The Coalgate Courier (Coalgate, Okla.), Vol. 3, No. 41, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 22, 1912 Page: 6 of 8
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The Man-Eaters of M’Wembi
PUSH BAIL BIG FEATURE OF THE
HORSE SHOW AT ffllfi THIS YfflR f
Copyright by Ridgway Co
-
By Captain Fritz Duquesne
p
IET DU TOIT saw the
ending of the Boer
war with tne peace
of Vereenlging but
there was no peace
for him under Eng
llsh arms His heart
was burning like the
live-coal of a slow
match - while the
Union Jack dangled
over his head and
he longed for a wilderness where he
could live to his dying day without
seeing so much as the print of an
lEnglish foot
He was a farmer of Llchtenburg a
grazing district lying In the west of
the Transvaal and It was easy for
him to muster a little company of kins-
men and friends of like temper to
trek with him out of the Transvaal a
few days after the close of the war
There were twenty-six whites In his
party men women and children and
about a hundred Kaffirs most of whom
had been attached by years of service
and good treatment
Du Tolt had no definite choice of a
spot to settle on He planned in a
general way to spy out the land amid
and beyond the swamps of Mozam-
bique and laid his course straight over
the veld to Komateport at the railroad
grossing between the Transvaal and
the Portuguese territory For some
time his trek was heard from tnore
or less frequently but after passing
the Portuguese border the news be-
gan to shrink to bare reports that the
Boers had been seen by natives from
time to time still pressing on to the
northeast through the wilderness to
itbe vast swamps
They were doggedly entering the
moet repellent region of the dark con-
tinent a fearful expanse of fetid pools
and loathsome mire under the glare
of the torrid sun the breeding-ground
of the crocodile and all manner of
reptiles Insects and vermin a perpet-
ual fount of miasma and deadly fevers
but Jealously held against intrusion by
the fiercest and most bloodthirsty na-
tives of Africa All cunning and hate
are lodged In these people into whose
native blood has come a touch of the
Arab and of the trader of Madagascar
iThelr normal life Is war their chief
amusement is murder the savage
with most blood on his hands is a
hero and may become a god when he
dies
It was presumed that the Boer trek
had passed into the swamps but no
native had seen the entry and no
laews came out and back to Llehten-
burg After several months of vain
waiting and growing anxiety a search
for the trail was begun with the help
of native scouts
Every path leading Into the marshes
'was traced for many miles by the
searching parties but no marks of Du
'Tolt’s trek were detected and no tld-'
lings of the missing party could be
gathered from the natives Yet ev-
ery Africander persisted in the belief
that the party was somewhere alive or
that its fate could be learned AH
‘African history has no record of a lost
Boer but after hunting vainly for
many weeks the Portuguese govern-
ment was on the point of giving up the
attempt and It was evident that the
Boers must renew the search for their
countrymen or it would be abandoned
j I had gone to Lorenzo Marques to
select land for the same purpose as
Du Tolt in a territory beyond the
stretch of British dominion The mys-
terious disappearance of the Boer
itrekkers was table-talk in the little
Jclosks on the street-corners Within
an hour after my arrival a Portuguese
colonel who was seated at one of the
tables rose to meet me as I entered a
kiosk and greeted me as an old ac-
quaintance I sat down to share a
bottle of wine with him and after a
few minutes of polite inquiries and
flowery talk he urged me to enlist in
the hunt for the missing party
! The governor-general was persuad-
ed to make one more trial and my
friend Colonel Andreas was put In
command of a troop of four hundred
men with myself and a number of
friendly natives as scouts
I On the second day the raw men
showed signs of fatigue and before
the end of the third day the horses
were fagged and plodded along with
drooping heads
' As days went on the column thin-
ned out more and more stretching out
for over a mile Millions of Insects
hovered over our marching troop
drinking our 'sweat and settling In
such swarms that every man’s back
looked as If It were coated with flies’
wings One by one the stragglers In
the rear would cry for help and drop
swooning from their saddles The
horses too were falling from ex-
haustion At Intervals from the sur-
rounding bush we would bear the
sharp crack of a rifle or an arrow
buzzing like a frightened humming-
bird would reach Its mark In one of
our troop It was idle for us to at-
tempt pursuit Before we could spur
our tired horses to the cover the lurk-
ing native would slip off Into the thick-
ets After a month of this traveling by
forced marches stopping only a few
times to reBt at a pool or stream our
horses were too fatigued to go furth-
er We knew that we were not far
from the border of the swamps and
the colonel determined to make the
entry on foot
In order to lighten the load of the
marching men to the uttermost the
lances were broken up and thrown
away and the troopers carried nothing
in their packs but stinted rations for
a week The horses were shot and
our men tramped off to the marshes
We expected that the natives with us
would be able to keep us supplied
with game and all who were not
needed to carry our tents and cooking
outfit were sent out to hunt for meat
but it seemed that they were unwilling
to take the risks of a hostile country
for the hunters almost always return-
ed empty-handed We were forced to
cut our rations to eight ounces a day
and at length to a few morsels of
food for we had misjudged the dis-
tance that lay between us and the
swamps
Finally after a wearisome tramp
for two weeks our famishing troop
came upou a long declivity stretching
for miles before us The horizon
veiled in a blue haze was blotted by a
black Jungle the margin of the -dreadful
marshes of Mozambique
After some search we found a new-
ly made path and followed its narrow
way into the swamps x
I was leading the troop when I saw
ahead a company of armed natives
blocking the way The path was so
narrow that our troop could not
27&y'2iAZC£D JLxazztfD
charge in force and the screens of
the swamp made an attack from them
on the flanks and rear hard to resist
Still it was impossible to retreat and
a bold front was the only resource I
leveled my rifle at the chief who
headed the 'natives He opened his
arms bearing hts shield on the left
and lifting his spear at full stretch
in his right hand so that his brawny
glistening body was fully exposed
His action meant "I am a friend”
I lowered my rifle and our troop
was soon in friendly touch with the
natives The chief asked what we
were seeking in the swamps and we
told him that we were looking for the
missing Boer trekkers He told me
that he had heard of their settlement
In the country to the northwest be-
yond the swamps and would put us on
the way to them After resting for a
few hours the chief and his follow-
ers led us across the marshes by
paths which we traveled for little
more than a week until we came out
into an open country where the
kopjes were sticking up stiffly like the
horns of a young koodoo
We had hardly reached firm land
when our soldiers fell sick The only
one of the company of unshaken spirit
was the priest of the troop a little
gray-headed man who was constantly
praying with undimmed faith In God’s
help while the men groaned and raved
In the delirium of fever We made
hammocks of grass and bamboo’ poles
and natives of the country agreed to
carry our sick men for a few of our
cartridges
From the day that we left the
swamps a string of graves stretched
behind us One after another of the
little troopers fell out of the ranks
At length we passed the ridge
which was pointed out to us as the
last to be crossed before reaching the
well-watered country called M’Wembi
where the missing party was most
likely to be found
With every passing day our troop
dwindled away Colonel Andreas had
been prostrated by fever in the course
of our march and was carried in a
hammock to our halting place where
he lay for days too slak to take any
charge of the camp
As usual I left my tent about mid-
night to relieve the watch which the
priest was keeping He was praying
before the flickering campfire and I
stood beside him for a moment silent-
ly Suddenly a heart-shaking sound
like the roar of lions but with strange
muffled tones seemed to spring out
of the earth beneath us It rose and
fell In swells now loud and hoarse
now low and muttering
I took a sextant from its box and
went out a little way from camp to
a clear space where I could get our
bearings As I was finding my stars
I saw a party of natives coming away
from our tents bearing a soldier in
a hammock I supposed that they
were taking the body away to bury
it The experience was too common
for me to question what they were
doing Once more after a little time
the mysterious roars arose and then
they stopped and the night was still
The next night I was aroused again
by the strange roars I took my
arms and half unknowing what I
waa doing wandered off from the
camp
In a clump of bush not far away I
heard a noise which grew more dis-
tinct as I approached It was the
peculiar weird chant of the natives
I crept through the bush and reached
an open space where the natives were
clustered There swung in a ham-
mock tied band and foot was one
of our sick soldiers who I could see
was still living and around him
danced half a hundred negroes When
the dance was over the blacks took
the hammock and went off into the
forest I tried to follow but my legs
trembled and I fell to the ground
Again the mysterious roars re-
sounded through the darkness In my
s§
Mafia? vrcjirtZ
weakness I lost consciousness and
when I woke it was daybreak
I dreaded the coming of night but
it came and with it the frightful roars
that were maddening me
Except for this sound there was a
silence as of death on the camp I
stepped out into the moonlight and
stood In the shadow of a mimosa A
moving object caught my eye A
troop of natives in single file crept
into camp with the sinuous stealth of
a python in the grass The leader
opened the flap of a tent and entered
with three followers A moment later
the four carried out a helpless sick
man and the band slid away noise-
lessly with its captive
I followed at a little distance rag-
ing at heart but knowing that an
alarm would excite a raid that would
kill us all hopelessly As we ad-
vanced into the forest the roars grew
fiercer and clearer Soon the natives
halted Torches were lighted and the
troop danced around their victim as
before Then taking up the body
they carried It to a heap of boulders
from whence came the mighty roar
and hurled It into the midst of the
rock
The roaring died away and the wild
laughter of the blacks rang out
shrilly In a moment the band has-
tened away toward our camp leaving
their smoldering torches among the
rocks Mystified I crept to the place
where I had seen the body thrown
A peculiar low growl greeted me as I
reached the rocks I seized one of
the torches and shook it into life
drawing my revolver for Instant use
A dark blot amid the boulders dis-
closed an opening to my straining
eye- Holding the torch at arm’s
length I fell on my knees and peered
Into the hole Down among the Jagged
rocks of a vast den white with the
bones of animals I saw the green
phosphorescent eyes of a pack of
lions
It was a maddening sight and I
could hardly suppress a scream of
horror as I ran back into the dark
woods and groped through the under-
brush toward the camp I felt that we
were powerless to escape these fiends
and their idols the man-eaters of
M’Wembi
That night far down to the south-
west I saw half a dozen fires like the
sparks of a glowworm in the dark
Had some heavenly hand held out
hope It could not have given me more
cheer for I knew that the fires were
kindled by white men as the natives
In the district made none after sun-
set My mind was made up Using
the lights as guiding stars I set out
to reach the distant camp All night
I walked and crawled through the
dorn bosch but with daylight the fires
vanished There was nothing to do
but rest for I was not sure of the
direction of the movement of the
campers
A few hours later gray columns of
smoke rose perhaps five miles to the
south Hungry and thirsting and
bleeding from thorn scratches I set
out toward the smoke as fast as I
could in my fatigued condition Two
hours’ walk brought me in view of
the unmistakable ' Boer laager a
square of white-topped wagons around
which horses were hitched Brbad-
shouldered bearded men heavily
armed and booted sat around the
fires I cried with joy and taking
my hat in one hand and my rifle in
the other I waved them and stag-
gered on as the campers rushed for-
ward to meet me It was & party of
Boers searching for the same lost
voortrekkerB
I told them in a few broken sen-
tences my incredible story Jan Van
Vigl the leader listened to me In-
tently Word was given to Inspan and ten
minutes later oxen were dragging the
groaning wagons in a long line across
the country I was placed on a horse
and led the way
When we came in sight of the
camp on the distant hillside' the sun
was setting Vigl decided that he
would go to the camp with me and
lay out a plan of action before the
natives learned of the arrival of the
Boer commando We reached the
tent under cover of the night and Van
Vigl for the first time heard the mys-
terious roaring that came out of the
earth
"My God!” he cried "that’s the
roar of lions but It is unearthly!”
"You are right” I muttered "It
catre from hell"
We left the tents and made our way
through the bush to the opening in
the rocks "When did you say they
feed a man to these devils?” Jan
asked I looked at the stars and saw
it was about an hour from midnight
"In an hour or perhaps two” I
answered
Without a word Van Vigl turned on
his heel and walked away I followed
him down hill for some distance -
"What shall we do?”
’ We shall do what we always do —
an eye for an eye a tooth for a tooth!
Return to the tent and when you hear
an owl screech twice come back tq
the cave”
I returned to the camp armed my-
self and filled my bandoleer with all
the cartridges it would hold After
an imratient wait I heard the signal
and made my way to the mouth of
the den As I passed through the
bush a black figure rose before me
"We are here” s&ld Van Vigl “If
they come tonight the lions will have
more than their fill”
An hour passed when the brushing
of men through the bush caught our
ears In the opening a troop of men
was carrying a body bound tight in
a hammock They halted before the
cave ahd a moment later the torches
illuminated the night and they danced
around their victim Then when the
slow whirl ceased two of them raised
the body and carried it toward the
mouth of the pit
A roar of horrid welcome came from
the depths of the den cut by the
ciack of a rifle driving a bullet into
the heart of the black nearest the
hole With a groan he dropped the
hammock and fell dead The natives
hurled their torches to the ground
and tried to escape The bushes
were riven with flashes as a merci-
less hall of bullets poured from the
gwns of the Boers On every side dry
grass and brush set on fire by the
torches blazed up showing the sav-
ages against the livid background
Frantic with the pelt of the bullets
and the raging flames that leaped
from the 'grass around their bodies
they rushed in their madness toward
the only break in the ring of rifle-
men unmindful that It was the mouth
of the pit or seeking any cover from
the fire In a moment we saw them
plunging headlong into the depths of
the den and heard the roaring rise
to the pitch of fury as the waiting
lions bounded on their prey
When the last man fell with a
screech we rushed forward and
dragged the unconscious soldier from
the burning grass
The next day we returned to the
den and filled the mouth with lighted
bundles of bushes and dry grass to
scare back the lions When the fire
burned out we entered and found the
brutes suffocated by the smoke in the
farthest recesses of the caves Scat-
tered about on the stony floor were
fragments of human skeletons and
rags and patches of clothing and leath-
er and we saw the tattered felt
schoen of the Boers mingled with the
uniform of the Portuguese soldiers
Rings and trinkets which Van Vlgl’s
party recognized as belonging to the
voortrekkers made the horrid Identi-
fications beyond question
There could be no possible doubt
that the adventurous party of Piet Du
Tolt had fallen sick like our own and
had been hurled one by one Into the
den by the fiendish natives of
M’Wembi Thanks to the coming of
Van Vigl and his rescuing party In
the nick of time our colonel and the
remnant of his troop were saved
mfi
Oklahoma City Push Ball Team Which Will Play Every Night of the
Horse Show in Connection With the Oklahoma State Fair and Exposition
September 24 to October 6 1912
Pony push ball polo and potato
races will be features of the annual
Horse Show at the Oklahoma State
Fair and Exposition which opens Sep-
tember 24 and closes October 5 1912
A contract has Just- been made be-
tween Secretary L S Mahan of the
fair and Warren Jennings of the Ok-
lahoma City Polo and Push Ball team
calling for games every night of the
Horse Show Under the terms of the
contract the games are to be played
between the Oklahoma City team and
the Rockwall team of Alan Reed
Texas which Is about forty miles
from Amarillo These are considered
the crack teams of the southwest as
Shown by the fact that they have
just been engaged to play at the In-
diana State Fair
Prominent among the Oklahoma
City players might be mentioned Lynn
THE AUTOMOBILE ON THE FARM
It la a Common Practice to Use the
Back Wheels for Power to
Run Saws
A new use for the automobile has
been found by western farmers It is
that of utilizing the back wheels for
motive power to run-wood saws
”In traveling In the west I came
across a farmer who was cutting
wood by means of hls automobile”
wSd J E Sheldon representative of
a western automobile company at the
Riggs house "The farmer had Jacked
up the rear axle of his machine and
attached a belt to one of the wheels
which was connected with a saw In
fills manner he waa sawing wood I
asked him how he had come to think
of the scheme and he told me that
it wai common practice among farm-
ers in the west
"It Is astonishing how many farm-
ers all through the west own auto-
mobiles Nearly every farmer who Is
moderately well fixed has a machine
K Is an ordinary sight to sea automo-
biles skimming through the harvest
fields and It Is remarkable how much
time they save The Increased use of
autos by farmers has In a great meas-
ure removed the prejudice against
machines and it Is seldom now tht
one has a complaint from a farmer on
the score of fast driving The farm-
ers when they see a machine speed-
ing along the road get out of the way
and do not attempt to hold up the oc-
cupants as they formerly did They
have learned the value of the auto-
mobile in their own business
'One of the most striking results
of the use of automobiles among
farmers Is that of keeping the boys
on the farm The young fellows are
FOR SPEEDIER TYPEWRITING
Machine to Print Syllables With a
8lngle Pressure
The latest development In connec-
tion with the typewriter Is a machine
to print syllables of two and three
letters by a single pressure of the key
This invention calls for no special
skill on the part of the Operator There
Is the ordinary standard keyboard but
the keys can be extended to sixty or
more The two-letter syllables Include
the following Be an ch de ed Is In
no st un and among the three-letter
syllables are: All and who afe
end has the our for may not hay
con com lng acc dls per pro When
the operator has become used to posi-
tion of the syllables and has mem-
orized them it Is epected that typing
will be more rapid process For In-
stance for the word “accountant” it
Is only necessary to depress four
keys Instead of ten as on an ordinary
machine "disunion" Is written by
means of three keys Instead of eight
"misfortune and "permission” also re-
quire only four keys each
An Electrlo Carpet
The latest electrlo Invention is the
electric carpet for heating rooms It
was originated In Paris The under
side of the new carpet consists of a
network of steel wires through which
the current is equally distributed in
all directions It Is said that the cost
of the new form of heating will be
less than that of any known system
Indeed it is estimated that a room
fitted with one of these carpets can
be heated at a total cost of a penny
an hour
Ammermann who Is aggressive sad"
who easily holds the position of one
of the hardest hitters bn the team
Paul Shaffer' is one of the pioneer
players and his horseL "Red” is con-
sidered Among the best of the club
ponies Mr Jennings has been in-
terested in polo for a number of
years and Is one of the organizers
of the team Tom Watson plays No
4 or back of the team and has par
tlclpated In all the games played la
the last year Billy Craycroft Is the'
youngest member of the team but
what - he lacks In experience he
makes up In aggressiveness and hard
playing
Polo and push ball proved to be
the most interesting of all arenle
sports last year and -for that reason
the games have been provided for the
amusement of all at the coming fair
Sept 24 to Oct 6 1912
no longer so anxious to leave the old
homestead for the city for they can
jump in a machine go to town and
get back in time for dinner” — Wash-
ington Post
8moke-Consumer a 8uccess
‘ A smoke consumer and fuel econo-
mizer said to be the result of twenty
years’ trials has been successfully
tested at Sheffield Coal was fed inld
the furnace of a boiler generating
steam for running the works with the
usual result — the emission of black
smoke from the chimney then the
consumer was put into action and la
place of the black smoke there was
only a slight trace of the products of
combustion The change la effected
by an arrangement of a series of de-
vices so placed In the flues as to -intercept
the smoke and cause It to be
Ignited by the flames Two air cir-
culators are so placed as to allow the
desired quantity of external air to be
circulated among these devices caus-
ing the smoke to be properly Ignited
and consumed around the boiler flues
before entering the chimney In other
quarters also attempts are being made
to cope with the smoke nuisance and
to turn the smoke waste Into an
economic value Prof J A Switzer
of the University of Tennessee records
the result of experiments which he
has made with smoke-consumers based
on the principle of injecting jvlth
steamjets fresh air Into the furnaces
whenever fresh fuel Is put upon the
fires' He finds that the claim that
such apparatus increases the efficiency
of the boilers by increasing the evap-
oration of the water la well founded
and that there Is a real economy in
thelg use
Takes Laurels From Brooklyn
“Don’t call Brooklyn the Glt
churches" says a Globe Trotter
Is equally familiar with the Hudson
the Rhine the Ganges and the Nile
There Is a city in India which is
looked upon as “holy” by Buddhists
and Brahmins which might dispute
the title Benares has about 2000
temples and in these and fixed in
the narrow streets where the' publlo
is free to worship are about 600000
Idols According to Hindoo belief It
is the gate to paradise to which all
who 'dwell within Its walls enter im-
mediately clyn y-
Uly ex
r wn
Beet Disinfectant (
Sunshine is the best possible disin-
fectant The rays of the sun pene-
trate and disintegrate all organic sub-
stances Let it flood the rooms which j
are occupied whenever it is posslblefbj
Lay the bedding In Its direct rays for
an hour every bright morninir rwi ''
an hour every bright morning Dark
oorners that have a stuffy smell are
dangerous to the health of the house-
hold Late Inventions
A pistol so small that It may be
held In the mouth and discharged with
the teeth has been invented by a Ber-
lin artist
A shovel with sieve attached so that
ashes can be sifted before they are
removed from a heater has- been in-
vented by a Michigan man
Wireless apparatus ror transmit-
ting time direct from observatories to
offices stores and residences on land
and to vessels at sea has been Invents!
by two Frenchmen
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The Coalgate Courier (Coalgate, Okla.), Vol. 3, No. 41, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 22, 1912, newspaper, August 22, 1912; Coalgate, Oklahoma. (https://gateway.okhistory.org/ark:/67531/metadc1762253/m1/6/?q=Birth+of+a+Nation: accessed July 6, 2024), The Gateway to Oklahoma History, https://gateway.okhistory.org; crediting Oklahoma Historical Society.