The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1909-05-02


The town of Nairobi, the capital of the East AZ
rica Protectorate stands the base Of wooded hills
at the seth mile of the Uganda railroad from Nom
basa, the seacoast. Originally chosen conven-
lent place for assembling the extensive dcpots and
shops necessary to the construction and maintenance
OF the railway enjoys advantages residential
site. The ground which the town is built is low
and swampy. The supply of water is Indifferent and
the situation generally unhealthful.
mile farther on, however, upon the rising ground,
finer position could have been found and this quar-
ter is already being occupied sparsoy by government
buildings hospitals and barracks. 1t is too late
to change, and thus lack of foresight and of
prehensive view leaves its permanent imprint upon
the countenance of country,
Our train traverses the Athi plains, crowded,
perhaps with game than any other part of the line,
and approaches swiftly the long Of onestory ton
houses which constitute the town. Narobi typical
South African town 1t might be Pietermaritzburg or
Jadysmth of twenty years ago, before the blue gum
trees and stone buildings had waxed and multiplied.
The population is also South African in its char
and proportions There $50 white, 3lOO In
dams, and 1850 African natives The shops and
stores arc however, much considerable than
these figures would appear TO warrant, and are fully
capable Of supplying the varied needs of settlers and
planters wide
Narobi is also the headquarters of brigade Of
the Kings African Rifles, the central Office and depot
of the Uganda railway, and the seat Of the admins
tration with its official personnel. The din
ner Of the Colonists' association to which was in
vited afforded the familiar, yet central Africa not
unimpressvc spectacle of long Of gentlemen IN
evening dress while the ball given by the governos
to celebrate the kings birthday revealed company
cav with uniforms and ladies in pretty dresses,
senbled upon spot where scarcely ten years before
lions hunted undisturbed.
Every white man in Nairobi is politician, and
most of them leaders of parties One would
" believe it possible that center new should be
able to develop many divergent and conflicting in
terests, or that community small should be able
10 give to each such vigorous and even vehement cS
preston.
There are already in miniature all the elements of
keen political aud racial dscord all the materials for
hot and acrimonious debate. The white man versus
tho black; the Indian versus both; tho settler as
against the planter; the contrasted with the
country; the official class against the unofcial the
coast and the highlands the railway administration,
and the Protectorate generally; the Kings African
Rifles and the East African Protectorato poGce-all
these different points of view, naturally arising hon
cstIy adopted tenacously held and not yet reconced
any harmoni general conception, confront the
visitor in pcrpexng disarray-
Estates of Thousands of Acres
The snowclad peak of Mount kenya, 100 miles
away can on q clear morning be easily from the
slopes above Nairobi-a sharp serrated summit velned
and even motor car-runs thitherward by Fort Hall
and across the Tana river. On tho way there is
much to see. wild, raggedlooking, but fertile
giou swelling into successive unduations and inter
by fine trees, unfolds itself to the eye,
Scattered about upon spacious estates of many
thousand acres two Of coIouists, each
gradually making himself home and living in his
own way. Ono raises stock: another plants coffee,
which grows SO eXubcrantly in this generous soil
to threaten the speedy exhaustion of tho plant Here
are ostricbcs sheep and cattle, standing pacdly
getber in drove, under the guardianship Of