Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1905-09-19
PIGMIES LIKE
OLD LONDON
ELECTRIC LIGHTS SOURCE OF
MUCH AMUSEMENT TO SMALL
SAvAGES.

mes now beng exhibited at the Hip |
podrome, through Mr.. Hoffman, the |
interpreter. Eyes, we must go back |
to find our own people. For five |
months or ten years. But we will |
come back. l like London"
1--WE can always walk back to Lon
don,' said Goospi, the % year old
belle. Others of the little men and |
women seemed Indifferent. Like most |
natives Of low type they are yet be-
wildered by the constant contact with
civilization. They live for the moment
and the only facts of life are the eat |
ing and drinking and sleeping. The
rest is not understood.
In few days the six pigmies will
be taken to Belgium to be seen by
King Leopold, and then the question
of the duration OF their stay in Eu-
rope will be settled. Colonel Harri-
sons contract with the hippodrome
management has expired and it is OH
ly question of time before he must
return his dusky charges to the heart
of africa.
Colonel Harrison, before he was
granted permission to bring the pig
mics away from the Ituri forest, cen
trail Africa, entered into an agreement
to take them back to their own cOun.
try. Although the time limit has not
been fixed the government of the Con-
go Free State has voice in the mat
ter and if these new conditions of
life are found at all to be injurious
to these little folks it is understood
that they must at once leave not only
Great Britain, but Europe as we'll.
Health is Good.
AS far as their health is concern
ed the pigmies appear to have bene-
flied greatly by their stay in Lon
don. Life in an apartment house be-
tween TOttenham court road and
COwes street agrees with them thor
oughly, and Mariapi, the little 80 year
old woman, who appeared wretchedly
delicate when she arrived here, is now
the sleekest and merriest little person
atty in the band.
The other five call her MRS.
White" and laugh at and tease her
about her gluttOny, so as to make
her at times very angry. But the
anger of any of them since they came
to London is short lived. and Mar
lapi's habit of eating more than her
fair share of the honey provided is
not going to be cured by pigmy jest
ing. Sixteen large pots of honed dis
appear every week in the Bloomsbury
household of the pigmies, and it is
washed down by seven or eight bot
ties of lime juice, diluted. The pig
my who does not know alcohol, is not
temperate, however, where lime Juice
is the fluid at stake.
All of their habits since their arriv-
al in London, be it said to their cred
1t, have been most exemplary. Will
/, liam Hoffmna, the interpreter, gives
them good character. He was IN
:, their country with Stanley on his 1887
expedition and he knows what they
are in Africa as well as what they
are in London.
They like. when possible, he says,
. to run on the grass, climb trees and
shoot their arrows at animals or
: animals or birds. When Lord Londes-
borough had them at his residence
:. Matuka shot two rabbits with his ar.
! rows. He and his brother pigmies
: wanted to shoot at the ferrets also
but when the use of the little animals
was explained to them they declar.
). ed that they would take some of them
0 to their homes, far, far away Ito hunt
J, elephants" For the pigmies' sense
e of proportion is often strained.
v Short on Clothes.
l. When seen at the hippodrome. the
a pigmies wear certain amount OF
il clothes. In the Bloomsbury pension
: they take life more easily. It was
|
e don resident and apparently at tea
1 time the pigmies found it so, for they
l. left their clothes in the house when
r they went in the back yard for tea
g Bread and butter and hard boiled eggs
e disappeared rapidly before their fierce
e attack, but the tea. languidly suppet
d with spoons. offered more resistance
e The pigmy seldom seems astonishei
g for long. He seems to think that hi
ought to do anything that the white
k man does. The electric light certain
v ly did puzzle the little fellows ant
n they wanted to see how it was made
k Now every one of the six little AT
s ricans gets a good deal of amusement
h whenever they can by switching of thu
Il light.
, Matches caused wonder also, bu
!. this week Bokani astonished the ma
d tives' by lighting match and smok
n ing cigarette. The gramophone i!
II still a deep source of wonder: the pig
# mics heard their own voices repro
!. duced by it. They do not pull dow
q the right eye with the index finge
\. when told of the wonders of London
there is the gramophone. And the,
1. believe that anything can be done il
II London.
,r They are acquiring a vague notiol
v. of the power of money and they ar,
d just commencing to get a notion O
% the hours of labor. At first the,
is thought everybody exchanged some
N thing, just as they might exchang
meat for shells: but they still thinl
"a 1t is unnecessary to work in order t
10 have food and other things
n Mariapi, since her arrival, has un
i. dergone severe operation. She tool
i, the chloroform we'll, recovered as iron
IN death to life. and that, too, astonisf
70 ed them.
&c The pigmies have a keen sense O
NJ honor and it has been cultivated sine
their arrival here. To initiate news
II boys. to pretend to be serious whe
II. they are ready to laugh are favorit
~ habits. They are very alert A nois
"a on the street never awakens them, bu
Nv the mere placing of a hand ON thei
=. door at night arOuSeS them at ono