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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (April 5, 1908)
8 WHO 99 V W I: i i ft .11 : I- 4: i H t ..if. I TOOK A. SNAPSHOT or A IT717S-A. ZXSANDAHQE BT KRANK O. iTA .K T bN T FTl . A TNAT off here In the hnart of thn ttlnrk continent, within a few hundred mllrs of the headwaters of the ronfjo, and riRht at the nourrc of the Nile, is a nation of spnii-rlvlleeed AfrlcanB who are clad all In bark. I have just loft the Kavi rondo, on the other side of Victoria Nvnnztt. They go tark miked, nnri are not ashamed. These pfopIe are f ullv clad and thov eonsliler all eTtpoire of the person Indecent. A married woman who would ko about wearing only tho plrdle of beads and the short fiber tail which constitutes full dress shout Fort Florence would be ar rested In Kampala, and the Urrnnda man who would strut around, with only a little apron of skin tied to his waist at the back, would be drummed out of the count rv. Tho Ragnnda. ss thee people are called, are a nation of prudes. This 1b so especially as fnr as tho men are con cerned. Kvery one of them, when not working. Is clothed in long, flowing gar ments from hfs head to hta feet, and in the time of the last king the man who showed a bit of bare leg ftp his majesty s presence was Instantly punished. I have told vou how the old blind musician of the present king lost his eves bv allow ing a princess to see him In swimming. This was at the command of old King Mutesa, and that notwithstanding he kept a large corps of nude girls about bis palace to act as his valets. Nowa days the Uganda women are almost as much clad as the men. and it Is only j when out working in the field that they mar occasionally be seen bare to the waist. A Nation in Bark. There are about 1,000.000 negroes in Georgia, and that is just the number of these seml-clvllezed Haganda. If you could collect all our Georgia colored pop ulation together and dress them in bark, havlnsr an occasional one clad in sheets of white cotton, you would have some think like the nation here at the source of the Nile. The people are Bantu ne irroes. They are if anything better look ing than our colored people and are far more Intelligent than the negroes about the Chi If of Guinea, from where the greater portion of eur slaves came. Their bark clothing is made in the shape of great sheets of the size of a bed quilt, and It fs wrapped about the body, ex tending in the case of the men from the neck to the feet and with the women from under the arms well down to the ankles. The Raganda man begins dress ing by winding a strip of bark cloth about his hips and passing it between his lees and fastening it at the waist. After t his lie puts on his largo sheet, which he fastens around his shoulders and of ten ties in at the waist. Tt is only when at hard labor that any other part of his body is bate. When working his lower Ira often show. The women do not seem to regard the exposure of their persons above the waist as indecent, al though they are usually clad from arm pits to ankles. I am told that many of them take off their clothes when dining inside the house, in order to keep from oiling them. The women 1 see are on the whole pretty well clad. Adam and Kre In I'gantln. When Adam and Eve had their little trouble over the apple, and from it, as n cyeopener. clad themselves in fig leaves, they set an example for these people of I'ganda. The Baganda. how ever, use the Kirk of the tig tree and not the leaf. This bark clothing is all made of the inside skin of a species of tx tree, which they grow in their gar dens. I have Just returned from a Ions .rip through the country and have had an opportunity to see how the bark is frown and how it is prepared for cloth ing. The ordinary Vganda family lives in a thatched hut surrounded by banana plan tations, and these clothrng trees are planted in among the bananas. They are to be seen everywhere Blong the roads. They grow to a height of from JO to 30 feet, and their branches brain at about eight or ten feet from the ground. The ... .V If ALL RAISE THEIR CLOTHES IN. THEIR GARDENS tur . r "f HI bark is cut in such a way that it comes off In sheets. If it is property stripped from the tree another coat will grow, eo that the same tree will produce a nef crop of cloth .every year. In cutting the bark great care is taken to leave a thin film on the trunk, and as soon as the outer bark is removed the trunk Is wrapped In green banana leaves, and these are tied tightly about it with banana fiber. I saw the natives doing such work in many of the gardens on my way across Uganda. The bark comes off in strips from six to ten feet long and as wide as the cir cumference of the tree. These strips are soaked for a time in water, until they become damp and soft. They are then spread out on skin maw and hammered with mallets. This makes them thinner and -broader. They are also pulled and stretched, until they finally become much like pieces of cloth from half a yard to a yard wide and of the length of the cutting. Tile bark Is composed of many fillers which cross each other this way and that. Just like weaving; and when It is dried it seems like a great sheet of woven fibers. It can now be sewn together into the blankets used as cloth ing, and Jt can be painted and decorated In patterns. I have bought a number of sheets of this stuff. They are of a reddish brown color, of the same hue as cinnamon or tan bark. They feel Just like woven cloth and look as though they might have been felted or passed through a loom. The stuff Is somewhat thicker than cotton sheeting, but it is . firm. I understand some of this bar cloth has been sent to America and Europe and that it is used in Germany for making ladies' shopping bags and card cases as well as caps, hats and book covers. 1 was told in Entebbe by an explorer there that he had applications for a large amount of it from certain American weaving mills, whtch wished to experi ment in making velvet of it. ''The cloth can be trimmed like silk, muslin or velvet. It can be dyed any color and It could be made waterproof. When it is blockrd to any form It holds its shape; and, when cemented together irfto two thicknesses, laid crosswise. It is very strong. It might be used as a matting, and would be decorative as a wall paper. As it is there is practically no market for it other than that of the natives: and I have bought several blankets six or eight feet square for about 33 cents apiece. No Pins or Bnttons. I wish I could show you some of these Uganda girls, dressed In their terra cotta sheets, as I see them around me. The bark cloth is wrapped tightly about their bodies, leaving their plump arms and shoulders bare. Tt is often tied in at the waist with a bark cloth sash and is gath w m i 1 1 mvt. i .17 1 im ij c' . - m v a a ' - f v : f4ilMtniff iiiiniiin riMMui-iiiimiiiii ii ' iiniiiil mmrnmmmmmiWluMfaitrmmmMmimmmrrltMmrri mraariitnMitif t-w i if utt ( nrr miwf-rraii-irrwtTrnnrir-rn-i n 11 r i iimI THE SUNDAY OREGONIAN, PORTLAND, APRIL 5, 1908. ABOUT THE ered up at the front so that a great fold 1 hangs over and falls half way to the knees. It gives forth a swlnhy rustle as the women move, and I am told that they delight In this noise as our girls delight in the swish of their silk petticoats. In such costumes the bust is entirely cov ered, and the only weak point -about the' dress seems to be that it has no pins nor buttons and that there are not even shoestrings over the arms to hold .the dress up. The mere knot at the front seems by no means safe, and I am in constant fear that the 'tie will slip and the bark cloth drop to the ground. The longer I stay, however, the less this fear holds. The dresses seem to be as tight as though glued- and that even on the girls who work on the road chopping out the weeds with their little hoes and bend ing half double as they do so. I have seen women so working with little black babies on their backs, held In by the bark cloth. A Suit or Clothes for Four Cents. Speaking of -this dress of the Baganda, I have said they were all fully clad. This is so of both men and women and of even small boys. The only exceptions are girls, up to the ages of eight or nine years. They go absolutely naked, save that each tias a ring of woven fiber or of twisted banana stems as big around as ray thumb. This they wear about the waist. During our trip yesterday, my son Jack met ' a girl so clad and bargained with her for her outfit. The little one sold her whole suit of clothes for four cents, stepping out of her waist ring and standing there naked while she handed it to him and took the money. A moment later, she scampered off into a banana patch and made a new ring of banana fibers to take Its place. I am told that the little ones consider themselves undressed when they have not this ring about their waists; and that if they have left it off they will run for It and put It on before they come to meet strangers. They Shave Their Heads. This little girl had her head shaved close to the skin. This is so with both women and men among the Baganda. Nearly every one has a scalp like polished ebony, although a few allow the hair to grow. The Baganda do not wear Jewelry and the women do not pierce their ears nor disfigure themselves with scars and various other mutilations, as is common among most Africa'n triijea. Those who wear hair, do not load it with grease: and. as a rule, the people are noted for their cleanliness and fondness for bath ing. Since the. country has been opened to Europeans many of the richer natives have begun to wear cotton, and, strange to say, they prefer American goods to any other. These goods here go by the .v. t. - ,1.'., .' u,.,. ,- ,i " o & s f IO 11 'lit s I a Ml BAGANDA name of Americsni. This means cotton sheeting, and that made in the usual length for one dress. Both men and women wear such sheets, so that any large crowd forms a mixture of whites and tans. The whites are the American cottons and the tans are the bark clothes. How the Baganda Look. These natives of Uganda are fine look ing. They are shorter han the average Caucasian, tho men feeing not more than five feet four or five inches tall, and the women still less. Both sexes are well formed. Every one holds his head up and throws back his shoulders, and all are broad-breasted and deep chested. This may come from the hilly nature of the country and the fact that the people do much walking up and down hill. The younger women have beautiful necks and arms and very full breasts. Many of them are like ebony statues, and almost every girl has a form which would be coveted by any American belle. Their erectness of figure comes largely from the habit of carrying things on their heads. This is done by both men and women. During my trip across the country I passed hundreds carrying loads hi that way. Men went along on the trot with firewood, bunches of bananas and bales ot hides balanced on cushions of leaves upon their crowns. I saw wo men carrying gourds of water upon their heads.' so carefully poised that the water did not spill, although the gourds were untouched by the hand. Now and then we passed a girl going along with a glass bottle balanced on her pate, and at one place I saw a gang of porters carrying elephants' tusks in that way. Across I'ganda In a Jinrikisha. But let me tell you about a jin rikisha ride which I took from En tebbe to Kampala, the native capital of Uganda. Entebbe is situated on Victoria Nyanza, 175 miles across the lake from Port Florence, and Kampala is about 25 miles away back in the hills. The road between the two places has been laid out and Improved by the British, and tt Is now one of the fine drives of the world. The roadway Is about 30 feet wide. It is as hard as stone and as smooth as a floor. The grass and weeds are kept out bf It. and there are ditches at tone side, with culverts here and ' there to carry off the water. The streams are crossed by bridges, and the whole 26 miles Is as good as the beach drive ftlong Rock Creek in Washington,, or any of the roads at Central Park. Indeed, the only native highways that will com pare with It are those of Java, the labor upon which is done in much the same way. Uganda Is a land of good roads. The country is about as big as Kansas, , . . ff X-'ffv v IAs' 1 ' . ! v. t$ - I ' t I i' ii j 1 : 'f VI H ' "I . , i : f , . i ' , ,! ; and it hafl thousRnds of miles of native roads, each ten feet or more in width. This Is different from the other coun tries of Africa. The most of the native territories are accessible only by footpaths, which wind in and out about the trees and around the stone and logs, permitting passengers to travel only single file and on foot. This is so in the most of German East Africa, in British East Africa and in the Kongo valley. It was over such roads that Stanley went; and Livingstone and the other great African explorers made their way through such paths. These roadways are one of the great est signs of Uganda's civilization. They go up hill and down vale, crossing the streams and swamps on bridges and causeways. Since the British took possession of the country they have improved these native roads. They are building others, and one can now go in a jinrikisha, pulled by natives, from here to Lake Albert, a distance of about 200 miles. I understand that there is even a road to Gondokora, which lies in the Sudan on the other side of t'ganda. That place Is the terminus of steam naviga tion on the Nile, so that I could go by Jinrikisha from here to that point and thence by steamboat and rail to the Mediterranean. Where Women Work the Roads. All the roads of this country are kept up by the natives under the di rection of their chiefs, although bar;k of the chiefs are the British official's, who work through them. Every per son In the country, male and female. Is subject to one month's work during the year as a road tax. We think it a heavy burden if we have to pay for one day's work on the roads, hut here every one Is supposed to work a whole month. Each chief is responsible for Difference. Between Criminals Satirical Esay on the Activities of tlie Police and the Haphazard .BY J. U JONES. THB FATE of all who aspire to lit erary fame ha overtaken me. I have fallen under the condemnation of the critics. I am Informed that I made a wild statement, quite Incompati ble with absolute truth, when I said that the police hardly ever arrested a criminal. Is It not a fact that the police are often kept as busy gathering In criminals as fishermen in catching fish? I was much edified by this criticism, not having the faintest idea that 1 had so innocently and effectually made my self misunderstood. 1 had not the re motest idea of classifying under the head of criminals the dally catch of drunks and hobos collected by the police. Those are not really criminals. They are only offenders. They are a by-product of the capitalist s.vstnm, of no particular use except at election times, when some great crisis calls for a decisive expres sion of the popular will. Of course, in another sense they are always useful, as the care of them furnishes employment to an important class of officials. But there fs aa much difference between a real, healthy criminal and a mere mis erable offender, such as worthy church members every Sunday confess them selves to be, as there is between a live Hon and a yellow dog. It is no trouble to, arrest a drunken man. ' He has not sense enough to disap pear. If "he resists it is easy to club him into insensibility, and it will naturally be supposed that he wa found In that state. If he dies, so much the better. He will probably be unidentified. No questions will be asked, and no one will care. Decent people never get disorderly on the streets. They get drunk privately and peaceably. Their friend take care of them. . The police don't meddle. It is none of their business. It is no trouble to arrest hobos, either. The hobo does not try to escape the po liceman. He wants to find one. There is a natural attraction between the two, as there is between a spider and a fly. The hobo has to And lodging. He is usually hungry and always thirsty. If he ap proached a policeman directly and re quested to be conducted to his lodgings, the officer would havetno authority to act. He must commit some offense In order t be recognized. He must do some thing to attract unfavorable attention. Now the hobo has the inestimable ad vantage of being always an offender. His mere presence at any time or place is an offense and a nuisance that call for speedy abatement. If he stands still or moves slowly he la obstructing the thor oughfare. If he moves quickly he invites pursuit. This is a very suspicious act. He is doubtless endeavoring to make his escape. If he does nothing at all he is doubly delinquent. This is prima facie evidence that he Is an unprofitable ser vant. If he hunts for a Job he Is tres passing on private premises, spying out something to steal. If he does not hunt, he Is trespassing, anyhow, and his tres passes are not forgiven in any case. Knowing all these things, the experi enced hobo picks out an unoffending po liceman and proceeds to get 1n his way. He can stagger or swagger or atand still with a hump on his back. Or he can put his thumb to his nose. ' The policeman is quick to recognize in any of these acts or atltudes an offense against the majesty of the law. He begins hostilities by roughly repri manding the offender. The offender "sasses back' or makes a show of re sistance. Then the cop can legally club him and' run him In. This ceremony has to be gone through with as a regular order of the roads of his territory: and he calls upon every householder for the requis ite amount of labor. The householder as a rule sees that the most of the work is done by the women. This I found to be the case all the way from Entebbe to Kampala. Everywhere there were girls down on their knees pulling out weeds or bending over and smooth ing the roadbed with ehorthandled na tive hoes. In one or two places men were at work, but as a rule the rough labor was done by bare-shouldered, bare-armed and bare-footed femalis clad in bark clothing. Now and then I stopped on the way to watch them, and once took a snap shot of a shaven headed maiden with a native hoe in her hand. American Jinrlkishns. Tt is an odd experience to travel through the African wilds In a Jinrik isha, but that Is what I did on my way here from Entebbe. This vehicle was originally the Invention of an Ameri can missionary who lived in Japan. It took so well there that a great part of the travel of that country is now done in It, and it has since spread from Japan throughout the far East. Wc have it in Manila and It Is also common in India. Some were Imported into Soutli Africa a few years ago, and an enterprising American firm has taken to manufacturing them for export. Those used here are of Amer ican make, Thry look somewhat like a victoria, having seats wide enough for one or two people. I took four for my trip. Two of these were for myself ajid son and the others for our bag gage and photographic instruments. AVe paid $2 for each Jinrikisha. and this Included four lusty natives who pushed and pulled us along. One man pulled in the shafts and the- three others pushed from behind. The men were as black as Jet. They were bare business, Uke the initiative and refer endum or like a would-be speaker addressing- a chair. In order to make the arrest legal. Otherwise It would be a farce. It Is only a farce anyhow. When the offender appears before the court he pleads not guilty, tells a tale of woe and begs off. If the court turns him loose, his labor is lost and he- has to get run In again the next day. This is an aggravated offense, that qualifies him for the second de gree and entitles him to the hospitality of the city for 30 dffys. Of course he Is sometimes expected to take a little exercise on the rockpile for the good of his health and to show his appre ciation of municipal freedom. This Is the routine work of tha po lice, and It makes quite a show of praiseworthy activity. All the parties to the transaction appear to take It seriously. From a religious point of view, it is serious, as It betokens a state of sinful depravity. From the standpoint of the taxpayer it is also serious. When I laid the police hardly ever arrested a criminal, I meant a real bad man. a burglar, highwayman or mur derer. These are not pushing them selves in the way, trying to get ar rested. A policeman is generally big and heavy and slow, like a man-of-war. He is visible at a great distance when the coast is clear. The experienced crtmlnal can see him or scent him afar off. He figures out his probable motions as precisely as the astrono mers calculate those of a heavenly bod y. He times his work so as to accom plish It when the legal luminary Is at the extreme elongation of his orbit or in a state of temporary eclipse. He does not want to recognize or be recog nized by an officer at the moment he is pulling off a job. This would be em barrassing to both, but he likes to be quite friendly and sociable at any oth er time. It Is altogether unreasonable to ex pect policemen to catch criminals. We might just as well expect a cow to catch mice. It is enough for them to walk along with slow ajid ponderous dignity and impersonate the majesty of the law. and crack the heads of those who offend against that majesty by overt act or attitude. t They can earn all the wages they get without running themselves out of breath after elusive criminals, when every policeman knows that his ab sence would be taken advantage of by a confederate of the fugitive to rob a bakry or purloin an old lady's purse. It Is not the place of the police to catch criminals; It Is the duty of pri vate detectives. Of course, the police may assist when the detectives get the criminals located or rounded up or identified. But here we meet the inter position of a strange kind of provi dence, nothing less than the foresight and strategy of the devil to defeat the ends of justice. It is a maxim of the law, from time immemorial, that it takes a1 thief to catch a thief. Therefore, the force of private detectives must necessarily be recruited from the ranks of the crim inals they are supposed to arrest. This is a serious complication. An honest, open-hearted, candid de tective would be a laughing stock for gods and men. He could not do any business. He would be as easily de tected himself as a policeman; He would have no more chance of rising in his profession than an honest law headed, barclepsred and barefooted an3C were clad in gowns of bark cloth or cotton. They went on the trot evert while climbing the hills, and they sa'na all the way. Each Jinrikisha party formed a quar tet, of which the man in the shaft waal the leader. The songs seemed to con tain a thousand verses of one !Jn each. This was yelled out by the) leader, and. at the end. the three inert behind would .grunt out one or twot words sounding much like the croak ing of a bullfrog. It was 'K;irung! Karung!" The singing did well enough at the) start, but after ten miles It began to wear upon us, and we wished they were duftib. ' Country Scenes. We were about five hours In making the 25 miles. The way led up and down over a rolling country, much of it open pasture land consisting rf hll'.s covered with grass and spotted here and there with groves of trees. Every where there were patches of bananas, and out of each rose one of the round grass huts of the natives, with these bark clothing trees all around It. In places we went through forests, and now and then skirted a Jungle which made us tremble a little as we thoucrht of the leopards, lions and other wild boosts which Infest parts of Uganda. There were natives everywhere on the way. and at times the roads were lined with them. Now and th.'n we passed a great foreign wagon hauled by 36 or 20 lusty black feliows, uml again went by gangs of vnrteri. trot ting along with great loads on their heads. The trip throughout was wild In the extreme, and its climax was capped by this great native town ot Kampala, where I now am. and of which I will write In the future. Kampana', Uganda. and Offenders Results of Law In General. yer of becoming a corporation attorn ney. Thus, It comes about by a perfectly natural process, unavoidable, and fotf which no one Is to blame, that tha small thieves find their protectors and patrons among the detectives, just as the grand thieves, the plutocrats, eon duct their operations under the patron age of their attorneys in Congress and In the legislatures. This is the work of Hermes, that dlety, that presides over the destinies ofl thieves. He is a beneficent and power ful being who takes care of his own and provides for the safety of his most humble as well as his most exalted followers. It would be .impossible to carry on thieving at all as a profession or busi ness either on a large or small scaln without the license and protection of the law. In fact, that Is what the law is for. Hermes Is the greatest of lawi yers. His other name Is Mercury, which comes from the same root aj merchant and commerce. All Irtw fsj commercial because it has to do with; exchange of goods or evils. And tha exchanges may be Just or unjust, fraudulent or fair. St. Paul uttered a very profound truth once, which he prohably did not under stand himself, when he said that sin. comes by the law. If there was not any law there would not be any sin. This is a rather mysterious and pus zllng matter. Neither the politicians nor the preachers can explain It. I have not time nor space to do it now, but I pur pose later on in the ten comma ndment series to explain how the law creates the crime It is supposed to prevent, how tha doctors originate the diseases that to) them are a perennial source of revenue, and how the preachers raise the devil they so dearly love to fieht. And when the explanation conies. It will be authoritative because I have it from Hermes himself, Hermes Trisme giptos (thrice the greatest). I am a pu pil of Hermes, a hermit, a hermetist, a merchant and a thief. Therefore, I am qualified to be a detective. Detective is one who uncovers secrets and explains mysteries. If the police would put me in the sweat box. I could tell them tales that ought to make their hair stand on end. recitals of their own crimes. I could tell them where they could put their hands on millions of stolen treasures they dare not recover. I could give them information they dara not act on. Inieed. my evidence would not be received at ail. It would ba thrown out of court. I have told mora, already than many of my readers cat stand. It is astonishingly eaFy to satisfy the hunger of some folks for truth. By the way. when the polire can't catch the criminals, and the detectives stand in with them, and the law pro tects them, whoever would not be a crim inal must necessarily be a very virtuous person, or else a long-suffering taxpayer. I would like to use the word fool in stead of taxpayer, hut taxpayer means about the same thing, and fool is ona of those words of many meanings. Ilka criminal, and it Is not safe to use it with out writing a book of explanations and apologies. Corvallls, Or. The I'm pi re. With padded breast and nerve that's ' nteeled He stalks upon the trembling" field. The puny fnnx before him rrawl With tbund'rou roar he rrlrs "Plaj- ball!' Cleveland Plain Uealuw