Jasper County Democrat, Volume 19, Number 29, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 July 1916 — THE UNPAID “DRUMMER” [ARTICLE]

THE UNPAID “DRUMMER”

Hom the Missionary Blazes the Trail for the Merchant. It is romatic—the story of how the missionary blazes the trail for the merchant. • ... ' “I go back to Africa to try to make an open path for commerce and Christianity,” said Livingston. And along the Christian path which he opened now run automobiles and motor trucks and railway trains bearing the fabulous wealth of some of the richest commerce in the world. ->■ The first missionaries in Nyassaland bought a basketful of grain. The natives looked at the pretty beads that had been paid them.for the grain, went out to their fields and started to plant and cultivate as if their lives depended upon it. Now a score of steamers is needed to carry the thousands of tons of

grain to the coast, where it is reshipped to the far parts of the world. A missionary obtained a solitary coffee plant from the Edinburgh botanical gardens and placed it in the soil of central Africa. From this single plant great plantations hav< sprung until the export of this one product amounts to thousands of tons annually and Scotch coffee has become a staple African product. In nine cases out of 10 the first white man to blaze the trail in a strange country is a missionary. He goes on ahead, wins over the cannibals with rock candy and beads, and prepares the way for the trader. Missionaries did the pioneer work in Africa, the islands o f the South seas, the Pacific islands and most of the Asiatic continent. You can thank the missionaries for ycur arrowroot biscuits. Before the Christian pioneers arrived in the New Hebrides, the arrowroot plant grew’ wild and went to waste. Now the natives, taught by the missionaries, cultivate and sell the plant by the thousands of pounds and gratefully dedicate the proceeds to the support of Christian work. India rubber was discovered by a missionary Today the United States, imports about $75,000,000 worth of India rubber. The soil of India is in many regions upturned by mission plows introduced through industrial mission stations. The machlne-that-does-the-work-of-10-wives is the name one native gave to the-plow.— Kansas City Journal.