The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-09-21
SALVATION MAN FROM ZULULAND
 GIVES LECTURES
Mission Worker Declares Africa Rapidly Turn
 ing To God

in command of the operations of the Salvation army in its aggressive cam paisn in the depth of South African juncles on what might be termed the Zulu land front. He is now in Amer lea and will tour the eastern states giving lectures on a subject he is we'll acquainted with-that Africa is stretching her hands out to God.
 Born in Elgin, Sctotland, of strict re- iisious parents. Colonel Smith heard the call early in life and went to the army's international training college In Clapton. England. preparing him self for work among the Dutch, English and other white settlers at Capetown, South Africa.
 After the colonel had put in several years work in the white settlements, General Booth, the founder of the Sal vation army. paid South Africa visit to view the accomplishments of the or xanization. What happened after this Is the colonel's own story, so ell tell It Yn his own words:
 'The work of the army had only been among the white people, for the reason that we did not have officers who could speak the language of the natives. The population then was about Seven or eight Africans to one white person and the general had practical outlook on life. Before he finished his Stay in Africa he had come to some very definite conclusions. He determ- ined to do something for those we had bot yet reached.
 Ordered To ZuIuland
 "He picked out five officers and or dered them to proceed to Zululand. l was one and was the leader. Can you imagine the holy boldness of the Salva- tion army expecting to take country with only five officers? The Book has said that God has chosen the weak things to confound the mighty-and God certainly helped our little band of five.
 Tt was just after the Zulu war. The power of the Zulus was broken and because of this the way was opened to us to go in and teach them, yet there was considerable danger of the natives mistaking the uniforms of the band for those of military warriors, as the route lay through unfamiliar country.
 I've purchased an old secondhand war wagon and nicknamed it the Old Ark With a dozen head of oxen we started on a 12 or 13-days trekking to our destination in the interior. Our program was to get up at three in the morning and travel for three hours and then rest. From then on the idea was to make the best of the cool hours and avoid the heat of the day.
 Natives along the way seemed very curious at the action of the wagon wheels. They admired the little wheels a great deal for they could not un- derstand how it was that the little wheels could travel as fast as the big ones. And this fact took no end of explaining.
 I shall never forget the first meeting held at our destination. It was one of the strangest meetings in the history of the Salvation Army. Through the interpreters we had announced that we would hold a meeting and all of the na- tives of the kraal, or village, grouped about us hesitatingly under the trees. The children wore no clothing at all, while the adults had on what could hardly be termed as raiment. The rythmical music and the singing soon won over the group.
 Majority Of Women
 "I noticed that there was an ex ceedingly large majority of women present and I was informed that they were married women. The natives of Africa, you know, think it is quite all right to have as many wives as they wish. I had one neishbor who had 42 wives and 172 children. Quite family!
 "Polygamy is one of the hardest things to fight over there, as it is the daughters who provide the fathers capital. A good wife costs eleven or twelve head of cattle at least.
 "The natives are mainly occupied as farmers and the harder work is car ried on by the women. For instance, if man has only one wife he has to do a good share of the labor, if he has two wives he does less, should he have three wives even less, and so it goes up the line, so that some of them don't work at all.
 "The introduction of modern farm ing implements has done lot in their advancement toward civilization and under the instruction as to their use
 Members of the corps, who are t~ained in that line, help to make the natives quite proficient in modern ag riculture.
 "A number of schools have been es- tablished and advancement in educa- tion is taking rapid strides, as the num- Der of the converts grows.
 "The problem of getting the natives to clothe themselves was rather diff cult 1 had to tell them that they must wear clothes, though if they did not have enough money to buy them, they must wait until they had some. Soon deputation waited upon me, and the ones who could not get clothing were laughed at by those who were more fortunate. Everyone wanted clothing in order to show the others that they were Christians. 1 went to a village some distance away and sue ceeded in collecting quite a number of garments. Upon returning and check ing up those who were in need of cloth ing l found l did not have enough to go around so l could only give parts of the garments to different individuals.
 "The scene created on Sunday at meeting was an odd one. A converted witch doctor had been given a skirt that did not fit around her waist She was determined to appear at the meet ing clothed, so she wore the skirt hang ing from her shoulders. I soon was re lieved of the problem of supplying clothing, as my young wife started a sewing class and the native women soon were making clothing enough for everyone.
 Must Give First Aid
 Missionaries must be a jack-of-all- trades when they are in the foreign field. Their training must include at least elementary surgery and dentistry as we'll as that of carrying the message of the Bible.
 "One time when I was away from the village on a trip to one of the out posts and had along with me the small collection of dental instruments, a