New Britain herald., 1928-06-12

| London, June 12. R-Wiyes and ! mothers need not be tied to the tea
 cups if they think in big circles to small diameters and start doing something to fulfill their stifled am-
 bitions while the thinking is going on.
 Mrs John Fletcher, wife of a
 mining engineer in San Francisco, came to this conclusion d year ago, while she was darnng the family socks and wishing that she was cX- ploring the wilds of Africa, the land of her hearts desire since a chance
 reading in her girlhood of a book on
 the Dark Continent.
 In moderate circumstances, with home. husband and a son to
 care for, her girlhood dream seem- ed impossible of accomplishment
 Nevertheless, she is on her way to Cape Town, to begin 5000 mile trek across the Lower River coun- try between Lake Nyasa and Lake Tanganyika. and on to Cairo. And she will be the first woman to make the trip alone, except for the na-
 tive porters and guides in her sa- fari
 Amid canvas trunks and equip
 ment in her room in London ho- tel, she told how it happened. "My interest in primitive peoples
 was first fostered by the weird sto-
 ries told me by an old negro mann my who nursad me as a child in St. Louis, where 1 was born," she said.
 As grew up negro melodies, 1he religious emotions of the blacks, 1 their witchcraft worship and prim-
 itive remedies for maladies, aroused source, and this interest was in
 creased when my marriage to a mining engineer took me to live in
 mining camps in the West and in Alaska, where l came to know the Indians and the Eskimos and en-
 larged my knowledge of primitive races.
 "We are in moderate circum- stances. and had to keep house, bring up my son and care for my
 husband just like thousands of oth-
 CT women all over the world. but
 when my boy reached his teens
 and went off to school, I determin-
 ed to earn the money for a trip to Africa. During four months Of each of the past few years I have taken job of some sort and have put aside my earnings towards the ey- petition.
 While I am in Africa my son is going off with the Boy Scouts
 on a sea trip to Honolulu and we
 are going to compare notes about our experiences when I return in
 October"
 From Cape Town Mrs. Fletcher will travel to Beira in Portuguese East Africa, and then to the rail-
 head at Blantyre in Nyasaland,
 where she will pick up. her safari
 of porters and supplies and start
 on her trek along Lake Nyasa to Tanganika Territory. This will
 lead her through some of the wild
 est jungle in Africa, where her only
 stopping places will be tribal vil-
 lages. From Lake Victoria she will
 follow the. accustomed routes to Cairo.
 Mrs. Fletcher's three canvas
 trunks and two suitcases revealed
 an incongruous equipment for her
 adventure. Khaki riding brooches
 and shirts. stout riding boots, a pith
 helmet and a warm leather coat
 contrasted strikingly with dainty satin slippers. smart evening gowns
 and a pile of delicate lingerie.
 You think l intend to startle the
 natives in evening dress, don't you" Mrs. Fletcher said. smiling.
 'They are for use when I<strike a
 white colony. where the British fol- low their national custom of dress ing for dinner. even in darkest Af-
 rico i"