The Holbrook news., 1912-01-12

lIOu tue COuIIOl Ol 4uAACy
 ~ the pernicious institution of
 slave trading along the
 northern coast of Africa will receive a severe-it is hoped fatal blow Tripoli is the chief Mediterran- can gateway to the Sahara Her trade in the past has been largely in negroes brought across the burning sands. with other Sudan produce. for the Turkish markets. The dealer in human flesh has looked upon Tripoli as his natural clearing house for the spells of the man hunt. The sultan, the pashas and the other jealous hus- bands of from four to four hundred wives in Constantinople have long re- garded Tripoli as the unfailing source of supply of eunuchs and other slaves so essential to the peace and happi- ness of their harems. When this last gateway leading from the northern coast of Africa to the slave markets of Turkey is forever closed as result of the present war between Italy and the Ottoman empire what will become of the infamous slave raiders so long engrossed in the rise and fall in the price of human beings?
 From time immemorial slaves, sui fering inconceivable torments. have been brought across the Sahara from the Sudan.
 You will find an occasional Arab" writes Charles Wellington Furlong. in his recent volume, entitled "Tripoli: The Gateway to the Sahara" "who will tell you of a route known only to the Senussi, that large fraternity of Moslems located in TripoH. who make proselyting wars and expeditions from Wadai to their capital.
 Along this route 1t Is said that never fewer than fifteen caravans cross the desert every year. which bring about 10000 slaves alive to tell the tale. and they estimate that 10000 victims fall on the march. Once on the secret route you cannot fail to find your way. for 1t Is lined with hu- man bones."
 Listen to a story told by a slave who escaped from his prosecutors and related to MT Furlong the details of his maddening experience:
 q was among those captured and taken to Lilahni The journey was hard; some of the slaves attempted to escape and were clubbed to death I was then 14 years old and valuable We passed many caravans. Some of the slaves were bound with thongs or under heavy yokes One method was to fasten from ten to twenty slaves together. one behind another, h,~ .bo-,frer thoir hoodc fbrOurb hoioz cut every few feet in long wooden yoke Sometimes one of these human strings thus fastened together would make futile attempts oescape. pain fully jogging in step through the bush or forest until soon run down by their merciless pursuers."
 Horrible Scenes in the Desert.
 Now and then as they staggered by one saw a man or woman, too weak and exhausted to walk, hanging limp by his neck, his feet dragging along the ground. his dead weight adding to | the insufferable tortures of the others hitched to the same yoke. "At such | times" writes MT. Furlong, unless i near a market, the sick are dispatched | by their drivers. who. not wishing the | trouble of unshackling a wretch. re- sort to the simple expedient of de- capitation. thus releasing soul and body at one cruel stroke"
 The slave traders started to take their human prey across the great sol itary place in the fifth month of the dry season. They stopped one night with a group of travellers. The slave who is telling the story wore a tribal mark. If the chief of the other travel CTS with whom the slave traders camped had caught a glimpse of this mark his party would have destroyed the slave caravan The master of the caravan knew this. hence the slave was gagged and done up tightly in one 1e -kha oou,al lOada