Evening star., 1905-10-14

Congo scandal. Belgium has had one. Ger
many has had one. Now it seems the turn
of France. 1t was the old tale of the
drunkenness of unlimited power. Then
suddenly the French government bethought
itself that Savorgnan de Brazza had been
able to walk across Central Africa with q
simple bamboo cane in hand. 1t might be
good to send him out to make an investiga-
ton. So they sent him, and he was de-
lighted. So he made his investigation and
report that threatens to explode like a
bomb; and so he took the dysentery. it is
said, and died. To those who had warned
him TO be careful of the climate he replied
Let be! In the Congo l walk bareheaded
in the sun. needing neither sleep nor food.
l live on the African air that is death to
others"
just glad to see me? Every one martyrzes
them They will think that luck is coming
back to them with Brazza!"
Rejoiced at Brazza's Return.
When news came to Lbreville and Braza-
vile that BrazZa was en- route, all that part
of Africa rejoiced. Even the Europeans re-
membered that in Brazza's s time there were
no troubles in the bush, no warlike expedi-
tions, no fights over taxation. Those who
were his old clerks told tales of his gener-
osity. Such a one, though obviously worn
by the climate, had never asked for leave
home. Brazza finally questioned him.
Monsieur, the commissary general re-
piled the clerk, II have no savings with
which to make the trip home"
Then De BraZza reached into his pocket
and handed him two 1,O00-franc notes. Ten
years after, when De Brazza was In trou-
Bile, the clerk, grown to be an important
functionary. paid the money back
OF course, he a great judge of men.
One day he was struck by the intelligence
of a druggist at Lbrevile. Immediately
he confided to him an apparently vague
mission to study the medicinal plants of the
Gaboon. That druggist was Liotard; the
exploration he made has now its place in
the history of the Congo, and Liotard has
become one of the best French colonial
governors
AS to the blacks, they still tell how, day
by day, in passing along the routes, De
Brazza and his wife would stop to chat
with every one, listening to all complaints
and consoltng all miseries. Sometimes OF
an evening they would suddenly decide to
leave for another village. Rapidly the news
would fly, and from all the towns along the
road the blacks would come running with
lighted torches and cries of Joy.
Another detail. Travellers are nowadays
delighted 10 find in every village on the
Ogoue below Range clumps of splendid
cacao trees. They are trees that were
planted by De BraZza's own hand in the
old times; and he planted them with pomp,
as kind Of sacred tree. solemnly corfiding
them to the village chiefs. who still watch
over them in memory of the Great White
with the Open Hand.
The most aged inhabitant of Librevile
is an old woman named Mannedar Re
Gently the director of the hospital ordered
the cutting down of certain trees that OBJ
structed view. AS the condemned trees
belonging 10 Mannedar's banana plantation,
she went weeping to the governor.
Il am too old to see my trees grow up
again. she moaned nothing remains for
but TO die"
To console her, the governor made her a
present. and then said: "Brazza Is return
ing. You won't die till you have seen him,
will your
''Brazza returning?" cried the old woman:
then VIC are all saved. For sure l won t
die now!'
Natives Die "From Discouragement" /"
To appreciate the tale, you must learn
that the particular races of negroes about
Libreville and Brazaville possess the un-
canny faculty of being able to die at will.