The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • 93

PAGE 2 ENQUIRER SUNDAY MAGAZINE AUGUST 10 White Bride Of Savage African King Barely Escapes My st ovely u-ju Of His Five Wives Maddened By Jealousy tip -J- Si (I Li- a Mi) yy ti' -j 4 It ft 1 i. 'ft 17 0 "Massa, introduce me to my wife," said the hoary old villain, "she's plenty fine girl, sure thing." that it would be useless for me to do, but not liking the look of those add anything to what had already flve bIack wives told Marle t0 send been told her. for me immediately if she feared By Captain Louis P. Bowler. (Famous Explorer and Author of "African Night." "You know, Roolnek," she replied, ''lN a small bottle in a sur-5 3 Eery somewhere in Paris barbed splinter of wood which wrecked the Sadly Disillusioned Girl Returns To Her Home After Terrifying Adventures In Jungle Of Marakamha Lured By Matrimonial "Ad" That Promised Jewels And Thousands In Pin Money.

in response to my rather feeble ob- trouble. I also cautioned her to eat Jectlons, "a contract's a contract, and drink nothing unless the giver even if it is made with an African first ate and drank a portion in her Chief, and I'm going through with it. presence. When I added that she She insisted on referring to that should always have her room swept old scamp Marakamba as a "gentle- with the greatest care lest fragments man." She had read a good deal of of glass dipped in poison had been cheap literature about Africa and scattered accidentally, the poor girl thought of a native King as a fine began to look frightened. But as fellow in top hat kid gloves and things turned out it was.

as well I spats. When she found out that these warned her. three items constituted practically the whole of his apparel, poor Marie r--iW0 MONTHS later came an was shocked. But she bore up I urgent call. Marie was sick.

I arrived to find the girl suffer- Oh, well, It 11 be a change from mg. The King was genuinely dis-the life at home, she said, with a. turbed and it was plain that he was shrug of her slim shoulders, "and now way t0 bamei But tha all. it dull enough, goodness knows. ment was beyond my rude knowledge But I don think she was alto- of medicine and I insisted on taking gather happy about her prospects my country woman down t0 the sea.

when we set off Up country and where 8he woud th, passed through the first native kraals tentIon of Engllsn doctor. she had ever seen. Perhaps it was 0n journey I discovered that an increasing unhappiness that led had the native wIves her to tell me her story. Her action wer9 the source the A had not been prompted entirely by parently th had made a greed and discontent. how of frlendlineas towarda Marie Her father was a neer-do-wel and and persuaded her t0 take coffee her mother and three small sisters hem usually went short of At the th when time work was scarce and she eh iater, the pain thought that part of the promised wUri 55,000 a year would save her people Thatgsn had not been polsoned I ilUlU Mi AUUUCi All lliv7 OOiilC was certain.

Strangely enough the ume, it cannoi De saia mat ner mo- moa similar to that life of an English girl and caused two African women to be roasted alive. The story is one of the moat unusual of many that have come my way in the course of a career filled with the mysterious and bizarre, and, since I bore a small part In the unravelling of the plot, I can attest its accuracy. This innocent-looking sliver links the French capital with an ill-kept kraal in one of the wildest parts of Africa, and, incidentally, with a crying scandal, the marriage of white women with black men. Some years ago, anyone glancing through the books of a certain French' matrimonial agency would have been sui prised to find the name of an African king among the list of clients. The black man wanted white wife.

He already had five native wives, but he realized that a white woman in his house would lend him prestige which none of tha neighboring and rival monarch! would be able to outdo. To secure this benefit, he promised to settle $5,000 a year by way of pin money upon the woman he chose; to load her with jewels and make her the queen of his harem. ONE would think that a proposition of this kind would find little response, even among the most ignorant of white women. Yet the black king received no fewer than 260 applications. Many letters came from England, and among them one from a Lancashire lassie who found life in a cotton town too slow for her adventurous temperament.

Some time later this girl was delighted to hear that the King's choice tive was entirely unselfish. She had tt.i,rt nmB of mv all the self-confidence of ignorance, sheeD montha ago. Even the nni rnnrnncrnrw na (Avon Thar ins rna of a InoO Hfl MAflf MAI! coma -manage" ner ruture nusDana. to Europe to a hospital in She had plans for running his court parig t0 be X-rayed. and for managing his women and re- thJa had been done wa3 forming his morals.

If the poor child algcovered that a barbed splinter of had only known! wo(jd had been cleverly Inserted Jnto the lining of the stomach. The na- HOWEVER, she was soon to find tive women must have known that a that her task was not to be so deep breath would be strong enough easy as she supposed, for when to draw a small splinter of this kind we arrived at the squalid collection down the throat of an unoonsclous of Wattle and daub huts which con- person. It Is on account Of this stituted the King's "capital," we were Bucking force of Indrawn breath that met by the five wives in possession, a throat surgeon attaches small in-They were buxom women, and stood struments to his wrist in a row, their black eyes gleaming every kind of spite. Near-by stood V7HEN SHE recovered. Marie the King and his councilors dressed YX turned to her home the in their best loin cloths and holding VY north of England.

She had some sort of ceremony in honor of passed through a pernous experience the occasion. As if not to disappoint wlthout becoming a penny the better Maria. Marjiltflmha. had crowned his the King's white wife, who A group of Marakamba's subjects waiting to receive The type of West African chieftain that the white girl married. was one of 260 applicants.

turned her head, and the fact that the West African coast, when, one story of the King Marakamba and my affairs so that I should be able woojy pat -with a battered top hat her' promised pin money any 01 her passage money had been for- morning, my clerk, an educated black his impending marriage. He con- to see her up country should she be But he had omitted the spate. If she sees this account she may warded augured to her inexperienced man, amazed me by asking: "Will eluded by saying that for a black determined to continue the adven- 1 ldlliM lteT' be pleased to learn that her one-time mind a munificent treatment once massa please meet white missie on man to meet a white lady would ture. husband got into extremely hot she was firmly installed on her boat today? Missie wife for King cause gossip. nHE turned out to be a bonny To my astonishment Marie fully 7.W--7- CI Marakamba." Thinking that I might be able to lassie named Marie, full of ex- expected a proper marriage ceremony hig own hand he saw justice' dona golden throne.

It was shortly after this that I had fallen upon her and that she was expected to proceed to Africa forthwith. The thought of becoming a Queen, even though it were only a tribe of native Africans, had quite Naturally, before I agreed to so un- dissuade the girl from taking a step cuemenr. ana romamic jueas. ana oeggea me io approacn ine jing to hls evil.minded wlves xhe tw0 began to play my part in the story, usual a request, I asked for all par- that she would be certain to regret. UFSA enthusiaXr JeBly Was Punished by slow I was staying in a French town on ticulars and my man told me the I agreed to meet her, and arranged dampened her spirits.

I soon saw There was little more that I could r.coPyrigXi93o".