The Birmingham age-herald., 1921-01-07
M D N w o Nj E N
 A N D T H IN G s

Africa! What do you know about it? 1 daresay that most of you who VIII read this question are in the fix of one of our great American humorists who found himself in London.
 | If l remember correctly. Artemus Ward. 1 being billed at the old Egyptian Hall to lcctureson Africa, in his quaint way said; i Ladies and gentlemen, I'm billed to speak of Africa. but, confidentialIy, any of you can buy a geography for d shilI- , ing and find out in half hour more about 1t than I ever expect to know. ! believe my information on the dark continent is bit more comprehensive, but what l do not know about it would i'll volumes, although it has always fas- fcinated me. I was greatly interested in Livingstone and his travels, and later in the search for him by Henry M Stan ley, vino left a monumental work on tn- subject which l read al the time, but which has about passed from my memory.
 do recall a great deal from the really wonderful story by Winston Churchill, The River Wary in which first got acquainted with Kitchener, who was sent by the English government to rescue Cor don at Khartoum. The book stands ouv as showing the white mans power and perseverance, to overcome difficulties when incarnated in the person of d man like the late earl, who, after facing the terrors of the African sands and wiids lost his life at sea through the death- dealing qualities of the submarine.
 I also followed the story of Lord Crom- Lord Cromer. another Engishman who made his imprint on Sphinx-ike Egyp. and set Anglo-Saxon civilization forward in spite of the numbing influence of cen- tures of inactivity. It is true that he started something that has not yet been finished for the Egyptian question looms large on the horizon as one of the vexed problems to be solved since the termina- tion of the great war
 l read at the time and have since watched with intense interest the great movement inaugurated by the empire builder, Cecil Rhodes, the far-reachns effect of which no man can see, but can only, dimly feel it's portentiousness on the destiny of the black as we'll as the white race in Africa One of the strangest off, shoots of it being that out of it was born the Rhodes scholarships, which have at least made practical attempt to bring about better understanding be- tween the two great English -sepaking
 The Jameson raid was one of the most spectacular events in the Nineteenth cen still rolling on, and out of it was born the Boer war. the story of which will go down in future annals testifying to the courage and valor of the white men of the veldt and the dogged grit and per- severance of the English bulldog whose what may be the fighting quality of his antagonist.
 
 and the mighty world movements to be settled in this twentieth century as the aftermath of the English victories, must be left for the future historian; and yet it opens wide vista for thought which is of momentous interest to the Anglo even lift the fringe of the cur tain of the future of Palestine, and the dream of the Zionsts, or outline the tre- mendous conflict which is to come be- tween Christianity and Mahommedanism.
 I have only hinted at some of the trans formations made by the English. and have no space to take up the story of the Belgians in the Congo of the French in the German colonies The race for su- premacy between three of the nations was most exciting and was bound sooner or later to bring France, Eng land Italy and Germany into the dan ger zone of war. as, was evidenced at the moment stilled in the greater conflict are for the moment only quiescent. I have but little to say of the cry of Egypt for Egypt, and the later cry which is bound to come some day Of Africa for the Africans, and of the local rivalries among the native peoples who may yet fight among themselves over the question of nationality and disputed Africa, the dark continent, is we'll named for over it hangs a pail of ignorance which shuts out the vast , and it's peoples from the clear view of the big outside civilized world have put down these generalities with a view to calling attention to the fact that while I have read the serious his torians, and kept track with the works of many of the travellers who have opened windows into the dark conti- nent, none have made me see and feel Africa like Llewellyn Powys in about 10 pages on Africa which he gives in Confessions of Two Brothers" Now, l wouldn't have written this but from the fact that after five years in the dark continent he is back in this country and writing from a larger experience about i what he saw and felt. Take this for a description of Africa; It is certainly an .amazing country. this | country of midnight murmurs. of bur- ! nished ebony men, of spotted golden- ] haired animals. country vast, profound,