leader of the Prohibition party. The collection consists of twenty-two large volumes of five hundred pages, each numbered and bound neatly in morocco leather. In them the General keeps anything which relates in any way to himself or to his cause. Here are to be found souvenirs, handbills, invitations, autograph letters from some of the world's greatest celebrities, photographs, hotel bills, programs, menu, newspaper clippings relating to himself, editorial communications which he has answered through the columns of the papers, and in fact a perfect mine of wealth.

General Dow's chief recreation is traveling, and he has journeyed extensively, not only over this country, but Europe as well. In 1857 he was invited to England by the United Kingdom Alliance and spent nine months there, speaking for temperance. He made a similar journey in 1865 under the like conditions and remained eighteen months in Europe. Once more in 1873 he crossed the ocean and remained abroad over two years. He delivered over five hundred addresses in England, speaking in all the largest towns as well as the cities, and made hosts of friends. The pluck which has made him enemies at home is universally admired in England and Scotland.

Though small he

he was quite an It is full of spir

In appearance General Dow is pleasing. is straight and compactly built. In youth athlete. His face is more than handsome. itual dignity, force and refinement. It is illumined from within. Socially he is very attractive and winning, with a most genial smile. His manners are gentlemanly and courteous and belong essentially to the old school. After visitors have had a talk with him, and it is a treat to have such a privilege, they feel as they leave that they have been talking to a perfect gentleman.

London.

FRANCES E. WILLARD.

TROPICAL AFRICA AS A FACTOR IN CIVIL

IZATION.

A PAPER READ AT THE CHICAGO CONGRESS ON AFRICA.

When David Livingstone reached the Zambezi river, he met the Makololo chief Sekeletu, who gave him men, ivory and trading commissions that helped the humble and unknown missionary, lacking all financial resources except his salary of $500 a year, to cross the continent to Loanda, and then retrace his steps from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans. This great journey established Livingstone's fame, kindled the world's interest in Africa, and led to the manifold enterprises which, in twenty-five years, have achieved such remarkable results. The dawn of this era of exploration and development was thus ushered in by the co-operation of a white missionary and a, heathen chief of inner, tropical Africa. In this noteworthy incident we see the human agencies through which Africa will attain the full stature allotted to her. The civilized world and Africa have need of one another; and the Caucasian and the African, each has his onerous share in the work of bringing them into touch and accord.

In this paper I speak only of Tropical Africa, which forms the bulk of the continent, and is the problem before the world. We know that man's geographic environment has a profound influence upon his life and character. It is not easy to believe that an advanced type of civilization can come out of a tropical jungle. What reason have we for hoping that in time the mass of Africans may be raised to a higher plane, and the world may derive considerable good from them and from their habitat?

We may be certain at least that the African is in Africa

to stay. If his land overran with good things, and vast hordes of the white race could enter and live there, the native might be almost annihilated, as he has been in America and Australia. Those who read history have no reason to impute a large measure of philanthropy either to governments or to commerce. But most of tropical Africa never can be the home of white colonists. Africa has material resources that the outside world wishes to enjoy ; and as it cannot send its own laborers to develop them they can be secured only through the intermediary of native labor. If the nations profit by tropical Africa, it will be because the native helps to reap that profit, and it cannot be reaped without him. If good comes out of Africa the native is as essential to that result as the brains and capital of the Caucasian race.

It is fortunate that the natives will not melt away before the breath of civilization like the South Sea Islanders; nor are they made of that inflexible stuff that will break, rather than bend or conform to new influences and conditions of life like many Indians of the Americas. The negro has proved himself a true cosmopolite. He can survive and adapt himself to violent changes in his way of life. He can be oppressed, and while the yoke galls him he can rise in the social scale by emulating what is meritorious, even if he does not shun what is censurable in his oppressors. He has done good work in all the continents. In tropical South America he endures the trying climate better than the native Indian. The child of the torrid sun, he has gone to the polar regions to do a man's work there, and he has done it so well that he has gone there again. In a word, he is plastic, teachable, adaptable, tenacious of life. The influences of civilization good and bad have not destroyed him outside of Africa. They cannot destroy him in it. If they could, the greater part of a larger continent than ours would never again be tenanted by man. Wholly indispensable as the native is to African progress it is fortunate that, more or less barbarous though he be, he is, in the depths of his character, what he is, instead of being

-as others are and have been-too weak to endure the changes of civilization, or too unyielding to submit to them.

I do not mean that all African races are equally amenable to civilization or can stand the radical changes the whites will introduce, with the same vitality. The Nama or Hottentot race is receding before European culture, and is likely to become extinct. The Hottentot has near neighbors of Bantu stock whose better qualities are developed by the whites they are meeting, and who are looked upon as a hopeful and helpful element in southwest Africa. I am speaking generally of the African races.

Here is one factor-the raw material of the future laborer. The molding and shaping of that material requires the presence of the Caucasian. Among the great problems the world is studying to-day is: How can white men live in tropical Africa, maintaining their strength so that they may teach the natives, establish good government and superintend enterprises?

The white man will work among the natives under three distinct conditions of environment. In the first place he will live in the coast regions or lower parts of the river basins where he may never be able to maintain health and energy without occasional recuperation in a better climate.

The favorable results of study and experience in the matter of acclimatization are already, somewhat evident. The conditions under which malaria is evolved are now well understood; and a large mass of practical, sanitary and hygienic information is at the service of white toilers in Africa. It was once thought that the white man, who went to Malacca or Hong Kong, signed his own death warrant. The Dutch East Indies were decried as the graveyard of Europeans. But sanitary conditions were improved; foreigners learned how to live, and those places now have a fair reputation for salubrity. We may say at least that African fever has not quite the terrors of fifteen years ago. White communities, that profit by experience, show to-day a smaller, proportionate mortality. Burton said white men could not live in the Congo valley. But in proportion to the white population three deaths occurred there ten years ago where one occurs to-day. Educated men who have lived long on the river say that with

improved sanitation, better knowledge of how to live and comforts and conveniences that were not within reach of the pioneers, white men may live in most parts of the Congo basin at least as safely as they do in India. They cannot continually abide there, but with the aid of occasional visits to temperate latitudes there are men on the Congo to-day who have lived there from six to sixteen years, without any serious impairment of health and energy. (Delcommune and Van Gele). Another condition under which white men may develop centres of influence has just become a strong probability. Five years ago no one could say that we knew of any part of tropical Africa where white colonization is practicable. To-day it seems quite certain that some limited areas are well adapted to be the homes of a considerable white population. Joseph Thomson, one of the most cautious and conservative of explorers, has recently said of the lofty plateau southwest of Lake Nyassa : Blantyre, south of Nyassa, has been amply proved to be a place where no European need be afraid to settle; and yet, undoubtedly, the plateau lands westward are still more healthy. There are no malaria breeding grounds, drainage is excellent, and pure water is to be found everywhere."

Almost under the equator, on the line of the proposed railroad to Victoria Nyanza is a large area of fertile land crowning one of the loftiest plateaus of Africa. In this region, at an elevation of seven thousand to eight thousand feet above the sea, Captain Lugard and other travelers are sanguine that the experiment of white colonization will succeed.

Not more than a hundred miles inland from Massowa on the Red Sea, one of the hottest places in Africa, are the rich lands of Keren, among the highlands of northern Abyssinia. Greek farmers are living there now in excellent health, and it seems to be settled beyond doubt that south Europeans may thrive there.

It may be found also that the highlands of Katanga, among the Congo's head streams, and possibly a part of the Bihe plateau, are fit to become the homes of a limited number of white farmers.