Evening star., 1909-06-20

be sure, not few dilettante sportsmen have gone
there and have returned not only unscathed but
with handsome bags of trophies. But alike for their
personal safety and for the major part of their
fine collections of big game specimens, they remain
indebted to the straight shooting of another
of the splendid little group of professional safari
leaders, highly trained, expert hunters,-like Gun
ninghame Judd, Hoey, Tarlton the two former
who for years made their rifles win them hand
some tributes in ivory and in skins-rnen who
customed daily to stake their lives upon the accuracy
of their aim might fancy possessed of iron
capable OF meeting any situation without materially
quickened heartbeat.
But the fact is they know the game SO we'll that
they keeny alive to its hazards Within ten
yards of a wounded rhino bull in thick BUSH my
self have Will Judd's cheeks go 1ivid white as
the palor of DEATH but that it was fighting pallor
his blazing red brown eyes and gripping Jaws left
doubt of of-pallor come of every nerve and muscle
held under such high tension for instant action that
the veins were made to pour their ruby blood back
into deep arteria streams.
And Theodore Roosevelt himself knows SO we'll
what he is going out aganst,-must SO know it as an
intimate of Sir Harry Johnston, F. c. Selous, and
others justly famous for the last quarter century for
their work and sport in Central Africa the
American public may be quite sure he goes from
sheer love and lust of battling, which even the per-
odds that in history will to mark most strongly
and distinguish his administration of the nations
affairs, has left unsatisfed.
Went Over the Roosevelt Ground
CEVEN of the last ten months it has been my priv-
- lege to pass in Central Africa / have spent on
safari in British and German East Africa and in
Uganda, shooting. In that time / have covered
most of the country Mr. Roosevelt will shoot over,
excepting Mount ken1a and the section of his home
bound journey between the Lake Victoria Nyanza
port of Entebbe and the Nile port of Gondokoro and
much of the "closed territory along the German
border which he is not likely to visit
As guest of William Northrup Mcmillan, who will
be the principal host of Mr. Roosevelt during his stay
in Africa it has been my very great privilege to have
staff of Somali shkars, cooks, sices and messboys
who have been with Mr. Mcmillan for six to
eight years. all his expeditions through Abyssinia
along the Blue Nile, and the Sobat and in Somal-
land and all of whom have been placed at the dis
posal of Mr.. Roosevelt.
The Famous Mcmillan Staff
WHILE doubtless in time an equally able staff
w might be assembled, other such capable
organized group of native hunters and camp servants
exists in Africa to-day. And warrior bred they
all, even down to the messboys,-me trained in
their youth on the arid, sandy plains of Ogaden to
elephants on ponies and hamstring them with
spears; fanatic Mohammedans blood brothers to
the Mahdist .swordsmen who fell in wndroWs under
the machine gun fire of the British square at Omdur
man. and kinsmen of the men who for eight years
have held the frontier of British authority and in
fiuence in Somaliland against the Mad Mulahs still
more fanatca raldlng hordes, that Mullah who is
giving Britain the most serious native war problem
she has had confront since the Mahdis downfall.
Regal Wassama, the chef,-a chef Sherry would
be glad to owns veteran bearing the scars of
three Sudan campaigns.
Diana Aout, the head shikari (gunbearer), is the
man who thrust pistol down the throat of
wounded lion. to save the life of Charles Bulpett,