Worcester Democrat and the ledger-enterprise. (Pocomoke City, Md.) 1921-1953, 1923-11-24
Peoples Column

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1.-THE following interesting letter
was received from E. B. Freeman, Jr.
of Norfolk, Va, son of Mr.. and Mrs
E. B. Freeman, both well-known here
Mrs. Freeman being formerly Miss
Mollie Lloyd, daughter of the late
Mr.. and Mrs. C. c. Lloyd Young
Mr.. Freeman is at present in West
Africa getting out hard woods TO,
Parker & Parker, a New York firm
Ed
i P. o. Box lat,
Secondee, Gold Coast Colony,
British, West Africa,
18th October, 1923.
Mr.. Edward J. Clarke, Pocomoke
City, Md.
Dear Editor:
Knowing your penchant for mahog-
any furniture you will doubtless be
interested to learn that I have secur-
ed several wide mahogany boards two
inches thick, which I am having made
into a circular table top, seven feet
in diameter. These boards have an
unusually beautiful grain and were
cut from a slightly figured crotch log.
When return home, will have this
top made into dining room table.
Mahogany boards are ridiculously
cheap here and I have about fifteen
additional pieces on sticks to take
home with me. ,
I have enjoyed reading the "Wor-
cester Democrat" very much and do
appreciate your sending it to me.
You have made a wonderful improve
ment in it and without doubt, it is
the only small town weekly that I
have ever seen that contains really
interesting and well written local
news.
Seccondee is fast coming to the
front in West Africa. It is surpassed
in Importance only by the French
port of Dakar in Senegal.
, The Colonial Government is build
ing a harbor at Takaradi. They are
utilizing the Takaradi Reefs as a
foundation on which to erect an e.
laborate system of jetties and break
waters. When completed, it \ will
have cost over five million pounds
and ships that now have to load and
discharge their cargoes from and into
SURF boats, two or more miles off the
beach, in the open sea, will be enabled
to lay alongside the docks and trans
fer their cargoes direct into the rail
way vans.
The Gold coast Colony is already
the largest producer of cocoa beans
in the world and the shipments Of
manganese surpass even this product
in value. Mahogany, gold, palm oil,
palm kernals, copra, rubber, coffee
and numerous other tropical products
are also handled through Seccondee
and make it an exceedingly busy
port, this in spite Of the handicap o.
handling cargoes through the surf in
small boats.
The semi-annual rainy season is
just starting and this means work for
the timber buyers, for it is when the
rivers are in flood that the natives
bring their logs down and we pur-
chase our stocks for the ensuing
half year.
The mineral resources here have
scarcely been scratched. Already
iron, manganese, copper, tin, gold,
silver and oil have been found and are
being exploited and there are large
undeveloped deposits of bauxite, from
which aluminium is obtained and
graphite.
Heretofore, the principal source Of
mahogany has been the upper reaches
of the Ancobra river, where it has
been logged since 1890. This source
is beginning to peter out. The upper
Ofin, Volta and Prah rivers however,
have not been extensively worked and
there is almost an unlimited supply
available from these river basins and
from the French Ivory Coast. The
present method of logging mahogany,