The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1912-05-22
CANNIBALS ARE POETIC
MISSIONARY THINKS AFRICANS
ARE SUPERIOR TO WHITES.
Ten to Twenty Victims Die Every Day
In katanga, Africa, but the Peo-
Pile Are Less MaterlaIistie
Than Londoners.

LOndon.-The Rev. Daniel Crawford,
a central African missionary of the
Plymouth Brethren, has returned to
England after % years. life amongst
all the horrors of cannibalism in the
Katanga country. He Is convinced
that the black man Is in many re-
spects superior to the white man.
At the Aldersgate street Young
Mems Christian association the other,
day Mr.. Crawford drew some remark
able contrasts between life in London
and life in cannibal land. London
ers," he said, live in a double fog
mental and atmospheric. You are. I
think, becoming too materialistic; the
fight for bread is getting too hard;
there Is no God In anything. But IN
Africa they never argued about that
No cannibal would dream OF denying
the existence Of the Everlasting"
For many years Mr.. Crawford was
practically a prisoner Of that fearful
black kirg-the Emperor Mushidi, at
whose capital from ten to twenty vic
times were sacrificed every day to ap-
pease the tyrant's blood lust. Slaugh-
ter went on all round the prisoner, I'LL
the mounds Of human skulls grew into
hills. It was Imprisonment In a night
mare-"but now I am a prisoner held
fast by the bonds Of love-" said MI.
Crawford.
Mr.. Crawford Is q champion Of the
native-of his art, his poetry OF ex-
preston and his delightful imagery.
On the other hand. he Is the sworn
enemy Of the white civilization ad-
vancing from the south, pioneered. he
says, by the "ri7-raff Of the universe
and "the scum Of Dur race"
Illustrating the poetic mind OF the
black cannibal Of darkest Africa, Mr..
Crawford said that he had been ad-
dressing a meeting. and ended with
the phrase, Heaven Is beyond the
stars" He added:
1T was q weak little phrase-not
beyond the capabilities Of the ordinary
Sunday school teacher-but when next
I heard it, woven into the wonderful
poetry Of the native mind. they rem
dered It.: Those stars r the lights
he has left burning along the dark
road that leads up to his city"
Native mothers have perhaps a
much greater dread of their daugh-
tiers marrying into a Bohemian family
than have the sternest British ma
irons. Mr.. Crawford quoted a famous
proverb among native mothers which
reads: Don't be married with musi-
cians!"-the inference being that where
there Is sweet music there is a lack
of home comforts.
"They have a nightingale in central
Africa" MI. Crawford said. (which
easily excels the English nightingale
In the charm and beauty Of its song.
It's nest, however, is merely two leaves
tied together. Listen to him. say the
natives, gushing, gushing, with all that
beautiful talk-but he lives In q gar
ret!'"
When Mr.. Crawford left his camp
on the lakes Of central Africa to go
south to rail-head in Rhodesia and so
home, he left a land Of poetry for the
coarse materialism Of the white
mans civilization"
AT rail-head," he said, Il found the
typical R%hodesian, close packed, gal
vanized iron town with 65 bars and a
population of some Of the vilest white
men. These prospectors are a curse to
the natives. They destroy their faith
with a vulgar Ingersoll joke and teach
them brutal oaths."
Mr.. Crawford Is known among the
natives as "the man with the note
book and the walking stick. He
walks from village to village endeaV'
oring to open Bible schools.
A little boy who broke his leg and
learned to read as an invalid. spends
his time reading the Bible to some
aged cannibals, who will never be able
to read themselves. 1.-The boy" said
Mr.. Crawford, hates 1t. He yawns,
and would gladly never read again;
but those old cannibals make him go
on, and they listen to the Gospels over
and over again until some phrase
sticks with them and becomes part OF
their life"