Snaps shots from sunny Africa

Introduction

General r. s. s. baden-powell, of

the English army, for years a distinguished soldier and traveller in South Africa, in his Foreword to “ Some African Highways,’7 a recent interesting book by Caroline Kirkland, says : —

“ How I should like to be a woman ! It must be nice to lie back in your cushions and watch the men doing things which they think very clever, knowing all the time that you can do them much better yourself if you only care to try.

“For instance: I am convinced that if women were to take up the art of scouting they would easily beat men at the game.

“They have a greater natural gift of observation and a most uncannily clever knack of 1 putting this and that together ’ and then deducing meaning from the smallest signs.

“ Hence it comes that when women travel into the lesser-known countries of the world, as they frequently do nowadays, they bring this power of observation into play with remarkable results. And of all women in the world I would place our American cousins at the top of the list for this particular quality.

“Unfortunately it is only too seldom that they record their impressions, but when they do their

Introduction pages ripple with little touches both quaint and human which are the direct result of quick observation and which go to paint the character of the countries and people far more vividly than the more erudite writings of the mere man who plods along basing his remarks very largely on what he has already read or been told of the country now spread out before them.”

These short stories by Mrs. Springer are a good illustration of General Baden-PowelFs estimate of American women as intelligent travellers, able to put their observations into up-to-date, vigorous English.

The pictures are from actual life during several years of residence and travel in Africa, and have been written with the purpose of aiding those especially interested in the redemption of that continent to understand better the conditions of the people and the missionary labours among them.

Any of these “ Snapshots” would be excellent reading in meetings of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, of Epworth Leagues, or of Sunday-schools, where Africa is the theme. They could not fail to arrest the attention and fix the thought of those who hear them upon the pagan heathenism which now enthralls more than one hundred million of the people of that great continent.

Joseph C. Habtzell.

Preface

IT was about a year ago that we sat at lunch one day with Bishop Hartzell in one of the crowded restaurants of New York when the Bishop suddenly remarked, u Mrs. Springer, I think it would be an excellent thing for you to collect and work over into book form the many stories and articles which have been appearing from your pen during the past five years.”

It was not a new thought. On leaving Africa, Mr. Springer has insisted on bringing all my old MSS. along with us to America for this very purpose. But so far I had not felt that I could work them up into readable matter. Nor did the Bishop’s suggestion convince me.

But as I travelled about speaking almost constantly, I saw that there was a need of some book of short missionary stories which could be used in meetings of the Woman’s Foreign Missionary Society, Ep worth Leagues, Christian Endeavours, Sunday-schools and all other missionary meetings for which it is often so difficult to arrange a live and interesting program.

Last fall I seemed to be providentially laid aside from platform work for three months and it also seemed as if that were God’s time for me to take up this work of writing.

The title is meant to be a true indication of the character of the book. It is not a history of our work in Ehodesia, but a collation of such a variety of incidents of that work that I trust the whole book will give the reader an insight to the real life and io

Preface work of a missionary just as the amateur snap- sliot photo album reveals more of the every-day lives of its subjects than the most finished productions of the studio.

The chapters are purposely short and each one is a complete story in itself, and yet there is a line of continuity throughout the whole book. I have given the real names of our native helpers in order that the reader may become acquainted with them as they appear and reappear in the various chapters. These chapters are not arranged in chronological order but are grouped in reference to subjects so that when desired, two or three persons may read a chapter each at a single meeting.

The articles which had been already printed were all rewritten, the incidents being brought down to date, while many entirely new chapters were added on subjects about which I was most frequently questioned.

As Mr. Springer has so fully described our trip across the continent in his book, “ The Heart of Central Africa,” which was published this spring by Jennings and Graham, I have only touched upon it, enlarging upon some incidents which he was compelled to treat rather briefly and from his viewpoint.

So this little volume goes forth with the writer’s prayer that it may not only be helpful to individuals, but that also it may be of especial service in many a missionary meeting where it may make real to the hearers the joys, the successes, the sorrows and the failures and discouragements, but withal the actual conditions of our every-day missionary work.

Helen E. Springer.

Chicago , III.

Tried as by Fire .