The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-06-16
Any White Woman Looks a Beauty to a Man
on His Return From Long African Trip.
Generally Proposes to the First One He Meets
and Repents Soon Afterward.
BY LEWIS n.

While there may be found here and
there among the native women OF
Africa one who has some claims to
beauty, as beauty is understood by a
European, the vast majority are ugly,
and even repulsive in appearance. 1t
is not wholly surprising, therefore,
though it is amusing, to hear a white
man who has seen no other kind OF
woman but these for a year or two
tell how his first meeting with a
white woman affects him after his
return to civilization. A ~stewardess
on an Elder-Dempster steamer
about the usual run of her class for
looks and personality-assured me
that she has averaged two proposals
every homeward voyage during all
the three years of her service, nearly
every one of which, as coming from
a man far above her station, she had
religiously made a point of accepting.
Out of all these mem forget how
many dozen in all-not n a ever
come back for her after he had
crossed the gangplank. Several OF
them had made return trips to Al
RIGA with her without SC much as
vouchsafng her a nod, but n who
had made the London voyage from
Africa for a second time on her
steamer had repeated his proposal.
No. she never brought a breach OF
promise suit, but a stewardess On an
other of the Dempster liners had done
50, only to lose her case on a ruling
by the judge to the effect that a nan
who had not seen a white woman for
two years was not responsible for
what he said to the first n he met
OF his return.
Usually the stewardess is the only
white woman n encounters on a
London bound West African steam
-er, but occasionally there are two or
three others and conditions are pro-
po~rtionately aggravated. I always
hear with increasingly keen enjoy
ment the recital of a California friend
CT mine-a we'll known mining ex-
pert-of his experience when thus ex-
posed. He was returning from an
eighteen months trip in the back
country of the Guild Coast, and on
the steamer, invaded home, was an
English nurse, sole survivor of a
party of four who had attempted to
take charge of a coastal hospital.
All Wooed One Woman.
ct thought I had seen a number OF
handsome women in one place and an
other" said B. in telling the story,
'but from the moment I came aboard
the Congo and saw her propped up
in her deck chair under the after
awning trying to hold her white hand
steady enough to drink a cup OF beef
tea the stewardess had brought, I
told myself that all the others bulked
as a clay walled pocket to a true ifs
sure vein in comparison with her.
Unluckily abouttwo dozen other chaps
cry fifteen minutes of the waking
hours of the two weeks voyage the
doctor had to charge down and break
up the solid wall of humanity which
surrounded her chair to let the trades
blow in enough oxygen to keep her
from fainting. There was a maj to
swing every rib of her fan, with
enough left over to chase every fly
that lighted on her over the rail and
into the Atlantic. After breakfast,
luncheon and dinner We regularly
drove off the negro allah and Shout
dered each other not any too politely
for a chance to pull her punkah. I
don't think that I ever really pro-
posed to her, but several Of the other
chaps did, and one poor devil made a
pretty serious feint at jumping over
the rail the night that she turned
him down. No two of us actually came
to blows over her, but the atmos-
phere of the smoking room was as
frigid as that of an iceboX, and the
only ones who were really popular
with their fellow passengers were a
chap who was confined to his state
room with fever and was therefore
out of the running. and the lad who
had proposed and been forced out.
by the time the Congo had been
warped alongside Tillbury Docks I
was entirely satisfied in my own mind
that 1 wanted to marry what I firmly
believed was the most beautiful, tai
ented and winsome woman I had
ever encountered; but determining
10 do the thing decently and in order,
I took the address of the lodging to
which she was going, and begged per-
mission to call upon her with my sis
ter. In due time the call was made.
Miss 2. was out, but at my urgent