The Sunday Oregonian., July 12, 1908, Magazine Section, Page 8, Image 54

8
Frank G. Carpenter Writesrof
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BT FRANK C. CARPBNTER.
A WAT out here In the jungle. In
the miasmatic lowlands back o
the Indian Ocean, about 2000
miles northeast of Cape Town, In the
heart of Portuguese Africa, I find an
American managing- a cotton planta
tion. He Is employed by the Rhodesia
Company, and he has set out a tract of
about BOO acres along the line of the
railroad, which runs from Beira to
Bulawayo. His work is entirely experi
mental. The company owns three miles
on each side its tracks, and it hopes to
develop a great cotton Industry In the
Portuguese possessions.
The cotton is now two months old
and it is already knee high. The plants
look thrifty, and the fields are as clean
as a garden. They are watched day
and night to keep out the rhinoceroses
and hippopotami, and during the rainy
season one has to be careful how he
wades through the rows for fear of
losing a leg to a hungry crocodile.
I have had a long talk with the man
ager. His name is Stillson and he comes
from Meridian, Miss. He tells me that
one of the chief dangers is from the
wild beasts. The country has many
Hons, and his men killed a young leo
. pard with their .hoes the other day.
The leopard was asleep and they
sneaked up on him and sunk their mat
tocks into his brain. Mr. Stillson says
! that the tracks the hippopotami make
: are each as big around as a dinner
! plate, and that if they get Into the
fields they ruin the plants.
Cotton in South Africa.
I talked with this man as to the
prospects of raising cotton in this part
j of the world. He tens me that there
'is a vast deal of available land both
In this rtgion and farther south. Some
cotton has been grown on the Maputo
River, not far from Lorenco Marques,
and experiments are being made in
other parts of Portuguese Kast Africa.
The cotton raised here at Bamboo
Creek has a longer fiber than that
from the same seed when grown in
America. Mr. Stillson is experimenting
with our cotton and with Egyptian
cotton. He uses a steam plow to break
up the ground, and then runs Ameri
can cultivators over it. The cotton that
. Is now grown here was planted, last
December, and the nrst picking takes
place in May. The plants ripen at
different times and the Egyptian cot
ton later than the American cotton.
The picking season continues through
out the Summer.
1 understand that the Mozambique
Company, which controls this great ter
ritory, has sold 5000 acres of land to a
ryndicate in the province of Mozam
bique, and that this syndicate intends
to raise cotton upon it. The land is to
be irrigated and tramways are already
being built on the plantation. Steam
and motor plows are to be imported
and the estate will have the most up-to-date
of labor-saving appliances.
An Odd Contract Labor System.
During my talk with Mr. Stillson, I
asked him some questions as to the
men who work his plantation. Said he:
"We use tlie negroes, and hire them
through the Mozambique Company.
This company has control of the na
tives, and they are forced to do as it
says. Wo are now paying about $3.30
per month for a good man. We hand
this over to the company, and It allows
the man $3 and takes the 30 cents as its
commission. That Is the way all labor
Is furnished here. We have now 150
men in the fields, and we get them all
from the company. If a man shirks
or refuses to work, we send him to
the military commandant for punish
ment, and if he will not work after
that he is put In jail and another man
Is sont In his place."
"What punishments are used In such
cases?"
"The most common one Is slapping the
man on the hand with a web strap, which
eucks up the skin. The suction is like
that of a piece of leather pressed against
a flat stone. It is very painful, but it
does not usually lay a man up for more
than a day or so at a tlme.M
"What hours do your men work?"
"From sunrise to sunset. They work
hard and I should say they are as good
hands in the cotton fields as our negroes
at home. They are much like our ne
groes, but they are on the whole better
formed, and, If anything, more muscu
lar." l'ortugaese Natives for African Mines
Portuguese East Africa is now one of
the chief sources of the labor supply of
the mines of the Transvaal. Before the
Chinese were Imported four-fifths of the
negro workmen were brought in from the
outside, and mostly from this region. The
miners paid about (3 a head to the Por
tuguese authorities. Within the past
year it has been decided that the Chinese
must be sent back home as soon aa can
be, and a large number of natives will
be required to take their places. There
are white labor contractors now going
through Portuguese East Africa and
British Central Africa looking up men
to work in the gold mines.
We took a great gang of such laborers
on the ship at Chinde, the chief port for
Nyassaland. as we came down the coast
to Beira. The landing there is rough.
We anchored far outside the bar and the
negroes Kara brought to g ahlj) 4a
erteam launch and loaded by means of a
great basket. This basket was about aa
large around as a hogshead and about
10 feet In height. There was a door at
one side. The negroes, to the number of
a dozen at a time, stepped into this. The
door was closed and then the basket,
negroes and all, was raised by means
of a derrick to our steamer. The hu
man freight howled out in unison as it
rose, and the men thought they were
killed when the basket came down with a
thud on the deck.
During our stay we took about two
score such basketfuls of ebony humani
ty, making something like 200 negroes in
all. It was told that the men would
be taken to Delagoa Bay, and thence
shipped in by railroad to the mines of
the Band. They are employed on short
time contracts, and as a rule serve only
a few months, when they are anxious
to go back home. The Chinese came In
on three years' contracts, with the privi
lege of extending them to six years.
They -have made much better laborers
than the native Africans, who, as a rule,
wish to stop labor as soon as they have
accumulated enough money to buy an ex
tra wife or so who can support them
at home.
A Night at Bamboo Creek.
I stopped at Bamboo Creek on account
of a washout on the railroad going Into
Rhodesia. I had traveled all day from
Beira, on the Indian Ocean, passing
through lands largely covered with
water. It had been raining for a week
or so, and the country 1b now flooded.
Some of the bridges have been swept
away and the road is so unsafe that the
engineers do not dare to go over it at
night. The result is that our party
is landed here in the wilds. There is 1
no town excepting a hotel and this cot
ton plantation. The hotel is a tin shanty
of one-story with a barroom in front,
a dining-room at the side and a kitchen
in the rear. The barroom is filled with
mementos of big game bunting. The
huge skull of a hippopotamus lies on
one end of the counter, and there are
lion skulls and leopard skulls among the
whisky and brandy bottles at the rear.
At one end of the room is a stuffed zebra
with a stuffed leopard on top of him.
and about the walls are the heads and
horns of a dozen different kinds of an
telope. The bartender sells hippopota
mus hide whips and canes at extravagant
prices, and he offers to lend me his rifle
if I care to shoot big game. He saya
there are no end of rhinos and hippos
nearby, and that a lion can be found
almost any night by going with a few
miles of the hotel. I have not yet de
cided to go.
"Sweet Marie" in Black Africa.
We were a curious party as we came
into the hotel for dinner, and our enter
tainment was Interesting. In the first
place wis had the chief engineer of the
Rhodesia Railways, and with him a
nephew of Lord Roberts, who Is also a
civil engineer. We had another railroad
official, who has charge of a line away up
the Zambesi in British Central Africa,
and the American cotton planter of whom
I have already spoken. Among the other
travelers are a millionaire Wall street
broker, who Is making a pleasure tour of
Africa, an English commercial traveler
and a South African miner on his way
to the Transvaal. We soon got acquaint
ed and after dinner we had a little enter
tainment in the tin Bhack, away out here
In the wilds. The chief engineer played
the organ and gave quite a concert, in
cluding among his selections a number
of American 'songs. One of the best of
these was "Sweet Marie," which was
written by Cy Warman when he was the
engineer on a railroad near Denver. The
song was composed by one engineer in
the wilds of the Rockies, and now, far off
here in the wilds of Africa, It was sung
for us by another engineer.
After the songs we had big game stories.
Including those of lion hunts, elephant
hunts and struggles with hippos and
rhinos. Among these was a surprising
tale about a crocodile which the Central
African engineer had recently shot. He
said the reptile was an old one, and that
It had evidently been a great man eater,
for he had found forty-eight native
bracelets and anklets in its stomach. His
presumption was that the crocodile had
eaten forty-eight negroes so ornamented,
to say nothing of numerous others who
had left off their jewelry when they went
to bathe.
Portuguese East Africa,
This is my nrst taste of Portuguese
East Africa. I saw the country first at
Chinde and sailed for miles, along the
coast before I came to Beira. The ter
ritory Is enormous. It extends along the
borders of the Indian Ocean for as far as
from New Tork to Omaha and at the
north goes Inland as far as from Wash
ington to Boston. It is larger than Texas
and It would make considerable more
than six states the size of Ohio. Ken
tucky or Virginia. Its native population
is estimated at 2.000.000 or 3,000.000. but
no accurate census has been taken, and
although the Portugeuese have owned the
country for more than 300 years, they
country for more than 300 years, they
know almost nothing about it. The
greater part of it, as I have said, has
been leased to the Mozambique Company
and another part to the company of the
Zambesi. Beira belongs to the Mozam
bique Company and that company fixes
the taxes and pays Portugal for the priv
ilege of exploiting the town. It runs the
postofnoe and Bells its own postage
stamps.
It farms out the natives and makes
them pay taxes, which in some cases
i thejr work out fe Kiving iheis; labor
' THE SUNDAY OREGOXIAN, PORTLAND. JULY
Land That ErnishesiNatiye
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, i ii I f f'f 1 I 1.- ;,- Cr ' nt i T ,,-1
to foreigners. This is known . as the
prazzo system. The country is divided
up into districts known as prazzos. These
are put up at auction, the successful bid
der having the right to collect the taxes
of his prazzo for a term of three years.
He Is allowed to levy, a tax of so much
on each native and he must pay that
amount In cash or work. The contractor
has also the right to force the people to
do a certain amount on the publio roads
and on house building for the officials.
He has other rights which make the sys
tem little better than a legalized slavery.
The taxes are often' paid in goods, and
the value of their work Is measured by
American or English cotton cloth, the
price of which can be regulated largely
Wh n Letters Were Carried by Private Firms
Several Concerns Made a Mint of Money Doing Business in Opposition to Uncle Sam.
FIFTY years ago this Government had
not begun to dream of the extent to
which Its postal business would
spread. There was a National letter
carrying service, to be sure, but it was in
its Infancy, and its methods, as compared
with those in vogue today, were marvel
ously crude and undeveloped. Within
the recollection of our three-score-and-ten
men and women there were no Govern
ment stamps. Postage was paid In cash
at the postoffice and was regulated by the
distance the missive had to travel. To
facilitate the dispatch of mail certain
cities had Btamps of their own, which
were accorded semi-official recognition,
and which are reputed to have been a
wonderful aid to the then embryonic sys
tem of the National Government. But in
those days there arose In the land certain
shrewd individuals and private concerns
which were mightily Impressed with the
financial possibilities of well-organized
posts, and they straightway undertook
the establishment of these at their own
expense, and ultimately to their own
profit.
The private carrier stamps of the
United States in use In the forties and fif
ties are among the most Interesting me
morials of the progress of our people from
the quaint customs of a century ago to
the highly advanced methods of today's
civilization. Every section of the country
got its private mall-caniers, just as every
section of, the country today has Its moving-picture
trade and its diablo agency.
The city of Washington had a violet
stamp, the inscription on which was "one
cent despatch" and "Washington City."
The picture In the oenter was of a gen
tleman on a prancing horse, the likeness,
however, on close inspection, does not
appear to have been that of Washing
ton. Baltimore used the same stamp, with
the substitution of the name Baltimore
In the lower scroll, and sometimes with
this scroll blank. These stamps were used
on mail matter principally Intended for
local delivery, but In frequent Instances
for Intercity communication. They are
not to be confused with the semi-official
issue of Baltimore of lSal-2, which bore
the inscriptions "Government City De
spatch." "Postoffice Despatch" and "Car
riers' Despatch." Nor yet are they to be
BjteuBdas vsreeast Baltimore nrovl&iflasi..
-
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by the collector. A part of the labor la
the hunting of elephants and the gather
ing of rubber, both of which are ex
ceedingly profitable. I am told that the
abuses of such men in the faraway dis
tricts are terrible, and that the people
have comparatively few rights that the
tax collectors are bound to respect. It
is said that slavery Is still common- In
some regions, although it is not recog
nized by the government, and Is contrary
to law. The conditions are not as bad
as in Portuguese West Africa, where
slaves are Btill bought and sold, but they
are bad enough.
The cities of Portuguese Kast Africa
are changing. It used to be that Mozambique-
was by far the most Impor
Issues of 1845-6, which are now of such
rare values.
One of the private concerns that did an
extensive business and that issued one of
the neatest stamps was the American Let
ter Mall Company. Its postal service era-
Mass.Coxh.. R. I,
N. X. AVD FE.-OA. j
braced the states of Massachusetts, Rhode
Island, Connecticut, New Tork and Penn
sylvania, with connections In the prin
cipal cities oi each state.
W. Wyman. of New York, was one of
the big competitors of the American Com
pany for New York to Boston mall. His
stamp bore a picture of a locomotive of
those days drawing what was presumably
a mail coach.
Overton fc Coles i-etter Express was
also In competition fori the same business.
Chicago . Baltimomi-.
y St. Louis WAcnvoM
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11lARTrjnD-ll.-, I I
kTOK-NeW.I-OS, 4 PHlLA,-EOST02fc
12, 1903.
Workmen for
tant. Situated on a little island in
the wide channel between Africa and
Madagascar, it was for years one of
the great ports of the continent. It
was a center of the slave trade, and
the residence of the chief Portuguese
officials. The country has two capi
tals, one at Mozambique at the north
and the other at Lourenco Marques, at
the south. Mozambique is still the
headquarters of the Mozambique Com
pany, and It operations are conducted
from there. Lourenco Marques Is the
chief commercial center, and, with Its
magnificent harbor and ite short rail
road to the gold fields, it is fast be
coming one of the most Important cit
ies on the east coast of Africa.
Mozambique lies on a little island
only a quarter of a mile wide and not
more than a mile long. It Is close to
the mainland, and canoes are always
moving back and forth carrying food
and supplies. - The island is covered
with housee. It has clean sidewalks
paved with cement, and its roadways
are macadamized.
It has a fort and publio buildings,
but now the streets are practically de
serted. Many of the good houses are
but was rather more ambitious than Wy
man. for they extended their service as
far south as Philadelphia and had well
organized connections at that city for dis
tributing mail over a wide territory In
Pennsylvania and adjacent states.
New Yor.K.
.EVCHESTXS
Still another rival of these mail men
was In the field in the person of the
Hartford Mall, a famous old private mall
carrier that operated between the cities of
Hartford, Boston and New York. There
were several smaller enterprises covering
portions of the same ground, and the fact
that they all thrived shows that even at
that time the advantages of reliable mall
communicating methods were appreciated.
The Hartford stamp, by the way, was
-a unique specimen. Is bore no Inscrip
the Cold Mines
vacant, and others have been turned
Into the homes of coolies and petty
trading stores. The bazars In which
the slaves were exposed for sale have
passed away, and the town Is prac
tically dead.
The City of Beira is not as prosper
ous as it has been In the past.' Its
population has fallen off since the Boer
war, and it now has S00 or 700 whites,
about 1500 negroes and a considerable
number of East Indians. It is a town
of banks, stores and hotels. It has a
streetcar line, but the cars are little
four-wheeled affairs, each large enough
to hold but two persons, and they are
pushed over the tracks by negroes, who
run along behind.
Lourenco Marques, on the other hand.
Is rapidly growing. It is lighted by
electricity, and there are lines of elec
tric tramways which connect Its vari
ous sections. It has a new postoffice,
a new railway station and many new
buildings. The great marsh at the
back of the city has been drained, and
the mosquito plague Is practically
wiped out. The town Is rapidly be
coming the chief port for the Trans
tion save the word "mail" in tiny letters
on a sack carried on the back of a gen
tleman wearing a "stovepipe" hat, who
was stepping from the midst of one city
to another, his stride carrying him over
a body of water along which passed a
steamboat.
There were numerous private posts out
of New York to points up state. One of
the most enterprising of these was Hoyt's
Letter Express to Rochester. The stamp
used was a plain type-set affair with or
namental border. Copies of it in exist
ence today are worth $25.
It should ave been stated that Hale &
Co., of Boston, did a large private mail
business, handling a large quantity of
letters of firms and Individuals between
Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York and
Boston. This concern had a number of
different types of stamps, some of which
are valuable now.
Bralnard & Co., who flourished In New
York In 1843, carried mail to Albany and
Troy, and used a type-set circular stamp.
The private mall carrying In Cleveland
was largely done by Bishop's post City
Post it was called. It Is said that this
carrier also extended the limits of his
service to other Ohio cities, including Co
lumbus and Cincinnati, but the bulk of
the work was in the home town.
In St. Louis there was a prominent
carrier in the person of the St Louis City
Delivery. The stamp of this concern bore
a picture of a mailman hurrying on his
way.
The principal service in Chicago was by
Brady & Co.'s Chicago Penny Post. This
had affiliations with the mall service of
other cities and was one of the links in
the chain of private carriers that made
connection between the East and West
In mail transportation.
The "Pony Express," of the Wells-Far-go
Company, played a conspicuous part
in Western mail-carrying. There was
a large variety of stamps of this con
cern' and they Included many denomina
tions, from 10 cents to 84. They made
their appearance In 1860 and continued
to be issued as late as 1875. A specialty
was made of newspaper-carrying and
special stamps were issued for this pur
pose, which were lnscrlped "One News
paper Over Our Routes In IT. S.," or
"Over Our California Routes." The most
attractive of these stamps portrayed a
mounted mail-carrier. Another Western
carrier of distinction was the California
Penny Post Company, which .began op
erations In the '50s and continued in busi
ness 10 or 15 years. Adams, & Co. also
operated a postal system in California
and had several varieties of stamps.
One of the ocean-to-ocean companies
was Berford & Co., who had offices at
No, a Astor House, Mew York; In 1840.
of The Rand
vaal, and it Is where our American
goods for that region are now landed. .
The city has one of the best harbors
on the African Continent. It is known
as Delagoa Bay. It is 28 miles longj
and about 14 miles wide, and reminds
one of Manila Bay in Its extent. In- j
deed. It could contain at one time all -the
ships which come to Africa and
have room to spare.
Lourenco Marques began to grow
when the railroad connecting it with;
Johannesbergr was built. This aa
about 18 years ago, and its progress
has been steady from then until now.
It Is by far the nearest route from the :
sea to the gold fields. The distance1
from Johanneeberg is only Bti miles, :
while from Durban, the chief port of
Natal farther south. It Is 483 miles, ,
and from Cape Town more than 1000
miles. The Portuguese Government
has been doing much to Improve the '
harbor. They have built a quay almost!
half a mile long, and have equipped it!
with all modern conveniences for load
ing and unloading vessels. They have ;
built great warehouses, and have also;
constructed a drydock and other ma-'
rine works.
Their little stamps carried to California, j
D. O. Blood & Co., of 28 and 28 South'
Sixth street, Philadelphia, had an exten-!
slve mail service and Issued a variety of '
stamps.
Bouton had a "City Dispatch" in New j
York, as did Boyd, the latters' head-!
quarters being at 1 Park Place, and the
long series of stamps he used covered the
period from 1844 to 1878.
Brady & Co.'s New York stamp showed
postoffice stamp represented an antique
locomotive. The Brooklyn City Express
Post pictured a bird with a letter In its
bill. Browne's City Post, of 145 Nassau
street, New York, presented a picture of .
a mall-carrier trundling a wheelbarrow
filled with letters.
The Cincinnati .City Delivery, with of
fices at 64 West Third street had a stamp
similar to the St. Louis City Delivery,
already referred to.
Cressman & Co. used a type-set stamp
in their PhiladeJphia service.
The East River postoffice, in New
York, had stamps illustrating steam and
sailing vessels. The Empire City Dis
patch, of 23 Dey street. New York, had
a plain, unostentatious stamp.
Gahagan & Howe, of Washington and
Sansome streets, San Francisco, had a
series of type-set stamps.
Graffin's Dispatch, of Baltimore, illus
trated the Battle Monument of that city,
while Guy's City Dispatch was a combi
nation of geometrical lines.
Jenkln's Camden Dispatch portrayed
George Washington on Its stamps.
Humboldt's Express, doing business in
Nevada, pictured a stage coach.
Mason's New Orleans City Express had
a type-set stamp.
The Metropolitan Postoffice of New
York, with offices in the Bible House,
had a black stamp of funeral aspect.
A type-set stamp was used by Moody's
Chicago Penny Dispatch.
The same style was used by Pip's Daily
Mall, of Brooklyn.
Also the Private Postoffice,- of San
Francisco, used a type-set stamp, which
guaranteed "letters delivered to any desr
tlnatlon in the city within one hour after
mailing."
Type was used in printing the stamps
of Teese & Co., of Philadelphia.
Wood & Co., of Baltimore, had a type
set stamp in use in 1856.
There were still others numerous
others in the business of mall-carrying
50 and 60 years ago. They made money
at it, and when the Government expand
ed Its system that has today such mam
moth proportions, they gradually dropped
out of the running and lost their businil:
with Its remunerative returns
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