Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1900-12-03
w. G. T. u. COLUMN.
RUNS WORK IN AFRICA.

west Africa SHOuIu nave Uo0u CHAR
acterized in the first place by slavery,
and later on by the expectation of
ardent spirits. 1t is we'll that our
steamers should carry missionaries to
the Dark Continent, but is it we'll that
the cargo of many vessel should
mainly consist of gin and gunpowder?
This was the case with the old steam
ship Adrian, on which [ sailed for the
Congo in 1891. In due time we safely
reached Banana, at the mouth of the
Congo river; and commenced to see
the abomniable effects of the fire.
water, which in those days was so
freely sold. Night was made hideous
in the wooden hotel by scenes and
gin could be bought for sixty cents,
and the poisonous concoction, so one
of my friends informed me, was war
ranted to kill at five hundred yards.
The already degraded natives were in
part paid for their labor in gin, and
they were thus further degraded, de-
mora lized, decimated and damned.
Too day the strength Of the spirits
sold is greatly diluted, as its poison
Gus and destructive power was even
for trade purposes too serious. When
the artificial taste was created, palm
wine, which is very slightly intoxica-
ting, could no longer suffice the
natives, who were prepared to barter
all their possessions for the accursed
'firewater.' 1 have often seen the
graves of these poor heather decora-
ted with the gin bottles they owned
during life.
1t is a matter for profound gratitude
that a restrictive tariff is in some de-
gree lessening the sale on the lower
Congo; but still more are we rejoiced
that combined Europe, too tardily
kind, has drawn a cord of protection
round Equatorial Africa, forbidding
the sale OF spirits beyond a certain
clearly defined sphere. Grdt-
tan Guinness, M. D.
ASH have witnessed the unutterable
horrors of the rum traffic of the west
coast as we'll as in South Africa, I
snail gladly embrace the opportunity
to let the civilized world know some
thing of the sickening details of a
traffic of which it might be truly said,
Slavery slew it's thousands but the
rum traffic is Staying it's millions. I
travelled up and down the coast on
boats that were simply wholesale
liquor houses-rum in hogsheads, rum
in casks, rum in barrels, rum IN kegs,
rum in demijohns, rum in stone jugs;
and the vilest rum that ever burnt it's
way down human throats.
What an awful, many sided charge
the vast cloud of butchered African
witnesses will have against the civil
lied world in the day of Judgment
Africa, robbed of her children, rifed
the rapine and greed of the Christian
nations of the world. A slave pen and
battlefield for ages, Christian nations,
instead of binding up her wounds,
like the good Samaritan; instead of
passing by and leaving her alone like
Levite and priest; have come to her
with ten thousand shiploads of hell's
masterpiece Of damnation, rum, that
is turning her children into human
cindeTs, that has turned the entire
west coast into one one long barroom,
from which it is estimated no fewer
than two million drunken savages
go forth to die of delirium tremens
every year. "Gin, gin," is the cry all
along the west coast, and, says Joseph
Tho mpson, "Underneath that cry for
gin seem to hear the reproach, "You
see what Christians have made u.s."
Africa sends to Europe fiber, palm oil,
palm kernels, rubber and coffee. Eu-
rope sends to Africa powder and balls
to slaughter the body and rum to
slay the soul.-ReU. Charles S. Morris.
To my mind the most convincing
proof of the absolute unreasonable |
ness Of the liquor traffic in mission
fields, not to say its unmitigated
wickedness, is found in the action of |
the English government with respect |
to it's East African possessions. In
this, their latest acquisition in the |
Dark Continent, stringent regulations
have been issued, and so far as have |
noticed have been enforced, prohibit
ing the sale of either liquor or firearms
to the natives.
When we consider this action in
connection with her policy on the
west coast, where liquor has been
poured in without stint, and where
the result has been seen in rebellious |