The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-12-01

also as to everything reSaralng Ioou- stuffs and sanitary improvements. They are testing and assaying the various min erals and are looking up all matters re- lating to the industrial development of the country
 The main offices of the laboratory are in the college but it's explorers are sent out in every direction and they are mak- ing all sorts of investigations. They are looking into the mosquitoes of the eoun- try and are Investigating the tsetse fly and other pests. and among other things are studying the sleeping sickness. hor- rible disease which is communicated by fly and which has Killed it's thousands throughout Central Africa. They have to do with the boil weevil and other insects which ruin the crops, and they are aiding the cancer research fund and the Carne- gie institution in it's investigations have met q number of the scientists con- nected with this institution and I find them able men. They tell me that the Sudan has almost every noxious insect and pest insect known to man and beast. It has worms and weevils which affect the cotton crop, and 1t has mosquitoes which carry malaria and which would carry yellow fever If they were once in- oculated by feeding upon a yellow fever patient. Indeed, the stegompia or yellow fever mosquito swarms here, and if one patient Indeed, the stegomya or yellow fever germs 1t might start an endless chain of disease which could hardly be broken.
 Money in Gum Arabic.
 One of the most interesting men I have met in Khartum is young American chemist who has charge of the industrial investigations of the Welcome laboratory. This is pr. William Beam, formerly of Pennsylvania He Is now making a study of the various grains of the Sudan, as well as of it's minerals and precious
 stones, from the standpoint of the de- velopment of it's resources. He tells me that the Sudan will some day export grain to Arabia and the other countries about, and that it will in the future be known as a land of corn, wheat and cotton.
 He tells me that one of the principal money crops of this part of the world is gum arabic. We know this gum chiefly in connection with mucilage, but it is also widely used in the arts. It Is employed for making water colors and certain kinds of inks and also in dyeing and finishing silks and other fabrics. Some of the bet ter grades are used in confectionery and the pearly teeth of many American belle has risen and fallen in the chewing of this exudation of the trees of the Sudan. The gum comes from the acacia tree and is said to be due to microbe which feeds upon the sap ana causes the gum to exude on the bark in the form of tears. When the bark Is cut or par tially stripped the gum oozes out. It Is collected by the native women and packed up and shipped to Omdurman for sale and export. During my visit to the mas kets of that city I saw great piles of gum which had been brought in there to be sent down the Nile over the railroad to the Red Sea. There were hundreds of fone g,f lx+tn mt i'm nd was told that within a few weeks it would all be on it's way to Europe or the United States
 The Story of Chinese Gordon.
 Just back of the palace in Khartum, and not far from the college named after him. is a bronze statue of Gen. Charles George Gordon. In it the great hero is repre- sented sitting upon camel, which stands on high pedestal of stone. The gen- eral has merely stick in his right hand, and he is looking boldly and fearlessly out in the direction of the desert. 1 have been told that he seldom carried more than stick and that although his whole life was full of danger. he never showed fear.
 In talking about this the other night with the sirdar or commander-in-ch chief of the Egyptian army, he tqld me an incl dent illustrative of Gordon's bravery. We were standing on the portico which ex- tends out from the second story of the palace forming the porte cochere, when his eXcellency said: