for chance wealth feeds on us. Crimes of violence are not unknown; but,
if one may speak with authority who has known only one other great
mining center in its early condition, and whose information on this
matter has therefore been gathered largely from books, Johannesburg
compares favorably, and _very_ favorably, with other large mining
camps in the same stage of their existence. The life of culture and
impersonal thought is largely and of necessity among a new and nomadic
population absent; art and science are of necessity unrepresented;
but a general alertness and keenness characterizes our population. In
the bulk of our miners and working men, of our young men in banks and
houses of business, we have a large mass of solid, intelligent, and
invaluable social material which counter-balances that large mass of
human flotsam and jetsam found in this, as in all other mining camps;
while among our professional men and mining officials is found a large
amount of the highest professional knowledge and efficiency. Happy
would it be for the gallant little Transvaal Republic, and well for
South Africa as a whole, if the bulk of this little human nature could
become ours forever, if they were here to stay with us, drink out of
our cup and sup out of our platter. But in most cases this is not
so. The bulk of the population, and especially its most valuable and
cultured elements, are here temporarily; as persons who go to Italy
or the south of France for health or sunshine, who, even when they go
year after year, or buy villas and settle there for a time, yet go to
seek merely health and sunshine, not strike root there; and as men go
to Italy for health and sunshine, the bulk of us here come to seek gold
or a temporary livelihood, and for nothing more. Even our miners and
working men in Johannesburg, the most stable and possibly permanent
element in our population, have, in many instances, their wives and
families in Cornwall or elsewhere; and when they have them here they
still think of the return home for good in after years; while with
the wealthier classes this is practically universal. Not only have our
leading mining engineers and the great speculators not the slightest
intention of staying in Johannesburg permanently; most have their wives
and families in England, America, or on the Continent, and project
as soon as possible a retirement from business, and return to the
fashionable circles of Europe or America. Even among South African-born
men the large majority of us intend returning to our own more lovely
birthplaces and homes in the Colony sooner or later; and the only
element which will probably form any integral part of the South African
nation of the future and become subject to the Transvaal Republic is
the poorer, which, from the larger advantages for labor here, will be
unable to return to its natural home.
The nomadic population of Johannesburg undoubtedly consists of men who
are brave and loyal citizens in their own States and nations. To-morrow,