The Birmingham age-herald. [volume], September 21, 1913, FINANCIAL SECTION, Image 47

About The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950

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EWorld's Greatest Elephant Hunter Coming to America i
LONDON, September 20.—(Special.)
Your United States, as Arnold
Bennett called it, is going {o
have an uncommonly interesting vis
itor shortly in the person of James
Sutherland, the ivory hunter, who has
a record bag of 480 elephants to his
credit—over 600 if you count the fe
males—or a couple of hundred more than
ha\*e fallen to the rifle of any other man
Sutherland, who has been after "My
Lord the Elephant,” as the natives call
him, for over thirtten years, and who
has more right than anybody else to be
described as "the Allan Quarterm&in of
real life,” has just returned from an
other big shoot, which took him
through Ihe Congo and pigmy land and
resulted in a whole lot more exciting
adventures and incidentally in the bag
ging of 35 more "tuskers.” and he has
now grown weary, though only tempo
rarily, of the chase. Accordingly he
has decided to gratify what he de
scribed to me as an ancient hankering,
namely, to have a look at the famous
skyscrapers for which, in recent years,
our country seems to have become
chiefly noted, and will make the trip
across the Atlantic either next month
or in November accompanied by Cap
tain G. H. Anderson, of the l$th Hus
sars, who’went with him on his latest
expedition, this being, by the way, the
first occasion on which the slayer of
480 bull elephants ever has had a white
companion on one of his shoots. This
redoubtable pair, who, Sutherland says,
probably have seen more of Africa than
any other two white men, and have no
end of introductions to prominent men
In the United States, intend to spend
three or four months there, and expect
to have a fine time, though Sutherland,
who has something like a contempt for
civilization after his 17 years in the
"pori”—as its denizens call the African
forest—says he knows it will not be
long before he hears the call Of it again
—a call w'hich he knows full well he
will not be able to resist.
He really is an amazing character, is
this Scotsman who left "Auld Reekie”
—which is to say Edinburgh—as a
youngster of 22. just 17 years ago. Ac
customed to hunt with natives as his
Bole companions, he speaks five of their
lanRuuges. and ho has gjono «P
every species of big game resident in
Africa, not to mention having seen al
most a year of desperate lighting
against rebellious natives of German
East Airies, his stories of which recall
the most exciting pages of “King Sol
omons Mines," "Mlawa's Revenge" and
other famous Haggard books.
Forty today, with a countenance
which, though grim in repose, lights up
as merrily as you please, when he is
amused, a naturally soft heart that
many a time lias led him to march
weary miles arter a wounded animal
rather than let it die a lingering death,
and a frame that is kept In the pink of
condition by systematic physical drill
ami scrupulous dieting as well as by
his life in the open, James Sutherland
Is “as Highland as peat," hs he himself
expresses it. Inheriting the wander
lust from his father, who spent ids
early manhood gold-digging in New
Zealand and Australia, he left the old
country with no very definite aim ex
rept that of carving out a career, which
he subsequently did—In ivory. From
Capt Town his wanderings took him
to Johannesburg, and then to Mafeklng
and Matubelaml. loiter he roved north
ward to British Central Africa and
roamed the regions about Bake Tan
ganyika and the Congo, subsequently
going to Portuguese East Africa (just
11 years ago) and during these years
he followed some queerly assorted oc
cupation*, including that of nigger
boss and trader In beeswax and rubber.
"None of them seemed to suit my na
ture, though," he said, "and 1 still was
uncertain as to what 1 ghouhl under
take as a means of earning a livelihood
when I reached Poftuguese East Africa.
It was there that I decided to become
an elephant hunter, and, practically
speaklng, I have been on the ‘spoor’
of the elephant ever since^"
Considering that he Is in a class by
himself so far as hls chosen profession
Is concerned, perhaps a word about
Sutherland's methods may not be amiss.
With him he generally has from 40
to 60 negroes, including two expert
"trackers" -who alone accompany him,
with his spare guns, when following
the spoor of pachyderms, the balance
of his troop being of service in cutting
a path through the jungle, carrying the
hunter's camp bed and other impedi
menta. acting as messengers, occasion
ally fighting, and when a "bag” of
ivory is ready for transportation to
Sutherland's agents on the coast, con
veying It there. Many of these men—
whose pay averages seven rupees, or
$2.50 a month, together with food—
have been with the elephant hunter for
years, *hnd he declares that lie trusts
them absolutely. A lot of them have
risked their lives again and again ill
hls service though this Nimrod, who
has reduced the business of elephant
hunting to as nearly a science as pos
sible, never Jeopardized bis men’s lives
needlessly and in his 13 years of exper
ience has had only one of hls henchmen
killed by a "tusker.”
Sutherland's expeditions, mpst oC
which are made through what ‘s to all
intents and purposes unexplored terri
tory In Portuguese, German and Bel
gian Africa, generally last from six to
nine months and result, as a ''ule, in
the killing of from 38 to 60 elephants,
the explorer’s average “bag" r.f ivorv
being from two to four tons, a ton o(
Ivory, by the way, being worth in the
neighborhood of $1500 or $7500.
It^ disoussing the equipment of ap el
ephant hunter, Sutherland puts physical
fitness before anything else, 'in no
other trade except prize lighting, o!
which I know a little," sakl he, “does
the absolute control of one's nerves,
which Is the result of being thoroughly
fit, count for so much, and In elephant
hunting there are no seconds to fan one
with a towel nor to rub him Into con
dition. All the while there Is the re
sponsibility of having the existence ol
a whole train of human beings—many
of my men are accompanied by their
wives, * may say—dependent upon one's
mind, and there Is the obligation, too,
of having to Jump to one’s feet, how
ever bodily weary one may bo from
previous exertion when there comes the
cry of 'Dembo, Bwama.’ ‘Master, ele
phants,' and to cover from three to four
miles at a trot, through the roughest
of country, and In clothes dripping with
perspiration.
“Above all, of course, there Is the
perpetual ‘duel’ with the game Itself,
which calls for an absolute absence ol
•nerves.' Of all' big-game shooting 1
personally consider elephant shooting
. most dangerous, though there are many
persons who underrate its peril be
cause of the deadliness of the hunter's
firearms. Even considering this, how
ever, I consider ejephant hunting an al
most even dud between hunter and
hunted. Remember the elephant has a
wonderful advantage of being higl
above the vegetation In which one If
almost invarlbly obliged to hunt him—
for he fights shy of open country—and
therefore, is able to see the hunter
.irhU* the latter; la aurrounded on alj
JAMES SUTHERLAND
The hunter with a record baR of 480 bull elephants
tsides by fall grass which is so stiff
that it is all but impossible to step
from side to side in it. This leaves one
ship when charged by an elephant—a
thing that happens more often than not, ■
and the vital spots to be reached by a
absolutely dependent on his marksman
bullet are few In number and call for
the finest shooting. These consist of
the brain-shot, which must be made
>Ither between the eyes or through the
>ar hole, a shot In the vertebrae of the
trek or in the heart, and to stop an in
:uriated elephant that is charging
town .on you like an express train is,
assure you. no task for an amateur."
Asked to tell the story of ills closest
iliave from a "tusker,” Sutherland spun
lie yarn that follows. As real a.cliur
icter almost as much a poet as his
BY HAYDEN CHURCH
Tusks of 35 elephants bagged by James Sutherland and his friend, (’apt. G. H. Anderson
prototype in Haggard's hook, it Is a
wonderful thing to hear him fight his
jungle battles over again, for he il
lustrates every move of himself and
his prey—it isn’t always quite certain
which is the prey, by the bjre—and tells
it with a picturesqueness of language
quite impossible to reproduce In mere
piint.
“This happened in German Hast Af
rica in August, 1908,” he said. “All
day long I had doggedly kept on the
tracks of a herd of five big bulls, and
happenn+ng to account for four of them,
hapepning to account for four of them.
The fifth 1 wounded in the region of
the heart as he was bolting full speed
across a clearing, and he Hnmediately
pivoted round, lowered his big head
and, screaming with rage, charged
-straight at me. It was a moment when
the necessity for keeping cool was par
amount, so, patiently waiting till he
. ...
was within twenty paces of me. I gave
him the second barrel full in tlio face.
It tore through his left eye, hut failed
to stop or turn him, and the next mo
ment a vicious blow from his tusk sent
me cannoning against my tracker,
Simba, who was a few paces away from
me on my right, and together we came
heavily to earth.
‘ Before I had time to scramble to my
feet, the elephant had turned and seiz
ing me by my khaki shirt flung me
high above him in the air. Though
badly shaken, I was vividly conscious
of all that was happening, and as I
was spun through space, the conviction
flashed through my mind that 1 had
seen the last of my hunting days. I
landed on the elephant’s back, rolled
helplessly off and came with a thud to
earth, where I still had sufficient pres
ence of mind to lie absolutely motion
less to avoid further attracting his at
ention. T lay on my face with my
ower limbs beneath his towering,
mlkv body, my left foot actually
touching the toes of his left hind foot.
' experienced no fear of death I was
lot conscious of any pa noram i of ray
ife passing swiftly over my mind; my
leart was not even heating wildly, l
svas simply wondering * I ri which way is
le going to kill me? Will he kneel on
ind trample me horribly? Will he drive
■its tusk right through my body, or will
le, by some heaven-sent chance, leave
ne alone?'
“While these thoughts were passing
through my brain, the elephant delib
erately turned round, caught me by the
shoulder and flung me violently into
the branches of a small tree some 14
cards away, the impact at once knock
ing me senseless. On coming round a
few minutes later, T found mys *lf lying
3n the ground with Sinilm kneeling
•••••••••••••••••••••••■••••••••••••••••••••••••••a
An Authority in the Cotton World
(Copyright 1913,* by the McClure News
paper Syndicate).
A GIRL who went to Wall street
fourteen years ago. to work for
a week has become a recognized
authority-throughout the world on cotton
—a crop that now moans a thousand mil
lion dollars or more a year to the Ameri
can people. At, times, as a result of a re
port which she issues, the markets of
• New Orleans, New York, Liverpool and
Havre are violently agitated. Brokers buy
and sell tons of thousands of bales, risk
hundreds of thousands of dollars and the
change in value of cotton means millions
of dollars to the growers and the spinners.
Thousands of people accept her report
with as great a faith as they do that of
the United States government In the pre
paration of which a big force is employed
at Washington. She works alone. She sits
in .an office in Broad Street that looks out
on a w'el] made by skyscrapers. The post
man brings more than 30,000 pieces of mail
matter a year to her. She has 2,500 corres
pondents throughout the cotton belt. She 13
a student of the soil, a student of the
weather and a student of cotton and tho
plant. She is a statistician par excellence
and has made for herself a position in the
business world that is unique for one of
her sex.
The girl who went to Wall street was
Katherine M. Giles. She Is a woman now
with the gray beginning to show in her
hair. She was born in Salisbury, Orange
county, New York. She was educated in
the public schools. Most of the tuition she
got was in a school in Nyack. She never
has been to college. As a girl she had a
bent for mathematics and composition.
The Giles family w'as a large one. There
was eight children, six girls and two
boys. Every one of the girls has become
a successful business wroman.
The man who gave Kate Giles her first
job had worked in the agricultural de
partment at Washington. He came to
New Ycnk and operated a statistical
bureau to furnish reports oVi corn, wheat,
flax, oats anc^ cotton.
The principal work of Miss Giles was to
rule paper according to the needs of this
man and then copy the reports as he
workbd them out. She thought he w?as
wonderful. Being deeply impressed in his
business, she naturally studied hia
methods of arriving at the condition of
the various crops. Ills health was poor
and she did everything she could to ligh
ten his labors. The first recognition she
got that her services were appreciated
was when lie gave to her the key to his
letter box in the postoffice. That was
strong evidence of confidence, for a crop
statistician must be most careful of his
correspondence. Little by little her duties
were enlarged. In .the first year of her
service her employer had a serious illness.
The work was more than he could attend
to and he gradually gave up reporting on
corn, wheat, oats and flax. She took
cha rge of the cotton. She made up the
reports on this crop and sent them out in
his name until he died.
With the death of her employer she had
to look for another position. She got one
with a big cotton firm. Her work there
was of a character that was delightful to
her. Her employers wanted her to keep In
close touch with every development in the
south that affected cotton. How she was
to do this depended largely on herself.
The reputation of the firm w'as excellent
and it had a good many clients in the cot
ton belt but the most reliable Information
about cotton comes from sources that are
not intimately concerned with the size of
the crop. It was left to her to open up
new files of correspondence. What her
employers w'anted w'as accuracy. They
judged her by results. She remained with
the firm for two years and then resigned
to accept a similar position with* Charles
D. Freeman, who was the board man for
Price, McCormack and company in the
days when that concern was perhaps the
largest in the cotton trade in the world
and who, when that firm failed went into
business for himself, and became one of
the most prominent operators on the ex
change.
She had been learning more and more
about cotton each season and was broad
ening mentally. She is a woman of keen
perception, calm judgment and an exact
and painstaking where figures are con
ernced as a scientist is in any laboratory
work he undertakes. She was perfectly
satisfied with Mr. Freeman as the employ
er and Mr. Freeman was perfectly satis
fied with her as an employe, but after she
had been with her two seasons she got a
notion that she ought to get more money.
Every one else in the office had received
an increase in salary. She couldn’t quite
understand why she had been left out, so
she made an application for an Increase.
Mr. Freeman listened to her and thought
for a* moment. He was paying a fair
amount to her and probably was a trifle
annoyed because so many of his clerks
had usked for more money.
“So you arc dissatisfied?" he remarked.
“I dismissed‘a man two weeks ago for be
ing dissatisfied."
She assured him i^e wasn’t dissatisfied.
She was anything but dissatisfied.
He shook his head.
J A little later he left a note on her desk
1 would release her from hen
BY RICHARD SPILLANE
engagement over the holiday. In other
words, she might go.
The holiday was Memorial Day. Tt was
a sad one for Kale, Giles. Oi' course, she
told her mother all about it. Her mother
advised her to go right' back and work
just as if nothing had happened. Miss
Giles returned to the office, but was tim
id about speaking to Mr. Freeman. She
had had a few tears at home. Tears are
not seemingly in a business office, but a
woman is a woman even if she is a busi
ness woman. When she spoke to Mr.
Freeman, however, there was no weeping
on her part. She told him if he didn’t
mind she would continue as before. He
told her no.
“When you want to leave.” he said,
“you leave. You’ve done excellent work
for me. You can do better for yourself.
You have the notion of being independent,
of building up a business for yourself.
Follow'that Idea. You’ll succeed. Your
reports will be^of decided value. I’ll do
all I can to aid you. You do not need
many subscribers to your service to bring
a good return to you, I’ll be your first
subscriber.”
Mr. Freeman did more. He had furnish
ed all the correspondents of Miss Giles
with an agricultural publication of par
ticular Interest to them. The subscrip
tions to these papers he had paid for six
years ahead. JHTe gave this subscriptionlist
and the paid subscriptions to Miss Giles He
was as kind and generous to her as any
employer could be, but she faced the
future with trepidation. It's one thing to
have a salary coming in each week. It's
another to trust to luck as to what
momentary return you are going to get.
It’s hard for a rnai\ to give up the surety
of the pay envelope. It’s harder for a
woman.
Miss Giles wanted ten subscribers to her
service. Subscription to such a service as
she planned costs a good bit of money.
She got the* ten subscribers. She had
feared that the fact that she was a
woman might make some of the persons
she applied to hesitate. It didn’t. Without
her appreciation of the fact, many men,
had come to know’ that the repur^j from
Charles D. Freeman’s office were the
work of a woman and that the woman
was Kate Giles.
When she got her ten subscribers slxe
did a very womanly thipg. She wrent to
Mr. Freeman and told him lie had been
so kind to her that she w'anted to furnish
the service to him free of charge. He
checked her before she had gone very far
in her speech and 'told her he had given
his subscription to her as a start irr .busi
ness and be didn’t want another word
from her about it.
As her own boss, Miss Giles has done
things according to her own ideas. There
isn’t a district of any importance in the
cotton belt in which She hasn’t a corres
pondent.* She has selected these corres
pondents with great care. Some of them
are cotton seed oil men, some are bankers,
some are merchants, some are cotton
growers, some are cotton ginners. Twelve
times a year she sends to each of them
for information as to the situation regard
ing cotton in their particular neighbor
hood. It costs nothing to them to furnish
the information , except the time and the
trouble in the writing. She furnishes
printed blanks for them to write on and
the postage to cover the cost of the mail
ing. Each correspondent gets a moderate
compensation. In addition to answering
each question, she asks, the correspend
ent is invited to add such remarks as he
sees fit. Reports from 2,500 picked cor
respondents has decided value. But these
only form one source of information to
Miss Giles. She watches the weather re
ports for every part of the South from
Cape Hatteras to the Rio Grande and
from the Ohio river to the gulf with as
much intensity as a girl does the clouds
on the day of a picnic. There isn’t a
shower in the south of which she doesn’t
keep .a record. There isn’t a place ln#any
of the southern states of which she can
not tell you the amount of rainfall any
day, any week or any month in the whole
cotton year. She keeps detailed records in
regard to temperatures. She keeps track
of the acreage to cotton in every county
in the southland. She watches everything
in the way of Improvement in plantation
work just as she does the ravages of the
boll weevil and the army worm. She
SX_ -go Top Are DUeetiefieV Up Berner Iced
knows the amount of fertilizer that is
purchased each spring and over what sec
tion It is distributed.
She is conservative. She knows her cor
respondents are honest and well intentton
ed. Probably no one in the cotton world,
ever had a better lot thgji supply her with
reports. But she knqws, as everyone who
has had anything to do with agricultural
correspondents, that the vision of tho re
porter is colored at times by the sentiment
or tiie belief, of the people in his neigh
borhood. She has to gauge tiie human
element as well as the elements of nature
in her calculations. She takes her 2,500
reports and studies them, putting dcfwn
figures and comparing them with others
that sho lias already prepared. Then she
has to consider these figures in the light
of the acreage, tho precipitation, the
amount of fertilizer and the various other
things that enter Into the making of the
cotton crop. With all. her figures and all
her information in hand she has to make
her own deductions based upon her own
special reasoning and her individual judg
ment.
Twelve times a year she has to do this.
She sendp out one report in May, twro in
June, two in July, two in August, two in
September, one in October, one in Novem
ber and one in December. She gets out
her report from three to five days in ad
vance of that of the United States govern
meit. Sometimes the government statisti
cians hgve blundered agregiously. Miss
Giles working alone has been right more
times than the agricultdVal department
with all its facilities. In 190» her reputa
tion was established throughout the world,
by reason of the verification of her pre
dictions by the outturn of tiie cotton crop.
She immediately became a market factor.
Since then the Giles report is watched for
With deep interest. She has to go to ex
tremes to safeguard it from being made
public before her subscribers receive it
and before they can take advantage of its
information. She limits her subscribers to
twelve persons in the United States and
two in India. One of her foreign subs
cribers is in Bom bey and tiie other in
Viramgum. To the foreign subscribers,
the report is cabled. To her American
subscribers the report is delivered at nine
thirty a. in. on the day it, is issued. All
get the report at the same time, their
representatives meeting at Miss Giles’ of
fice at that hour and receiving the sealed
paper from her hands. She has a second
ary service which is sent by mail to five
subscribers. This is simply her regular
report, but arriving a day or two later
than that furnished to the subscribers of
the first class.
All sorts of subterfuges are resorted to
by persons who want to get Miss Giles’
opinion regarding cotton. So far as pos
sible she secludes herself. You won’t find
her name in the telephone directory. She
had it taken out because so many men
called her up and by adroit qestioning
endeavored to get some Idea from her re
garding the crop. To her twelve sub
scribers, her reports may be of great value
at times of grave doubt as to the crop if
kept, from the knowledge of others. These
twelve persons can make their deals and
later, when the market responds either
through the open publication of the Giles
report, or the issuance of the government
report, take advantage of the situation.
An example of this was given the other
day. Tiie Giles report giving the condition,
as she considered it on the date of August
23. was issued on August ^9. On Septem
ber 2. the government report came out
giving the condition on the date of August
25. The government not only confirmed
the Giles repdrt, which was sensational in
its indication of the crop deterioration, but
went a little further. As a result the cot
ton market went crazy and cotton which
was already 12 cents a pound advanced,
between three and four dollars a bal©
more.
Miss Giles is tiie only woman who is a
cotton crop forecaster or statistician.
Another woman enjoyed the field, but
didn’t last. She had been in the agricul
tural department and was fairly capable,
but she couldn't make headway.
Although Miss Giles is the most striking
tuccess as a cotton student, and statisti
cian since the day of Henry M. Nelli, sh©
says the work she is doing is a man’s
work. When she says this, however, she
acknowledges that it is doubtful if she
would have succeeded so well and lasted
so long had she been a man. To a man in
such a position she holds the temptation
to speculate would be very strong. She
says she loves her work. She loves to sit
in her quite office, work out the problems
that come before her, guard her informa
tion until it is placed in the proper hands
and, now and then, have the great joy of
knowing the cotton world has gone wild
on discovering what she knew and what
she was first to announce to her own
select coterie. She isn’t always right. Tf
she were, fabulous prices would be paid to
be one of^ the twelve on her list, but she
is right often enough to have the highest
standing in her line.
She isn’t satisfied. She is looking for
more worlds to conquer. She is thinking
of corn and wheat. Sh© is thinking of
the work she used to do when she was
getting $8 a week. Perhaps one of these
days the grain world will know her, as it
tow knows Its great Forecaster, Snow*
over me> vigorously shaking me with
one hand while he- pointed excitedly
with the other to where the elephant
stood sniffing the air some thirty yards
away. / made a desperate effort to rise
hut found that owing to the injuries I i
had received, this was an impossibility.
T discovered, too, that my left thumb
was dislocated and my left aim and
shoulder so badly sprained that I was ,
Quite unable to hold my rifle. ,
T managed, with some difficulty t«>
place my 31s across his boulder and ,
tire for the elephant’s ear, but. try as ■
1 would, I could not keep my rifle
steady, and the bullet, instead of going
through his brain, went wide and
struck him high up on th^ right side of
the head. At once he slewed round
a yd advanced toward us as *f utterly
surprised to find that he bad failed to
finish his enemy. So. telling Shnba to
hold my rifle barrel firmly, l drove an
other cartridge into tic brefer i i d •
waited patient].- for m lord the <
phant. When hi wj ithln 14 or
■
preme effort to control my breath ana
steady my hand, pressed tin- trigger.
The bullet struck him right between
the eyes, bringing him to his knees a ;
if pole-axed, and as he struggled t<»
rise, T finished him with another shot. '
More striking, perhaps, even than his
hunting adveptures, is the sior> of
the part which the elephant hunter
played in the native rising in German
East. Africa in 1905 and 19Ufi. In rec
ognition of which he was d - orated
by the German government. ’ Hut don't
put that in!’’ he urged.
“We needn't bother with th. i iil
of how it began.’* said he, “thou < ■
chief-causes were native discontent -t
having to pa$ hut taxes and -l
roads and to give tip some of tn- i m
cient pursuits that didn't fit In with
civilized ideas; discontent which ^
fanned by the Arabs, whose Slav- -1'-ad
lng had been put n stop to. and < ■
ally made them decide to make a clean
sweep of the Eropcans In the country.
1 was in German East Africa after el
ephants when the trouble began, and.
as hunting was impossible, r made up
my mind to see what fighting nati\e*
was like, and voluteered for service on
the German side.
“There was 'awful slaughter. I am
sorry to sa.v,’’ Sutherland \v<*ni on.
“much of which would have been avert
ed had It not been for the native med
icine men—who are queer Jossers -
though if it had not been for them and
their freakish ideas, most of ^us un
doubtedly would have lost our lives.
Wherever there was lighting, the native
onslaughts were desperate ami fearless.
The medicine men had told them, it
seems, that when we fired on them our
bullets would be miraculously changed
Into water and nothing but steam
would Issue from the muzzles of our
guns.
"Great Lord!" cried th-e hunter, "how
much better wo taught them! r had i
.500 cordite rifle, firing an expansive
hullet that weighed an ounce and whs
driven by 80 grains of powder. My
shots absolutely drilled through the
Angoni* .when they advanced, and r
blow the head clean off the first man T
fired at. A few weeks later 1 took part
in the defense of the central station,
or collec.torate, at Muhenge and then*
we saw some astonishing displays of
fanatlets m,' sure enough. We w < e
armed with machine guns, and the na
tives knew this, but in this case the
medicine men had told them that those
of their number who wore killed by our
fire would reawaken after two days
and lie ready to light, again. The na
tive force that attacked tills collect
orate must have been 8000 strong and
they were armed with anything, from
pruning hooks to spears, a fair per
centage, too, having old-fashioned muz
zle loading rifles, firing small bullets.
"Intent on killing and torturing the
lot of us," continued Sutherland, "they
charged almost to the walls of the col
lectorate and were mowed down by our
Maxims, eventually being forced to re
treat after heavy slaughter. With firm
belief, however, in the promise of their
medicine men^thnt the slain would come
to life again/ and join in the fighting,
they attacked again, two days after,
and again were mowed down by th*
score, the dead men failing to comply
with the prophesy and help to turn the
tide of battle. Four times In succes
sion did they do this, and then gave
it up, convinced at last, apparently,
that the dead were going to stay dead,
In spite of the asurances of the witch
doctors.
"F was a bit useful, too," said the
Ivory hunter, continuing his story, "in
carrying out a little ruse which helped
to turn the tide of battle in another
light. You have to remember that we
were up against enemies who were bent
on exterminating us. 1md the German
commander, Captain Richter, conceived
tlu* idea, of leaving cartridges about
where the natives could get them which l
would burst their guns when they tried
to shoot them. They tried both heavy
charges of ordinary powder and then
dynamife; but neither was powerful
enough for the purpose.
"Try my cordite,” said I, "and we
tried it, loading some 200 cartridges, t
with 75 grains each and then scattering
them about so that the Angonis would
think they had been dropped by mistake.
Man alive, wbat mischief they did when
those niggers tried to fire them. They
were in high glee at discovering them,
but when they fitted them into the
breed) of their rifles and pulled th**
trigger,, gun ami man, too. Were blown
to bits. The ground was littered with
corpses with their fares torn off. As a
fact, we must have done astonishing
execution In that fight, for a few days
afterward, on reconnitering the ground
we counted over 200 graves.”
This ivory hunter’s latest expedition,
with Captain Anderson—who had never
before seen an elephant outside of a zoo.
and had a mighty close call with his
first one—took close on a year, and re
sulted 'n the hogging of a couple of
tons of Ivory. The sportsmen visited
the camps of Emin Pashi| and Henry M.
Stanley, and made their way In canoes
paddled by natives, up the SemIUhie
river—"never have T seen such an aw
ful place for crocodiled." observed
Sutherland—until they eventually came
to the pigmy forest, in which they
spent 20 days, once being attacked by
the little people armed with poisoned
arrows. Rater on, Captain Anderson
having been recalled to ills regiment.
Sutherland had the responsibility of
seeing their ivory transported by na
tives through Belgian territories and
eventually to Cairo. It was no light
undertaking for danger of being set
upon and robbed threatened several
times.
After all the years he has spent in
the "pori.” tills elephant hunter says
frankly that he prefer* it to civiliza- •
tion. "I find.” he said, “that I chafe at
the insincerity of life In cities. In the
middle of Africa every man’s word is
his bond, and life is a straight from
the shoulder proposition.” Even when
T saw him he was beginning to irk
under what he describes as the "stuffi
ness and constraint” of a modern city
and beginning to develop the mood that
led him when a couple of days out on
his last voyage to the cape to throw
overboard those detested emblems of
civilization—the morning coat and the
silk hat which he had sported at Piece
dllly, “In sheer exhuberanoe of spirits”
So before much time has passed he
will be off once more "on Safari. But
first he means to have a look at the sky
scrapers. *
Stylish Accident
From the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
"Am T badly hurt, doctor?”
“No, no. It's a pretty severe sprain.A
that's all. When you turned suddenly
and ran into the fire hydrant you seem
to have slipped off the curb and twisted
your ankle. You'll be all right In ;t week
or so.”
"Yes. And, doctor, one request.”
“Go ahead."
"Won’t you please have the papers say
that the accident was dun to my French
high heels V