July, 1909 



THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 



325 





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'To business that we love we rise betime 

 And go to 't with delight." — A?itt»iy and Cleopatra 



A MESSAGE FROM AFRICA 



Readers of our magazines will be interested 

 we think, to hear of our friend, Mr. A. Rad- 

 cliffe Dugmore, who, since the first, has been 

 on our staff, and has made so many marvelous 

 photographs for our magazines and books. 

 He went to Africa in December to photograph 

 big animals, and how well he has succeeded 

 will be judged by this letter from the jungle: 



On Safari, near Mt. Kenia, 

 March 26th, 1909. 

 My dear Country Livers, Gardeners and World's 

 Workers, to say nothing or other Doubleday 

 Pages: 



Just to keep you from forgetting that I am still in 

 the land of the living, I must scribble a few lines to 

 you fellows, not forgetting those who are not fellows. 

 I had just written the date on this letter yesterday when 

 I was very rudely interrupted. I must explain that 

 I was sitting all alone in a blind of fragrant boughs 

 (they were not really fragrant; I put that in to make 

 it sound well) waiting for unsuspecting animals (if 

 such a breed exists) to pass and had had the good 

 luck to get two nice pictures of antelope. As the 

 morning had nearly passed and things were going very 

 slowly, I thought I would write a letter or two to kill 

 time. 



I had just finished one and was starting this 

 when I took a casual glance around at the beautiful 

 scenery, just to see if anything that needed to have 

 his picture took was coming my way. Can you imagine 

 my feelings when I saw two big, ugly tawny faces 

 staring at me not seventy yards away? Two lions, 

 one a very large one, were deliberately stalking me. 

 They stopped when they saw me looking at them. 

 My first instinct — the result of long service with 

 C. L. in A. — was to grab the camera. My second 

 instinct was to save my hide. I had with me a .275 

 rifle which contained six cartridges. This was all 

 the ammunition I had, and I only carried the rifle out 

 of respect for the life insurance companies. In the 

 excitement I had to put down this letter, unfinished, 

 and I really hate to leave things unfinished. I let go 

 at the bigger lion, and was disgusted to see the shot 

 strike too high. The second shot did the same. That 

 left me with four cartridges and two lions. Then I 

 looked at my sights and found that the fool of a gun 

 bearer, in cleaning the rifle, changed the sights to the 

 200-yard range. The lions seemed to have no dislike 

 to being used as sighting targets, and even took a 

 couple of long, stealthy steps nearer. My next shot 

 knocked the big one over. I did not notice particu- 

 larly how much he was damaged, but did see with 

 satisfaction that he was going slowly the other way 

 after giving a big growl. One more shot; the second 

 lion was down with a fatal wound. The noises he 

 made were horrifying. It seemed a great pitv to let 

 the big lion get away, but I really did n't dare follow 

 him, as I had but two more cartridges and did not 

 know how many more lions might be around. In 



looking at the tracks afterward, we found he was soon 

 joined by a mate, so it was just as well I did n't follow. 

 Thus ended a most exciting experience. Had I de- 

 layed looking around for two minutes more, I would 

 have had absolutely no chance of escape, and the 

 lions would have wished they had struck a fatter piece 

 of meat! 



Three days ago I was waiting for lions in a thorn 

 boma with the hopes of getting photos. Two lions 

 came, and the — flash light would n't go off. So to 

 keep those lions from making a too thorough investi- 

 gation of our boma, I, shot one — a fine male. The 

 night before I had made two rather nice photos of a 

 very large male, ten days ago I shot two young lions, 

 so you see things are happening. Besides photos of 

 several antelope I have now got lions, rhino, buffalo, 

 and zebra, and soon hope to get hippo and some other 

 things. I find the climate is fine. 



A. Radclyffe Dugmore. 



There will be a fine book of these adventures 

 some day. Meanwhile photographs are ap- 

 pearing in Collier's Weekly, in America, and 

 in the Graphic, in London. 



THE AMERICAN FLOWER GARDEN 



It is not often that the publishers have an 

 opportunity to say that a book has satisfied 

 all expectations and receive volunteer expres- 

 sions of pleasure from the readers. As a rule, 

 bookmaking suffers from the misfortune char- 

 acteristic of all things human. The volume, 

 so the critics say, is too large or too small, too 

 thick or too thin, poorly illustrated, etc., etc., 

 but "The American Flower Garden," by 

 Neltje Blanchan, seems to have made almost a 

 perfect score. 



For one thing, the 1,050 copies were all 

 sold before publication, and no copies were 

 left to send to reviewers — we may have saved 

 criticism here, but the number of letters 

 praising the book has been surprising. We 

 give ourselves the pleasure of copying a few 

 paragraphs: 



"It is not only the most beautiful garden book I 

 have ever seen, I can learn from ever)' page something 

 worth knowing. If I could not get another copy, you 

 could not buy this one for twice what I paid. Could 

 I retain but one book from my library, this is the book 

 I would keep." 



"To say that I am delighted with it does not express 

 my appreciation of the beautiful book, and I desire 

 if possible, to procure an additional copy to present 

 to a friend." 



"I am highly pleased with 'The American Flower 

 Garden.' It was just exactly what I wanted." 



"I am delighted to be the owner of such a sump- 

 tuous work. It is the finest thing of the kind I ever 

 saw." 



"I am perfectly charmed with the beauty and con- 

 tents of this book." 



There are dozens of such kindly comments. 

 We have just suffered the shock of declining 

 an order for 100 copies from London. 



TO THE MOTOR ENTHUSIAST 



We issued a few weeks ago a novel by Mr. 

 and Mrs. C. N. Williamson, (whose book "The 

 Lightning Conductor" gave pleasure to so 

 many thousands) called "Set in Silver," which, 

 we think is the most interesting and charming 

 of all the Williamson books. 



It is a love story which moves through those 

 delightful places in England familiar to all 

 Americans who visit the old country each 

 year. The story is "compelling" to the last 

 page, and, as one reader said: "The only 

 criticism is that it is not long enough"— a 

 thorough-going compliment when it is remem- 

 bered that the novel contains perhaps 120,000 

 words. 



NAMES AND ADDRESSES 



We want to thank our readers for their kind 

 response to our request for names of people 

 who they think will be interested to know 

 about, this magazine. These lists constitute a help- 

 ful cooperation of great importance to us. Our 

 offer was to send to anyone who would send 

 us a list of garden lovers, a garden picture 

 proof suitable for framing. If you have not 

 sent such a list, we shall be happy indeed to 

 get it. 



DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY, 



Enclosed find list of garden lovers. You may 

 (may not) [erase as you decide] use my name as 

 recommending the magazine. 



Signed 



Address 



