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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (June 28, 1908)
8 JiLh ABOUT A CITY OF ARAB5, HINDOOS AND AFRICANS lr;i m tr fn ? i :4N'A Vv !fK'VM BY FRANK G. CARPENTER. HAVE vou ever heard of Judge Riley of Virginia? He was one of the noted figure in W ashington dur ing tne administrations of Grant. Hayes. Arthur and Garfield. A carpet-bag official- at the close of the war. he came in for one of the foreign appointments which were given by the Northern Pres idents to the Republicans of the South. He was first sent as Minister or Consul Generai to one of the little South Ameri can republics and after that was given , the Consulship to Zanzibar. Before i leaving Washington for the latter post he treated all his friends, dilating the while on the splendors of the court of the Sultan and his harem and the black eyed houris whom he expected to see. He then left; but at the end of six months came back weary and worn and sad. When asked how he liked Zanzi bar he replied: "Zanzibar! Zanzibar! Where in the blank Is Zanzibar! I have been cruis ing jver the world for the past six months and. for the life of me, I can't find Zanzibar!" I have been more successful than Judge Riley, for I have found Zanzibar, and have even seen its young Sultan, though not his harem. For our Consuls of the future I would say that Zanzibar ts a" coral island about one-sixth as large as Torto Rico, situated In the Indian Ocean, three or four hundred miles below the equator and from 15 to 30 miles from the coast of German Kast Africa. It can now be reached by a half dozen steam ship lines, and the fare from here to Washington is something like $300. There are four lines which connect the island with Europe, and the German East Af rica ships go regularly from here to Bombay, in India, and to Rangoon, in Burma. There are also ships which have regular sailings to the Persian Gulf and Madagascar, so that the island can be easily reached. The Island of Cloves. In coming here from Tanga we steamed along the Zanzibar coast for about 40 miles, and there are 20 or more miles yet below us. Zanzibar is about 50 miles long and 30 miles wide, and it would make altogether about 400 1000-acre farms. As you look at it from the sea the land is low and its shores are fringed ilth cocoanut trees loaded with nuts. The island has a dense vegetation. It is In the heart of the tropics and is noted for the fertility of Its soil. It is the chief clove island of the world, and the cakes and pickles of the universe are flavored by it. Throughout Europe and the I'nited States there are millions o secret drink rs who hide their whisky breath from :he knowledge of their deluded wives y the aroma of Zanzibar cloves. The Island produced last year over 26,000.000 ounds of these spices. This Is enough to smother the scent of all the liquors raised by man and leave some to spare. During my stay I have ridden out to tome of the plantations. Cloves come from trees which are pet out in orchards nd cultivated. At the age of six years the trees begin to bear blossoms, and it to these blossoms which form the cloves if commerce. They are bright red in lolor and are full of perfume. They ire picked when they are in full bloom ind then smoked over slow wood fires. During the smoking they turn from red V brown, and when cured are almost ilack. After they are well dried thej ire packed up In bugs, and in that shape ire sent to Europe and the United States. The English have another clove island, known as Pemba, which lies a little north of Zanzibar, and is gov erned from here. These two islands pro Juce more than 90 per cent of all the cloves raised In the world. , Zanzibar City. The capital of Zanzibar is Zanzibar rity. It Is the chief port of East Africa, foreign goods being sent from here to the mainland and carried across to Lake Tan ' fftiyMta. and other parts of the continent, at the same time ivory, hides and the various native products are brought here to be shipped to Europe, so that the place has a great trade. As you approach the city from the sea It makes you think of Southern Europe. The shore is lined with three-story build ings, built of stone or brick, covered with stucco and painted in all colors of the rainbow. There are blue buildings, white buildings, green buildings and yel low buildings all mixed together. The lown appears twice as big as it is, and it looks both imposing and beautiful. Right sut of the center, on the edge of the sea, rises the sultan's palace, and farther lown to the south are the buildings of the British consulate, which look like a white marble castle. As you come nearer the marble turns to whiteness: and the sultan's palace dwin dles in grandeur until It looks like one of our great seaside hotels. It is, in fact, a three-story building of wood painted yellow, with galleries running about it from story to story. These galleries are bout 20 feet wide and they are for all &svJ -Ao -ill the world like hotel porches. The roof is red. and, as it seems to cover a roof gar den, the hotel effect Is still more in evi dence. It Is there that the sultan lives with his numerous wives. I do not know how many dusky ladles there are In the harem. His majesty is a Mohammedan and he keeps such things to himself. I only know that the soldiers are always guarding the doors and that the cannon at the entrance seemed to frown at me as I passed by. There is no royalty, how ever, about the looks, of the palace, and there is but little power in the hands of the young man of 23 who lives there and pretends to reign. The Sultan of Zanzibar. Indeed the glory of this sultanate is fast passing away. It once controlled almost the whole of East Africa. The sultan had all the territory that now belongs to the Germans, reaching as far east as Lake Tanganyika, and also the whole of the coast lands of British Bast Africa, ex tending almost to Arabia. He was one of the greatest slave dealers of the world. I recently went through the slave market where some of this young sultan's ances tors sold negro slaves for American con sumption, and I stopped in a hotel named after Tipoo Tib. the great slave dealer who aided Stanley in bis explorations. When Tipoo Tib died not long ago he left more than S0O black wives. Within recent years the British have abolished slavery, but I understand that there are some who are still slaves, although nominally free. As to the sultan of today his income is largely from the British government and from his own private estates. The British hold the protectorate over his dominions on a perpetual lease, for which they pay him $85,000 a year; and the Germans have secured the fee simple title to the lands which formerly belonged to his father upon the payment of something like $1, 250,000 cash. I am not sure as to just what the sul tan is worth, for his purse is kept sepa rate from the general revenue of the country; and the taxes are used by the British under the direction of the British consul-general. I only know that he has enough to live In considerable state, and to kep up magnificent stables, compris ing the finest of Arabian horses. He has probably a large number of female slaves in his palaces and I am told there are thousands of women who are kept in slavery by the Arab officials and merchants here. An Arab City. The Arabs are still lords of Zanzi bar, although the British act as rulers. They own the greater part of the island; they have the clove plantations and they work the native Africans to the limit. They go 'about in turbans and gowns; and the city looks more like a part of Egypt or India than of Central Africa. The streets are narrow and winding. The buildings are high, with barred windows. They have enormous doors, plated with big-headed nails, making every house look like a prison. Some of the streets, have the walls so close together that carriages cannot enter them, and all are so narrow that the cabs have bells like dinner gongs, which they keep ringing as they drive through the streets, to warn the people to get out of the way. The whole place is a combination of squalor and splendor. Some of the shab biest houses have doors of teak wood so beautiful that they would ornament any Fifth avenue palace, and these doors open into the meanest of shops and ware houses. The architecture throughout is Mohammedan, and the best-clad people on the street are those who wear tur bans and gowns. Many of the Arab mer chants dye their beards a brick-dust red and I see scores of women who go about completely covered by yellow gowns which fall without a break from their heads to their feet. Their faces are en tirely covered, and each girl looks out through a little network of white cords woven over a hole not larger than a visit ing card, and that so closely that one cannot see the eyes behind. Ten Thousand Hindoos. About one-sixth of the inhabitants of Zanzibar come from East India. There are more than 10.000 Hindus and also Klings. Parsees and Brahmans. These people are from all parts of Hindoostan, and they wear many strange costumes. I see little black girls whose arms and legs are loaded with gold and silver jew elry. They have tight pantalets which fall to their ankles and are fringed there with lace. They have also a coat which comes to the knees. There are dark faced Indian women with nose buttons of gold and silver, and fat, greasy-looking Indian men. who strut about wearing pill box caps made of velvet and cloth of silver. These men have on long coats buttoned up to the throat, and under the calico pantaloons which fit tight to the skin. Others have round-about jack ets with gold studs down the front, which look all the world like dress shirts with the tails cut off. These Hindus do most of the retail business of Zanzibar. They have long streets of bazaar-like stores in the city itself, and their peddlers go all over the island. They use rupees as money, and their chief customers are the Swahilis and the other natives. The British government handles the colony as though it were a part of In dia. The laws are those used in the courts THE SUNDAY OKJKtxONIAN. PORTLAND. JUNE 28, 1908. I t 2 ll 5. -. " S".::oo?; of Hinaoostan. and the government itself Is modeled upon that of Kast India. ' The Negroes of Zanzibar. The bulk of the population of Zanzibar is made up of Africans. The Arabs are the nabobs, the Indians the traders, but the black men do the work. There are on the island altogether, 250,000 or more negroes of various tribes. There are more Swahilis thnn any oth er. They are fine-looking black people. The men and women are straight and the young girls in their long white cotton gowns are quite hitrnteonie. Many of the men speak a little English, and my guide knows enough to tell me about Uie city and its people. They are the most efficient of the natives of Central Africa, and are employed by traders to carry goods to all parts of the continent. I find the thatched villages of the negroes along the roads as I drive about the country. They work the plantations, tak ing care of the clove trees and gathering the crops. American Trade. This city should be a center for our trade movement toward the conquest of East Africa. It is the warehouse of this coast and Its business is several times as large as that of any other port on this side the continent. It naturally belongs to the United States, for we were the first to open up its foreign trade. As far back as 1K36 Uncle Sam established a trading consulate at the court of the then Sultan of Zanzibar, and we then began to send in cotton goods and hard ware for distribution over the eastern part of the African continent. The work of that time is still in evi dence. American cottons are known everywhere. They are considered the best made, and if our exporters would push them they could crdwd out the poorer goods from India, England and Germany. The other nations fight Amer ican goods, and they do everything they can to destroy our trade. They are studying the wants and tastes of the na tives and are making patterns to please hp , ' A7 v v& ... ic-:-:- a-jv y s them. The most active merchants at present are the Germans, who are sell ing a kind of cotton known as kangas, ued as women's dresses. A kanga is a square of calico about two yards long by a yard and a half wide. It is printed in bright colors and two kangas form a complete dress for a woman. One goes around the waist and another about the body under the arms or over the shoul ders. There Is a change in the fashions of these cittons from time to time, and the women want the new styles and col ors as soon as they come. Here in Zan zibar I see some which have patterns of playing cards and others which are cov ered with animals, and especially lions or leopards. They cost about 70 cents a pair. I understand there is a demand for flannel kaneas printed in colors. There undoubtedly would be a large sale for American kangas If the patterns were right. American Goods Sold by Foreigners. The buik of the American goods brought into this part of the world is through Europeans. There are some American firms, but the most of the profits of our trade go to outsiders. There Is a man at Marseiile named Klein who is doing an enormous business in Amer ican cottons throughout Eastern Africa. He has a branch house here and one at Mombasa, and his agents . are traveling through Abyssinia. Somallland. British East Africa, L'ganda and German East Africa. He has his cotton made to order in America in pieces of 42 yards each, and he brings a ship load of about 4000 tons across the ocean every year. I met one of Klein's agents on Lake Victoria. This was a Eurasian who had just come from Bismarckburg on the southern end of Lake Tanganyika, and was then on his way to Mombasa. He had gone to Lake Tanganyika to investigate the confiscation of $20,000 worth of ivory tusks by the Belgians. Klein trades a great deal of Ameri can cottons for ivory. The elephants' tusks are carried on the heads of por ters down to the coast, or they are , , n &h siy lb iff syj" ' mi -l .... y"v iAT A I" brought to Lake Tanganyika and sent to Mombasa by the l'ganda railway. The ivory in question had been bought in German East Africa, and the porters were taking a short cut through the Congo territory to get it to the coast. While on the way they were captured, and the Belgian officials claimed the ivory on the ground that the porters were smugglers. Klein's agent suc ceeded in getting the ivory back, and it is now cominj? here to Zanzibar across country on the heads of por ters. It will be transferred to boats at the seacoast and brought here for shipment. How Ivory Is Bought. I asked this young man as to the selling prices of ivory. He tolls me that the ordinary price in the Interior for a tusk of ISO pounds is about 120 rupees, or JI4 ). At Mombasa the same tusk would be worth $400 or $500. The. ivory varies In price according to lo cality, and that which Is worth 16 cents a pound on Lake Tanganyika will sell for $2.6f a pound at the seacoast. In buying ivory of the natives the cur rent money Is American cotton sheet ing, which is turned In at the rate of 1fl cents a yard. The same cloth sells in Europe for about 4 cents a yard. The European and Indian cloths are cheaper, and the traders try to put them in instead of the American. Many of these cloths coma from Bombay. They are so thin that one can see through them. The German cloths are little better. Our goods are known as American! all over East Africa, and they are the only kind that really sell them selves. This man Klein keeps a big stock of Americani at a number of interior trading stations. He has a branch office at Tabora. which lies about midway between here and Lake Tanganyika, where he lias now some thing like $40,000 worth of American! on hand. This gives one an idea ot the extent of the trade. Indeed, the de mand is such that I do not hesitate to $s?f ''Si GOVERNED r 5 )-- advise our Aijierloan cotton factories to study the market and to send their agents to Africa to investigate the pos- I ...... .WSfe I Who Are Authorities in English professor Ijounsbury Would Make Great Writers I lnal Court of Appeal. G RAMMARIANS are wont to tyran nize over a language. In the case of the English language, where grammar is an uncertain factor of which most writers know little, they have been especially tyrannical. rrofessor Louns bury, of Yale, is a bold man. however, and he flings hi? defiance in their teeth, says the Providence Journal. The only rational grounds for judging ot the cor rectness of speech, he argues. In his re cent volume. "The Standard of I'sage in English." is the authority of the great writers, not "the more or less imper fectly trained and even more Imperfectly informed persons who profess to show what we are to do and what we are to refrain from doing." And he sets forth the somewhat startling principle that "rules of grammar are of no value save as they are based upon the practice of these great writers." In other words, tho writing of English is not an exact science. It is a comforting view for those who write, as probably most of us do, by instinct rather than by ruin. Perhaps Mr. Ijounsbury puts the case in rather an extreme way: hut he is es sentially right. A careful regard for the so-called rules of grammar never made a good writer. On the other hand, the constant reading of the great writers will do more than anything else to form an easy, agreeable and reasonably cor rect style. We have many had writers today, but the explanation will probably be found in the fact that they are sin gularly ignorant of English literature. Ability to "parse" a sentence is of slight value to one who knows not his Shake speare, his Bible, who has learned noth ing from the prose of Swift and Soutliey and Arnold, from the poetry of Dryden and Wordsworth and Indor. Yet there are difficulties in referring moot points, to usage. What i." usage? Professor Lounshury takes up this ques tion. Meanwhile It may be noted that usage is constantly changing. How wide is the gap between Chaiicer and Tenny son, or even between Sw .t and Thomas Hardy! There are those who fancy that the English language is becoming cor rupt. It Is an ancient complaint. Swift was an energetic opponent of noveltlep; he wished to have an academy to set a standard. And Dr. Johnson is quoted as suggesting the Elizabethan standard as the final one. "If the language of theology were extracted from Hooker and the Bible; the terms of natural knowledge from Bacon: the phrases of policy, war and pavlgatlon from Raleigh; the dialect of poetry and fiction from Spenser and Sidney; and the diction of common life from Shakespeare, few ideas would be lost to mankind for want of Engllfh words in which they might be expressed." But Dr. Johnson himself did not live up to this ideal, and perhaps he was not quite serious in advocating it. A living language must grow like any other living thing. It is curious to note tho words now in common use which were once anathema niarantha to the fastidious. Such are mob. banter, battalion, novel. Expressions that Eng lishmen In the ISth century did not like were called Scotticisms. Just as they are now called Americanisms. "In truth, if we take for authority the contemporary opinion of successive periods, there is no escape from the conclusion that, for the past 201 years, at least, our tongue has been steadily deteriorating. .There is In it an innate depravity which tends to make it go wrong. As if this were not enough, there are always certain mischievous and irresponsible persons who are en gaged in the work of destroying its purity. In Swift's time it was the fre quenters of the court, the theatrical writers, the translators from the French and the poets. In Beattle's time it was the political pamphleteers and essayists. But during the last 50 to 100 years the agency which has been the favorite one to accuse of corrupting the language is the news paper. Its influence upon It has been described as pestilential." Doubtless . the errors of the news papers have been exaggerated. But we can hardly assent to Prof. Lounsbury's contention that "there Is no such thing as a language becoming cor rupt." The English language is loss strict in Its grammatical construction than most others: but it does not fol low that carelessness In Its use. how ever It may be supported by the ex ample of great writers. Is desirable. If this were so there would be no need to set before the student models of style; the latest popular novelist would be as valuable reading as Thackeray. Prof. Lounsbury goes so far as to say that the use or the singular verb with the plural noun may be justified because such instances are to be found in good writers which is nothing more nor less tnan giving to their faults equal weight with their merits. He carries this theory to its logical conclusion when he defends BVHiE BRITISH s , sibilitv of building; up a bi business in colored cottons and print goods. Zanzibar, Jun 2. the split infinitive. "Let It lie con ceded." ho says, "that the practice is improper." and adds: "But why is it improper? What is the nature of the particular havoc wrought to thr language by the iaser tion of a word or words bot'Af ca to and the infinitive? on this point the ob jectors to the usas; in question, along with tho severity of their attitude, maintain a silence so profound that the suspicion inevitably suggests itself that they communicate no information about it. they advance no ariune nt against it. because tliey have neither information to furnish nor arguments to present. Of expressions of person al opinion, however, both of tile us age and its users, the supply is ample. It consists mainly in the application to each of dematory epithets and phrases. The practice is termed a barbarism, a solecism. It is held up as a glaring example of the corruptions which arc invading rfur speech." If we take the standard of usage as the concensus erud it oram, as (luintil lian said, the agreement (,f the culti vated, we still must discriminate against the inaccuracies into which even the cultivated sometimes fall. Probably e"ery error In the use of English could lie justified by a refer ence to some known writer. But that would not make It less an error. Tho distinction between "shall" and "will," for example. Is reasonable and essential: to overlook It Is simply slipshod writing. The objection to tho passive voice followed by an object in perhaps quite as well founded, but in this case usage is so well-nigh uni versal that the strict law of grammar may properly be waived. And in every Himilar ease the weight of usage Is to be considered. To cite Thack eray, Arnold, Lowell In favor of an as sumed soleeism would be a potent ar gument; but a hundred other authors might be named without carrying con viction. "The truth is." says Richard Grant White, "that the authority of general usage, or even of the usage of great writers Is not absolute in language. There is a misuse of -words which can be justified by no authority, however great. by no usage, however general." The statement may be open to modi fication, but it seems lo b far nearer to the truth than prof, lxiunsbury is willing to admit, indeed. If we exam ine the question histnrleal ly. we shall find that there have been periods when the prevailing use of t'le lan guage, if not corrupt, showed tenden cies to corrupt ion. Nor can we be at all sure that the present. Is not such a period, if we take the bulk "f the newspaper and magazine writing of today, to say nothing of tiie fic tion, it is difficult to avoid the con clusion that the general level of ex cellence not merely in correctness, hut in style as well shows a sail falling off from the standards of the past. Xow to quote even general usage In such a case as this', to say that the slang of the street is picturesque and expres sive and therefore worthy of adoption, is to err as seriously in one direc tion as the gr a miliaria as have erred in the other. There are undeniably tendencies, not altogether to be de plored. ' toward a larger and freer use of the language. Hut it surely is th duty of educated men to endeavor to keep these tendencies within bounds. The "hostility to certain words," which Professor Lounshury deplores p 1 1 i most ases based upon a sound in stinct. It is so easy first to endure, then pity, then enibraee In matters of language. Here the grammarians give us little help. To sum up. It may ho admitted that the authority of great writers is on the whole our best, e.iurt of last re sort. One who has studied the hist writers will himself write good Eng lish if it be in him to do so. Con versely 'one who reads trash will fall intq trashy diction. But there is ;t certain standard of proprietv whieh even great writers cannot d- fv v.-ith Impunity. We should not make their mistakes an excuse for our own. Wanted A i haull'rur. "Wanted a rhnnnVui-. botli pel.rr ar.rl nat And able to elenn ;n:! repair. And ivhen he's net driving to wHit on the d.ier. And manaKe the pony with care. Ho muPt steep in the Flal.le and t.ik his meals oat. The clili keiis i.nrl pics he murt feed. And keen all the Uiu n. and the pr i. s bor ders ninwert. , And the garden lie also must weed. "He nmst work every Sunday, and clean all the hints. He must milk end attend the eow. And put up the clothesline and beat out tha rupf. And to polish the windows know how". For duties like these the miinif: -ent ?iim Of ten dollars a pk he w ill pe! "' The woman or man who inserted thlp ad Is In want of a chauffeur as yet. Nw York Sun.
