The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1909-06-30
The Bald Spots.
BY PAUL THIENlAN.

Colonel Roosevelt's hunting trip
to Africa, the appeal of the Republic
of. Liberia for aid from the United
States Government to ave it from its
dry rot and approaching extinction,
the German enterprise of the recla-
nation Of Mesopotamia, our own
movement to fructify our vast "semi-
arid" and arid domain, the recrudes-
cence Of Cipriano Castro, now as a
man without a country"-all these
things, though seemingly unrelated,
point to the same final development
Of the civilized world.
Colonel Roosevelt will bring back
a story-challenging attention be-
cause of its authors eminence-
about the future Of Africa being in
the establishment Of white civiliza-
ton on the high plateaux-the bald
spots-of the Dark Continent. Then
it may become, indeed, the planets
continent-in-chief. .
The mass of humid jungle is fit
only for savages, barbarians and wild
beasts. Let them have it and rule
1t.
But the great bald uplands, with
healthy climate, fertile soil, no un-
solvable problem of insects and free
dom from the brooding spirit of trop-
ical fevers, are only sparsely occu-
pied by a%borigines.
1t is not necessary to murder mill
ions to civilize these mighty table
lands. 49,, ~. .4 .
" Africa's bald spots are as open, and
rich for white occupation as our
Western American uplands were
when the buffalo and mustang roved
3ver them in enormous herds, and
even the grizzly bears, now solitary
beasts, lived in large companies.
Liberia Is hopeless because the
American negroes who established II
have tried to live in the humid coast
region instead of in the high hinter-
land.
Modern Mesopotamia-a dreary
desert waste-is still scanned with
the canals which were. the reason for
the civilization known by the still
magic name of Babylonia. Put water
in them once more-the Euphrates
and Tigris Rivers still flow with their
ancient vigor-and a new Babylonia
can rise on the ruins Of cities five
thousand and seven thousand years
oldi =. IA II
Cipriano Castro once ruled because
he was backed by the small but hardy
forces of the sparse population Of the
table land Of Venezuela, which bears
the same relation to his country that
the Rocky Mountain region bears to
the United States. The men Of the
bald spot were better men than those
of the luxurious coast country, fol
Nature at her own full swing is a
handicap to man. =
The glories of Egypt and Babylonia
are household words. They were
bald, desert countries-regions OF
treeless and vegetationless sand,
where man, armed with the waters
of great rivers, could make Nature
and Life do his bidding better than
Nature can do her own bidding.
Man-directedy vegetation is superior
to- Nature-directed vegetation, Nand
therefore man is at his best, armed
with water, on the. planets bald
| spots.
And the same soil; as that of Egypt
and ,Babylonia exists on the back
bones of the continents. Much OF
most of these empires Of the lofty
attitudes Is desert now because, bar
barrie man cannot command the
waters. But these bald spots are the
future ideal centres of a civilization
able to create reservoirs, whereas
the ancient man had to depend on
rivers.
To make Egypt and Babylonia
blossom as the rose was comparative,
ly easy, for Nature provided the Nile
and the Euphrates. But all these
ages and centuries the finest parts
Of the planet have been bald spots, az
it were, because there are no mighty
rivers on the plateaux.
The rain Is there, but it flows of.
Highly civilized man can prevent
1t from flowing off uselessly. He car
| catch and store 1t, and, with virgin
soil, equable and mild climate, no in
sect or. animal pests, nc malarial va
pors, thrive as man has never thrived
before. ~.
Civilizations future Is in the bald
spots.-New York American.
~--AIl 1-6 Die H0I1co