Daily Kennebec journal., 1913-12-27

Africa have passed. The dark
skinned jungle denizen has become
high toned" and is demanding all the
magnificent luxuries of the rich In
civilization. Time was when a trader
could go out with a few thousand
strings of beads, a like number or
jackknives and a quantity of gayly
colored calico and return with me-
dunn sized ship load of ivory or other
tropical valuables of commerce. Then
he was able to carry on his operations
and amass fortune with a few dol
lars. Now he must organize a COM
pany with thousands in capital. But
still there is vast and profitable field.
O Today, when competition and civ
ilization have reduced the game to
paying business rather than a gamble
for a huge fortune or nothing, the
trader must be prepared to make
much larger outlay in order to receive
somewhat smaller profits than those
enjoyed by his more lucky predeces-
sor.
Africa always has been the favorite
field for the trader, and would appear
to be SO today, if one may judge by
the enormous number of new COM
panies registered each year for the
purpose of trading in that country.
But if these companies are remark
able for their number, they are even
more so for the diversity of purposes
for which they exist.
Many years of the pocket knife,
looking glass and bead merchant"
have caused the native to banker af-
ter better and more interesting things,
and thus we have companies supply
ing them with gramophones, chewing
gum, hair dye and SO on, and making
a good profit out of it, too.
The great drawback to dealing in
gramophones is the large primary cost
of the article, to say nothing of the
care that must be taken to prevent
their injury during transit from this
country to Africa. On the other hand,
the Sramophone is thing that must
be possessed once it has been heard,
and thus commands a ready sale
among the natives.
1t would seem, too, that the craze
for hair dye is not confined to Euro
pean women alone. and travellers to
South Africa tell us that it is no
strange sight nowadays TO come
across a full blooded negress with red
hair.
A short time ago certain company
was making a very good thing out of
the high toned" natives with a pa
tent medicine guaranteed to turn them
white after one dose
Before long a rival appeared on the
scene in the shape Of the famous
White Company" at the same time
going one better than the original
! company by the inclusion of a living
advertisement. This took the shape
of an unhappy darky who. having been
previously treated with simple wash
of kalsomine, strutted about in a top
hat and smoked cigarettes.
The object of another company is to
supply petty monarchs in the South
Seas and elsewhere with disused can
non and out-of date rifles. The War
t Office authorities are in the habit of
scrapping tons of material every year,
and any one attending one of these
sales can purchase all manner of guns
for few cents each.
The company in question makes Il
| its duty to lay in a large store Of
these, which fetch a good price indeed
among the customers of the firm, and
visitor to Salvador a short time ago
was greatly amused, on landing, at
the imposing sight presented by
fort" surrounded by several dozen
cannon which were old in the days of
George ", most of them pointing the
wrong way,
A great trade is done In many parts
of the west coast in musical boxes,
footballs. sunshades and lollipops, to
say nothing of patent medicines guar
anteed to cure almost any complaint,
and served UP in colored glass bottles,
which are generally coveted more than
their contents by the suffering pa
tient"
A short time ago an enterprising
German firm, discovering a marked
taste among the natives of Africa for
pag.y colored flags, sold half a million
yards of bunting. two Union Jacks to
the yard (and all made in GermanyD
to the natives before the British COM
pany arrived on the scene.
This scheme is still proving a veri-
says: 1T would do the heart of an i'm
perialist good to see the effect in
Senegambian village after it's inhabi-
tants had bought 1900 Union Jacks
now waving from every hut and tree
top for miles around."-New York