The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1903-05-14
'N|ACARA" N
SOUTH AFRICA
Victoria Falls Visited by
Livingstone in 1861
CECIL RHODES FIGURES
Visionery Hope About to Be-
come a Fact
CECIL RHODES FIGURES

An empire bilders visionary hope i.
soon to be realized in Africa In 1858 Da,
vid Livingstone discovered Victoria Falls
in 1861 he visited them again, and wa:
still able to record that no other white
man had ever seen the wonder In 1875 il
was said that but twelve Europeans had
seen Victoria Falls; twenty years later
Cecil Rhodes had conceived his Cape tc
Cairo telegraph; by 1900 that daring en-.
terprise was complete, and the empire
builder had already addressed his restless
spirit to a Cape to Cairo railway. 1--WE
propose now" he wrote 10 go on and
cross the Zambesi just below the Victoria
Falls. l should like to have the spray OF
the water over the carriages"
Even to this last picturesque detail
says a writer in the Boston Transcript
that dream will come true before next
Christmas day; and men still called
young, who nevertheless were born be-
fore Livingstone carved his initials on the
rocks above the falls. will be able to take
the train at Cape Town, travel more than
1850 miles without change, and cross the
Zambesi not much more than a hundred
yards below the African Niagara, at a
point where the spray that bounds back
from a fail of 400 feet will dash the win
dows of the cars.
Today the engineers of Mr.. Rhodes
South African Company are planning the
details Of a great electric plant which
shall untiliZe the water power of &ivtoria
Falls. In America there is a strong senti-
mental opposition to the prostitution of
Niagara's beauty to commercial purposes:
in South Africa no such protest is heard.
It takes generations of wealth and cul-
ture to develop the sentiment which de-
tends beauty against utility; in new
country everything is sacrificed to the
necessities of the pioneers. Coal and
wood are scarce in South Africa. Every
article in the manufacture of which cleo
trio energy is essential must be imported;
and the installation of this enormous cleo
tric plant will be the beginning of native
manufacturing. and viii make possible
the development of mines within a radius
of two hundred miles which would other
wise remain idle for lack Of power.
Moreover the Victoria, unlike Ni-90s6
Moreover the Victoria Falls, unlike Nj
agara, possesses little beauty. The vol
ume OF water in the Zambesi is in the
rainy season five times the volume that
comes down from Lake Erie The hight
of Victoria Falls is almost three times
the height of Niagara, and yet the At
rican cataract as compared with our
American wonder will never create
scenic sensation. At Niagara one can
stand off and see the huge mass of water
tumble over the edge of a precipice and
watch it drop the entire height of the
falls. With Victoria Falls it is different.
Imagine a river almost exactly a mile
wide; imagine in the riverbed, at right
angles to the course of the stream,
great, narrow crack-like assures in gla-
cier5 about eighty yards wide and four
hundred feet deep. Into this crack the
water falls and escapes a the bottom
through similar zigzag assures of the
same depth. One cannot see the water
falling. II is Ike pouring water into a
long, narrow, deep dish. There is little
of the spectacular 20 that process. One
can hear the roar-Iivingstone heard it
twenty miles away, and one can see the
high columns of mist caused by the air,
which the falling water carries down
height, and carrying spray with it. These
high towers of mist, bending gracefully
with the wind make all the scenic effect
there is in Victoria Falls. The natives
have a name for it that signifies smoke
that sounds; and Mr.. Livingstone got
his first intimation of the falls when the
negroes two hundred miles away asked
him, Have you any smoke soundings
in your country?' and What causes
the smoke 10 rise forever so high out of
the water?"
The electric plant will be built on a
shelf cut into the side near the bottom OF
one OF the zigzag cracks below the falls.
The water viii be carried around the ca
tarac in great steel tubes and dropped
three hundred feet 10 the turbine wheels.
The engineers Of the South African Com
ioany estimate that the falls will furnish
s.. ooe.e coo horsepower; Niagara, If every
drop Of water were used. would not fur
nish more than 100000 horsepower. Thiir-
ty-five millions horsepower means the
equivalent of more than ten horses work
ing night and day for every white person
IN South Africa; il is enough one would
think, To manufacture every article that
South Africa needs; it is enough to light
the city of New York. run its street cars
and do all the manufacturing. Niagara,
it is well known, would run dry within
a year il there were some economic
means Of carrying the jower as far as
New York In South Africa, since the
power cannot come TO the city. the city
will so 20 the power. They viii bind
their New York, or their Pittsburg on the
edge of Victoria Falls. If anyone has
ever sighed with the man who fifty years
ago could have bought squQare mile of
what is now Chicago for a thousand
collars, let him go 10 South Africa and
puy land near Victoria Falls. In his old
age he VIII be founding universities and
public libraries. The stories OF Chicago,
Minneapolis and Denver are sure TO be
repeated and magnified.
Aside from furnishing light and heat
sne power for the city which will spring
up when the Cape TO Cairo railroad
reaches the Zambesi. Victoria Falls viii
operate the pumps. the fans. the lifts.
ana the drills of the mines which will be
qeFeiopeo nearby Electric power gener-
fted at huba Falls. Cal, is carried %
aniies 10 San Francisco. and ar other
places electro power has been economic
ally distance of go miles.
n REMARKABLE WOMAN