The Savannah morning news., 1903-07-12


an employer, you are chained to a
telephone or a telegraph wire, or stock
exchange ticket.
yesterday l was asked to speak at
meeting of the anti-slavery society.
cailed to protest against slavery in
Airlca. l could not help laughing.
Slavery in Africal The meanest slave
is treer than your business man in
London. II you want to see slavery,
ooht go to barbarian lands. Look
around you in your own cities. All
the institutions of civilization are
nolhlng but chains and letters. Do
you remember the Frenchman who
SAID, ii taut SAVIOR garden Pindepend-
ance du occur A civilized man can't
90 that. l am going back to my peo-
pie. am going to become what you
can barbarian again, simply because
want to be free"
Much the same views were express
ed by King Khama, the famous Chris
tian chieftain of South Africa, when
he visited England ut is all very
wonderful he said. 81 gaze with awe
on your steamships and railways, your
cities and your machines. But what
is the use of them? Do they make you
any happier or any better? / think
not. They seem to me to give you
no time to think or to live. 1 think
At all events, we are freer than you.
We do not have to work and worry as
you do"
The moral, social and legal features
of civilization do not meet with bar
barian approval, and the relations
that are maintained between the sexes
are regarded as ridiculous.
An English doctor named James AL
fred Gray, who served for several
years in Afghanistan as court sur
geon to the late ameer, had an Afghan
nobleman named Amin Uullah, when
discussing English customs with him
one day, say: 81 don't think it is
right for Englishmen to sell their
wives" But they don't" exclaimed
DR.. Gray, in surprise. Pardon me,
my FRIEND said the Afghan, reproach-
fully, but you know they do, and,
moreover. it is published in the news
papers when they do So What on
earth do you mean?" asked the doc
tor II mean this. An English woman
becomes tired of her husband and pre-
fers another to him. The man who is
preferred is called the correspondent.
Straightaway the three of them go be-
fore the kasi (magistrate), and after
much discussion it is decided at which
price the correspondent shall buy the
woman. The money is then paid to
is told in the newspapers. Is not that
true?"
This way Of looking at civilized di-
vorce gave DIR. Gray a shock. He tried
to explain that it was not true, but
not quite the whole truth. But the
Afghan thought the payment of money
for alienation of affections very i'm
proper. What" he cried. Take
money as the price of your wifes dis
hnnnr. of hots fp hn OIL Z
1t is abominable! People of my race
act differently. If wife prefers an
other man, the husband kills both of
them and washes his honor clean. That
is the proper way"
When the Shahzada Nasrullah Khan,
the late Ameer's second son, visited
England some years ago, King Edward
then Prince of Wales-took immense
pains to impress him with the Won
ders of English civilization. Naturally
he wanted Nasrullah to go back to his
father and tell him what a marvellous
country England was, and how neces-
sary it was for Afghanistan to remain
friendly with her. The Prince failed
utterly. Nasrullah was disguised with
the way things are managed in Eng
land. According to an Englishman,
who was in Kabul when he returned,
he told the ameer in open durbar:
'BenOlQ, 1t Is a country Oh IOOlS! w z
can learn little from England save
what to avoid. The Queen and the
Prince have less power than the eu-
nuchs of your harem. They do not
govern the empire. Scoring the de-
crees of Allah, the rGlers of the land
are chosen by hordes OF the low born
! the peasants the pariahs, the weavers
! and the smith-as if a horse should
say, L will have this rider and no
other
But" said the ameer, they have
! wonderful enthusiastically tel
egraphs, railways, guns"
AYE" said Narsullah. but they
only make life more troublesome to
live. These people make toys of their
inventions and enslave' themselves to
them until they think there is nothing
greater in earth or heaven than the
work of their hands. We need nothing
of THEIRS he concluded grimly, Save
their marvellous cannon-that we may
be able to keep out the rest of their
civilization"
Ras Mal<onnen, the right-hand man
of Kink Menelik of Abyssinia, gather
ed a poor opinion of civilization when
he visited Europe to attend King Ed