The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, August 11, 1901, Page 6

THE SUNDAY CALL. OR a eolored man to be under the command of General White seems be a contradiction in itself, but such is but a very slight instance contrasts and variations which have made themselves mani- fest in my life. tle thought when I went to the Isle of Maui as a veterinary surgeon that my Jou had really begun and that many ‘weary years and peril from unenlightened man and savage beast were to intervene be: I again looked upon the place of my birth. Had any one hinted that I £hould be shut up for four months in a hole between hills and pelted with ninety- £ix pound shells by the enemy the smils of incredulity would bave shown what I thought of the prognostications. From Maui to Australia was my next move. Here I mined for gold and met ‘with several minor successes until in the pursuit of the yellow metal I finally found myself in Cape Town. Gold had just been discovered in paying quantities and the Rand was beginning to be talked about. That Rand, which was to be the scene and the cause of conflict between the civ- flization of the twentieth century and the belated bigotry of the seventeenth. No sooner had T crossed the Transvaal frontier than the disposition of the re- public toward men of my color immediate- 1y made {tself felt. We colored men were not allowed to enter the custom house. We were compelied to stand in a row out- side and our baggage was then examined. Instead of marking our baggage, the Boer officials marked the clothes which we wore as a sign that the baggage had been inspected and passed. Only colored people were subjected to this indignity, and every insult that it was possible to con- oeive was heaped upon us. To one com- ing from the British colonles, where no such discrimination exists, this was ex- ceedingly galling, and expostulation was frequently made, which, however, only brought the retort that men of our color could expect nothing better. The treatment finally grew unbearable, =0 T left the Rand behind and started for Mafeking, Over the long, dreary stretch of country 1 tramped and, suffered many hardships. At Mafeking T found Colonel Plumer’s column about to go to take part in the Matabele war. I joined it and for months engaged in the wild frontier fight- ing of that campalgn. The Matabeles are a fine fighting people. Their physique is splendid. They can endure fatigue which would tax the energies of our best trained men to the very limit. It cannot be sald that the Matabeles were ever really defeated. A compromise more or less satisfactory to both parties was attained and the Matabeles were al- most unconsciously to themselves trans- formed from fighting men to a new ele- ment in that mighty composite, the Brit- ish empire. In a short time the Queen became to them an object of respectful veneration and a wild African tribe had fairly embarked upon the path which leads to self-government and political in- fluence. The war over, the service of the Rho- desia Company offered no further attrac- tions, and my American independence be- gan to assert itself. I bought a sufficient quantity of material and started on a trading expedition into the interfor of Africa. With a native boy and a few ani- mals I made my way into the most re- mote and least Inviting sections of that part of the country. Large patches of solitary and uninhabited land gave place at times to prosperous villages and smil- ing and wall tilled patches of cultivated ground. The natives were all more or less well disposed, and as soon as the fear W0 ZVLV-MAIDEN S 2 N THEIR NATIVE CO}]’UME} (e 4 5 that T was a Cape boy In the servics of the Cape Government passed away they offered me every hospitality and kind con- sideration. This {dea that T was a natlve boy from the Cape, engaged in spying, nearly proved my undoing on one vccasion. 1 had heen hunting, and after bringing my game down went to recover it. As I raised my eyes from the quarry I saw ral native heads peep cautfously over a bit of rising ground. Three rifles were pointed at me and I was commanded in a language of which I was ignorant to walk ahead of the men, who thus conducted me to their native village. Here a court was formed and .I was brought before -the head man and his advisers for trial. All through the proceedirgs a woman kept shrieking something, the burden of which I could not grasp. At last her ravings grew 50 wild and her behavior so unre- strained that I asked of a native who had interpreted for me into one of the Cape dialects if the woman were really mad. This amused the Interpreter immensely and he repeated the question to the court. It seems that the woman had been clamoring to have me put to death as a Cape spy, and my ignorance of the lan- guage, as evidenced by my question, proved to be my salvation, for the court, being convinced of my inability to under- stand the language of their people, or- dered my release and I suffered no further molestation from them. There were two things which struck me mors forciby than anything else about the cclored aborigines of the African con- seve .tinent. In the first place their great phy- sical vigor, and in the second place their wonderful adaptability. They have a cap- ital of health to draw upon. They know nothing of the nerve wear of the present day and they can apply themselves to AN ELECTRIC CURIOUS THEM ALL FOR 7T ‘positively shocking” the way they are catching fish at the t of &4 the Bt. A alls Water Power Company in face of a jarge ediate attaches of the eged s have become so used to by electricity—such a stance, as running the of two cities without to urn & hand them- e in the habit of call- fluid to thelr assist- g the my ence when ver it is convenient to do so. v started/ out early in the seacon, 1 did not open until Wednesday, to fish in the legitimate way, but, falling to get any fish to speak of by hook, they de- termined o catch them. if possible, by crook—to electrocute them Since then fish have responded with such wonderful alacrity to the novel balt 4 FISKR EREQTROQUTION CATCHING THE FINNY TRIBE. that a few minutes’ sport will give the new fisherman “a nice mess.” The sight would bring tears to the eyes of Izaak Walton, who believed “‘art for art's sake,” who accounted it a more creditable per- formance to catch one fish an hour by patient, pain philosophic en- reavor than to slaughter the finny tribe on the wholesale plan in short order. At the power-house they take a good live wire, properly insulated, where the angler holds it, and stick the same into the water. Water is a good conductor, as everybody knows, and every time a fish comes within ten or twelve feet of the ecenter of disturbance he is conducted to the surface. He is not dead—he is simply shocked into insensibility by his sensational recep- tion, and If Jeft to his own resources would soon be himself again. But the cruel man on the ledge of masonry which juts out into the river around the power- hiouse, through which the tail race comes pouring, reaches deftly into the water and scoops up the unfortunate fish with a net. Perch, shiners, bullheads, crappies and an occaslonal sturgeon are caught in this way. One of the electricians who was dl- recting the mighty machinery which gen- erates 10,000 horsepower said that he had caught a sturgeon early in the spring which weighed twenty pounds. He said that an ordinary current of electricity was strong enough to bring the most ob- streperous fish to the surface in most cases. He had to handle the sturgeon con- sjderably more than the average before he ‘could make him “lie still and be quiet.” Sometimes a simple iron plate with elec- trical connections is used. It is hung. over the side of the wall into the river, and does the work as effectually as the wire apparatus. The law does not specifically forbid elec- tric fishing, but Game Warden Fullerton is going to see if the powerhouse sport can’t be stopped.—Minneapolis Journal, 12T 4L sCoTT work with an Intensity and power of mas- tery that is really wonderful. The boys that are sent by the missionarles into the English districts to pursue thelr educa- tlon come back well informed and com- pare very favorably with the missionaries themselves. It must be confessed, how- ever, that the latter are by no means the best specimens of the white clergy. It ap- pears to be unfortunately true that only the intellectually and soclally deficlent are employed in the mission fleld. The native African brought up in his village community is frequently very much more of a patural gentleman than the son of the small storekeeper, who, belng too lazy for physical tofl, and not having the intellectual equipment for home service, has been sent out to work among natives of remote lands. The imitative qualities of the natives are fréquently of great advantage to them. Dinizuly, the son of Cetewayo, the great Zulu warrior, is a notable example of this. This chief was sent by the En- glish to St. Helena on the breakup of his father’s power. He remained on that island some ten years and then was al- lowed by the British to return and re- sume authority in his tribe. It is easy to see that Dinizulu had the natural instinet to follow the example of the best social class in which he fouhd himself. His bearing is that of a British officer, quiet, dignified, unostentatious and with a touch of hauteur. To see him on horseback rid- ing in his district, his dress and the very poise of his body hespeak the aristocrat. 1 had become worn out with the contin- val labor and anxlety of bush life, and 1 made my way slowly baek to the more settled districts. All the way back I heard frequent rumors, of war Impending be- tween the Boers and the English. This 4 did not surprise me, as I knew that the... LINE THAT SEEMS TO BEAT e e | conflict was inevitable. Any one who lived for any length of time in South Africa must have been convinced that the fight had to come. The Jameson raid had done away with any chance of a peaceful solu- tion of the difficulty. Feeling ran very | high, and the Boers, particularly those in | the remote districts, boasted repeatedly that the time had now come for them to take possession of the whole of South Af- rica. The natives were British to a man, and some of the more powerful tribes were itching to get a blow at their hered- itary oppressors. The sufferings of the | Swazis, whose lands had been ceded to the Boers as a part of the Transvaal repub- lic, had been told everywhere In the na- tive kraals. These Swazis had been robbed of thelr cattle and had been made practi- cal slaves by the Boers upon the acquisi- tlon of the territory by them. Every na- tive feared his fate if the Boers should make themselves master of the country. Under these circumstances there could be no doubt where my sympathies as a colored man should lie. I pushed on south and reached Port Elizabeth just as the storm was about to break. On the first threat of hostilities the refugees from Johannesburg and other places in the Transvaal organized themselves into a body of light cavalry under the name of the Imperial Light Horse. To this body I attached myself. I thought that my color and my knowledge of the native dialects might render me useful, and, as a matter ZVLY WEDDING 4T ONE OF THE Mi§310N; of fact, T was able to render several ser- vices for the commanding officers just in that way. The body of troops which I jolned was conspicuous all through the earlier part of the war. Some of us wers with Builer and the force occupied in re- lieving Ladysmith; some of us, the squad- ron to which I was attached, were be- sieged in that city and others took a prom- inent share in the famous relief of Mafe- king, defended by Baden Powell. They were a volunteer corps, and having been subjected to the rule of the Boers in the Tran al were bitter, and were equally disliked by the enemy, Scott-Chis- holm, our first colonel, was killed in the battle of Elandslaagte. Step by step we were driven by the overwhelming num- bers of tho Boers into Ladysmith, where we were beleaguered for many weary months. The story of the siege with its heart- breaking disappointments has been told so frequently that I can add but little to the general information. It was only the most dogged persistence that en- abled us to hold on while Buller’s guns would boom up the valley on one day only to go growling down again in defeat a little later. We had our compensations also. Our victorfous sorties filled us with enthusiasm and hope, "and but for these we should have sunk into the very grave of despair. When this war is over (and In spite of all the croakinge of the dismal it cannot be very long before the organized brigand- age is broken up), I hope to return to South Africa and to enjoy some of the opportunities for weaith which will then be open to all comers; and I can tell the men of my rack that they need not hesi- tate to try their luck.from any fear of their treatment at the hands of the Brit- ish colonists of South Africa. AN AMERICAN TUNE THAT CARRIED THE | “HOT TIME IN THE ) TOWN" | BRITISH SOLDIERS HEN the British officers realized W that the Americans were really “going away,” out of the good ness of their hearts they deter- mined to give a big evening to remember and to “take them all in.” The big Tem- ple Theater, with its electric-lighted stage, where the song was sung which upset the British Colonial Secretary, was again opened up. A bar with dusky na- tive waiters in their white dress and puggarees supplied the groups gathered around every little table, while the offi- cers of both countries did “turns” in reg- ular vaudeville style behind the foot- lights. General Chaffee sat with General Gaselee and General Barrow on the raised platform which did duty for the private box. There is a song, known to every- body who has seen much of the army in the Philippines, that represents a dis- tinguished major general who at one time had something to do with governing the islands as inquiring at the eud of each stanza, “For I'd like to know who's the boss of the show; is it me or Emilio Aguinaldo?’ An anglicized version of the song, sung by Lieutenant Stamford, hit off the situation in China and caused the generals to smile by asking, “For I'd like to know who's the boss of this show; is it the Ministers, the generals or the Chino?"” General Gaselee made a straightforward speech without any flowery expressions, In which he declared his regard for Gen- eral Chaffee as a friend, stated how well they had pulled together, and expressed the pieasure it had become to see the spontaneous friendliness which had Sprung up between the officers of the two commands, and his regret that he and his officers were to lose so many good friends. He called upon the assembly to give three cheers for General Chaffee, which was done with a will, his health was drunk, and then the old tem- ple rumbled in its roof with the sound of “For he's a jolly good fellow,” General AT PEKING BY STORM. reply and ex- £ not ¢ should Chaffee made a graceful pressed in strong terms his bel that England and America be friends, but that they were friends and would remain so. He said; “Politicians may talk, ministers may tajk, Kings may talk, Presidents may talk, but, gentlemen, it will be all talk.” Then the Americans cheered the British, first the thres gen- erals present and then all the officers and their friends There is one American tune that i3 bound to go all over India, back to Eng- land and even to Australia, as It has taken the British contingent by storm. Wh the Ninth Infantry band began to play Hot Time the Old Town” everybody was on his feet In a second, wild dances were Induiged In, and the band had to v It at least five times, and then again later In the evening. From the very first it “caught on” with the British,. and now it has reached something of that power with which the famous #Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay” rolled round tk“‘ earth.—Sydney Adamson, in Leslie's' Weekly, &