Omaha daily bee., 1908-12-21
A NIGHT IN SOUTH AFRICA
Scenes at n stopping Place for Pass
sengers on the Cape to Cairo
Railroad.

The dark comes down with African
swiftness, and at 8 o'clock the train stops
for the night at Choma. Instantly all Is
life and hustle. In an incredibly short
time all the natives on the train-and they
often number 100, either going to
or returning from the mines-are busy
making fires by the side OF the track upon
which to cook their evening meal. Our
own boy Is busy with the rest, making a
fire also and boiling water for tea.
In fifteen minutes you have the new ex-
perience of a dark African night, with its
brilliant southern stars. and the blazing
fires, each within its circle of laughing,
chattering natives. whose white teeth
CLEAN in the freight as they throw their
heads back in huge enjoyment OF any
joke. They are almost uncanny, those
cleaning white teeth. Everywhere just
freight and black, indistinguishable figures
and rows OF cleaning teeth!
The second evening we stop at s o'clock,
while 1t is still daylight, and 80 we get
a longer stroll. We have now made friends
with one or two other travellers, and a
little friendly gossip passes the time until
a meal is ready. 1t is so interesting to
know why these other travellers are there.
each in his way so different from the
NAoNNAC Nv AhCAhof WIN ~ =
interest nor surprise.
Here is a Belgian go,dg to Congo,
manager, OF course. OF some big rubber
plantation or mine. whose wife is brave
enough to accompany her husband into the
Back of Beyond. Here Is a native commits
sionsr for Northwestern Rhodesia taking
his wife and child to some distant outpost,
only to be reached after perhaps ten or
twenty days trek. One looks at the woman
with a sense OF awe. She Is young, pretty
and charming, and out where she Is
going there is no other woman, no doctor
within perhaps eighty miles, no other child
for her child to play withholding but
days and weeks of monotony and the 81
lence one can hear. We look at her with
awe because we know she is a heroine.
We know she Is going, in a measure, to a
silent maTtrydom, unless the man for
for whom she goes can be all things to her.
Later on the station master regales us ali
with an excellent photograph. and the rows
Of clustering teeth glisten more persistently
than ever as the natives gather around.
both awed and delighted.
Then once more we all retire to sleep and
next morning awake refreshed to the con-
temptation OF the loveliest part Of the
whole route. the hilly district between
kafue and Lasaakas. Kafue we had passed
the previous afternoon and gazed in sur
prise at the fine bridge across the river,
the longest bridge in Africa.
All through the last day the scenery Is
again chiefly forest and at one place the spot
Is pointed out where the engineer recently
alighted from his caboose and shot two
lions. while the train waited. He explains
himself how there were three OF four play
ing together quite near the line. X huge
dogs, and how, being on the back Of the
train, he got in the first shot and killed
one instantly. The guard and engine
driver came hurrying along then. but before
they arrived he had put in his second shot
and bagged a second animaI-oertrude
Page In London Mail.