Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1918-09-27
NEGROES EMPIRE
GOES ON ROCKS
DISEASES OF AFRICA DEciMATE
"KlNe sA9s" LRaIoN
Steamer Which Carried u. s. Blacks
over lowed Back In Face Of
Great Odds.


Great Odds.
Brooklyn, N. Y.-How an American
negro's dream of an Ethiopian empire
in Africa became a nightmare was
related here when the steamer Liberia
arrived at the end of an 800-foot tow
line.
Two years and eight months from
the day it lifted anchor. the ship was
home again, and king Sam" and
those of his followers who escaped
drowning and disease are scattered
among the villages of the west coast
of the continent of their ancestors,
"King Sam" himself, according to
officers who were sent out to bring
| the ship home, has married the
| dusky stenographer he took with him
and has had himself elected "omahin,"
chief of village in the bush" where
he lives, clad in one garment, and
does a small business buying and sell.
ing cocoa beans. His empire" con-
sists of tiny group of African
natives living in mud huts in the
jungle.
The Liberia came In lowed by the
Zealandia, ship of the Universal
| Transportation Company, after mes
sage that in itself was one Of the great
| romances of the sea. When the Uni
versal company, in securing the seas
for ships with which to carry the
wealth creating cargoes that followed
the beginning of the war, learned that
King Sans ark was lying deserted
off the African coast, they offered, It
is said, a prize of $65,000 to any one
who would go out and bring 1t back
the six thousand miles to Brooklyn.
| Wrecking and towing companies.
whose business is to take hazards in
salvagicg ships. and even mushroom
navigation companies ready for al
most any wild adventure from which
money is to be gained, passed the
offer by.
| Eventually the G. w. Morse, a
wooden tug, started out on the long
trip loaded with less than half enough
coal for the voyage. It was never
heard of again, and shipping men be-
lieve the tug, its captain, his wife
and the crew are lost.
Finally the officers Of the company
made proposition to the crew of the
Zealandia, their own vessel. The
crew accepted.
Two Brooklyn men were sent out
ahead to disentangle the Liberia from
the snarl of maritime litigation in
which king Sans" peculiar system
Of financing had involved it.
In October the Zealandia drew up
beside the rusty lark" off Animaboe
and toward the end of the month the
long return passage, which took fifty
five days, began. Captain Miller and
his chief officer stayed on the Liberia
with a crew Of seven "Fantees," coal
black surf men from a neighboring
African settlement, who wore one
small blanket and no shoes, and who
were so lazy that "a hookworm is
chain lightning beside them" accord
ing to one of their white superiors.
The long return passage was
made in almost perfect weather and
that, according to an officer on the
Zealandia, was the only thing that
saved the ship In tow.
As the ships came northward the
"Fantees" began to suffer with the
cold. In November the ships stopped
at Barbaros for coal and there clothes
were obtained for the natives. They
donned them for comfort and not for
modesty's sake, but, on their arrival
here, tho covered with two and three
suits apiece and wearing head cover
ings all the way from leopard skin
caps to bath towels, they could not
endure the shoes.
In port here curious seafarers wan
dered over the Liberals deck tracing
from what they saw the story of
king Sam" and his voyage back to
the land Of black men, and they found
the ship veritable historical mu-
scum of the undertaking.
Sans "Holy Room" was the star
exhibit. A little twelve-foot room aft
of the saloon 1t was, where Sam was
said to have secluded himself when
he withdrew from the rest of the COM
pany for mediation" Outside the
door hung a sign lettered In gilt with
the word "Holy." On the wall hung a
crude oil painting of a landscape, in
the background of which were roughly
drawn red rooted houses and near
them three crosses against the sky.
Above them all were the strange
words:
"Whi Onyankopong Guiana"
And underneath the cushions of the
seats about the wall in curious prox-
unity, widowed, were q white robe
and an ironbound billy club" which
looked as IL Sam might have held It
in reserve to influence his followers
when exhortation failed.
In the saloon, backed against the
wall, was an upright piano, the life
OF many a clog dance and many a
"meetin' on board, but today capable
of voicing only muffied tunkSa-tunk-
funk.
Near the piano circle of a double
thickness Of liloleum had been worn
thru by heels of cloggiug darknes and