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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1928-09-27, Page 3NOT 0( QI IN $UDA14.77. But the Captain Made It Good After We Shaved,' layaFRANOIS FL'OOT:y A map of Africa if it's a big ZU P-- turn up a stone in the, Sudan yau'll will show 'a dot called Abechir,. It's ..almost in the exact centre'of the nark' Continent, on the, southern edge aft the Sahara Desert. This forlorn little spot in the black heart of Africa is not an inviting looking locus' to the 'avetrage Person who has 'neves" 'been there— and still less to' one who has,' But to us Abechir 'seemed the end of the rainbow trail... At least it was the peak of the 'arch,. with: obip` the downhill slide to the pot of';;gc1d at the end. There would be a little store at Abechir, our our first opportetnity in 2,000 miles or six weeps' time to buy anything at all except long-legged chickens and long-lived eggs. An automobile expedition had once made the trip Prom Abechir to the Red Sea. Thus if we had no trail we at least had a precedent tat follow. It is true, the head of that 'expedition, an •Englishman and a member 4f Par- liament, wrote a book about his trip, and it was not a good roads ad by any means. He, too, had.:crossed Africa,. but by a more" southerly and much easier route than we. And the dark- est pages of his book were about that part of his trip between Abechir .and El Obeid, where we had ' yet to go. But Jim and /had proved, tb ourselves • at least, that we could travel on our motorcycles absolutely any place an automobile could go. The worst auto reports we could get would be ,good news for us. The gasoline problem threatened us again. We towed one bike behind the other whenever it was at all possible and finally reached a little grassel- vil- lage called Hemmina, only miles 'from Abechir. It was almost dark. We had just enough gasoline to run one motorcycle the fifteen miles into town. Jim took that and started out, promising to send some gasoline back on a native's head for me or to bring it himself on. a horse. I tried to get a dozen villagers to tow my machine on into Abechir, or at least until we met the gasoline coming back and argued in the sign language until I was almost oven offeredblack in the face as they. them money, but they were afraid of the lions in that lonely land at night. In English and French I might have convinced them that I wasn't afraid myself, but it's hard to lie in signs. They towed me to a little round mud hut a half -utile from the village, and suggested that I stop there for the night. I sent the curious crowd away with instructions to bring me water, a chicken. and, some eggs. A few min- utes later two dusky knave's, a half-' dozen boys and a young woman re- turned. The two men were in the uniform of a French soldier; that is one wore the trousers and the other the coat. They knew a few words of French and explained that the chief had sent them to guard me during the night and the boys to bring the water and chickens and eggs. The young black female was a special gift from the chief that I might be assured of his hospitality and feel entirely wel- come and at home as long as. I re- mained in his village. I sent the whole troupe back with my compliments and gave my guards a few francs to pay the chief for his provisions. Au hour later the zealous black guards returned with half a cala- bash of strong smelling liquor they had purchased with my money. They were .bound to guard me and were already drunk enough to insist ,on obeying their chief's commands. I rolled the motorcycle into the open doorway of my mud house and spread niy blanket on the sandy floor inside. I had no gun, but I parked the hatchet near at hand and tried to justify ,this precaution by arguing that the lions I hearts out `lit the bush might try to find a Greek merchant," promised the French Comniandant at Abechir. "/iut don't think this car means you'11:have good reads the.rest pf, tike •way, From EI Faaher to .E1 Obeid you'll' need to be towed, That's 'about -500 . miles." This pessimistic prophecy was second- ed by his two lieutenants, who had never been over the road himself, but who knew all about it, • After. two or three days arguing with these irreconcilables, who would believe everything bad abqut.• Prohl bition and nothing good,' Jtzii' and I started ,out again. 'We made over.100 miles the first day to Andre, the last French fort.' Geneina, the, fust British outpost in. the Anglo-Egyptian, Sutton, was only about 20 miles away --and thatreminded its of , our passports. Our all-inclusive British vise for which we'd paid $10 each, and all British Colonies, territories,"•mandates. , and protectorates, including Iraq and. Pale- stine. Not good for the Sudan." It was as big a coverage as a patent medicine cure-all from cancer to housemaid's knee, but j}tst like those same medicines, it wasn't:, good for what ailed us. If the passport had saki nothing about the Sudan we'd have taken a chance, but since it went out of its way to provide specifically the Sudan"—we could only take a chance anyway.', "They'll probably send you back to Lagos and the West Coast where you started from,"' said the Captain at Adre en the French side of the bor- der. "You can fight the desert and jungle and drouth and hear all over again." "Never again," vowed Jim. "Or you can stay where you are, here in our Sahara," continued the Captain, looking out over a valley of desolation he called a lake. "Not that," I said. "Then you'll just have to slip on over the line to Geneina and ask Cap- tain Evans to fix you up a passport vise. He can get it all right if he wants to." The next day we reached the bor- der and British territory again, the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. There was only a sandy •caravan trail and not an officer or even a traveler in sight, but Jim immediately crossed over to the left side of the road. "Remember the English trail,: rules," he warned me. "The right side of the road is the left again now." We didn't break any speed laws in that deep, soft sand. We chugged right up to the house of the resident as soon as we reach- ed Geneina, and I think our little Eng- lish motors hummed a jolly "Fee Fi Fo Fum" all the way. to that English- man. It was a real house, too, with even an attempt at a hedge and a lawn. that only a Briton would brave in that desert of desolation and drouth. We knocked on the first door we'd seen in any house for weeks, and a black houseboy, in a clean white gown, a neat, green turban on his head and a sash of the same mate- rial corseted about his midriff bowed us plump into civilization again. There ,were rugs on the floor, real pictures on a decorated wall and some magazines, in English, beside a big unholstered chair. There was a book- case to astound us, and this lone Eng- lishman nglishman standing guard on the rag- ged. fringe of Empire had even hung some tidy bits of drape about the first glass windows we had seen in a thousand miles of travel. Then, to complete this transplanting of Merry England itself there in the heart of the Dark Continent the black "boy" brought its a pot of tea and a little plate• of cakes and announced that the • Captain was just now coming from the tennis court. An English- man Is., always Englishand he'll hang come inside. • onto his home standards of comfort "Zip. Bing!" A kaki and a roar, Canadian Huskies for Byrd Expedition The Golf oma at the training schools? That's pro. + gressive, isn't it? I suppose it Wilk Piave to mean shorter cruises at seat One of the People We Know lu,fact, probably lessen the use of iiia navy for rhea purposes, But it will Because We Can't raise the standard" Help' It "x suppose so," T answered. ` "Did We ride in and out pretty often to. You read about this etraordlnary mur' gather, he ,and 1,'on a suburban train. der case cm Long Island?" ' ! "No," he said, "T never read mar, !Mat's' ikow 1 came � to talk to •hitt, No, "Fine morning," 1 Said as I setclown :der cases, ''They don't interest me,b; 1 think.•the whole continent newspaper, ahem yesterday and opened a Iss getting over occupied with them--ae newspaper, '"Great!"he answered, "the grass is I "Yes, but this case had such .odd drying out fast now after all this rain' features—" and the greens will soon be all right I "Oh, they all have," be replied, with • Aa S kf� L to play." "Yes," I said. "For -the matter of that," Raid my uld begin to play air of weariness, "Each one Is just boomed by the papers to make a sensation—'" friend, "a. man ,co, "I know, but in this case it seems at six in the morning easily. In fact, that the man Was killed with a blow I've often. wondered that there's so from a golf club." little golf played before breakfast. We "What's that? Eh, what's that? happened to be 'talking about golf, a Killed himwith a blow from a golf few of us that night—I don't know club! '" how It came up—and we were saying "Yes, some kind of club—" that it seems a pity that some of the "I wonder if it was an iron let me best part of the day, say, from five see the paper—though, for the matter o'clock to seven -thirty, is never used." of that, I imagine that a blow with "That's true," I answered, and, then, even a wooden driver, let alone one of to shift the subject, I said, looking out ithe t say el -handled drivers—where eronsy jjust says ea ofthe Window: "It's a pretty bit of country just blow with golf club.' It's a pity the here, isn't' ic't" paprs don't write these things up with "It is," he replied, "but it seems more detail, isn't it? But perhaps it a shame they make no use of it --just will be better in the afternoon a few market gardens and things like paper... . that. Why, I noticed along here acres "I•Iave you played golf much?" I and acres of just glass—some kind inquired. I saw it was no use to talk of houses for plants or something— of anything else. and whole fields full of lettuce and "No," answered my companion. "I things like that. It's a pity they don't am sorry to say I haven't. You see, make something of it. I was remark- I began late. I've only played twenty ing only the other day as I came along years, twenty-one if you count this in the train. with a friend of mine, year. I don't know what I was doing. that you could easily lay out an 18- I wasted about half my life. In fact, hole course anywhere here." it wasn't till I was well over thirty "Could you?" I said. that I caught on to the game. I sup - "Oh, yes. This ground, you know, pose a lot of us look back over our is an excellent light soil to shovel up lives that way and realize what we into bunkers. You could drive some have lost. big ditches through it and make one "And even as it is," he continued, or two deep holes—the kind they have "1 don't get much chance to play. Al on some of the French links. In fact, the best I can only manage about improve it to any extent." four afternoons a week, though of I glanced at my morning paper. "1 course I get most of Saturday and all see," I said, "that it is again rumored of Sunday. I get my holiday in the that Lloyd George is at last definite- summer, but it's only a month, and ly to retire." that's nothing. In the winter I man. "Funny thing about Lloyd George," age to take a run South for a game answered my friend. "He never once or twice and perhaps a little played, you know; most extraordinary swack at it around Easter, but only thing—don't you think?—for a man in a week at a time. I'm too busy— his position. Balfour, of course, was that's the plain truth of it," He sigh very different: I remember when I ed. "It's hard to leave the office be was over in Scotland last summer I fore two," he said. "Somthiug always had the honor of going around the turns up." course at Dumfries just after Lord And feared that he went on to tell Balfour. Pretty interesting experi- me something of the technique of the e don't you think?" game, illustrate it with a golf ball. on When Commander Richard Evelyn Byrd desired dogs for the nee of the South Polar Expedition he, naturally, thought of Canada and it was to the North Shore of the St. Lwrence in Quebec and Labrador he sent his agents to select and purichese huskies. David E. Buckingham, V.M.D., consulting veterinarian to the Byrd Antarctic Expedition, went along the North Shore and inspected the purchases which were assembled at Hatrington, Mutton Bay and Blanc Sablon. The latter place, just inside the Quebec boundary, had a previous flash of fame as the community from which part of the news of the landing of the trans-Atlantic plane, Bremen on Greenly . Island, was flashed of the world at large. The dogs were conveyed to Quebec by the S.S. North Shore, of the Clarke Steamship Company, and at Quebec transferred to the care of the Canadian National Express. Two special cars were in readiness and the dogs, each in a private stout crate, were carefully placed on board and despatched to Mont- real by the day express. At Montreal, the tars were switched to "The Wash- ingtonian," and on. this crack train of the National System the Huskies were sent to Washington en route to the United States Naval Supply Base at Hampton Roads, Virginia. From that point the Canadian dogs will sail for New Zealand, Ross Sea and Bay, of Whales. There were 79 dogs in the ship- ment handled by the Canadian National Railways. ports and we slept that night be- tween clean white sheets. We were ready for the Sudan. Chinese Girls Combat Ban or), Binding of Feet and cleanliness, his sports, and his suck the sound of bare feet rlinnxng dress clothes as long as he'll hang =onto his bath, his beer and his con- genital aristocracy—and that means as • tong as he lives. Yoe can lead an ,Englishman into the bush but you can't make him a bushman No one could have been' better to us than the French during the weeks we were in French Equatorial Africa, but the French—well, they don't dress for dinner in the bash. We showed the Captain our pass- ports and trembled. The English are sticklers for law and regulations and we knew it. They will hardly con- sider a man born if there is the slight - through the sand awoke me.,in the dead of night. I seized my hatchet and peeked around, the motorcycle wheels. A- black man, spear in hand, was crouched behind the compound wall., Another shear zipped Bast my door and I hulled in my neck. Then 1 remembered that in the land of blacks the white mail's constant show et superiority and fearlessness is the only guarantee of safety and respect, end here I was cringing in the sha- dows cf illy mud doorway. I strode out into the dins moonlight and sternly called my guards to time for making such a noise. est irregularity in his birth certificate They were all excited. A lion, they —and our passports were obsolutely said, had chased a jackal inside the no good at all. Besides, we were "fool compound walls and they had thrown Americans", dirty and whiskered and their spears' to drive the lion and his ragged, and we had no dress suit for frightened prey away. Imagination runs high in the Afric mind, especially dinner. Clearly we didn't belong in when lubircated with a combustion of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan the way we looked. Priests, Supporting Opposi- tion, Driven From Temples Chengchow, China. — Footbinding here is being stopped by force. Shop keepers who were "urged" to paint their doors and gates a "Nationalist blue" do not resent the new reforms nearly so much as the young women and girls who have had their tightly wound foot cloths forcibly removed by the authorities in the street. In the country districts of Honan province much trouble has been caused front time to time by an or- ganization called the Miao lao Kui, which has been urging the women to cling to'their old-time custom of bind: so as to get a new start. Then I ing their feet despite all the orders When anything goes wrong I take it soo as to againeta from st newspaper. to the contrary by government offs- for granted that it is my fault. And Look this,"atI said, newspaper. tor a cials. Henrietta always thinks so, too." „ This movement was launched by –: the priests, who have been driven from their temples. nce, ou "Were you over on business?" I the seat of the car, and the pe.cuhn� asked. mntal poise needed for driving, and "No, not exactly. I went to get a the neat, quick action of the wrist ,.. � _ `golf ball, a particular golf ball. Of (he showed me how it worked) that course, I didn't go merely for that. I is needed to undercut a ball so that wanted to get a mashieas well. The it flies straight up in the air. He ex - only way, you know, to get just what plained to me how you can do practi you want is to go to Scotland for it." cally anything with a golf ball, pro. "Did you see much of Scotland?" vided that you keep your mind abate "I saw it all. I was on the links at lutly poised and your eye in shape, St. Andrews and I visited the Loch and your body a trained machine. It Lomond course and the course at In- appears that even Bobby Jones of At verness. In fact, I saw everything." lanta and people like that fall short "It's an interesting country, isn't it, very often from the high standard set historically?" by my golfing friend in the sub. "It certainly is. Do you know they urban car. have played there for over five hun- meeting some dred years! Think of it! They So, later in the day, showed me at Loch Lomond the place one in my club who was a person where they said Robert Bruce of authority on such things, I made Mt, a+! y, •. played the Red Douglas (I think that inquiry about my friend. "1 rode auto was the other party—at any rate, town with Llewellyn Smith," I said. "With all the talk people do about Bruce was one of them), and 1 saw "1 think he belongs to your golf club. death I don't believe we know the where Bonnie Prince Charlie disguised He's a great player, isn't he?" first thing about it.'; its himself as a caddie when the Duke of "A great player!" laughed that ex - Oh, sure we do. We know Cumberland's soldiers were looking pert. "Llewellyn Smith? Yes, he can always fatal." for,him. Oh, it's a wonderful country hardly hit a ball! And anyway, he's only played about twenty years!"—. some things." "Indeed!" "Yes• Atter that I let a silence intervene historically.* Montreal Standard. My wife and I agree perfectly about 3� Oxford Magazine Urges fear and bad liquor and f dextro to „Sorry, old beans;' he finally an- sltow off their bravery before a well- nouneced, "bait I cawn't recognize you was "le lion andti, pipeThed i odwnit from these photos in your passports. was lion" and I piped them ;down and told them' it was only a "chien.'• You're smooth shaven in the pictures. it was enough to keep You'll have to cut off that brush. We But lion or dog, don't live in the bush here. Boy, bring me awake for—well, nearly thirty two`pitchers of )tot water!" minutes, I suppose. "He's got us, Uop," mourned Jim. About three o'clock Sim melee back- s of Bill Thompson. We've got bareheaded, on a horse. A black car- "Shadeto shave." tier wag supposed to bo somewhere "Hethinks you're a lied," 1 told , his with he canons hgasoline on Jim,for my partner's six weeks of The moment he arriY$d we as flaming Bol- pis head.untrimmed beard w a pourede the gasoline into our tank, sheik rod, I had plenty of beard Bol - gave him the horse to ride back, any myself, and a long, flawing black started off. Since Jim had eomerkaway Maustaehe that looked like the spirit from Abechir without his tort;'; helmet we had to be back b of '90, . It wall the eighth of Febru• horizon, the sun got ary, and we hadn't shaved since too high above the horizon,Christmas eve, The. Captain was right. Itt. I3ou. Ratusay McDonald, t:otmer a a P At an Abechir we found a Gteek iter- chant. And a Tordl, "Every tirote ecu �� "'��!toil, ire visaed our pass- in Stanley Park, Vancouver, before a sptextdid gathering. The fellow who believes in predes- tination jumps as far at the sound of a honk.—Schenectady Gazette. "Babe" Ruth has ' forty-four home runs to his credit this year. But he made his greatest hit of the season re- cently when he gave ice-cream cones to hundreds of youngsters. headline. Navy ordered again to 'Nicaragua. "Looks like more trouble, doesn't it?" "Did you see in the paper a while back," said my companion, "that the Navy is now making golf compulsory From Coast to Coast We're "Brither Men For A' Thatt" Tax Upon U.S. Tourists Oxford, England.—A tax on Ameri- can and other tourists is suggested by "The Isis," the Oxford University Magazine, in an editorial directed against overseas visitors. The tax, the magazine suggest&. should be devoted to the Oxford Preservation Trust, which has been formed to prevent the encroachment of manufacturing plants into the uni- versity niversity part of the city. "The Isis" exclaims against "Oford baring her beauties to the kodaks of Kansas and Khartum, receiving noth- iug in return save paper bags. 1f tourists must come to Oxford eve see absolutely no reason why they should not be obliged to pay for what they apparently consider a privilege. The manners of those tourists are apt to be boorish in the extreme." New Southampton Quay Will Cost £65,OQ0,Q'Ol Southampton, Eng.—Twenty oceac liners the size of the Leviathan will be able to dock at the new quay just ordered built here. But it will take twenty years to complete the job. Berths for two such liners, however, will be ready in two years. A dock wall to' be constructed will be the deepest in the world. It will be 3,800 feet long and will necessitate seventy-eight concrete monoliths, each weighing 7,000 tons, being stink iu the river bed. The ereet.ion of this wall is part of a scheme began two year ago which it is calculated will cost X05,000,000. °•.fi.'tt\:,s'::�"�y`'. `: ��::' S,'c ; ����� 8�F' .«�,'� > a , .f abs, c.'xJ,;: y♦♦,r,..,- .yx,,,:o•t•0 �' x�p$j' „ "?<?•': :.'3;°:5,.,� .<o- , w, ..d., .,C;: 6. „y., , 'S .fir°�' '; •s.,� , i�`. `ik +, ah. `Ln'�W ir. � ;...: a.:•;ss..make n asked �.. : �.;,<s; ,y. ;�..•::> .;.�:.,.;..<. '.., ,.� .,who had be$ ,v.;�•••: ;: •�'�•wS.,,f,'vr':::n .�:h, y <, •,"'1 v:i:'�i(',+.kv: •`•,;�:v'�:{�«i+F.ii1C.awwR. n ., .,,..c,ti�.,;��.:s k..ar A man his after-dinner speech as short as Y • � possible, arose and said: "I am asked UNVEILING OF A MONUMEENT `1'O ROBERT B11RNS, to propose the toast of leMss Dc,catbou, UNV�Iand I ant told that the le L b r itta mlufster of Great Britain, officiated at impressive ceremony him the bettor.,'