favorite son, and the next a COM
mon 'colored man. fiogged by the Trans
vaal Government for walking on a side
walk in Pretoria without having first
asked permission
The words were uttered in a soft, liquid
voice, and accompanied by a smile, show
ing two rows of white teeth which even a
prince might envy.
My own country is good but in the land
of the umlunga twhite mani / am quite
jabula' thappy).
Again the smile, and again the gleam of
dazzling teeth, and there remained on the
expressive face of Prince Lobengula look
which might have been either smolder-
ing of resentful bitterness or phi osophi-
cal and half-primitiSe contentment.
The towering Matabele warrior. in his
picturesque war garb, stared silently into
space for a second. and then laughed.
What does it matter? ?''..-asked the son
of one of our most powerful enemies con-
quered In late times. L might one day
have ruled in South Africa as king. When
my father fell / lived by tending oxen on
the roadside for the Dutch, In London
am. jabula" thappy).
The repetition was made abruptly. as if
the change of subject afforded Prince Lo-
bengula q theme upon which he would
rather dwell than upon the loss of his
country.
Suddenly, with the inevitable smile, he
made the remark:
IF my father had known the size of
Great Queens land he would not have
fought. He thought England a little float
ing island"
The question as to whether the kings
advisers had not given him some idea of
L 4 -. ~
population made Prince Lobengula's eyes
travel, with another flash of white teeth,
toward the ceiling.
Devils talk, he said quietly. lie
wouldn't believe it. When arrived in
England my first thought was that the
whole world was full of white men, and
that they had all come to London to meet
me.
When l got used to the people, the chief
thing that bothered me was the houses.
They were SO black and SO high. We
build better in my country, close to the
ground, so that if hut fall it hasn't far
to go.
Later on, when tried to find out where
all the white men in London slept, l un-
derstood better. Now
Clearly the problem of London's over
traffic had given the prince almost as much
worry as it affords the London G. c., for
he shook his head with a look of bewilder-
ment.
Il think he said, ''some day all the
people in the Great City will sleep under
the land because there is no room on top
The princes soft, dreamy voice had no
suggestion of humor in it. Any other So
luton of the difficulty he fouted as devil e
talk" What else could people do when the
land became too full to hold them but
resort to a state of underground existence?
1t is Lobengula's firm conviction tha,
London is destined beyond all question of
doubt to become vast city buried in the
bowels of the earth for want of space to
remain above ground.
The prince talks gracefully and fascinat-
ingly, whether on the subject of his own
country and the present strained outlook
of affairs in South Africa. or some aspect
of the great white man at home which has
occurred to him.
His quaint English. picked up before his
fathers downfall, is dignified and elegant,
while his air is mixture of iordly mag
nifcence and childish simplicity that is
full of charm.
He displays in his dress an almost inor-
dinate love for jewelry, a trait which since
the arrival of the Matabele nobleman in
London several women have discovered
and encouraged by presents, which he
proudly crowds upon his person when
dressed in full war paint-almost the only
vanity in which he INDUCES.