The Sunday Oregonian., July 19, 1908, Magazine Section, Page 8, Image 52

8
THE SUXDAT OEEGOXIAX, PORTLAXD, JUIT 19, 1908.
SflT IKvELOFMlEHT OF RHODES
BT FRANK G. CARPENTER.
W
rITHIN the past few weeks the
British South Africa Company
has Increased its capital to 145,-
000,000. This company is perhaps the
greatest land development syndicate in
the world. It compares with the 3utch
Company, which owned Java, and with
the East India Company, which had so
much to do with making .Hindustan a
British possession. It is far greater
than the Hudson Bay Company was at
the height of its power, and prospec
tively its riches are beyond the dreams
of avarice. The company owns and
controls the vast territories in this
part of Africa which were acquired by
Cecil Rhodes when he made his great
expedition from Kimberley northward.
He conquered some of the tribes and
made treaties with others, and at the
end had added to the British empire
a principality greater than. France and
Germany combined. It comprised alto
gether almost one-half million square
miles, going northward to the Congo
Free State and Lake Tanganyika.
Sir. Rhodes was granted by the Eng
lish crown the right to govern and de
velop this property, and he organized
the British South Africa Company for
that purpose. It was started with a
capital of 5,000,000 along about 1890,
and by 1904 its capital had Increased to
X I ' II.I.PIIIII.
2 Ly
$
-4 '&zttz,:'jjzzr-:ls'jzz.73&zz?zy
180,000.000. All of this money has been '
spent on the property. Several thou
sand miles of railroads have been built,
numerous towns established, many
farms sold and developed, and gold
mines opened, out of which $45,000,000
or $50,000,000 have been taken. So far
no dividends have been paid, but the
company has recently been meeting its
expenses, and at the last meeting of
the stockholders it was decided to issue
8,000.000 additional 1 shares. This will
bring In $15,000,000, and this new
money will probably make the syndi
cate pay big dividends.
A Talk With the Governor-General.
I am writing this letter at Salisbury,
which Is the capital of Rhodesia, and
where are also the chief administra
tion offices of the British South Africa
Company. During my stay ncre I have
had a talk with Sir William H. Milton,
the governor of the colony. He Is one
of the chief officials of the syndicate
and has been connected with the com
pany from its beginning. He was the
private secretary of Cecil Rhodes at
the time the company was formed, and
It is now eight years since he was sent
here as the chief secretary and secre
tary for native affairs. He has been
connected with the administration of
Rhodesia since 1897, and he knows, like
a book, the country and everything
connected with it.
I met Sir William Milton at the gov
ernment house, a beautiful one-story
bungalow, which lies about two miles
from the business part of Salisbury.
The house is surrounded by well-kept
grounds filled with flowers and tropi
cal plants. It is beautifully furnished,
and the administrator lives quite as
comfortably here as he could In Eng
land. Said Sir William H. Milton:
"You ask me to give you a bird's
eys view of Rhodesia. It would take a
strong bird to fly over It In a short
time, and one with a sharp eye to see
It all. Southern Rhodesia alone is an
empire In itself. It is more than one
sixth larger than Great Britain and
Ireland, and It has great areas of good
farming lands. It Is full of minerals.
Within the past few years a number of
small gold mines have been opened, and
the output from these is steadily in
creasing both In quantity and quality.
Gold mining In the Transvaal requires
an enormous capital. Here it can be
done upon a small scale, and we are
finding good paying propositions scat
tered over the country. Those already
discovered cover more than 5000 square
miles, and we now have several hun
dred companies and syndicates at work.
We have already taken out something
like nine or tea million pounds' worth
of gold, and we know that we have
silver, copper, diamonds and lead. We
have good coal mines at Wankie, about
200 miles northwest of Bulawayo, and
we are producing something like 100,
000 tons of coal every year."
Farming In Khodcsla.
"How about your agricultural possibili
ties?" asked I.
"We think them very great," replied
the governor. "Much of the country is
belter fitted for stock-raising than grain
farming, but we have large areas which
will produce corn and tibaeco. and some
which we think will raise cotton. There
Is no reason why Southern Rhodesia
should not produce maize equal to that
of your great corn belt. The grain is
grown by natives, and we have white
farmers who now crop thousands of bush
els of this cereal. We have some farmers
who sell 10.000 bushels a year, and that at
a considerable protlt. We have lands
which will yield 60 bushels and more to
the acre, although the average is less
than that."
"As to tobacco. Rhodesian cigarettes
re sold everywhere throughout South
Africa. Our pipe mixtures are In high
favor and our cigars are popular. We
are not trying to export any tobacco as
yet. for this continent takes all that we
can produce- We expect to Increase our
yield from now on, and the time will
corns when we shall ship tobacco to Eu
rope and H may be to the United States."
"How about cattle T
"It Is In stock-raising that the chief
possibilities for Rhodesia, lie. This la a
natural stock country. In the days of
Lobengula, the native king of the Mate
beles, these highlands swarmed with cat
tle, and were it not for the various pests
the land would support a vast number.
Indeed, it is estimated that if the hay
were cut and the grass protected from
fires we could feed something like 26,000,
000 cattle in Northern and Southern Rho
desia. We are doing what we can to
wipe out the diseases and at present we
are as free from the various cattle pests
as is any part of your country. We
quarantine against all outside stock, find
ing that the natives respect the laws. In
deed, we are having more trouble from
the whites than from the natives. To
show you how little of the available
country is used for stock I would say
that we have only about 200,000 cattle in
Southern Rhodesia when we could sup
port millions. We have 600,000 goats and
about 200,000 sheep."
The Natives and Their Labor.
"Can you give me some idea of your na
tive population?'
"We have comparatively few natives
for the size of the country. The total
negro population of Rhodesia is not larger
than that of some of your Southern
states. We have, all told, only about
800.000 natives in our whole territory and
they are scattered over a country which
is perhaps one-seventh the size of the
United States proper. They are, as a rule,
quiet and easily controlled, but they have
not enough wants to make them a good
working force. Tou see, the average ne-
'.'"St
gro can live on a few dollars a year. He
needs several cattle and a corn patch, and
in addition only enough cash to pay his
taxes. We tax each man 1, or $5, a
year. This Includes the tax for one wife.
If he has more than that we make him
pay 10 shillings a year I6r each extra
wife."
"I should think that would be a pre
mium on monogamy," said I.
"When wo fixed the tax we thought it
might be," replied the administrator, "but
it has not. The natives can make money
so easily that they can quickly earn the
10 shillings needed for every extra wife,
and the extra wives more than pay for
themselves in the work they do. The
man who has the most wives is consid
ered the richest, and he who has several
as a rule does little else than keep his
women up to their work."
More About Farming.
Returning to the agricultural possi
bilities of Rhodesia, the administrator
tells me that the country was greatly
Injured by the rinderpest, and that it
had quite a setback after the Boer
war. The farmers are slow coming In,
and I doubt much whether the com
pany is-satisfied with its success in
inducing white Immigration. I under
stand that one of the great troubles Is
lack of transportation. Horses cannot
be successfully raised here. They are
soon attacked by a sickness which
carries them off. In the past oxen
were used to trek w aprons over the
country, but the rinderpest killed them
by the thousand, many falling dead
in their yokes. The cattle are now
steadily Increasing, and there is a fair
prospect of the lands being restocked.
Much of the farming is mixed, the av
erage settler taking up from 600 to
3000 acres, and using a small amount
for cultivation and the remainder .for
grazing. He will put a hundred acres
or so in corn and employ the rest for
cattle. The climate is such that the
animals can feed out of doors all the
year round, and about 10 acres will
furnish enough grass for one head.
In my trips about the country I see
that corn is raised everywhere, and
that such oats as have been planted
are doing well. The present demand
for grain is such that the country can
not supply it, and in the past quite a
lot of American corn has been import
ed. Good corn now brings about 2
cents a pound, or more than a dollar
a bushel. Much of it is sold in 200
pound sacks at 84 and upward . per
sack.
As to the tobacco, the administrator
has not overstated the possibilities.
There are Turkish cigarettes sold here
which are made from the native weed,
and smokers tell me they are quite as
good as any that can be imported from
Cairo or Constantinople.
A White Man's Country.
I asked Sir William Milton whether
the climate of Rhodesia was fitted for
white men." He replied that the high
er parts were very healthy, and that
the heat was altogether dependent on
the altitude. All lands which are over
3000 feet above the sea are suitable
for Europeans, but It is only upon
those which are 1000 feet higher that
European children can be born and
bred. The latter area Is not much big
ger than the State of Maryland, and it
has one of the finest climates of the
world., The former is almost as large
as California, and it Is healthy. The
rainfall averages 28 Inches. Here at
Salisbury the altitude is about 4700
feet, and in coming Inland from the
ocean I have crossed country which Is
more than a mile above the sea. The
most of Rhodesia Is a rolling plateau,
and as far as I can see much of it will
some day be covered with the homes of
white men.
From Beira to the Capital.
I came to Salisbury from the Indian
Ocean by the Rhodesia Railway. This
begins at Beira, and after crossing
Portuguese East Africa runs across
Rhodesia to Bulawayo, where It con
nects with the main line of the Cape
to.CaUo Railroad. The distance to Sal
ow
Company will Exploit Its Immense
Empire in the Dark Land
0
j -f"-T' www-
-
isbury is 374 miles, and it took us two
days to make it, on account of the re
cent floods of some of the Tivers. Our
first 200 miles was through the Portu
guese territories. These are low and
unhealthy. We rode for hours through
swamps, where I was told that the
construction of the road has cost a
man's life for every tie in the track.
We were shown one bridge where eight
men were eaten by crocodiles during
its building. We now and then passed
through swarms of locusts, and our car
windows had to be covered with wire
screens to keep out the mosquitoes.
sFOUR Lead Carpenter July 19
Traveling Through Rhodesia.
As we approached the western end of
the Portuguese colony the land rapidly
rose, and at Umtall, on the borders of
Southern Rhodesia, we came into moun
tains equal to the most beautiful of the
Alleghenies. Here the track wound this
way and that in horseshoe curves, so
that, standing on the rear platform, we
could sometimes look Into the eyes of
the engineer on the locomotive. We
passed through thick forests, and finally
came out upon a high rolling prairie
covered with luxuriant grass. There are
but few farmhouses and few native vll-
FINE MEMORIAL TO
Library to Cost $300,000 at Brown UniTersity, the Gift or
PROVIDEXC14 July 4. (Special Cor
respondence of The Sunday Ore
gonian.) "To my mind John Hay
is. the finest flower of our civilization,"
the late President McKlnley once said.
Thousands of Americans who came into
personal contact with the distinguished
literary man and statesman whose death
was regretted a short time ago shared
that feeling. To hundreds of thousands
of other Americans who have forgotten
neither Mr. Hay's achievements in the
public service nor his literary master
pieces for what schoolboy has not de
claimed "Jim Bludso" or "Little
Breeches?" it is necessarily of interest
that an enduring memorial is about to
be erected through the gifts of some 26
gentlemen., friends of Mr. Hay and of his
Alma" Mater. These friends had already
subscribed $150,000 when Andrew Carnegie
subscribed $150,000 more, and the memo
rial will soon be erected.
Very appropriately this memorial wtil
take the form of a university library, the
plans for which have just been accepted
by the corporation of Brown University.
Honor will thus be done not only to an
individual, but to the general conception
of the responsibility of the educated man
in a democracy. Mr. Hay throughout his
long and useful career was always a
scholar, in the productive, not in the pe
dantic senBe. Literature he fallowed pro
fessionally only as he conscientiously
could. His interest in public affairs and
his sense of the duties of citizenship were
such as to prevent his devoting all his en
ergies to authorship. Just as when he
was chief editorial writer of the New
York Tribune he refused to familiarize
himself with the busings details of
newspaper publication because he wanted
to keep his attention fixed on-the current
events which he interpreted as brilliantly
certainly as any writer .in the days when
journalism was more personal than now,
so he also later on declined to become
acquainted with any of the ways of the
hack writer constantly studying the mar
ket for opportunities of placing his liter
ary wares. What he wrote was written
from conviction, and from knowledge that
be had something worth saying. Conse
quently from the class poem at his grad
uation from Brown University in 1S58
through the brilliant "Castilian Days."
the first essays of which Mr. Howells
hailed as an important discovery for the
Atlantic Monthly, and on through the cel
ebrated "Pike County Ballads," the life
of Lincoln and the occasional papers of
the last few years, nothing unworthy or
perfunctory came from his pen. ilore
the British
if.'VWl
V'
"1
wmmmmmmt
lages. There are J no fences anywhere,
and the land looks as It did when God
made it- There seems to be plenty of
water, and the oountry appears fitted to
support a large population- The prices
of lands are, I am told, something- like a
dollar an acre, and more or less, ac
cording to location. I doubt much, how
ever, whether the markets and the pres
ent state of the country would warrant
the coming of American colonists.
I wish I could show you this capital
than any other man in public life In the
United States, with the possible exception
of Mr. Roosevelt, of whose power of
keeping in touch with many things Mr.
Hay sometimes expressed envy, he was
an enthusiastic student of the best that
has been thought and said, delighting in
reading in the quiet of his castle-like
home at Washington, able in conversation
to quote from a surprising range of liter
ature. Honoring such an alumnus. Brown
University will witness the erection.
THE JOHN HAY LIBRARY EXTE RIOR OF THE BUILDING WHICH
WILL COMMEMORATE LIFE AND SERVICES OF ONE OF BROWN
UNIVERSITY'S MOST DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI.
as a very important addition to its
apparatus of scholarship, of a great
modern repository of books. How glad
Mr. Hay himself would ha.ve been to
see his name thus perpetuated may at
least be .conjectured. His attachment
to his alma mater was unwavering. It
was shown by the charming ole in
which he commemorated he- centennial
in 1864 in the midst of his duties as
secretary to President Lincoln and even
more directly years after In a lettsr
which he wrote to the librarian of the
university to accompany a copy of his
life of Lincoln which he asks to be
accepted "as a token of the reverence
and gratitude with which I regard that
ancient seat of learning." This letter,
framed, is now one of the treasures In
the ofic3 of the Brown librarian, Mr.
H. L. Koopman.
How great the value will be to tho
South Africa
4?
s 'v
of Rhodesia. If you could lift it up and
drop it down in the United States it
would not be out of place. Indeed, it
would look much like some of our best
Southern towns of 3000 population, ex
cept that these buildings are finer, more
artistic and more substantially built. The
material used is chiefly stone and bricks,
the roofs being made of galvanized iron.
The residences are bungalows, with wide
verandas running about them and with
low, overhanging roofs. Every home
JOHN HAY
Twenty-Five Friends.
university of the gift of a memorial to
this noble American is easily appre
ciated if the details of its construction
are studied. According to the plans
prepared by the architects, Messrs,
Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge of Bos
ton, who were also the architects of the
John Carter Brown Library, already on
the university ground at Providence,
and of the Harper Memorial Library of
the University of Chicago, the John
Hay Library will be erected at a cost
of a quarter of a million dollars. The
building wii; nave a frontage of a little
more than 123 feet, facing the uni
versity grounds, and will extend 10S
feet down College street. The style of
architecture is the English Renaissance
of the period of Sir Christopher Wren.
The material will be Indiana limestone.
The building will have a basement,
ground, first, mezzanine, and second
floors, the main entrance being Pros
pect street with only a few steps of
ascent.
The interior of the John. Hay Library
has been planned on the basis of sug
gestions made by the librarian after
months of study, including a tour of
inspection made in company with an
architectural expert to the principal
libraries of the East. The problem
was to provide accommodations for 200
readers, 300, 00C volumes, rooms for
various special libraries and. .for study.
.'V
a
:,-y. .:&:.
has a garden about It filled with the flow
ers and plants of both the tropical and
temperate zones. There are roses and
morning glories, as well as flowers which
would grow well in Florida or Cuba.
The business blocks are chiefly of stone.
There are many large stores with well
displayed windows and stocks of goods
which would be considered excellent In
any of our cities of three times this size.
One can buy anything he needs and many
American things are Bold. I see our
and for the different branches of the
library administration.
The requirements have been fulfilled
in accordance with the modern idea In
planning libraries and museums of in
viting the public to make use of the
treasures of literature and art. There
was a time when a librarian of Harvard
College announced with satisfaction on
a Saturday afternoon that every book
but one was back on the shelves and
that he was sending a messenger for
that one. The newer point of view is
to make the literary collections as ac
cessible' as possible. It will be noticed
that in the John Hay Library the rooms
visited by most users of the library
are on the first flodr. practically all
the rooms open to the public. In fact,
except the large exhibition room, are
on this floor. The Administration of
the building Is centered on the vertical
series of rooms of which the cata
loguers' room is midway, and these
rooms are connected with one another
and with the stack by a lift and by
stairs. The stack will contain some
250,000 volumes, and 50,000 volumes
will be contained in other parts of the
library. It is expected that pneumatic
cleaning will be installed throughout
he building. The department libra
ries will be accommodated in the old
building, which will communicate with
the new and thus make available to
readers In either building the resources
of the other.
The reading-room has seats for 178
readers, arranged so that every reader
has the light over his left shoulder and
sits next to an aisle, and no reader
faces another or will have another pass
behind him in going or coming. This
room contains the loan desk and the
desk of the reference librarian and
the catalogue. On the walls will be
placed the reference books, the books
reserved for the use of the classes, the
current periodicals and several thou
sand volumes of general literature.
This room is about 26 feet in height; It
is lighted by high windows which leave
space for bookcases around the walls.
Off the reading-room on the north Is
the fourth floor of the stack, which is
expected to contain the college library
proper, or a collection of some 23,000
volumes specially selected for the use
of the undergraduates. Adjoining the
stack and connecting with the reading-room
is the large, high and well
lighted catalogulng-room, which fronts
on the court. The catalogue trays are
s arranged as to be accessible both
from the ' cataloguers' room and the
reading-room. On the right of the
vestibule are the public stairs, with
the men's and the women's coatrooms
on the two sides of the passage, at the
end of which are the librarian's two
rooms, one public and one private.
Ascending the stairs, the visitor
reaches the mezzanine floor, which
contains a large and handsome monu
Of
canned goods and American cottons
among the articles in the windows, and
outside the farm-implement stores are
plows from Mollne, 111., and reapers end
mowers from Chicago and Springfield,
Ohio.
A Town of Clubs and Race Tracks.
I find Salisbury much alive. It is a
modern town of fun. clubs, public amupe
ments and high prices. It has its social
swim and it has its cricket grounds, golf
fields and tennis courts. The high fences
of the latter are covered with morning
glories, and the balls are thrown hack by
hedges of green leaves spotted with flow
ers of bright blue. The little city has a
library without the aid of Mr. Carnegie.
It has three banks and a chamber of
mines. It has a hospital, a half-dozen
churches and a newspaper which comes
out every week.
Everything in the town is high priced.'
I took a ride In a jlnriksha drawn by m
negro, and the charge was 37 cents in
gold. I could have had the same service
In Shanghai, China, with a pig-tailed
coolie as my horse, for 5 cents in silverJ
I went out in an automobile for a day
last week and the 'charge was $30 the re
for. I took a glass of mineral water
this morning. It contained one-half pint.;
and I had to pay 37 cents for it: The man1
who sat next to me at dinner was charged
63 cenUi for a Scotch highball. A cup of
tea at a railroad station costs 25 centsJ
and all other things are about the eama
proportion. My hotel rate here is $4.37 m
day, and the hungry eyes of the waiters'
are always asking for fees. I usually buy;
photographs wherever I go In addition to
my own, which I have developed by Jhai
local photographer. The price here tot.
making 8x10 copies Is $1.26, and when 1
asked the photographer this afternoon to
make me a rats of $10 per dozen b
hemmed and hawed and said he couldn't
really afford to print them at that.
Salisbury, Rhodesia.
mental room for the famous Harris colJ
lection of American poetry, a rare!
book room. In which slldlnir bookcases
will be employed, and a large study-;
room over the catalogue-room, lighted
from the court. On this floor will be
two balconies overlooking the reading
room. The second or top floor Is devoted to
special collections and study-rooms.'
From it opens the eighth floor of th
stack. Here are a large room and a
study-room in each case for the Rider
collection of Rhode Island history and
the Wheaton collection of international
law, a large unasslgned room, a map-;
room, three rooms for art folios and
other art volumes, and three study
rooms, besides a large exhibition-room,
lighted from above.
The simplicity and orderliness of
such an architectural plan exactly ac
cords with the character of the great
American whom the building commem
orates. Perhaps at some time subse
quently a sculptured memorial of
Brown's distinguished alumnus may be
added to Impress still further upon
generations of students the worthiness
of their heritage from the nineteenth
century.
Widow Was Contrary.
Bohemian.
The editor of th Beanville Clarion
dashed wildly into the composing room
and yelled at the foreman:
"Eh! Hank, hold that story of Widow
Jones death. She ain't died yet."
"How. long you want me to wait?"
"Well, we're expecting her death at any
minute now."
"Gosh, that old widow always was the
contrarlest person in Beanville," muttered
the foreman as he' pled several lines lift
ing the type from the form.
Truants.
Xew York Bun.
Arouse, lads, for the heart that's light.
Whan the clear d& com and the hills ars
bright,
When the wind calls.
And th four walla
Can stay the foot from faring!
Thn lt'a out and up and far away.
And If at night there's a score to pay.
Why, where 1 tha wight that's carlngl
Aye. it's Will o' the truant foot for me.
And a "pouf" for whauo his kindred bet
Just his eye leal.
And hla thews steel,
A lover of dawn and gloaming:
Then it's out and up and far away.
And we'll drain the very dregs of the day
Ere aver we hla a-homlng!
Bide, an' ye will, where lt'a weatherproof.
But give me the range of the aky for roo.ll -Just
the broad blue.
And a stout shoe,
A pack and a comrade truaty!
Then it's out and up and far away, ,
Till the last star plcka through its shroud of
gray.
Pevll may care and dusty! '
Clintoa Bcollard. ,