The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-11-15
DR. WERNER
 ON AFRICA Noted Missionary Talks of Dark Continent. HE IS AN ALBANIAN
Man Who Carried Pygmies to St.
 Louis.
He Tells of the Dimeultie. and Tri- umph of the Journey With the Little People Prom Afrira--
 First Ever Made.

 tis In The Chicago Record Herald has a special and peculiar interest for 4 a. bamians. dealing as it does with pr. Samuel Phillips Werner. the famous missionary, an& his unparalleled achievement of inducing a number of African pygmies to accompany Him to the St. Louis Exposition for exhioiei0n purposes.
 The article is of interest to Ala bamians because Dr. Werner is T La- tive of this State and a member cf a we'll known family of Tuscaloosa. He has many relatives living there. He has also many friends in Montgomery where he has filled the pulpit fs tho First Presbyterian Church. He $ an authority on Africa and African tribes. The announcement of his approaching lecture tour will be learned with in- terest. Mr. Curtis's interview with Dr. Werner, Is filled with valuable iIi- formation. which has It's own interest in view of the approaching visit of President Roosevelt to Africa.
 MT. Curtis writes as follows:
 ''Dr. Samuel Phillips Werner, who had charge of the African pygmies at in Columbia, S. C., preparing to take the lecture field during the coming winter. He will talk Of his adwen- lures in the Dark Continent and of the conditions of the people there That section of tke world will attract | good deal of interest during the nex. yesr on account of the hunting excursi3l es our beloved President. Tn Lonf.n heard a great deal ab put the plals that are being made for his entertatam mt in Africa. The officials of the several British colonies have been getting ready for him for months, and there ls going to be a good deal more for him to do than he realizes. Dr Ea,foSr, who has charge of the Welcome tio- logical laboratories on the branches of the Nile. told me there was nora ex- peeted vislt of Rooslvslt tdan would have happened on me occaslon cs visit from any of the aings os kt sore.
 I asked pr. Werner how his curious proteges wtnt home from sr. Louis and what they told their osopse of. their experiences In the United States.
 "At the time when the African pyg- mics had to return to their h1m a. re- piled Dr. Werner 'an insurrectI 1a lad broken out among the Bakuba nation in the territory immediately ada sent to the regions from whence they 1nIe. It was caused by tine accession t5 the throne Of Rope, I Lgisenj.i, as einper6r, who is youthful .fnu ambitious E-d ls
  are disturbed Dy the progress of tine missionaries and b" the growing iI.lu- ence of the Belgian cfflciais. which threaten their prestige and power. For that reason I conclI led that 1t was best to go back with hem ryseif, and to fulfll in person my promise that they would be we'll takeL care 0f and returned to their homes In order to get them back by a route as warm as possible we went to Africa by way never before employed-at least not since the old slave trade dayG We went to New Orleans, thence oSHava- ma, and thence by the Spanish royal mail to Tenerife. where we caught A West Coast packet for the mouth of the Congo.
 'At Havana. where 1t was warm and almost the same climate as that from which they came. curiousiy enough, was the only serious case of illness among the party during their whole stay. The oldest of them. Malengu. had a case of pneumonia, and had the honor of being treated by one of the most eminent physicians in the world .Dr. Jean Guiteras, who afterward did such great work in the yellow fee yer epidemic at New Orleans Malen- gu was placed in the hospital of Las Animas and made a complete recovery. In crossing the Atlantic I was inter ested to note that the pygmies counted the days we, sailed east having pre- counted those who had sailed west. and by this means kept their spirits on a rising temperature. as each day they saw the sun rise In front of the ship and SO knew that they were really getting back on their track
 "At Bona the capital of the Congo. the chief justice, who had made a roll of them when they went out. had them come before him, and he called the roll This time each ont stepped out. made profound obefsance, took of his cap and said t"I1eah, sah" much to the of his honor, who expressed his satisfaction at their return with out one missing. He said that other natives (not pygmies) had been taken Eo Europe before but some of them lad always died. I attributed the hgp- oy outcome in this case to the fact that l had serupulously carried out my plan of having them in America only in the summer and of returning by a warm route.
 '.At Bona We turned the tables on the governor, who had jokingly proph- ssied that when the pygmies came back they would be giants. What he meant 10 imply was that We had merely taken boys. He had found IL almost Llnlp0S- sible to believe that the real pygmies .ould be persuaded to leave their homes In so short a time. He had not known the peculiar advantages my previous residence in their country had given ne in presenting the matter to them. nor did he appreciate the persuasive Influence of the great quantities of salt which I had taken with me. Salt Is their most precious article. In fact. he pygmies threatened to bankrupt the department of anthropology at the St. Louis fair by investing their saw nEs and what the public lavished on them in salt and In then demanding Tree transport for 1t to Central Africa. Governor Francis sent Ndombe. their ,uzeraln, a barrel of salt. which was enough to add five wives to hat potentate's already well furniah- ,d matrimonial establishment
 well. I had the party oaleially