Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-10-14

Congo river. take off my hat to them.
Their devotion to duty is beyond all praise.
Across the Congo and directly opposite
the Yakusu mission is the wood tract of
the institution. AS a part of the industrial
work Of the station excellent African tim
bers are felled and brought into use. These
are found on the south bank and within
half hours canoe journey Pine, teak
and mahogany have been brought over and
used in the construction of the station
buildings. One tree yielded between roots
and the first branches 400 plank thirteen
feet long, foot wide and inch and a
half thick. Canoes are followed out of the
same kind Of timber Smith says, 1T sets
the boys up to work, and puts vim in
them
X
On one occasion the native sawyers re-
turning to Yakusu saw fish six feet long
floating down the river, choking with
small fish in its mouth. The town people
caught sight Of the fathom of food at the
same time and sent canoe out to get
it. The two canoes reached the fish, but
the sawyers seized it first and put it in
their boat For a moment fight in mid
river was imminent. However, the two
boats came in side by side, the town peo-
pie evidently thinking that division would
be made at the landing place. and they
would get their share But the wood cutters
said that they got the fish and had brought
1t In and would not share it. Then the
fight began.
The town people were out with sticks,
and their COMPANIONS came to their aid.
The woodsmen sent a party to provide them
with arms and then return to the fray
The town soldier, trying to quiet the com
batants, got hit. He turned on the town
people and ordered them to stop fighting;
but fighting blood was up, and the town
people wanted to be In the fun. Between
the soldier and the sawyers the town peo-
pie were being driven back, and it seemed
as If the affair was about at an end. when
the soldier was struck by a stray handful
of dirt. He Immediately cooked his gun
and leveled it at the town peope. There
was stampede to the river. In moment
hundreds were in the water up to their
necks ready to dodge beneath the surface
the moment they saw him pull. A mission
airy went along with a cane and was just
in time to knock up the soldiers gun and
settle the matter by dividing the fish.
The natives were obliging enough to give
me practical illustration of their pug
nacity. One night woman who had some
fish to sell offered them to man. But
another man wanted the fish, and said: Il
want you to sell the fish to me; the other
man has no money, but l have ana will
pay you for them" But the woman per-
sisted in selling the fish to number one
because she said she owed them to him.
Now Sc had been recently marked on the
shoulder, after tribal custom when a
woman comes 10 maturity and her wounds
were not yet healed. The would-be pur-
chaser seized her by the shoulder, and she
cried out in pain. One of the mission boys,
moved by a chivalry new to the people,
told him to desist.
AS was to be expected, he was told to
mind his own business. The effect of these
words was an interchange of blows, and as
the man was from the interior and the boy
from the riverside, the quarrel soon grew
into a pitched battle between river and