The Savannah morning news., 1902-10-12

| MIN and values him so highly that
IL VIII not let him escape. Every year
Tor many years this story has come
out OF the Australian bush and for
many years men have been convinced
| mat II is true. Two years ago they
formed an expedition to try to rescue
TINS lonely fellowman from his living
tomb. But the lack of definite knowl-
edge as to where he might be and the
certain dangers and terrors of the jour
ney. prevented any final action, and the
party disbanded again.
The strange part of this story Is that
the old white man is believed to be an
explorer who was lost almost fifty years
ago. He was a daring young man
when he made his first trip across the
continent He barely managed to get
through alive, but, quite undeterred by
his narrow escape, he started again
almost Immediately to cross the con-
unent by still more difficult route
| That was the last that ever was heard
from him, with the exception of one
vague story brought in by natives, &C,
| cording TO which his party had been
! massacred, with the exception of him
| selt. The natives made him prisoner,
and carried him into the interior.
| according to the stories that con-
| tlnue to come in about the old white
prisoner he has lived among the saw
| most of his original captors are dead,
ana their children, grown up into men,
I nave learned to adore the white man
| because of the many things that he
mas taught them. But that very thing
| has made it impossible for him to get
away, for he had become far too val
| liable to them, and they have guarded
him as precious possession until he is
| too old to try to escape.
! 1t is story that appeals to the heart
| OF every man, and IL is no wonder that
every year someone tries to form an
expedition to rescue that poor old pris-
oner who has been hidden from the
| world for half century.
Another railroad about which Uncle
sam has found out is to run through
Indo-China. 1t is to start at that ter
| rible hard river to spell, remember and
describe-the Cambodia. It will run
along the shores of the China Sea, and
the passenger. sitting at his ease on
American revolving railroad chairs, can
look out of the windows of his Ameri-
can palace car and see junks and Ma
Jay proas and boats from our own
Philippine Islands. Crossing the
mouth Of one OF the big rivers on
steel bridge that probably will have
peen made in Pittsburg or some other
American iron city, the passenger can
look down and perhaps see a school of
brilliant, poisonous sea snakes playing
on the surface-the sea snakes of the
Ancient Mariner that moved
Blue, glossy green and velvet black.
Iney coiled and swan; and every track
was flash of golden fire.
Through old Cochin China and its
lovely mountains, this romantic train
VIII roll into mystic AMMAN, the land
whose ruler still calls himself an en-
peror, although he is nothing like the
great emperors OF AMMAN who reigned
when the land was mighty and when
the ancient cities that now lie in ruins
were great and populous and wealthy.
When the Indo- China Railroad gets
there, scientists will have an oppor-
tunlty at last to study those wonder
ful lost cities and another chapter in
the forgotten history of the world will
be opened.
Palace cars are running already on
another railroad that goes through
geography land" A man can sit In
all the comfort of drawing room com
partments. with push buttons conven-
lent to call a waiter. and ride through
1,5OO miles of South African scenery.
from Capetown to Buluwayo in the
neart OF Matabele land. While a wait
er in white jacket is serving MIN
with ice cream or coffee he may see a
lion or herd of springboks or zebras
rush along, or even a family of lions.
Under new contract, there will
soon be another railroad running from
Buluwayo north. 1t will cross the
great Zambesi river on a high bridge
another chance for one of Uncle Sans
sons to do business. From that point
1t Will strike north until it reaches Lake
Kasali in the Congo
When the plans of the African rail-
road builders are completed river
steamboats, will meet passengers there
and "chug-chug" up lake and rivers
that few years ago were navigated
only by dugouts padded by naked
black men who did not know that
there were human beings in the world
with skin less dark than their own.
These river boats will steam through
rivers wider than the greatest Ameri-
can rivers and through streams SO
narrow that the dense jungles will al
most brush their sides. They will
brighten herds of hippopotami and send
Dasking crocodiles scurrying into the
mud and water. They will pass by
queer. savage villages and through
miles and miles of lonely country
where not even a bird is heard to crv
Finally one day they will set their
whistles screeching as they come with |
in sight of railroad station in the |
wilderness, the outpost of the Congo |
the traveller can go by steam cars |
again till he reaches the Atlantic |
Ocean, passing through places with |
civilized names like Leopoldville and |
Stanley Pool and Brazzaville and |
places with savage names like Matadi |
and kilunswa and Sinda
And this is not all that the rail-
road builders dream of doing. They
are planning to build another road |
from the Stanley Falls on the Upper
Congo to Lake Albert Nyanza. That
will go through a country of big game.
This railroad line is to connect with
the great net of Egyptian roads that
are built already. When all the |
rails are laid it will be possible not
only to go from Port Said on the Med
iterranean Sea to the Cape of Good
Hope, but from the Atlantic Ocean to
the Indian Ocean by steam across the
continent that was called the Dark
Continent only few years ago.
And Uncle Sam has told his sons
the story and spread it through the
land so that when the travellers do 20
they shall be riding. if possible, over
American rails in American cars, with