| Show LOVE AND QSflUCHES Cupid Was the Means of Establishing Establish-ing a Great Ostrich Farm BY ALLENSANGIf E The most extensive ostrich farm In the world Is situated near the great lakes In German East Africa and is the direct result of a mans disappointment disappoint-ment in his love affairs The farms embraces thousands of acres of land at the base of Mount Killmo Ndjaro and besides innumerable innumer-able ostrIches has large qtnifitities of all kinds of wild game including elephants ele-phants leopards and hIppopotami There are thousands of native blacks in all their pristine ignorance but only one white man and he a member of one of the most prominent ana influential influ-ential familIes in Cape Colony But for his unfortunate experience with Cupid who decreed that the woman loved by him should become the wife of another the man who has literally buried himself In the wilderness of equatorIal AfrIca would be a member of the parliament of Cape flony the hIghest elective office In the land CROSSED IN LOVE Among the thousands who went to the Kimberly diamond fields in the 70s when there was no monopoly of the diggings as there is now uas Percy C Pringle the son of the most promInent prom-Inent man in Somerset West Like hundreds hun-dreds of other young Africanders he left a luxurious home to experience the excitements of a rough mining camp but unlike many of them returned from the fields with a fortune of 50 000 made in less than three years Flushed by his quickly gotten wealth Pringle hastened to propose marriage to a 1oung woman who willingly received re-ceived his attentions in their schooldays school-days before he went to the diamond fields His appearance and personality had been changed to such an extent by his rough life in the mining camp that he found but little favor In the eyes of the woman he loved Hoping that time might alter her views and cause her to reconsider her refusal to become his wife Pringle bought a small ostrich farm in a remote re-mote part of the colony and spent three years in learning the habits of the birdFew Few letters passed between the two and when he returned to his former home it was only to find that the young woman had been marrIed to another an-other man He sold his farm and stock I and despite the fact that a deputation of citizens of the distrIct asked him to accept the nOrGlnation which WAS identical iden-tical with election for member of parliament par-liament Pringle determined to leave the region which had for him nothing but sad memories of his unsuccessful love affair Shortly after disposing of his property prop-erty Pringle set sail in one of the steamers plying up the east coast and carried with him only letters of credit and a gun Being like everyone else in South AfrIca a sportsman he decided decid-ed to plunge into the great game regions re-gions near the equator and forget his grief by such a change of scene When he reached the port of Tanga which lies across the channel from Zanzibar Pringle was informed that ostriches were to be found in great numbers in the regions several hundred miles inland In-land on land owned by a German firm He straightway formed a partnership with the owners of the land for the cultivation of ostriches and several days after arriving in the town he had secured an outfit of supplies and enough natives to transport it to the point where the headquarters was to be established THE MOUNTAIN OF GOD The journey was a long and tedious no one has ever been able to reach th summit By the natives It s callqd The Mountain or God a name rev EVentl given to it on account of the thtal results which the cold and snow have upon those wo go too far up the I sides After several months labor an im t mense corral was constructed one large gateway being left open for the I entrance of the ostriches which were so numerous In the region that thousands thou-sands of them could be seen in n das i journey Leading to either side of the I gateway high fences a mile long arid wide apart at the farthest ends were built through the itrest underbrush II r so that the whole structure was a huge trap from which there was no escape for any anlmais once In it I By a liberal expenditure of bads I geegaws and snuff Pringle secured I the cooperation of the chiefs aid a I huge hunt was instituted Thousands I of ngrbeh were sent out into the jfor r st to form a irel of ten miles diameter 11 diam-eter around the ostrIches and galleO I and by gradually drawing together to i I drive the animals toward the opening I of the fences leading to the enclosure Small fires were started at different i places in the underbrush with the re suIt that the smoke from these and the deafening noise made by natives na-tives threw terror into the ariitIals that were within the enclosure human hu-man beings As was expected great numbers of the animals broke through the circle and in many instanceskilled the negroes who attempt to frighten them back but when the hunt was concluded and all the big animals killed almost 200 ostriches were safely I entrapped in the enclosure I The hundreds of buffaloes Airaffes antelope gazelle waterbuck and other animals that were either shot by Prin 1le tso was stationed near the entrance en-trance of the enclosure or killed by the assegais and arrows of the bl cks were dragged to the native villages where for days afterward there was feasting such as they had never had This hunt established Pringle In the good graces of the blacks and he can command them to do anything By carefully breeding and practically taming the ostriches caught in the hunt Pringle has a flock that nggre gates more than 10000 birds It Is impossible Im-possible to count them as they are spread out over a great area the orig inal enclosure having been enlarged ah additions made to it so that it covers almost ten square miles Hun dreds of blacks are constantly employed em-ployed in caring for the birds and in plucking the feathers whIch is fraught with much danger A blow from an ostrichs foot will kill a man instantly and to prevent such happeningS the birds are driven into small enclosures and theIr heads covered with bags while the operation p1 Piucking is carried on As each bird is plucked three times in two years and yields 25 to 50 worth of I feathers at a plucking while a paIr of birds are themselves valued at about S250 PrIngle himself does not know how much wealthier the young oman I In Cape Colony caused him to become I jf4IkiiV 1fA Iii Ii I I i 1 9 1kg4 + J P ± atCPCflGLDADSfltJDHNSONTBE GUIDE f one being for the most part through territory that had not been traversed by white men since Stanley and his expedition were searching for Living stone 20 years before Pringle could speak all the AfrIcan diaJects with the fluency of the chiefs along the I line ofmar h but wild animals harassed I har-assed him by day and night i By giving them large Quantities of beads Pringle induced many negroes from trIbes In the neighborhood to assist as-sist in establishing a station or faIm a short dlstance north of snowcovered Mount KUlmo Ndjaro This peak is almost four miles high and its sides are so precipitous and the air so cold that r I r s |
