The San Francisco call. [volume], May 15, 1898, Page 20, Image 20

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

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20
THE STORY OF LIBERIA
A Republic governed by African negroes
REV. PAUL BUNGHALOW AS HE ARRIVED AT MONROVIA.
SEVERAL societies in the South
ern States are tryfrng their best to
start colonies of negroes in Mex
ico, but thus far they have not
met with very nattering success.
In discussing the recent aban
donment of one of the colonies the so
ciety overhauled the reports and the
experiences of the men who struggled
their mightiest less than fifty years ago
to found a great negro republic in Li
beria and gradually bring all of Africa
under its influence.
Toe republic of Liberia on the west
coast of Africa must bs considered as
one of the greatest philanthropic move
ments in the history of the world. The
members of the Episcopalian church,
both in the United States and England,
poured millions of dollars into the
scheme. Negro youths of both sexes
were taught trades and also the arts and
sciences. Houses, stores, schools and
churches were built for them. In fact,
a city was brought into existence in a
fertile country for their benefit. They
•were supplied with all needed utensils
and machinery.
For a few years the projectors of the
enterprise maintained white people
there to train the negroes for their new
duties. During this preparatory train
ing and building up things went splen
didly.
When the day came for the negroes
to assume the direction of affairs and
start nut as a nation th T'nglish Gov
ernment loaned them $500,000 and guar-
anteed independence to the new repub
lic. It seemed as if everything must go
well with the venture.
Concerning the result of the experi
ment after a fair trial the conservative
Encyclopedia Britannica in substance
e-iys:
"The experiment cm hardly be called
a success. The $500,000 EnHand lent
the republic of Liberia is still lent. Not
a penny of either principal or inttesrest
has been paid. The people have not
improved their conditions in the least
and in many instances have returned to
savagery."
Perhaps the only man in San Fran
cisco who visited the community during
its brilliant rise and pathetic lapse is
Captain George Jackson. Of the de
tails of the experiment Captain Jackson
is fully conversant, for he was in the
British navy at the time, and did a
great deal of special work aiding the
new republic.
In discussing the problem, Captain
Jackson said: "To tell all about the
African colony it is necessary to go
back to the time when a number of peo
ple in the United States and England
were interested in the humane cause of
freeing the black man and giving him
a chance to do something for himself.
About 1817 the American Colonization
Society was organized. In 1823 a tract
of country in Western Africa was se
cured, and the first batch of colored
emigrants was sent from the United
States to a point near CapeMontserado.
They left America under the most fa
vorable circumstances and auspices
and with everything needful for a
starting in colonial life.
"But the story of Liberia has an al
together different ending. The new col
onists inhabited a country of boundless
extent with a soil rich in all the most
valuable productions of the country,
and they could have controlled the re
■ources of a commerce of immense
valua to the other nations. They had
churches and schools and the opportu
nities of social intercourse and the
means of intellectual improvement.
"I visited Monrovia in 1857, just two
years after the establishment of the re
public and found the people fast retro
grading. Their once neat and well
built homes were uncared for and fast
falling into decay and ruin for the lack
of care; the churches were nearly all
closed and the school houses were used
as barns. Many of ihe people had left
Monrovia and had scattered away
HOW GUNNERS ON A BATTLE-SHIP
THE SAN FRAKCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, MAY 15, 1898.
among the neighboring tribes of Afri
cans even intermarrying with them,
and had adopted the old African modes
of life.
"Little or no commerce was left and
during my two months' stay on the
Liberian coast I never saw a single
trading vessel.
"Liberia has to-day become an un
known quantity.
"The people that remained had com
pletely degenerated, were unclothed
and demoralized.
"Let me tell of an individual case
which came immediately under my own
observation. In 1847, just about the
same time that Liberia was declaring
its Independence, a Spanish slaver was
captured near Havana by a British wap
vessel, and she had a car'- of three
hundred slaves on board, besides the
little son, aged about 12 years, of the
Chief of Kabenda, a few miles north of
the Congo River. The father had given
this cargo of slaves, valued at about
$50,000 in Havana, to the Spanish super
cargo as payment for the lad's educa
tion and he was to be h: ided over to
the Jesuit order for that purpose and
returned to his home in Africa in ten
years.
"Capture by the English gunboat,
however, knocked out all these plans,
and upon the arrival of the prize and
her captors at Kingston, Jamaica, the
boy was turned over to the London
Missionary Society. They themselves
undertook his education free of charge
and prepared him for missionary life.
"After the young fellow, enjoying all
the time the benefits of Caucasian so
ciety, had graduated through the
schools at Jamaica, he was sent to
England, where the finishing touches
were put upon him, ending with a
three years' college course at Oxford,
where he left a full fledged M. A., B. A..
D. D., and I don't know what besides.
"Having been ordained a" priest of thft
Anglican Church with much ceremony,
he was sent out as a missionary for the
London Missionary Society back to his
own country, where it was hoped he
would accomplish great things and es
pecially be able to convert all the slave
dealers.
"In due time the Rev. Mr. Paul Bung
halow. for that was his name, arrived
at Sierra Leone and was met on board
the mail steamer by the Right Rev
erend Bishop of Sierra Leone, whose
guest he remained during the two
weeks he had to wait until a vessel
HIGH EXPLOSIVES.
IJIVEJiTOR EDISO.N
Write* Jibout Their Terrible Use in Times of War.
IT seems very odd to me that In all
this talk of war and battles and
military equipments, there should
be so little said of what might be
called the familiar performance of
high explosives. I do not believe these
prospective volunteers, who are so anx
FIGURE OUT THE DISTANCE OF THE ENEMY.
THE accuracy of modern rifled
guns is one of the wonders of en
gineering. Two experimental
shots fired a f ;w years ago at the
same elevation from the same
gun fell within thirty yards of each
other, after traversing a distance of
twelve miles. If a modern rifle is laid
upon the target, with proper cevation
and allowance for windage, it Is safe
to say the shot will find the mark.
The correct elevation of the gun can
only be determined if the distance of
the target is known, and the exact de
termination of the distance of a moving
object is a problem that has worried
the gunner ever since the day when
n.-und shot was first thrown from the
sides of the wooden fighting ship.
In the early days the determination
of the range was a matter of guess
work.
This was all very well in a day when
the guns were too feeble to do much
should leave for his part of the coast.
"I was on board the English man-of
war that took the reverend young chief
to his home. During the passage of
about ten days he performed most
zealously the duties of chaplain on
board, but the young man had been al
most completely spoiled in England,
and to Us young fellows he appeared
about as impudent and overbearing a
fellow as ever you would wish to meet.
"Arriving at Kabenda he was taken
ashore and with his belongings turned
over to the chief who was an entire
stranger to him, his own father having
died a short while after the boy was
captured by tha English gunboat.
"We left him there and took up our
regular cruise.
"On returning after two months' ab
sence the first canoe to come alongside
with chicks. -s and fruit for sale was
paddled by our 1: te acting chaplain.
"He had completely fallen back into
the habits of his tribe. He told us his
people had no use for a missionary and
had advised him to take a tumble to
himself and be a good African again.
"He took the advice of his people and
parted his raiment among them. He
had given away all his clothes and
kept only a silk hat for his own wear.
He made his appearance in canoe with
this 'Oxford' plug hat on apd a white
shirt for a pair of breeches, buttoned
behind, while another of his company
wore only the clerical coat and an old
naval cocked hat on his head.
"Poor Bunghalow never got anything
more from his English friends, as they
gave him up for a bad job.
"Once away from civilized influences
and surroundings, he had quickly de
generated back to the savage state.
Had he remained in Sierra. Leone he
would perhaps have done fairly well,
but he was too young and Inexperienced
to be let loose all alone in this fashion.
"I know of another instance where
an African had been sent from Eng
land under somewhat similar condi
tions, bringing with him a highly
cultured white lady (charmed with the
prospects of missionary life) as his
wife. In two years she saw his com
plete demoralization and return to
complete heathenism.
"To save herself she was compelled
to return to England, where she died
of a broken heart. This man was also
a clergyman and a graduate of Cam
bridge University."
i lous to go to war, realize the nature of
I the compounds which will be used for
i ammunition in the battles of the future.
| I have seen some of the compounds do
| ver y wonderful things when carefully
j handled. What will they do during the
[ rush and bustle of an engagement?
execution except at close range, and a
few dozen shots thrown away made
little Impression on a ship's magazines.
With the advent of modern ordnance,
however, with sixty-ton guns and cost
ly charges, the necessity of accurate
fire became imperative, and ordnance
experts set about devising come scien
tific method of finding the range at sea.
The Fiske range-finder Is based upon
the well-known principles of land sur
veying with the transit and engineer's
chain. If the surveying party come to
a broad river whose width has to be de
termined, a base line Is measured along
the bank, and the angles which this
line makes with a mark on the oppo
site bank are measured by the transit.
Then, knowing the length of the base
line and the two angles, the distance
across the river can be determined by
trigonometry.
Applying- this to the range-finder, a
base line is carefully measured be
tween two points n<.ar opposite ends of
the ship, and over ea^-h point a range
finder, answering to the engineer's
transit, is permanently set up. If the
telescopes of the two finders are simul
taneously converged upon the same
point on a dißtant object (ship, fortress
or city) the observers will be in posses
REV. PAUL BUNGHALOW TV/O MONTHS AFTER HIS ARRIVAL IN MONROVIA.
Why, some of them cannot be used for
practical purposes, they are so very
powerful. That is one trouble In mak
ing an explosive for use In guns.
A gun Is an engine, just as much as is
a steam engine, and you have to work
It on an economical principle. You
Taking on Observation.
slon of the trigonometrical data neces
sary to compute the distance, namely,
the base and the two base angles.
The range-finder consists of a pow
erful telescope, which Is mounted on a
standard and is capable of horizontal
rotation above a graduated disk. Upon
the disk, and extending an equal dis
tance on each side of the zero point on
the gTaduatio-n. is a metallic contact
arc. Fixed to the telescope standards
Is a contact strip, which rotates with
the telescope and slides over the con
tact arc.
It -will be seen from the illustration
that the operator, on applying his eye
to the telescope, has opposite to his
mouth a telephone transmitter, a re
ceiver being clamped to his ear.
By this means the two operators are
kept In constant communication, and
the errors are avoided that would be
caused by the reading of a deflection
produced before one or other of the
telescopes is well directed toward the
point to be observed.
RUINS OF MONROVIA TWO YEARS AFTER IT WAS FOUNDED.
must save yo-ur powder just as you
must save your coal in the steam en
gine. Hence, these gun powders are so
composed that, when Ignited, they will
drive the bullet along the gun barrel,
gaining In power as it goes, but so nice
ly balanced in explosive action that the
last speck of powder is not utilized un
til the bullet has reached the muzzle
and is about to leave the gun.
Thus a gun is really a heat engine.
But, as I have intimated, the rending
power of some of these explosives is so
great that the bullet cannot, so to
speak, keep ahead of it. Before the bul
let reaches the muzzle of the gun the
accumulated gases behind it have in
creased so much in volume as to over
come the lateraJ resistance of the bar
rel, and the gun bursts.
You hear people talking of the dan
gers arising from the handling of dyna
mite. I never could see that it was
very dangerous to handle, in the ordi
nary sense of the word at least. I re
member once taking a quantity of dy
namite out in the woods near my iron
mine up the State and trying to ex
plode it by such means as might enter
into any accident likely to occur in
general handling. We did it as an ob
ject lesson to the men as much as for
anything else. We burned it, threw
big rocks at it and tried other ways of
exploding it, but we couldn't make It
go off. We use lots of it for blasting
purposes, but we never have had an
accident. Of course, it produces fright
ful effects when exploded in conjunc
tion with some other high explosive.
Nitro-glycerlne, on the other hand, is
to be feared at all times. I have heard
of a blacksmith who placed one drop
of it on an anvil and then struck it a
hard blow with a hammer. It must
have been a hard blow. It blew out
the side of the shop and made a big
hole under where the anvil had stoocf.
and the blacksmith did not even need
burial. But even this is not to be com
pared to iodide of nitrogen. Its ex
plosive power is equal to 4000 feet a
second. That is, if you laid a train
of it 4000 feet long and exploded one
end of the train, the explosion would
be transmitted to the other end of the
train in one second. I don't know but
that under these conditions the cumu
lative character of the effect would
cause the other end of the train to be
come ignited even sooner than in one
second. That speed is greater than the
accredited velocity of Bound, which
travels at the rate of 1400 feet a sec
ond.
In fact, there are explosives of such
tremendous power that no one dares
make but a very small quantity at a
time, and I doubt If they have ever
been seen outside of laboratories. I
have made them, a drop at a time. But,
oh, how unstable them are! Actually, I
have made explosives of this nature
which have gone off when I yelled at
them. I simply placed a small drop
on a table and shouted at it. It ex
ploded instanctly. You see, the thing
Is in a state of very delicate equilib
rium. It is a question depending on
surrounding conditions as to which it
will do — remain a liquid or turn into a
gas.
When, as in the case just mentioned,
this balance is about equal, it takes
very little to incline it toward a gas
eous form, so that even the sound of
the voice •will cause the change. A
violent fit of couching will produce the
effect, and so would a heavy weight
dropped on the floor.
Speaking of this explosive reminds
me of how I got rid of some ministers
who once insisted on boring me in my
laboratory, when I had some impor
tant experiments on hand. I treated
them courteously as long as I could,
but they grew more interested as the
day wore on, and seemed to have no
intention of going home. Finally, as
a last resort, I told them I was going
to make some highly explosive ma
terial. This made them only the more
interested, and they got in my way as
much as they possibly could. Ido not
suppose they knew much of the nature
and appearance of high explosives, for
when I placed a number of drops of the
material in various parts of the room,
so as to scatter any accidental explo
sions, they seemed not to notice it.
At last, when they got crowding al
most between me and the workbench,
I very carelessly pushed a board off
onto the floor. Well, it was worse than
I had intended it to be. It nearly shat
tered the window glass and jostled
things around generally. The mini9
teers seemed scared half to death, and
from the way they held their ears you
would have supposed some one had
bumped their heads together. When I
told them how it had happened, and
discussed the possibility of more acci
dents taking place, they said it really
was quite wonderful, but they guessed
they had better be going. I urged them
to stay and see more fireworks, but
they all had very important engage
ments, and hurried off.
But to return to the subject in hand,
the science of explosives is a very in
teresting one, and if some way is found
to utilize the tremendous forces which
are engendered when the chemicals are
properly combined and exploded, we
may yet come to respect them more
than we do at present. Our knowledge
of the very high explosives dates back
but a few years.
The present war spirit may nrovoke
enough activity in the line of explo
sives to cause their development not
merely as agents of destruction but,
w'lat Is better, in industrial lines. Here,
then, is a chance for budding- Inventors.
Mr. Edison's joke on the mtnist - is
in the same line with one he has played
several times on obnoxious callers. For
instance, a reporter from a paper whose
methods do not entirely agree with the
inventor's ideas of fair dealing, recently
called to interview him. Not wishing to
be rude to him, Mr. Edison asked him if
he objected to his continuing his ex
periments while he talked. Of course
the newspaper man was delighted. It
really added the spice of human inter
est to the affair.
He conducted his caller into a little
room where he had a certain form of
oxygen apparatus which charges the
surrounding atmosphere in a manner
very unpleasant to one not used to it.
Mr. Edison did not mind it in the least,
but his visitor could not ask questions
for choking and coughing. He shortly
excused himself in a most embarrassed
way and left without asking a ques
tion; all of which was rendered still
more ludicrous by the apparently of
fended manner with which the inventor
regarded the reporter's actions. Prob
ably that reporter does not even yet
know a trick was played on him, but
,ne is not likely to revisit the laboratory.