davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-09

1 results have not been satisfactory. We know that we have gold, silver and cop per, but the deposits so far discovered have not been valuable enough to pay for their mining. This whole country is volcanic. We lie here in a. basin sur rounded by volcanoes. We have Mount Kenia on the north, Kilimanjaro on the south and Mount Elgon away off to the , northwest. The eruptions of these noun tains have been comparatively recent and some believe that they have buried the precious metals so deep down In the earth that we shall never get at them. '
 A Land of Forests. How about your timber?"
 I've have fine forests, containing both hard and soft woods, and among them a great deal of cedar, such as is used for making cigar boxes and lead pencils. The most of such wood, however, is inland and at a long distance from streams upon which 1t could be fioated down to the sea- At present, our timber resources are practically inaccessible by railroad. This is especially the case with the for ests of the Kenia province, which con tain very fine woods
 $5o,ooo for Hunting Licenses.
 How about your game? Is this coun- try to continue to be the chief game pre- serve of the world?"
 
 swer We charge, you know, for the right to shoot here, and we took in about e10,O00 for such licenses last year. That is about s50,000 of your money, but the game is so numerous that the animals killed have made no visible diminution in the supply.
 q doubt whether there is a place on earth where there are so many kinds of game as in British East Africa" the commissioner continued. We have vast herds of antelopes, gnu and other wild animals. We have so many zebras that they have become a serious trouble to the farmers and stockmen They move about in herds of hundreds and some times of thousands. They are easily frightened, and, if they become panic stricken, will go off on the gallop, rush. ing against the wire fences about the farms and breaking them down. They will run right into barbed wire with such force as to tear 1t from the staples and crack off the posts. At present we have great game preserves where no shooting can be done. That Is the case along the railroad, and the animals seem to know 1t and make that one of their chief graz ing grounds
 How about lions?"
 I've have plenty of them" was the reply. 'but the hunters look upon lion shooting as the best of sport and many of the savage beasts are killed every year. The same Is true of the rhinoceros and the hippopotami, which are found in many parts of East Africa"
 A Land of Coffee. n
 Speaking of the possibilities of British East Africa, it may be one of the coffee lands of the future. Several plantations have been set out not far from here and they are doing well. There is one coffee estate within five mules of Nairobi, which
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-09

very small tract. Much of the grazing lands are now being divided up into tracts of 5000 acres, and we are selling tracts of 1000 acres at 66 cents per acre. If a man takes the first thousand and pays for it. the other 4000 are held for him, subject to certain improvements and developments upon the first thou sand. After these are completed he may buy the remaining tract at the price per acre of the first thousand acres"
 T understand much of your land Is being taken up in large holdings"
 That is so to a certain extent re- piled MT Jackson, but we are now dis- couraging such allotments, and would rather have the land apportioned in tracts of from $40 acres to about 5000 acres each. If the land is for grazing the larger area Is desirable. If it Is for grain, farming or dairying, it Is better than 1t should be small. As to our large landholders, the British East Africa company owns about 500 square miles. Lord Delamere has about 100OOO acres and Lord Hinlip a little less There are a number of set tiers who have 2OO00 acres or more
 Insects by Millions.
 How about your ranching possibili- ties? I understand that your stock grow CTS expect to found a great meat indus try here which will crowd our Chicago packers out of the markets of England.
 q do not think there is room for alarm about that matter as yet" replied the official This country is just in the making and we know practically noth- ing about it. We realize that we have some of the richest grasses of the world grasses which have supported vast
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-09
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By Frank G. Carpenter
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belongs to the Catholic Mission of the Holy Ghost. l rode out on horseback yesterday over the prairie to, have look at it. The way to the estate is through fenced flelds which are spotted here and there with the galvanized iron cottages of English settlers. As I rode on I saw many bumped cattle grazing in the pas lures. The grass is everywhere tall and thick and the red soil. although not much cultivated as yet seems rich.
 Arriving at the plantation I was met by Father Tom Burke and walked with him through his coffee plantation It covers altogether something ike 15 acres and has now more than 5000 trees in full bearing. The yield is good and the plan tation is now supplying not only the town of Nairobi with all the coffee it needs, but 1t Is shipping several tons ev- cry year to Europe. Father Burke tells me that the coffee trees begin to bear at year and half, and that they are in full bearing within about four years The ripening season is long and the ber- ries have to be picked many times saw blossoms and green and ripe berries on the same tree. In one place the natives were picking, at another they were hoe ing the plants, and in third place they were pulping the berries in a pulper turned by hand. The trees seem thrifty Father Burke says that the young plants grow easily, and that where the birds carry the berries away and drop the seeds the plants will sprout up of them selves. There is a coffee plantation near by of 3O000 trees, and l am told that there is fair prospect of a considerable coffee industry springing up.
 Where Men Work for Nickel a Day.
 While on this plantation I saw many half-naked negroes at work in the fields They were Wakikuyu, and were really 1OOl<fnP rrrnr .la arft1 new ground, chopping down the weeds with mattoeks and digging up the soil and turning it over. The sweat stood in beads upon their brows and bare backs and It also ran down their bare legs l asked the father as to their wages and was told that they each received four ru- pees g. month. A rupee is 33 cents, and this D1eans just about B cents week or less than cents for a day of ten hours l suggested to the reverend father that the pay was small but he said that the natives could not earn more than that sum and that even at those wages it was difficult to keep them at work
 I hear this same statement made every where. The English people here think that the native Africans are well paid at the rate Of half cent per hour or of rupee per month If you protest they will say that that sum is sufficient to supply all the wants of a black man and ask why he should be paid more Think of it, ye American toilers who be- long to our labor unions. Think of } cents day for carrying bricks or stone, for chopping up ground under the eyes of a taskmaster CT for trotting along through the grass, hour after hour, with load of 50 pounds on your head Think of 1t, and you may get an idea of how the English white man here is carrying the black mans burden! Indeed, as the Japanese say, it Is to laugh
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-09
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Nairobi, British East Africa. \ HAVE just had long talk with MT.
 Frederick J. Jackson, the acting 1 governor and commander-in-chief of this big territory which John Bull owns in the heart of East Africa. MT. Jack son came out here to hunt big game about 20 years ago. and he has been on the ground from that time to this. He has long been employed by the British government in the administration of Uganda and of the protectorate of East Africa, and he is now lieutenant-gov- ernor, and In the absence of Colonel Sad Ter. the acting governor of the country.
 The Newest England.
 Before I go further let me give you some idea of this wonderful territory which the British are opening up in the heart of the black continent It is the Newest England, land which has only had a life of about F years as colonial possession, and which. six years ago, was as inaccessible as most parts of the valley of the Congo. Today the Uganda railroad crosses 1t from one side to the other, wagon roads have been cut through the various provinces and new empire, which is to be largely inhab- ited by white men.s seems to be at its beginning.
 The East Africa proteetorate is for the most part prairie It is a great plateau as high as Denver, which extends in one sweep for 300 miles across the country and which rises almost straight up at POO or 300 miles back from the Indian ocean. On the north the plateau drops down to the deserts of Abyssinia and Somaliland; on the west it slopes gently to Victoria Nyanza, and on the south maintaining it's height, 1t is lost in Ger man East Africa. Right through the middle of the plateau is a mighty ditch known as the Great Rift Valley, which contains five or six big lakes and about it and on It's edges rise the volcanoes of Kilimaniaro, Mount Elgon and Mount Kenia.
 This country altogether is bigger than New England, added to New York, New Jersey Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland It has a population of 40O0, 900 natives, most of whom ten years ago were warning with one another. Some of the tribes made their living by preying upon their neighbors. Slavery was ey erywhere common, and one of the great slave routes to the coast was not far from the line where the Uganda railway now runs.
 Today all these evils have been done away with The warlike tribes have been conquered, and they are turning their attention to stock raising and farm ing Slavery has been practically abol- ished and peace prevails everywhere. The whole country Is now kept in good order now by only about 1900 police and less than 2o00 English and East Indian sol diers. A great part of 1t along the line of the railroad has been divided up Into ranches and farms Small towns are springing up here and there, and in time most of the plateau will be settled. There is no doubt but that white men
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-09

enough for food in a very short time. Before we can do much with the people we must rake them have wants and give them the desire for accumulation. We must begin right at the bottom, and 1t will be a long time before we can turn them into consumers of foreign goods or into & valuable laboring class. Indeed our natives are much worse in these re- spects than those of Uganda. There the people cover their bodies with clothes of one kind or another. They are intelligent and many of them will work to get money
 East Africa for White Men.
 How about your white settlers? Will this country ever be inhabited by Cau- casians?"
 That. again. is difficult to say" re- piled the conservative governor We have a few European settlers already, but whether We can make this colony second South Africa remains to be seen. I have lived here for over 20 years, and I am not sure as to how far any white man can do hard manual labor in this latitude. It is true We are more than a mile above the sea, but nevertheless we are or the equator, and the equator is not fitted for the white man. The only Europeans who will succeed here will be those who bring some money with them, and who will use the native la Dor in their work. I don't think any set tier should come to East Africa without he has as much as 5000, reckoning the amount of your money He should have enough to buy his land, stock it. build his house and then have something to go on. He should not start out with
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-09
All About the Great Country Which John Bull Is Developing In the Heart of Central Africa

, can live here. The children I see are | rosy with health, and the farmers claim that, with care, they are as well as they were when back home in England. There are some Europeans here who have had their homes on the highlands for 12 years and they report that the climate is healthy and invigorating. They are able to work out of doors from until 10 o'clock in the morning, and from to 6 o'clock in the afternoon, and during part of the year all the day through. As a rule, however, the sun is hot at mid day and one should not go out without his head Is well protected. The heat here is dry. The nights are usually cool and blanket is needed. At any altitude above 500 feet ice may be found in the early morning. and this notwithstanding we are almost on the equator. Nearer the coast the land drops and the climate is tropical. For 200 miles back from the Indian ocean there are practically no white settlers except at Mombasa, and it is only on this high plateau that they are as yet attempting to live
 The Governor Talks.
 But let me continue my description in the words of the man who governs the country My conversation took place in a long blue iron-roofed building known as the commissioners office. situated on the hill above Nairobi. I had asked as to British East Africa's future, MT. Jackson replied
 'It is all problematical. We have an enormous territory and millions of peo- pie We have not yet prospected the ter ritory, nor have we dealt long enough with the natives to know what we can do with the people. We have really no idea as yet as to just what our resources are, and as to the labor We can secure to exploit them"
 How many inhabitants have you?"
 we do not know. We can get some idea from the taxes. for most of the provinces have to pay so much per hut. In others places the natives have been hardly subdued, and of no province have we an accurate census The number has been estimated at from 100000 to 100000, but I believe it is nearer 100000 and possibly more"
 Give me some idea of the character of these natives your excellency," said I.
 They are of many tribes. each having it's own character and customs. Among them are the Nasal. a pastoral people who deal altogether with cattle. The Ma sal are noted for their warlike propen- sties, and in the past their children were trained up to be warriors. Then there are the Wakikuyu, who have agricul- tural tendencies They have small farms and are industrious. They live all about here, and you will go through their coun- try on your way to Lake Victoria. In addition there are the Nandl and many other natives who are both farmers and stock raisers.
 Altogether these people are in a low state of civilization. Indeed, it Is almost impossible to conceive how far down on the scale of the worlds progress they are. They have practically no wants. A strip of cotton cloth suffices for the clothing of a man and he can earn
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-09

herds of game. and upon which catte, sheep, goats and hogs will thrive. But we do not know whether we can con quer the diseases and insect pests which attack all the animals weh ave so Tar imported. We seem to have every dis ease that cows, horses or sheep are sup feet to in other parts of the world, and I venture we have ticks by the millions and flies by the myriads. So far our ex- periments with cattle are turning out well, and we know that we can produce excellent beef and good butter. We hope to find our first market for our meats and dairy products in South Africa, and later on to ship such things to Europe. The creating of an industry of that kind however, is one of gradual development. We shall have to arrange as to trans portation, and that means cold-storage cars and cold-storage ships. We have not gone far enough yet to be able to predict what we can do."
 Fiber Plants and Minerals.
 'sWhat other possibilities have you?' I asked.
 ''I think we may eventually be able to raise coffee, and we are already exploit ing certain fibers which grow we'll be- tween here and the coast The plant which produces the Sansivera fiber is in- dizenous to this country, and it Is being exploited by Americans who are working not far from the station of Vol, about 100 miles inland from the Indian ocean. have no doubt we can raise sisal hemp, and know that we can grow ramie with out cultivation.
 '.As to minerals. a great deal of pros- pecting has already been done, but the
The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-02-09

CONTINUED ON PAGE e1.l
The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1908-01-03

I erick u. George Of Concord, N. II. Thu
parlor was decorated In white ant
green aud the hall and dining room IL
red.
Rev. q. s. Walker Of Amherst, a
former pastor Of the South Amhers,
church, performed the ceremony, using
the service with two rings. The bride
wore travelling gown of dark blue
broadcloth and carried violets. The
bridesmaid, Miss Esther May Dana,
sister Of the bride, wore dark skirt
and white lace waist and carried chrys.
anthemums. Ralph Rivers Of Potsdam,
N. Y, was best man. The ushers were
Herbert W. Dana Of Salem and George
II. Dana of South Amherst, brothers Of
the bride.
Among those present from out Of
town were Samuel Marvin Of Concord,
N. H., Herbert Fisher and Harry Hol.
land Of Hinsdale, N. H., r. @. Bacon
and Miss Marion Noyes Of Brattleboro,
VT, Miss Selma Pond and Miss Neva
Nash of Boston, Miss Gertrude Ncvins
of Englewood, N. j., Mr.. and Mrs. Her.
bert W. Dana of Salem, Willard
Mathes of Terryville, Conn, and Mr..
and Mrs. Delmar Jewett of South Deer.
field.
The bride is a graduate of the Am.
herst high school, class of 1894, and
has been for several years a teacher in
the high school in Brattleboro, Vt.
The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1908-01-03
SCHOOL CAPITALIZATION.
Fourteen Towns in Windham County
Benefited Under the New Law.

The last legislative session enacted a
law by which the state appropriated the
sum OF $4,000 annually, 10 be divided
among towns and incorporated school dis
tricts that raised and expended ~ cents
on the dollar or more Tor cure 4 school
purposes, as partial reimbursed at for
sums expended by these districts il ms
portation and board Of pupils; also / he
same act legal school," entitled : =
counted in the division of the pn
school money, was defined to be scho
with an average attendance OF not less
than six pupils during 20 weeks, says the
Rand. phi Herald.
The purpose Of this act was to encour-
age the giving up OF small, struggling
schools, with three, four and five pupils,
and the transportation OF such pupils to
points where larger attendance could
give better educative results-aD end sin
cerely to be desired.
After nearly a years operation, this act
has proved of decided benefit, according
to State Superintendent Stone and Others
in position to note. For one thing it has
enabled school directors to carry out their
ideas with regard to the closing of small
schools and the Capitalization of pupils
in way they did not dare undertake un-
der the old order. Now they can take the
desired step, with a law and financial ad-
vantages back of them. 1t has not APP
peared that many small schools have been
closed that should not have been or that
pupils or parents have been put to undue
hardship by transportation to larger
schools.
Superintendent Stone has just complet'
ed the division Of the $4,000 appropriated,
and from his report it appears that the
several counties have profted as follows:-
The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1908-01-03
A Unique Savings Bank

The Bradford Opinion believes
that the unique position Of the
Hyde Park (Vt.) Savings bank,
in investing all it's funds in Yer
mont promotes safety. 1t says:
The Lsmoille County Savings Bank and
Ttust Go. holds . somewhat unique position
in Vermont banking circles Its slogan Is
Vernon. money for the up.building Of Yer
mont industries. The principle is carried out
SC thoroughly that every cent Of the bank
funds 10 invested in Vermont, and the bank
never lost Q dollar on . poor note following
this policy. This Is one answer to the cry
that there is no chance to invest money at
horne.
The banks policy has been for safe in
vestmant rather than for . high rate Of in
tsrest and on the eleventh Of this month the
assets Of the bank passed the million.dollsr
mark. Neither the policy nor the success OF
the bank is so strange, when we know that
Hon. Carroll 8. Page, of cslfskin fame, 10 the
banks president
This bank pays 4 per cent. COM
pounded semi-annually on depos-
its of $500 or more, remaining in
the bank one full year.
The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1908-01-03
Vermont News Notes.

Secretary of War William H. Taft has
accepted an invitation to speak at a
meeting of the Vermont society, Sons of
the American Revolution, and the state
branch of the Red Cross society. The
meeting will be held in Burlington some
time in March.
Eugene A. Osha, 80, of Waltham, Mass,
committed suicide in cemetery in Ran
dolph Saturday, shooting himself with a
revolver. In the pocket of his coat was
found letter directing that his body be
two little children.
AT meeting of the directors of the Rut
land Old Ladies' Home last week it was
announced that Nahum P. Kingsley of
Rutland had given the institution gift of
5000 in memory of his wife. The mon
ey is invested in securities bearing inter-
est of 7 per cent.
The Brattleboro reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1907-1912, 1908-01-03
BENJAMIN billiard MISSING.
Evansville Man Last Seen in Boston
Had Big Sum Of Money.

Fearing that he has been murdered fol
the large sum of money he was carrying
the police are searching for Benjamin
billiard, 81 years old, Of Evansville, who
was for % years a prominent resident OF
Somerville, Mass. The old man was last
seen on Friday, the Goth, when he called
on Passenger Agent Parmalee of the Penn
sylvania railroad at the latter's office in
Boston. He went to Boston from Evans
vile to transact some business, and car
ried a large amount of money. The police
fear that his body has been concealed.
Recently billiard decided to purchase a
small store in the vicinity of Boston. He
left his home in Evansville, where he had
lived since he left Somerville four years
ago, and went first to visit brother in
Morrisville. From Morrisville he went to
Cabot to visit another brother, Rev. Lee
billiard. A week ago yesterday he joined
Mr.. Parmalee, who is an old friend of his,
at White River Junction, and the two
went on to Boston together.
Hilliard was very i'll on his arrival in
Boston and went directly to the home of
his sister, Mrs. Elisha Bryan in Somer-
vile. Noticing her brothers condition,
Mrs. Bryan endeavored to keep him with
he went out, declaring that he had i'm
portant business on hand. He called to
see friend in Fox's bakery, Charles
town, and then went into Boston to see
Mr.. Parmalee. When he left Mr.. Parma
lee he gave the latter reason to believe
that he was going directly home to
Evansville. He wpected to reach home
on Saturday spend Christmas with
his family. No, ing has, however, been
seen of him sine Aeither by his relatives
in Evansville or Lib sister in Somerville.
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