Chapter XXXVII: Africa

"The apparel oft proclaims the man."--HAMLET.

Africa is the richest "jack-pot" in the game of territorial "freeze-out" played by the European Powers. The stakes represent diamonds, gold, ivory, rubber and slaves, though the latter are nominally outside the limit.

The game began nearly three centuries ago and now in the early morning of the twentieth century (such a fascinating game is Poker!) it is still in progress, though Germany, who staked all her pile and lost, has dropped out.

The ancient Greek Geographer Strabo (64 B. C.) describes Africa as "the fruitful nurse of large serpents, elephants, antelopes and similar animals; of lions also and panthers." He does not mention the Chimpanzees, who are the most remarkable of all the aboriginal inhabitants, a gentle and peace-loving race, abstemious without being bigoted, and patriotic to a high degree, very few surviving transportation from their native jungle.

_Children, behold the Chimpanzee!_
_He sits on the ancestral tree_
_From which we sprang in ages gone,_
_I'm glad we sprang--had we held on_
_We might, for all that I can say,_
_Be horrid Chimpanzees to-day._

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The inhabitants of Africa are the most Moral and Patriotic in the World, and their army is second to none in bravery and won the World War.