The French have been especially eager to make an alliance with him, before any other nations could get ahead of them. Abyssinia is a country rich in gold and ivory, and the friendship of Menelik is also valuable, because of the trade that can be done with his country. One expedition has been sent by the government to make the treaty, and at the same time another has started under the command of Prince Henry of Orleans.
This last has no political work to do, but is going in the interest of science and commerce. The Prince intends to explore the country, and find out what its chief products are, and what part of its commerce will be of value to his country.
He is writing most interesting accounts of his journey, which are being published in the papers, and we shall probably hear much that is new and interesting of this country.
In one of his letters he gave an amusing account of the astonishment of the natives over a graphophone (a present for King Menelik).
He at first put in a cylinder on which was recorded a song, sung by a great singer.
Strange to say, the natives received this with neither interest nor astonishment; the single voice did not seem anything out of the way to them. When, however, a cylinder with orchestral music, bugle calls, and a stirring march was put in place, their delight and surprise knew no bounds.
The mention of this brings another wonderful invention to mind, the animatograph, the machine which throws pictures on a sheet; the figures in them move as though they are alive.
During the Queen's Jubilee, which will be celebrated in London this spring, it has been arranged to have a number of animatograph pictures taken of the procession and all the finest part of the ceremonies. These, it is said, are to be kept in the library of the British Museum, to show future generations what kind of people lived in the nineteenth century.
This should be a very interesting collection, and probably, if the idea is successfully carried out, we shall have a set of these same pictures brought to this country, and be able to see just how our English cousins celebrated their great festival.