Richmond Palladium (Daily), Volume 33, Number 218, 20 September 1908 — Page 6

PAGE SIX.

THE RICHMOND PALLADIUM AND SUN-TELEGRAM, SUNDAY, SEPTE3IBER 20, 1908.

HORRORS OF EAST KHISCLOSED Iniquitous Slave Trade in Portuguese Colonies Continues.

WRITERS ARE A POWER. DOING MUCH TO AROUSE CIVILIZED COUNTRIES TO HORRIBLE CONDITIONS THAT EXI8T THERE.

Boston, Sept. 19. ''A white aan, as everybody knows ma? not own or sell a slave In any part of Africa under 'European control, but he must have labor, and there arc In practice

ways of getting over the obvious dif

ficulty. The7 are not ways which are discussed openly, and, so far as one can ascertain, are by no means catisfactory to the negro, for whose benefit they are sometimes said to be deviped. In this and a few other matters, the negro's opinion Is not however deferred to. It is his particular business to gather rubber for the white man and grow his cocoa, and the fact that he is not as a rule content to recognize his obligation is very seldom taken Into account." Such a condition prevailing in many parts of the "land of shadow," as the English novelist, Harold Bindloss calls it Recounts for the continued activity of the Congo Reform Association ven after a smooth, plausible settlement of the questions of proprietorship In the Congo Free Strte appears to have been reached in Belgium. It accounts for the frequent agitation regarding the traffic in human beings in the Portuguese dominions) of East :.nd West Africa. It underlies the activity of the Intor-national Organization of Anti-Slavists with headquarters in Lisbon, which Is now urging the interference of the British and American governments. It explains a widespread v feeling in Europe and the United States that the problem of the government of Central Africa will never be settled until a flood of light has been let in upon the actual conditions in the "Dark Continent." When 1 the announcement of King Leopold's virtual abdication from the Congo was announced, many Americans hastily concluded that the work of the Congo Reform Association had been crowned with success. Yet one hears at the American headquarters in this city that the campaign of reform has in all probability only just begun. Even more true is it of Portuguese West Africa that the world has begun to awaken to the deeds that are being done in the land where "the gods of the heathen can not hear, and those of the white -men, it may seems, be propitiated by massco in the cathedral and stained windows bought with cocoa and rubber dividends." By the Berlin and Brussels acts of a tev years ?.go Portugal bound itself to assist in putting down the slave trade. From many sources come corrobartlve testimony to tho fact that a subotituto has been devlsedwhich is proving to be just as profitable and just as abhorrent to humanity. General Sheds Light. One of those who have recently shed the light of specific information upon the true situation in Portuguese West Africa is General Francols Joubert Plenaar, who has been in this country organizing the "Angola League" of which Rev. Dr. J. D. McMillan of New York is president and treasurer. Gen. Pienaar, at the close of the Boer war, finding that he had the choice of surrendering to the British or Portuguese, chose the latter. He was sent as a prisoner to Lisbon. Afterwards he arranged to take a tract of land in Portuguese territory where he settled with a number of his people. His colonists were presently called upon to send some men to assist in a war against Kaffirs. They returned with a story of the capture of natives and their sale as slaves. When Gen. Pienaar protested against such conditions, the Portuguese, drove him out of the country. He has since been under suspicion of trying to organize a filibustering expedition to effect a revolution in Angola. Last December he was warned by the Foreign Office at London of the penalties to which as a British subject he will he liable if he stire up trouble in the "colonial possessions of powers with which His Majesty the King is at peace." Britain clearly does not wish to jeopardize its traditional amicable relationship with Portugal. Yet, however the British government may strive to prevent filibusters It cannot enjoin its own writers from disclosing the horrors of a traffic that has become an international scandal. Among the authors who have been down to the heat desolated coast against which the long combers pile ceaselessly and who have picked up In African towns the details of the modernized slave trade is Harold Bindloss, author of many thrilling stories of adventure. In a story which may be called the "Uncle Tom's Cabin" of West Africa, and which has been published in England under the title of "The Liberationist," and in this country under the name of "Long Odds," Blindloss relates with episodes based upon actual happenings In the Portuguese colony the story of an expatriated Englishman, with romantic Ideas of chivalry and duty to Ms fellow beings; and of an American medical missionary to whom the souls of savages torn from their homes under a system of quasi-slavery were sacred. This work with its vivid pictures of African compounds Bcorched with pitiless sunshine and perpeually walled In by the never lifting shadow of the black forest, of foot

wide trails leading Interminably through quaggy swamps among fallen trees and thorny creepers where a sour steam rises day and night, has already familiarized thousands of English people with the real nature of the West African problem. The land Is seen to be one in which there existence; where "orchids and parasites suck the life blood from the trees and thrive upon their ruin while

creepers strangle them and tear them down half rotten." In this steamy bush Ormsgill, the

Englishman, out of regard to a promise made to a dying French trader with the help of the daughter of a Portuguese commandant,' rescued an enslaved negro girl from the hands of : one of the slave drivers of the region and was witness to one of the occas- ; ional uprisings of the oppressed and ! to the stern effectiveness with which

the Portuguese commandant suppress-j

ed it That the rebellions are not more

numerous is explained only by the difficulty with which the natives get together. The outrages justify resistance. "The land," says the American missionary Nares. who has a streak , of Puritanism, "Is full of iniquities and horrors, and I thinkr some of them '

can only be washed out in blood. That law stands as it has always done. The great trade road to the south of us Is paved with the bones of victims, and still they come to die, worked out in a few years on the plantations. It is a thing that cannot;

go on." Nares' tragic death before the stockade of SanRoque added one to the long list of martyred missionaries. Rebellions Crushed. The rebellion in the story was crushed, just as the English adventurer predicted it would be, and as revolts in real life among the African tribes have been successively put down. Ormsgill, in spite of his indignation at abuses "knew that revolt is useless and wondered whether the old belief that there was a ban upon the negro and that he was made to serve the white man was not after all founded on more than superstition and self interested sophistry. Other primitive peoples had, he knew, died off before the white man, but the Africans have thriven in their bondage, filling Brazil and the West Indies and the cotton growing states. They are prolific, cheerful, adaptable to all conditions, and yet even where liberty had been offered, they remained a subject people, and made no effort to shake off the white man's yoke." Of this work John Daniels, corresponding secretary of the Congo Reform Association has said: "Since in connection with my work in the Congo Reform Association I

have learned something of the wretch-1 ed conditions of the natives of Portu-' guese Congo, I was particularly inter- j ested in the setting of the story, which ! is these very conditions. The reader gains without conscious effort, a vivid Impression of the atrocious actual slavery which flourishes in the region, and finds his interest quickened and his sympathy enlisted in the current widespread humanitarian movement , for Africa's purging." Another English writer who has helped to arouse the Anglo-Saxon coutries to an appreciation of what is ' going on under Portuguese dominion is Henry W. Nivinson. Mr. Nivinson has personally, at great risk, traversed ; the famous old slave trail that runsj

up from Benguela on the west coast, narrowly twisting around every tree and bush where shackled slaves from time Immemorial have walked after African fashion, puting one foot exactly in front of the other, through the vast Hungry Country, across Angola to Congo territory and to the great lakes beyond. This route is not deserted today. All along it Mr. Nivinson found discarded shackles, skulls and roting bodies the symbols of a traffic that results in a great proportion of deaths enroute. The negroes who are now brought down over the old trail are called "contracted laborers," but the fact of slavery according to Nivinson and Binloss and other first hand observers is plain. The victims have been bought on account of debt or captured in raids led by Portuguese traders. Those that survive the journeys are brought to so-called "emigration offices" on the coast Here they are asked in a language which they do not understand if they give their consent to working for five years. No answer is construed as assent. Thereafter some are kept In Angola to work in the rubber plantations. Others to the number of about four thousand a year are exported to the

Portuguese islands of San Thome and Principe, where in an atmosphere that s is perpetually steamy, hot and un- J healthful, lying as the islands do right , under the equator, cocoa plantations produce abundantly and human beings'

perish with higher death rate than almost anywhere else on the globe. At the end of five years the contracted laborers who have survived are brought before a curador and informed that their contract has graciously been renewed for another half decade. They are never permitted to return to their homes. A few escape over the sea in canoes and some run away into

the forests of the interior of the islands where they exist like wild beasts. I That this drama of the enslavement of human beings goes on year by year j behind the West African littora, blis-j tered with hot sunlight, and protected by its lack of good harbors and by the disposition of the Portuguese and Bel-i gians from any large number of visi-' tants, appears to be proved by the tes-' tlmony of all who have penetrated Into the interior. The work of such organizations as the Congo Reform Association and the Angola League is not

likely to come to an end until the traffic has been suppressed. Meantime for some time to come such books as Bindloss, will serve a useful purpose in conveying information, as well as entertainment.

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El Pays

September 30th will be "The People's Store's" first "birthday" at corner of 9th and Main streets. One year since these doors swung open at this stand, bidding you welcome and asking your patronage. A year of courteous treatment, fair dealing, that has saved many a dollar to the prudent housewife by trading with us. It has been our constant aim to treat all fairly, and to sell you goods for less money or better goods for the same money than you pay elsewhere. By continual push, this has been a great year for us, and we believe a good year for you. Appreciating the liberal patronage of a generous public, we give this ANNUAL SALIS and name these very low prices for your special benefit.

Calico, Percale and Gingham 7c Calico, blues, grey, red, light and black at .... 5c 121c Dress Ginghams, good styles and colors 10c 15c Dress Ginghams, the best quality, pretty patterns 12c 121c Percals, light and dark colors, neat patterns 10c 15c Percals with bands, light or dark, choice ' styles 121c 18c Percals, Madras finish, fine quality, best colors 15c 18c Madras, all light colors, shirt waist styles at 131c 25c Mercerized Madras, Emby dots, shirt waist styles 15c

Dress Goods. Waistings and Suitings 20c Plaid Dress Goods, wide double fold.. 15c 35c Wool Dress Goods, white and all colors 27c 42c Wool Cashmere, delicate colors, for waistings ...!... 32c 75c Wool Serges, white, blue and brown.. 65c 30c Soiesette, waists and suitings, all colors 25c 25c Mercerized Madras waistings 15c 25c yard wide Madras shirting and waistings at 15c 50c Mercerized waistings and suitings--32c

Linens. Muslins and Sheetings V 30c Bleach Cotton Damask, satin finish.. 25c 42c Bleach Satin Finish Damask, heavy weight . . . . . . . 35c 50c Table Linen, wide, half bleach, fine quality J -39c $1.25 Linen Napkins, neat patterns at.. $1.00 15c Large Towel, hemmed, fancy border.. 10c 7c yard wide brown muslin, heavy, at.. 6c 10c 4-4 Sheeting, best in Richmond...... 8c 9c Cambric Finish Muslin, no dressing ...71c

We also have a pleasant surprise for you in our Suit and Skirt Department There are no such values to be seen as you will find here. It's no trouble to show you the Fall Suits Great Showing and Jackets Ladies' Skirts t A Very Pretty Suit, Wool Panama, fold trim- $5.00 value, two styles Ladies' Skirts, best min9 at on,v $9-00 you ever seen, special $3.98 A Black and Brown Wool Suit, braid and nn . a . . -K c. . . mm . . . ftf4 button trimming to match ....$17.50 $5'00' the best $5 Sk,rt ever's,d for $5'00 A Ladies' Suit in blue or black with diagon- A $7-50 Ladies' Skirt' New Fa" Style, strictal stripe, strictly tailored $20.00 ,v tailored, at $5.98 Ladies' Fall Jackets, all at special low prices A $15.00 Silk and Wool Voil Skirt, Neat and $3.98 up to $10.00 strictly tailored ..$13.50 1

All our new Fall Blankets, Underwear, Outing Flannels, Fleeced Goods, Canton Flannels, and all at prices that will be of interest and importance to you. , ' . It's no trouble to show you the new goods.

Best Line Blankets Ever Shown 11-4 Blankets, white, tan, grey, fancy borders .50c A Heavy Double Blanket, grey, fancy borders, at .: 62c 11- 4 Double Blanket, very heavy, special $1.19 12- 4 Double Blanket, white, grey, tan, very heavy $1.98

Outing Flannels, Fleece Goods 6c Outing, dark colors for comforts 5c 61c White Flannel, good quality 5c Pretty Persian Fleeced Flannels at 121c 10c Canton Flannel, heavy nap, twill back, at ----- - 8 1-3c

An Elegant Line of Underwear Ladies' and Childrens' Vests or Drawers.. 25c Set Snug in Union Suits or Separate garments. The New Heavy Valastic garments for men and women. See them!

When you come to "The People's Store," make yourself at home, this is in DEED as in NAME "The People's Store," your home to trade in. You will at all times be treated fairly; no advantage taken of you whatever. Come at any time. See, examine the goods, learn the prices, if for any reason you do not buy, the same courteous treatment and attention will be given you. We await your pleasure.

Open Each Evening Until 8:30

THE

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Corner Ninth and Main Sts.