from coal. And they use continuously kio and London, fears attacks from in150,000 horse power. It is demonstrated quisitive savages and angry elephants. that even under the most unfavorable "What is to prevent a kaffir,” he asks, conditions the Falls can supply the Rand “from climbing one of the steel towers at $25 per horse power.

and throwing a wire rope across the An initial installation of 20,000 horse transmission line, bringing about a short power is suggested ; and as to construc- circuit and consequent destruction at that tion it is proposed to carry the magic point?" current by stranded cables on parallel Another critic objects that the routes

to be traversed by the line are terribly unhealthy—full of poisonous mosquitoes, tsetse flies and other poisonous pests; not to mention great snakes, the larger carnivora, and serious minor pests like the white ant, which will eat through the hardest timber. Against this it may be urged that, in the very valley of the Zambesi, the great bridge over the Falls was completed without the loss of a single life from fever. Undoubtedly there are unhealthy spots, such as hamper the most strenuous of African pioneers; but men who do great things are not

to be deterred, and GLIMPSE OF THE MILE-WIDE FALLS OF THE ZAMBESI.

point to what has been The energy of 35,000,000 horses now going to waste.

done at Niagara on a

relatively small scale. lines of braced steel towers, sixty feet "Victoria City," they say, "right on high and 900 feet apart. This seems a the falls, will one day be a mighty induslong span, but then wind pressures are trial emporium, the capital of the United very moderate in tropical Africa, while States of Africa, sending its vares' far snow and sleet are unknown. The steel and wide, not only through the continent, towers will be embedded in concrete, and but also to Europe and America." the whole line made enormously more The initial trial line of 20,000 horse solid and shock-resisting than any trans- power will probably cost five millions at mission line previously erected. Mr. least; and to cover interest on capital, Mershon, America's representative in the maintenance, depreciation, and the paInternational Board, has designed unique trolling of the line, ten per cent must be insulators two feet high, after number- added to this. The second twenty thouless experiments. The power will be sent sand horse power will of course cost far by continuous current and the initial ten- less than the first. At any rate the prosion will be 70.000 volts.

jectors of this vastest of engineering This gigantic scheme has many critics schemes have sought the soundest expert —but, so had railroads when they were advice in all the nations, and capital is suggested. Thus, Professor Ayrton, for forthcoming to back their opinion that many years lecturer on electricity in To- the 35,000,000 horse power of the Vic

toria Falls can be harnessed for the structures are projected on Livingstone . benefit of fast-growing Africa.

Island, where the river is two miles wide. Few realize the incredible treasure that The place is a paradise for sportsmen, lies in one small section of this country whose canoes may be upset by disgusted —the Witwatersrand. John Hays Ham- hippopotami within a few hundred yards mond has estimated that gold still re- of the Grand Hotel. mains in the reefs to the unthinkable As to the power transmission scheme, value of four thousand million dollars. and the flying cantilever bridge with its Other estimates are far higher, for min- double row of rails, it must be said that ing goes on at 8,000 feet and still finds

every effort is made not to interfere with gold inexhaustible.

the majesty of the spectacle. Cecil In such an amazing center of industry Rhodes himself made conditions in the as this—not to mention those being cre- concession, guaranteeing the integrity of ated every day in this vast virgin con- the Falls. And so generations will continent,—the inconceivable power latent in tinue to gaze at this primordial chaos the Great Falls will effect a prodigious which ages of time have made. economy. The greatest water power Already a "personally conducted" tour, the world is here, and the second comes consisting of a party of the British Assoa mighty long way behind. As I write, ciation for the Advancement of Science a "Grand Hotel” five stories high is have visited the awful spot and been enabout to be opened on the brink of the tertained on the lip of the abyss. Their Falls, with 120 bedrooms, elevators and

guide was F. W. Sykes, the District all the luxuries, almost, of a Fifth Ave

Commissioner, who for nearly five years nue hostelry. is built after a Byzan- has explored the mysteries of the gorge, tine model in the “Park of Peace” on the

which in places narrows to only fifty South side where the vast river bends over into the abyss.

yards, for the roaring passage of one of

the earth's greatest rivers. Here, too, on a commanding site is placed a bronze cast of the late Mr.

Little did Livingstone, half a century Watts' statue of “Physical Energy."

ago, when he braved the spirits of the Yet another park is projected, also. pearly, luminous spray-clouds, dream that Zoological Gardens which will surely be one day a mysterious force should be unique in that lions roam about outside born there which should transform a as well as within ! Other important tremendous portion of the continent.

H shucks, workin's ous habit of turning fatalists, and besides,

good for the kids, it things looked suspicious.
keeps them off the “Say, Mr. Murphy, what's that high
streets. They don't fence for that you've got all around the
mind it.

it, either, it plant? When we came down here the
m a kes them inde- first thing we ran up against was a high
pendent. Some of fence with barbed wire on top, and a
them have to work or watchman at the gate."
starve, anyway," said “That fence? Why every glass works
the foreman of has a fence around it. That's just to

. glass factory as he keep the kids on the night shift from

showed us around the running away,” said the obliging foreworks. To him, apparently, his phil- nan. osophy completely disposed of the child This began to grow interesting. Perlabor problem. If the youngsters have haps the rather husky Virgilian shade to work to live, why should we kill them who was piloting us through this modern by taking away their work? Humanity inferno would betray himself again. is on the side of the men who give them We were standing in a smoke-blacka chance to eat.

ened barn with two large whiskey-jug But industrial demi-gods have a curi- furnaces for the centers of interest.

There were a score of openings cut in This is the first of two articles on Child Labor, the second of which will appear in the April issue.-ED.

the sides of the fat ovens and around them