Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1914-03-05
CRAWFORD TELLS
OF The BANTUS
African Missionary Heard In
Lecture at Luncheon at
the Y. M. G. A.
CALLS CIVILIZATION VILE
Loves His Work in the Dark Cont
nent and is Going Back Never
to Return.

/ Dan Crawford. for % years ihls-
sfonary to Africa, and the first whi'e
man to follow in the footsteps OF the
great David Livingston, addressed
large gathering at luncheon in the BAN
auet hall of the Y. NJ. c. A. at noon
today. The adjective that best flts
him is unconventiona.-he is unique IN
/ his way of presenting thing but MS
| manner is such that he grips the III
| terest of his auditor and holds II there
and compels it to follow him through
| the story of his efforts to take to the
black man the gospel of Christ Jesus
! He is of medium height, stocky and
! square Sc. with beard cut in the
| French style. he has kindly blue eyes,
is quick, nervous and alert and full
of fun, and tells of his % years in the
very heart of Africa, 200 miles farther
than Livingston ever reached, as II II
| is the most delightful experience one
can imagine. He laughs atsour vile
I thing" called civilization where one
must wear a stiff collar and have ar
| tificial light, and where one hears the
shrek of the engine and the noise of
civilization.
Must "Bore in"
In speaking of his life he divided
his subject into three parts, boring
in, shut in" and boring OUT but he
speaks principally of the first, Dor.
rowing the phrase from the manner
in which one must get to the l-.art Cs
the dark continent. There grows in
Africa a tall grass Is feet tall, which
must be parted and bent back in order
to penetrate and which shuts after one
like a curtain. After 90 years of con- |
tinuous work in Africa he conceived a
great desire to see his aged mother !
and so strong grew the desire that he !
deserted his beloved country and went
back to Scotland. He said he felt like |
a renegade and his greatest desire was |
20 return TO his Bantus.
He has not worked in Africa in vain |
for result of his efforts so miles of |
roads have been built, many miles of |
building frontage have been erected |
and he has already built five schools. |
The building of the schools was the |
beginning of the miles of roads, for |
lions are fond of little black people
called the number grew less and when |
he Investigated the cause he found
little punches of black woolly hair
among the tall grass that told the
story.
His work has been the translating
or the scriptures, a task of great re-
sponsibility because of the lack of a
grammar, or a written language and
the reluctance that the natives at first
showed to accept the teaching of
white man. Dan Crawford has written
a book Thinking Black in which he
tries to place himself a. the back of
the black mans brain and look at the
world through his eyes, and he de-
clares he is a good niger
No Record of Time.
In the Bantu country there is no
record of time and Mr.. Crawford has
fallen into the usage of the country
and begins all his stories with 1.-THE
other day" which may have been years I
ago. and common phrase is mot long :
ago which may have been 30 years
ago, just as story teller says "once ,
upon time
MT. Crawford's mission to this coun-
Try Is to interest people in the estab- q
fishing of schools in far away Africa
and he made an earnest plea for help
a-o1g this line
He is on his way back to Africa /
rom where he never expects to re-
turn. where he will devote the rest of Y
MS HE to the spreading of the gospel O
OF Jesus Christ among the Bantus J
whom he has come to love. i.