The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 185

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

185

interest in our efforts to penetrate ever deeper into
the wilderness of false teaching and superstition
down here? ‘
“Yours sincerely and cordially,
“q. A. Scuaipr.”

As many of our other friends have wondered
what happened to the shipments sent South in an-
swer to our plea, I wish to improve the opportunity
thus given me of using the above letter as an ex-
planation. God saw the gift of the poor widow.
He has seen and noted every package, box, bar-
rel, etc., sent us by our friends. On that Great Day
He will say to those who so kindly assisted the poor
and the needy: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto
one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done
it unto Me.”

And now, may the Savior bless you-all and keep
alive in your hearts love and zeal to work and to
pray for the work of your Lutheran Church in the
Southland, work which will endure throughout
eternity ! Gratefully,

G. A. Scuipt.

Selma, Ala., November 15, 1925.

Present-Day Conditions in Africa.

Somewhere in the periodicals of our Church
a contributor recently passed a remark to this
effect: “Is it not about time for us Lutherans to
do something in a missionary way for Africa?”
Upon reading this, I was put in mind of an article
on Africa, in the February issue (current year) of
the National Geographic Magazine. After reading
the article again, the thought struck me: Surely
thé readers of the PronEER who are real and con-
sistent friends of all missions will welcome some
first-hand information as to present-day conditions
in Africa. :

The author of the article in question, Mr. Felix
Shay, who himself gathered the information he is
- giving the readers of the above-mentioned maga-
zine, is not a missionary, but an adventure-seeking
tourist. He recounts “an adventurous journey of
185 days, made by an American man and his wife,
through the length of the African continent.” Fol-
lowing are only such selected paragraphs as, we
hope, will prove to be of interest to friends of
missions.

“We were going to Cape Town overland through
Central Africa. Some people know one part of
Africa 3 Some, another; but to meet one who had

traveled the full distance from Cairo to Cape Town
overland was not to be numbered among our
pleasures. From Cairo to Cape Town is some 5,000
miles as the crow flies. As one travels the way one
must travel, the route totals twice the distance from.
New York to California. ‘Transcontinental rail-
roads in Africa are figments of the fertile imagina-
tion. Cecil Rhodes’s ‘All-rail Route’ is still but
a red line on the map....

“Tn a little white train, with blue-glass windows
to lessen the shock of the rushing sunshine, we
moved on toward Khartum through the desert.
Before we were a mile from the station at Luxor,
the desert began to assert itself. The temperature
in the coach climbed to almost unbearable heights ;

nat

A Native of Central Africa.

yet when we opened the window for what we
thought would be a breath of fresh air, the glare
of the sun struck us like a blow in the face. We
had never conceived of such violent sunshine. . . .
“The Nile trip from Shellal to Halfa lasted
from 5 o'clock one afternoon to noon of the second
day. The boat was too small to permit the pas-
sengers to move about. ‘There was nothing to do
but sleep and eat, read and talk. On board were
two English engineers coming out to the new Blue
Nile Dam above Khartum, which is to bring an-
other million acres of land under irrigation for the
cultivation of cotton; an English railroad man,
who had spent many years in the country; an
English physician from the hospital at Omdurman ;
a Syrian physician bound for a sleeping-sickness
area up south; an Arab-Egyptian official going ~

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