134 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



A LOGGING CREW OF WANGARIAS FROM THE DESERT TRIBES ALL MOHAMMEDANS 



or stevedoring and stowing cargoes ; the latter are from 

 the interior and best adapted to the work of logging. 



After the crew has "signed on," as it is called, the re- 

 quisite number of cooking pots and a large basin to each 

 ten men, are furnished them, a generous ration of rice 

 being issued to the cook of each division ; and it often 

 happens that the manager's sense of humanity prompts 

 an issue of rice as the first step in the proceedings. 



The Gold Coast native is invariably known by the 

 name which stands for the day of the week on which 

 he was bom. The year and the month are not taken 

 into account and the age of a dusky belle is uncertain. 

 There are other parts of Liberia from which laborers 

 are brought ; and as the diflferent districts are often either 

 at open war, or are nursing old animosities handed down 

 from one century to the next, the distribution of new- 

 comers at the camps, calls for experience fortified by 

 tactful patience and unlimited authority At best all are 

 clannish. The men from one neighborhood will not mix 

 in the living arrangements of other Liberians from 

 another district They say, "Massa, they be no from my 

 country." If from the same village "Massa, they be 

 my brothers." To these men "my country" means my 

 native village; "my brother," any man from the same 

 place ; and indeed, the men from one neighborhood bear 

 such close family resemblance that without further in- 

 quiry one would believe them to be really brothers as 

 claimed. When asked if they have the same father or 

 mother, it is found that, so far as known by them, there 

 is no close kinship. When it so happens that two men 

 are born of the same mother, they stick still more closely 

 together; and, if, peradventure, the same mother and 



father are held responsible for both, their pride of ances- 

 try is great indeed. 



These untaught and entirely uncivilized so-called 

 heathens may; well call each other brother. Their 

 unselfishness puts civilized man to the blush. The small- 

 est and youngest will share with his mates the least 

 scrap of food that may be given to him. Among the 

 many small boys that have served as house boys and 

 table waiters, no women are employed for this work, 

 not one ever has been known to fail to share any gift of 

 eatables, no matter how tempting or how small a por- 

 tion. Often a boy will carry his tid-bit all day and many 

 weary miles and never so much as nibble at it, waiting to 

 join his brothers at the end of the journey. "There ain't 

 goin' to be no core" has no place in the heart of these 

 heathen children. 



After twelve years of logging with, at times, fifteen 

 hundred people at work, there are now many old hands 

 who understand our work well, and whether felling trees, 

 cross-cutting logs, hauling, driving the streams or raft- 

 ing, are competent and efficient. To get from this labor 

 the best results, whether Liberians, natives of the Coast 

 or from the far interior bordering on the desert, requires 

 patience, tact and experience. Flogging is practiced in 

 some quarters but this we do not permit. Kind treat- 

 ment, patience to listen to grievances, firmness, justice 

 in deciding all matters, but never yielding one jot or 

 tittle to importunities or demands, give satisfactory re- 

 sults. 



It often is the case that the native has not understood 

 the white man's order and this may cause him to hesi- 

 tate and so seem guilty of disobedience To knock the 



