A Musician of the Cameroun.
Prepared by National Geographle Soclety,
ashington, D. C.)—WNU Service.
N THE Who's Who of former Ger-
I man colonies in Africa, now man-
dates under the control of the vari-
ous European nations, Cameroun
stands out as one of the most interest-
ing. Wedged In between French and
British territory at the inner corner
of the Gulf of Guinea on the western
coast, it was “Kamerun” to the Ger-
mans. Now It has become a French
mandate and Is governed along with
French Equatorial Africa, a sizable
umpire under the tricolor.
Cameroun is a vast territory itself.
It touches the sea for a distance of
about 125 miles, and then fans out
gigantically to reach the Sahara to the
north, the Qubangul river to the east,
and Gabon colony at its lower boun-
dary.
The steamer which carries the trav-
eler to this out-of-the-way objective
passes through a 19-mile channel be-
tween the huge guardian masses of the
island of Fernando Po on one side and
Mount Cameroons on the other, and
turns eastward into the mouth of a
broad estuary. To the south stretches
an endless vista of low mangrove
swamp. On the left, 60 miles away,
is the mountain, its peak rarely visible
‘n so humid a climate.
In midstream, to the annoyance of
the captain, is the wreckage of two
German ships deliberately sunk at the
beginning of the World war to ob-
struct the passage.
After several slow miles upstream
.. Douala, the “big-town," becomes vis-
ble. It lies on a flat-topped, not very
lofty, promontory and continues behind
the promontory along a glaring beach
and hilly ridge. The effect, especially
after a month of sea, Is charming.
Douala Is Attractive.
The big house of the chief of the
local administrative division of the
mandate appears white, elegant, and
vichly shaded in the foreground.
Behind the mansion, up and down
the hill, are other sturdy, pretty stucco
residences, mango, palm, and bread-
fruit trees overhanging them; and, of
course, along the water front are the
inevitable and inevitably ugly trading
“factories,” their galvanized iron roofs
shimmering in the violence of the sun.
On closer examination Douala proves
at once the prettiest and the plainest
of West African cities. It Is a ques-
tion of neighborhood. On the palm of
the flat Douala promontory the Ger-
mans established an exclusive white
residential quarter, complete with
parks, bandstand, and double or quad-
ruple lines of trees on every street.
Alnog the wrist and forearm, to con-
tinue the metaphor, they planned a
pative and trading section which could
continue inland upriver as far as it
liked, Incorporating as It grew the
existing villages of Akwa, Deldo, New
Bell, New Akwa, and New Deido. “In
times these town names threaten to
“ecome repetitious.)
This arrangement, substantially, has
kept up, though the French govern-
ment has made no effort to enforce it.
The section immediately around the
park, enlivened by the presence of
several cafes, is the best shaded, most
serenely quiet and lovely bit of town
on the coast.
For the rest—for the miles of deep,
hot sand along the river's edge, the
fonumerable hideous stores and ware-
houses, the noisy recklessness of dilap-
jdated auto trucks and even more
dilapidated native laborers—one can
say little that is kind, It is commer-
cially flourishing and trade Is growing,
at least. It Is the one logical outlet
for the produce of the entire interior,
and the harbor is excellent. In thirty
years the population has grown from
pegligibility to over 25,000, more than
1,000 of whom are Europeans,
Douala will never be proud of its
climate. In the dry season it is hot,
breathless beyond belief. A tempera-
ture of SO degrees is absolutely chilly.
And in the rainy season one sloshes
about in: high boots and a raincoat
through an almost continual downpour,
which, mysteriously, does little to mod-
ify the temperature, The average an-
sual rainfall here is more than 13
feet, and at one place on the seacoast
the precipitation reaches the phenom-
enal figure of 36 feet.
To the Interior by Rail.
The two Cameroun railways center
at Douala, One runs due north for
100 miles to the terminal town of
Nkongsamba. The other, which has
po connection with the first, goes east-
ward for 190 miles, to the new admip
istrative capital, Yaounde.
To reach the terminus of the first |
—the Chemin de Fer du Nord—one '
crosses the Douala river to the village
of Bonaberi.
The daily train, following the ig- |
noble custom of civilization, leaves at |
a fiendishly early hour, an hour when
the fleecy dawn mists lie on the river, '
permeate one's clothes, and unglue the |
labels from the baggage. Passengers |
of both colors intensely dislike each |
other, as Is natural before breakfast. |
and embarkation is accompanied by
profanity in something over thirty lan
guages.
The engine burns wood, frequently
such trifies as ebony and mahogany, |
and the rain of blazing sparks makes |
it incumbent upon the pasengers to re |
main close within the carriages.
Almost at once, however, the multi-
plicity and grandeur of Cameroun be-
come manifest, and one can no longer
be dull.
All the way to Nkongsamba the line
climbs upward, slowly for three-quar-
ters of the distance, then sheerly. For |
the first six hours the route lies |
through the region of the great equs |
torial forest.
At either side of the narrow cut |
rear up the mighty, regimented trees,
The tops, flaring flat and wide to take
the sun, are often 200 feet above the
ground. Some of the trunks are four
feet through and all are wrapped and
tangled in vines that make a continu-
ous, eternal pattern. Bushes, weeds,
ferns the size Of apple trees, ¢hoke
the ground. Everything is green
superbly living in immortal summer.
Plantations and Uplands.
Occasionally the forest breaks and
the train passes plantations of tobacco
(certain grades of Cameroun wrapper
sell for $250 a pound wholesale),
banana, palm oil, and cacao. Less fre- |
quently, there are native villages of
half a dozen ramshackle “long houses”
of the Bantu type, and now and then |
larger towns with the ubiquitous cor |
rugated iron “factory” in evidence.
Then, on higher ground, the train
begins to go through open clearings,
stretches of lush, rolling meadowland
of a sort unimaginable in ordinary
tropical “bush.” The trees begin to
dwindle, the vegetation thins down snd
becomes more orderiy. At a few miles
from Nkongsamba there is no more
jungle, only what a northerner would
accurately call “woods.” The equato-
rial forest, In less than 100 miles and,
more importantly, with 3,000 feet of |
altitude, has been forced out.
From Nkongsamba an auto goes 137
miles north and a little east to the na-
tive city of Foumban. It is a lovely
road, speaking strictly from the stand. |
point of scenery, not roadbed. |
Foumban Is Surprising.
After a tiring day's drive In a |
bumpy truck, Foumban is astonishing,
so complete is its contrast with what |
has gone before. The city stands upon |
a hill and is surrounded by an elab-
orate system of ancient trench fortifi- |
cations dating from the years of the |
Fulah raiders. The trees, which have |
!
i
i
been planted along every street, give it
a wooded effect wholly absent among
the neighboring grass meadows. One
has an immediate impression of order
prosperity, civilization,
Many of the houses of Fonmban are
of sun-dried brick and are roofed with |
pative tiles or grass thatch. The com-
pound fences are neatly constructed.
The market, made of brick and tile, is
modern in type and perfectly clean. |
At the center of the town Is an impos- |
ing three-story structure set in the
midst of elaborate gardens,
It is the palace of Njoya, sultan of
the Bamoum and overlord of Foumban.
Everything—order, bricks, and garden
—is Indigenous. Foumban existed |
when the white man was no more than |
a myth. Even now outside influences |
have touched it only slightly,
The sultan and the majority of his
people are Mohammedans. In accord.
ance with the curious rule that people
of the African deserts and prairies |
readily adopted Mohammedanism, and
that the people of the African forests
almost invariably did not, the Bamoum
scarcely recall a time when their life
was not strongly influenced by the
Arable belief.
In the center of the town, facing the
sultan's palace, is the mosque, a frame
building of strongly Moorish type, even
to the vertical stripes of red and white
paint. Here, every Friday, the elite of |
the Bamoum gather.
' mies of Gideon and Saul of Biblical
. fame. The Romans appear in the
| scene next, since prior to the fall of
| the musical instruments used in the
| Roman army were the bugle (buccina),
. Jonathan
| protein. And the fat comes from the
| fron and steel, since which hatchets
| ter Invented for the pages of Fliegende
| Bledermeier period began with 1800
| ports from vessels at sea was Inaug-
| heart failure caused by the barrage.—
| as well as the gardener's. If left alone
Horn and Trumpet Long
Used to Direct Armies
According to the best authorities, it
appears that the forerunners of the
modern trumpet and bugle were first
used for military purposes by the ar-
the Roman empire, about 493 A. D.
the trumpet (tuba), the cavalry trum-
| pet (lituus) and the horn (cornu).
The latter was made of the horn of
the buffalo, and provided with a silver |
| mouthpiece, The others were prob
ably of brass, i
The Romans knew very well a fact
| familiar to modern tactics, that to
| earry a command amid the tumult of
battle or down a long line of march, |
| the penetrating tones of a brazen |
i horn are much more effective than the |
sound of the human voice. According
ly the signals for the various evolu-
tions of march and battle were given
by horn and trumpet; first by the |
| horn, at the command of the general. |
i
then taken up by the trumpets. The |
| bugle was used to sound the divisions |
| of the day, that is to say reveille, noon |
| and nightfall—United States Recruit-
ing News, !
Only Three Essentials
in Food for Steinmetz |
Steinmetz’ attitude toward food was
an example of his simplifying human
problems as if they were the private
wants of electrical apparatus, wrote
Norton Leonard in “Loki
the Life of Steinmetz.” An induction
motor seemed to him much superior to
the human body, so much stronger and
so much more useful. Its require |
ments In the way of current, lubrica- |
| tion and cooling could be accurately
calculated. Why not the same with |
the needs of the human body? |
“80,” he would say, unwrapping a |
| brown-paper package, “to sustain life |
the human body requires only three |
raw materials, Potatoes provide the
carbohydrates. Steaks provide the
butter the steak is fried In. What
more can be done? it is complete.”
He never tired of this standardizea
ration and never could understand |
why others did.
Indian Weapon of War
The tomahawk is an ancient weapon |
universally used by Indians in war |
before they were taught the use of |
have been substituted for them. This
instrument still retains its use and im-
portance in public transactions and,
like the pipe, is often very significant.
This weapon Is formed much like a
hatchet, having a long stem or han-
dle: the head Is a round ball or knob
of solid wood, well enough caleniated
to knock men's brains out. On the
other side of the stem the head termi-
nates in a point where the edge would
be, which point is set a little hooking
or coming toward the stem, and near
the center, where the stem or handle !
plerces the head, another point pro- |
jects forward of a considerable length, |
which serves for thrusting as with a |
spear or pike pole.
Peculiar “Art Period”
Bledermeler was a fictitious charac-
Blatter, a good-natured bourgeois with
no esthetic perception. Germany, aft-
er the Napoleonic wars, was either too
poor or too prejudiced to follow the
prevailing fashions in French furnl-
ture; hence the Biedermeier style,
which eliminated the ormolu mounts
and expensive carvings naturally sym-
bolic of empire decoration, and sub-
stituted merely pretty forms, pretty |
detalls, unmeaning and weak. The
and ended about 1880.
Ocean Weather Reports
The idea of receiving weather re
urated in 1906, when the captains of
50 vessels flying the Paelfic with the
necessary radio equipment agreed to
make the observations and endeavor
to transmit their reports to Washing-
ton each day. This is pow dome by
250 sea captains, and about 50 mee
sages are received every day. These
observations have proven very valua-
ble; and a small fee Is paid for each
observation made and successfully
transmitted to Washington.
Scared Them to Death
Some of our local sportsmen may
nave had a similar experience with
the high cost of duck shooting as a
Winnipeg man’s report of one day on
the marshes, This nimrod fired sev-
enty-five shells, costing $3.75. His gas-
oline for the trip cost $2.25 and his
hunter's license $2. His hag was
three ducks, or $2.60 per duck. As
there was no evidence of pellets In
the birds, it Is believed they died of
vancouver Province.
War on Weeds
Weeds are the railwayman’'s epemy
they would choke the permanent way
ag effectively as in like circumstances,
they would do our flower beds ond
gravel paths. The British Southern
railway made an effective weed-killing
train by coupling two old tenders to-
gether and fitting them with spray
pipes and tanks. A special form of
liquid weed-killer is used, and the
spray pipes have an effective range of
about ten feef
| Today, the representative of the fair
| tee, takes a swing, man-fashion, and
| this system the impulses on the keys
METHOD OF MAKING WIRE
HAS GONE ON STEADILY.—
The earliest known mention of
“wire drawers” and “wire mill
ers” as those who produced wire
by drawing were called, occurs
in 135" and 1360, in the his
tories of Augsburg and Nurem-
berg, the previous accounts be-
ing only of “wire smiths,” those
who brought metals into fila-
mentous form hy means of beat-
ing them with a hammer into
thin plates. then dividing these
by cutting into narrow strips
and rounding finally with ham-
mer and file. The change from
the old to the new method was
soon followed by the introduc-
tion of a machine by which wire
was successfully produced with-
out direct aid of the hand; this
machine, probably the invention
of Ludolt, of Nuremberg, was op-
erated by water power, The pre-
cious metals appear to have
been the first subjected to this
process—brass and iron not be-
ing used until some time later.
White wire, or blanch wire, Is
mentioned in England in 1463;
and both iron and fine brass wire
in 1484. Up to 1565 English iron
wire was drawn by hand only,
and was of so poor a quality
that most of that used in the
country was imported. In that
year patents were granted to
manufacture wire in England.
How Sport Has Shelved
“Tomboy” of Yesterday |
Where is the tomboy of yesteryear? |
The word is heard no more nowadays, |
and perhaps has fallen out of Ameri-
can speech. In the old days any girl |
who took part in sports would have |
been deprecatingly dubbed “tomboy.” |
and distinct sniffs would have been |
heard from her more decorous sisters
who were always “little ladles.”
At certain seasons of the year whew.
£0lf and tennis tournaments bring out
the girl competitors, those who would
have been called “tomboys” in the
days of their sheltered grandmothers.
sex, in natty sports attire, smashes
them across the net or steps up to the
sends 200-yard drives down the falr-
way. And there are sun-burned youths
and successful business men in every
gallery who would give the shirts oft
their backs if they could do likewise,
What has become of the tomboy on
sesteryear? The answer Is, they are
all tomboys. The day seems to have
gone forever when It was unladylike
for women to be competent in a sport.
—St, Paul Dispatch,
, ™
How Police Radio Works
Police departments have for some
time had a system of radio transmittal
of police orders which is very similar
to any radio broadcasting system.
There is also a system used by police
and by other interests, called teletype,
which consists of an automatic wire
less connection between a typewriting :
machine at the place of sending and |
another at the place of receiving. By |
of the sending machine automatically
react on the machines at the receiving
station so that a complete letter is
written simultaneously in both places.
The receiving operator may then re-
ply In the same manner while the con-
nection Is still maintained, thereby as- |
suring a complete copy in both places
of both letter and answer.
How to Determine Vermin
It is quite easy to determine the
type of vermin that kills game. A
fox, in devouring its Kill, invariably
clips the wing feathers off sharply
at a eertain point, whereas a winged
killer usually leaves talon marks
which an expert can decipher. The
nature of the marks and the distance
between them distinguish the handi-
work of a great horned owl from that
of & hawk, and may even label the
species of hawk, There is no way. |
however, to distinguish the attack of : il
a mink or raccoon from that of a stray
house cat,
How Turtle Lures Fish
The alligator snapping turtle has a
aovel way of getting its living. In the
bottom of Its mouth there lies a light-
colored strip of flesh about an inch
and a half long that resembles nothing
s0 much as a healthy fish worm. If
the turtle lies In shallow water with
its mouth open a minnow is quite
likely to swim into the aperture to get
the worm. Immediately the jaws of |
the turtle snap shut and the fish Is
fast in a trap from which there is no
escape.
How Shakespeare Got Plot
“Hamlet” is based on a crude story
told by the Thirteenth century Saxo
Grammatious, a Danish chronicler, In
his “Historia Danica,” first printed in
1514, which found a place in Plerre de
Belleforest's ‘“Histoires Tragiques”
(1570), a French miscellany of trans.
lated legend and romance.
How Charcoal Is Made
Charcoal is made by subjecting wood
0 a process of smothered combustion.
The wood Is partially burned or heat-
ed so that the tarry and volatile mat-
ter is removed.
How We Get “Brown Study”
The phrase “brown study” was sug.
gested by the use of “brown” In the
sense of serious or gloomy. A brown
study is a state of reverie or idle and
purposeless musing.
Annie Stine, et bar,
Bateson, tract in State
Clara T, Bateson to Anna
Stine, et bar, tract in State College;
$1.
Hall; $1.
Jeanne Boal, tract in Harris Twp.t
James D. Searcon, et ux, {c Har-
ry R. White, et al, tract in Centre-
Ezriel Horwitz, to Josephine Dur-
oss, tract in Rush and Curtin Twps;-
Mary E. Hendricks, et bar, to | $10.
Lloyd J. Weaver, et ux, tract in| John M. Hartswick, et al, to Er-.
Curtin Twp.; nest Axman, et ux, tract in State.
| Theodore Davis Boal, et ux, to| College; $1.
eh ——— 3
|
The Farmer on Farm Relief.
A Farmer told us, recently, that he had sold
40 bushels of corn on the ear for $8.00.
Yet last year, in 1931, the Federal Department
of Agriculture spent $296,865,944.00
To Help the Farmer!
We wonder how Farmers have been helped by
these huge expenditures; or whether they have
not been taxed, indirectly, to help pay the bills.
We wonder whether certain western Senators
have not been the only beneficiaries of futile po-
litical schemes for farm relief.
THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK
BELLEFONTE, PA.
Baney’s Shoe Store
WILBUR H. BANEY, Proprietor
30 years in the Business
BUSH ARCADE BLOCK
BELLEFONTE, PA.
OUTSTANDING
....bargains....
FOR ALL TIME |
Boys’ Overalls 50 Cents
Boys’ Sweaters . 50 Cents
Men’s Work Shirts 50 Cents
Kaynee Wash Suits . $1.00
Stetson Hats 5.00
Mallory Hats 3.75
AT FAUBLE’S
Never in the Store’s History Have
Prices Been So Low—-Buy Now
EC S—————
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