Evening star., 1902-08-09
POSTING UP To DATE
The Future Emperor of Abys-
sinia Shown Paris.
LIKES MODERN THINGS
IS REPRESENTATIVE OF MOST AN
GENT PEOPLE.
The Ras Makonnen Enjoys Automobil-
ing and Studies Construction and
Power With Partisan Experts.
Special Correspondence of The Evening Star


| PARIS, July 2S, 1902.
| A black prince, with fine features and
straight hair, the Ras Makonnen, represent
| ing Menelik, the Emperor OF Ethiopia. or
Abyssinia, has just been seeing the more
worthy sights of Paris under the best au-
| spices.
The Ras, as Parisians call him Familiarity.
! is supposed to be the future successor of
Menelik, who calls himself the lion of the
tribe of Judah, and claims to be descended
from the Queen of Sheba and King Solo
| mon. The Ethiopians have been an isolated
Christian nation in the highlands of eastern
Africa since the beginning; they have their
own versions of the Scriptures, as ancient
as any others; their bishops are consecrated
by the Coptic patriarch of Alexandria, and
they rightly consider themselves to be the
faithful of the faithful. For these rea-
sons only the Ras ought to have good re-
ception in the west.
The French, have another reason for re-
celVing Meneilk successor handsomely.
Apart from the fact that he is a great no.
Bile, governor Of part of his country. and
as such capable of opening new markets to
French industry, the French are now partic-
ularly interested in the land which they
call Ethiopia. They have a railway build
ing from Djibouti. in the French colony, at
the mouth of the Red sea. to Harrar, at the
btS VI lne ADySSlHlan plateau. ana
French planters, with permission Of the
Lion Of Judah, have already set up inn
mense coffee estates along It's projected
route. In a word, the French hope to do
great things in Abyssinia: so that the ef-
forts of the government officials have been
to persuade the Ras that France is the first
nation of the west and the most helpful
| friend that Abyssinia could choose.
One Of the first sights offered to the Ras
was the up-to-date Balloon Park of the
French war department, at Chalais- -Meu-
don, just outside of Paris on the heights
beside st. Cloud. Here Colonel Renard,
who went up in the cigar-shaped dirigible
balloon, La France in 1885, rules with his
| brother, in enjoyment of a yearly subsidy
and the authority to keep his labors very
secret. When Alberto Santos Dumont navi-
gated the air over Paris in the full sight
Of the population Colonel Renard told the
people that he had done the same thing
fifteen years before. When asked to make
another trip, this time before the people
Col. Renards friends declared that. al
though there was under lock and key at the
Chalais-Meodun Park a new dirgible, in
which the problem of the air had been well
solved, 1t would be reserved by the French
war department as an overwhelming instru-
ment of combat In the next great European
struggle. Colonel Renard did not himself
say these things; but he did not deny them.
That there is. indeed, a secret at ChallaiS-
Meudon is believed by most Parisians
There are residents of Meudon who claim TO
have seen on moonlit nights a strange
aerial Wanderer tnat clrCled above the park
inclosure and then, darting higher, disap-
peared in the direction of Rouen. One
Paris paper claims that the Ras, as the
greatest possible honor, was taken alone
into the shed by Col. Renard and his con-
| fdential mechanic to have the workings of
the mysterious dirigible explained to him.
Bought the Best.
The colonel came for the Ras in his new
! Decauville thirty-horse-p power roadster that
nd
| an hour than any one has a legal right to
run on the public roads Of France. If the
colonel, as we are told, sped it a short dis
| tance to show the future Lion of Judah
something faster than his blooded Ethio-
! plan horses ii was an exception. And as on
| every public road Of France through every
| hour Of every day Of the year other promi-
nent Frenchmen think it no harm to make
similar exceptions, the great French high
ways, SO white, so level and so beautifully
shaded, have come to be almost as danger
| Gus as trunk line tracks.
At the Balloon Park the Ras and his suite
| first listened to a short exposition of the
| balloon theory. Then the captive balloon,
! which had been emptied for the purpose,
was filled In their presence. When all was
ready the nephew of Menelik was invited
| to step into the basket. He promptly re-
fused; but the Kantiba, Menelik's private
secretary, accepted cheerfully Ut was
told afterward that he showed deadly fright;
| that he would not have gone up for mil
| lion francs; but that nod of the Ras head
commanded him to show his Ethiopian cool
headedness and courage.)
Although he had refused to go up in the
balloon, the Ras exhibited real interest and
had the whole theory of spherical balloon
ing in war explained to him. He called up
through the telephone and had the Kantiba
tell what he saw while up in the air. He ask
ed to have calculations made for him as to
the expense and the number of Europeans
requisite to build up balloon service for
haN ha
alone with Col. Renard into the locked
shed. When it is considered that this Ethio-
plan rulers country is still in the feudal
system and that his own cast of mind cam
not be very different from that of Louis NJ
when he lived, it is admitted that the Ras
put up a good bluff throughout his visit
On the way back from Meudon to the
Elysee Palace Hotel the Ras was made to
ride in an electric automobile. The noise,
smell and jarring of the petroleum vehicle
he had come out in made its motive power
vaguely understandable to the Abyssinians,
who had already seen steam locomotives
and steam yachts. The silent electric au-
tomobile, however, seemed a mystery to the
Ras and all his suite. They were therefore
taken to the factory for their afternoon
trip. AS it happened 10 be the same factory
that is furnishing most of the material for
the railway between Djibouti and Harrar in
Abyssinia private salon car was attached
to the train that took the party to Corbeil,
the manufacturing town outside of Paris,
where the works are situated.
He Had His Choice.
At the Carbeil railway station the Ras
was given his choice to ride to the works
either in an electric, petroleum, alco-
hol automobile or in amusing little
train of street cars, narrow gauge. the
cheapest and most rapidly constructable of
all street car systems, 1t is said. At the
factory the Ras watched with unconcealed
wonder a great electro-magnet descend on
a piece Of steel $500 pounds in weight as
lightly as fly on piece of sugar and lift
1t across the great open space without
shock, noise, or visible reason why. The
machine tools, worked by electricity with
out a gearing belt. also attracted his atten-
ton. simple crank was turned and the
machine began its movements ready TO
pound out steel plates or bore holes in the
toughest metals. Half a turn back, and
the great machine ceases its movement.
The Ras could scarcely believe his eyes
Decidedly the electric devices most in
terested him. 1t was explained to him that
at the present moment in great industries,
electric transmission is on the way to APP
ply itself to everything. The advantages
are numerous = gentleness of movements,
silence, regularity, suppression of accidents
with gearing belts and last, but not least
economy.