The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-07-26
ODD TRADE WITH SAVAGES
Patent Medicines in Great Demand
Among the Jungle Natives.

From the Chicago Chronicle.
1t is a curious list of things that
Uncle Sam sends to savage and half
civilized countries and as curious q
list of things which he takes from
those countries in return.
In far-off Uganda, where the lions
roar as the train passes on the new
railroad and the engineer has to SLOW
down and then because a hippopota-
mus gets on the track, the natives buy
American kerosene and find 1t useful
not only for Illuminating purposes but
for amounting their shining black bo-
dies to make them shire more.
They have also taken a fancy late
ly to cheap photographs, and a we'll
to-do savage becomes a society leader
when he sets one up in his hut. They
also like American watches-the large
ones. the kind which il takes about
half an hour to wind up-and they are
beginning to make a market for them.
In return the Uganda natives send
a peculiar gum which exudes from a
tree which they call the incense tree.
smell, and is the chief ingredient in
the incense used in Episcopal "high
church" and Catholic churches i'm this
country. For untold centuries this
gum has been exported from this sec
ton of Africa. 1t Is the "olibanum"
of science and the frankin-cense Of
history
Same Kind Solomon Used.
Inferior kinds of incense gum are
found in India and Arabia, but the
East African sort is the one most in
demand and the one which the United
States buy. So when you see incense
burned in a church you probably see
the same kind of gum burning, brought
from the same place, and smell the
same smell as did Solomon when. at
the completion of the temple nearly
5000 years ago. he burned incense ON
the altar, which was before the Lord. Z"
Savages delight in watches and
clocks, but the clocks must have a
loud tick to them and the watches must
be of generous size as we'll as loud of
tick. The story is told of a clock
making concern which determined to
get a share of the West African trade,
where the natives had taken kindly to
an inferior brand of clocks sent out by
a rival house. A better article in the
clock line was manufactured and sent
out to be sold at the same price as
the goods of the rival concern. To
the establishment of the manufacturers
the invoice failed to sell.
An investigation showed that the
cheap clocks Of the first house had
large and powerful tick to them and
a gong which struck the hour like
fire alarm bell. Thereupon the second
firm set TO work and manufactured a
clock with still louder tick and
still more resounding gong in the strik-
ing parts, and soon captured the de-
sired trade.
The clocks and watches Of savage
and semi civilized peoples come mostly
from Connecticut and Birmingham.
England. Connecticut having a practi-
cal monopoly in supplying the watches.
Mummies Used by Artists.
Egypt sends to the United States and
England a curious article of commerce,
consisting of fragments of mummies
or perhaps mummies who-whieh
are ground up and used In mixing
paints for artists. The mumnies are
not the finely preserved royal remains
from the sepulchers of dead kings but
the mummies of the common people
OF Egypt, who passed away 1000 or
1000 years ago and were en-
balmed less carefully and laid
away In less costly tombs than
their fortunate fellow subjects.
Appropriately enough poppy oil
paint obtained from pulverized num-
my. In return Egypt imports quanti-
ties Of imitation scarabei, those little
stone charms worn by the ancient
Egyptians which look like a beetle
on top and have on the smooth I'M
der side the hiereglyphics of some
great prince who relgned In the Nile
valley when the world was young.
The Americans say these false sea-
i'abei are manufactured in Birming-
ham, England but the English de-
clare that they come from Connect
cut. where they are made by machin-
cry and shipped in barrels TO be plant
ed by Arabian guides in the desert
sands and discovered" In the very
sight OF confding tourists, who pay
a big price for them.
Take to Patent Medicines.
The United States do a hourishing
business selling patent medicines to
the untutored savage. who Is IN the
process OF being brought into contact
with civilization. The savage takes
kindly 10 patent medicines.
Imported first by the white settlers
for their own use on the African coast
the medicines have found favor in the