Meade County news. [volume] (Meade, Kan.) 1900-1918, 1908-11-19
WARNS OF DANGERS
ERooSEvELT'S AFRICAN TRIP Is
FOLLY, SAYS. EXPERT.
Asserts President Has Only IS Chances
in 100 Of Surviving Tropical
PeriIs-Disease and Fever
Attack Certain.

New York.-When President Roose-
welt allowed it to be announced that
at the end of his presidency he would
go to Africa with his second son, Ker-
init, a boy still under 20, in quest of
big game, the American people, know
ing little of Africa took it as another
phase OF the presidents many-sided
character without considering more
than big game" chances.
Baron A. B. d'Altomonte, who for
nearly four years was commandant of
the police forces in the Congo Free
State and later headed the six
months hunting expedition of Prince
Zurnikoff In British East Africa, be-
-lieves that is folly for man of Pres
ident Roosevelt's age to tempt the
fevers and miasmas of Africa. He
says it is exceedingly dangerous to
lake a boy of Kermit Roosevelt's
years into the jungle.
The baron says: How will PreSi-
dent Roosevelt hunt in East Africa?
Will he take train at Mombasa, put
himself in an open car in front of the
engine and shoot, while passing, al
herds of wild elephant or antelope?
no, surely. He will be forced by his
own very daring nature to hunt fol
lowing the precepts of Nimrod in the
only grand way, with all the trouble
and all the dangers of the great
@battue.
This will necessitate camping at
night in the damp plains, among high
F,,JI oR
or on the border of the muddy and
pestilent river-home OF the tsetse fly
Or in the tenebrous and treacherous
forest, full of miasmas and dampness.
He will be forced to the long wait
lying in ambush for the approach OF
the elephant; he will have to face the
torrid heat Of the rocky and naked
attitudes to hunt for the lion and the
antelope he will have to cross the
putrid bottom of the valleys to watch
for the rhinoceros, and with this last
vone some time he will be compelled
to find the running strength Of his
youth.
These are the general and particu-
lar dangers Of a hunting party in At
RIGA, without mentioning the miseries
"of the daily life-bad water, the rainy
season. the fly pest. the Inflammation
of the skin caused by Precipitation. the
nights without sleep on account of
the heat and hundred other things.
ITO be short, come to this con-
eclusion that whoever suggested or did
not dissuade President Roosevelt from
going to Africa has erred. He Ia so
years old. and At his age he would
encounter many dangers in Africa
merely as a traveller; but as a hunter
ne will face the greatest perils of his
4ife.
Apart from the African fever and
vdysentery and other tropical diseases,
President Roosevelt has another great
enemy In his constitution, which is
far from being perfect, though the
average man may believe 1t is.
81. The African sun Is death-deal-
ling to highly excitable and full
blooded men.
"2. A man who so quickly loses his
temper as does the president Is sub
-iect when confronted with the miser.
able difficulty OF the African life to q
special form of bilious fever, which
,decomposes the blood and causes
death in "a hours. 1t is known as
SHematurique' fever.
Here is the percentage table OF
mortality In Central Africa, as com
lied by the African Travelling asso
ciation Of London: