My first introduction to South Africa railway travel took place on my
initial trip to Johannesburg. The compartment type of corridor
carriage, as passenger coaches are termed, with an aisle at the side,
similar to that of Great Britain, is in use. Meter gauge--3 feet 6
inches--is the standard of that country, 14 inches narrower than what
is known as "standard gauge"--4 feet 8 inches--in the United States
and in some of the European countries. The narrow spaces of the
compartment (6 by 6½ feet) inclined one to wish for a two person seat.
Two out of a filled compartment have direct access to a window--the
two passengers whose seats are the outside end ones. Most travelers
have seats reserved, in some instances a week in advance, their names
being written on a card on the outside of the car at the compartment
assigned.
Compartments in the railway coaches are heated with what is called
foot-warmers--that is, sometimes the compartment will be provided with
this device. The foot-warmer is an iron pipe, two feet long, eight
inches wide, three inches thick, and filled with hot water. The
foot-warmer is all right when there are but two persons in a
compartment, or when two foot-warmers are supplied and four persons
occupy a compartment, but when six or eight passengers occupy a
compartment--well, 16 passengers' feet cannot get on four feet of
piping. That is the only means of heating passenger coaches in South
Africa.
In some respects accommodation is better on South African trains than
in the United States and Europe--every passenger having a place to
sleep, for instance. Six persons can sleep in a compartment, but five
is generally the maximum number assigned, the extra berth being
reserved for hand baggage. Frequently, when travel is light, one has a
compartment to himself. The back of the compartment against which one
leans while riding is portable, and when pulled out straight is
fastened at each end. Above that shelf, or berth, is another. The same
applies to the opposite side of the compartment, which, with seats on
each side, termed the lower berths, make six in all--three on each
side. These berths, or sleeping shelves, are two feet wide and
upholstered. Travelers generally carry with them a cushion and
blanket, or rug, as it is termed, which is used for sleeping purposes.
The bedding furnished by the railway cost 60 cents. If one is
traveling two nights in succession the bedding is rolled up by a
steward in the morning and put on the top shelf of the compartment,
where it remains during the day, and is taken down the second night
for use. Sixty cents for two nights--30 cents a night. Meals on the
train are very reasonable. Breakfast and luncheon costs 50 cents and
dinner 60 cents. So, paying but 60 cents for a bed, as it were, and
not more than 60 cents for a meal, one finds a great reduction in
traveling expenses in South Africa compared to what is charged for the
same service in the United States. Railroad fare is higher, however,
than in America, the second class rate being three and four cents a
mile, and first-class six cents a mile. A hundred pounds of baggage is
allowed a passenger. The schedule is slow compared with that in
England and on some roads in America, twenty-five miles an hour being
as fast as trains run. Long delays take place at stations, for when a
passenger train stops it often seems as if it had been abandoned.
From Durban to Pietermaritzburg, a distance of 70 miles, an elevation
of 3,000 feet is ascended. Some cultivated land is seen from the
train, but grassy, timberless hills, with smoke and flames from
prairie fires showing here and there off the railway, is what a
stranger notices continuously.
Pietermaritzburg, the capital of Natal, was first settled by the
Dutch. The town hall, postoffice, and government buildings are
imposing structures. In addition, one finds a small museum, botanical
garden and good city parks, an electric railway system and a good
railway station. One is surprised when visiting small cities located
so far out of the world, as it seems, to find them so up to date.
Locally, the place is called, for short, Maritzburg.
The Voortrekkers' Church is a historical monument to, and a solemn
reminder of, the terrible sufferings of the Voortrekkers during the
dark days between the massacres by the hordes of Dingaan, the Zulu
king, of over 600 men, women and children, in February, 1838, and the
eventful overthrowing of Zulu power, at Blood River, in December of
the same year. The massacre of Piet Retief, leader of a colony of Boer
emigrants, and some of his band by the native despot at the head
kraal, and the slaughter of his followers at Weenen, which immediately
followed, is closely identified with the erection of the church.
Retief and some of his followers had been led to believe that Dingaan
wished to make friends of them. While in the king's kraal, they were
seized and massacred. Andries Pretorius, with 450 men, some months
later, started on an expedition to avenge the massacre. Religious
services were held every day during the march of the expedition, and a
vow was made by Pretorius' party that, if they came out victorious in
battle with the bloodthirsty and perfidious Zulu king, a church to the
honor of God would be erected. Pretorius and his burghers met the Zulu
forces at a river then unnamed. Fifteen thousand natives were arrayed
against 450 Boers. After several hours' fighting the Zulus fled,
leaving behind 5,000 dead and wounded. The river was said to be red
with the blood that flowed from wounded natives, and that stream has
since been known as Blood River. Dingaan's Day, December 16, one of
the national holidays in South Africa, is observed in honor of the
bravery of Pretorius and his followers and the avenging of the foul
massacre of Piet Retief and his band of emigrants. The church promised
by Pretorius was built in 1841, three years later.
Maritzburg natives are mostly Basutos, the only tribe in South Africa
that white troops have never conquered. Most of Basutoland is situated
in the Drakensburg Mountains, some parts of which contain rich land.
They have a king, and are said to be wealthy. Europeans cannot travel
in Basutoland without permission from the ruler or some high native
officer. A large amount of firearms and munitions of war is said to
have been smuggled into their country. The Basuto is feared by all in
South Africa, and that will explain why Basutoland is for Basutos
only.
Now we travel northward to Ladysmith, passing Spion Kop south of the
Siege City. Ragged turrets and spires are still to be seen, bearing
gaping evidence of the days of suffering, hunger and fear that the
brave besieged underwent in the Boer war. Historical Majuba Hill next
comes in view, with Mount Prospect opposite. A tunnel has been bored
through the land lying between Majuba and Mount Prospect, known as
Laing's Nek. We travel over rough territory for a while, then find
ourselves on the high veld, having left the Drakensburg mountain range
behind. Continuing to Charlestown, on the south bank of the Vaal
River, and crossing the river to Voxburg, we passed out of Natal and
were in the Transvaal.
"When do we scoff?" asked a passenger, at one stage of the journey.
The term being a strange one, "I don't know" was what a stranger would
reply. "Luncheon is ready" announced a train steward just then as he
passed the compartment. "Let's go and scoff. I'm hungry," said the
South African. "Scoff," in South Africa, has the same meaning here as
"grub" in the United States.
The River Vaal is the boundary line between the Transvaal Province,
Natal Province and the Orange Free State. The meaning of "Transvaal"
is, across the Vaal--trans-Vaal.
On we go over the grassy veld, or prairie, seeing very little
cultivated ground, but cattle are grazing here and there. They are a
brand peculiar to South Africa; their horns grow from two to three
feet, their legs in keeping with the long horns, but their bodies are
narrow and of light weight. The most productive feature of the veld
were ant-hills, ranging in size from a water bucket to a hogshead.
Thousands of these, as far as the eye could reach, mar the green
landscape as freckles or small-pox mark an unblemished skin.
The railroad from Durban to Johannesburg is the crookedest one might
ride over. To save building a small bridge, the track turns for miles
before it gets back to a straight line. When the railway was built the
contractors were paid by the mile. Were the road constructed on
ordinary scientific lines, the distance between the two cities could
be reduced fifty miles. Yet, neat, well-built, attractive stations,
surrounded with flower beds, were passed all the way.
Over the freckled veld we rolled, with Johannesburg in the distance.
The sky was clear, as most always, on the highlands of the Transvaal.
We had traveled to over 6,000 feet above sea level. Objects in the
distance became less distinct--a haze seemed to gather. It was the
smoke from the gold mines on the great Gold Reef--
"Johannesburg!"--"Johannesburg!" a train guard announced.
A well built business city is the impression made by this great gold
center of the world. A long street, with all the business of the city
centered in it, one would expect to find on reaching Johannesburg.
That is the style of some of our western mining towns. Instead, here
are buildings, five to eight stories in height, of stone, brick, and
steel, some of them a city block square in dimension, with arcades
leading from one street to another; large plate glass windows where
goods are attractively displayed; elevators and steam heat
appliances--all centralized in a space five squares in extent. This is
the retail section of Johannesburg. The great banking and mining
companies' buildings--splendid structures, all of modern
architecture--are situated half a dozen squares from this center. The
financial district is a busy place.
"Come, buyers! Come, buyers! Come, buyers!" the auctioneer cries when
he has an assignment to sell something in the marketplace. Every one
is used to the call, and soon a group gathers around. "How much--how
much--how much?" the auctioneer starts with his glib sale talk. The
articles to be sold may be crates of oranges, bunches of bananas, a
crate of chickens, geese, hares, wild fowl, pumpkins, tomatoes,
turnips, cornmeal, oats, hay, a pig, cattle, buck (deer), wildebeeste
(gnu)--anything edible for man and beast. Dozens of auctioneers are
selling goods in the Johannesburg market at the same time.
"That fellow is one of the lost tribe of Israel we read about in the
Bible," spoke a Britisher who had been a produce dealer on the
Johannesburg market for twenty years. "When the Rand was opened to the
world," he continued, "the lost tribe cropped up in the Transvaal and
that fellow is one of them." The buyer was engaged in a controversy
with the old dealer, the point at issue hinging on one chicken, the
Israelite contending he had bought thirteen hens, and the dealer
maintaining there were only twelve to be sold. Arguments are taking
place all the time between buyer, seller and auctioneer.
Fifteen wildebeeste (gnu), with bent horns, and whiskers six inches
long growing straight from their noses; blesbuck, bushbuck, springbuck
by the dozens, lay on the ground in the market. Meat from these
animals is sold as venison. Seeing these beasts of the plains
stretched out in plain view, about which most people read but do not
see, creates a far-off feeling--a feeling that, were the eyes shut to
the brick and mortar walls close by, one would be in a wild, unblazed
section of the world.
Hundreds of ox teams in the market ground worm their way through piles
of bags, hay and transports, led by the natives with bare feet and
bare head. A South African ox team numbers nine yoke--18 oxen. The
transport, or wagon, is 18 feet long and strongly built. Seven feet of
the rear is generally covered with canvas, and under the "tent" is the
home of the Boer, and often his wife, as weeks must elapse from the
time a start has been made for market until their return, as the
farms, in a great many instances, are located long distances from
large towns. Time saving is not a factor in a great many sections of
the sub-continent. The oxen plod slowly along an unkept road, always
preceded by a kafir, who guides the caravan by rhinoceros-hide strips
attached to the horns of the leading team. After traveling about three
hours, a stop ("outspan") is made for the cattle to feed, as grass
grows bountifully on the veld. So, allowing time for "outspanning"
and "inspanning," 10 to 15 miles a day is generally the distance
covered by a transport. "Salted" cattle are the only ones in demand
for working purposes. "Salted," when used in speaking of oxen,
signifies that cattle can run the gauntlet of many diseases that so
often bare the veld of grazing stock. These are cattle that have been
sick but survived the attack. "Unsalted" stock are in little demand,
as they often get sick after starting from the farmer's home and die
by the roadside.
One automobile to 15 persons is a high percentage in a city with about
100,000 white population, yet that indicates the wealth of the gold
city on the high veld. There are over 800 automobiles and the same
number of motorcycles in Johannesburg, and among these are the
largest, most expensive and swiftest manufactured.
The term "The Rand" embraces the mining districts of the Reef, and
"Witwatersrand" is used when speaking of the districts located close
to Johannesburg.
Sixty miles of smokestacks--from Krugersdorp to Springs--will suggest
at once the magnitude of the great Gold Reef. Dynamite is blasting the
gold-bearing ore for that distance 24 hours a day; black smoke is
rolling out of high smokestacks from strong fires, under boilers in
which steam is generated to furnish power to hoist the ore from
thousands of feet underground to the stamp mills at the top; great
dirt heaps--cyanide banks, as they are termed--circle about and wall
in thrifty mining towns, that are not seen until a train stops at a
railway station; monster stamp mills, whose crushing machinery
resembles the roar of a sea beating on a rocky shore, are grinding the
quartz into powdered dust--for nearly thirty years the Reef has been
exploited, and is still giving up its precious ore. Hundreds of
thousands of people are engaged in this gold mining industry; the eyes
of the money people of the world are constantly watching the gold
yield of the Rand.
In 1884 the output of the Transvaal gold mines was $55,000, and, save
for a few years, during which the Boer war was being fought, the
output increased until it has reached the enormous sum of
$150,000,000 a year. The monthly output is from $12,000,000 to
$15,000,000.
[Illustration: NATIVE HUTS AND KAFIR CORN (top); AFRICAN TRANSPORT
(bottom).
SOUTH AFRICA.]
The stamps that crush the ore into powdered dust weigh from 1,800 to
2,000 pounds. Under the stamps are zinc-lined inclining tables, 10
feet long and 4 feet wide, covered with quicksilver. Water washes the
thin dust over the tables, when the gold adheres to the quicksilver.
The dust from five stamps passes over one table. When about an eighth
of an inch of gold sediment has accumulated, the stamps cease working,
and the residue is scraped off the zinc. The scrapings look like thick
black mud. The sediment then goes through a drying process. The dried
chunks of gold "mud" are next put in a kettle, or retort, and melted.
Borax is tossed into the hot metal, which separates impurities from
the gold, the precious metal remaining at the bottom of the kettle,
the dross keeping to the top. More gold "mud" is put in the kettle,
until there is enough to make a brick, or ingot. The gold metal is
poured into a mold. Cooling in a few minutes, the red hot brick is
dumped on the floor. The shape of an ingot is similar to a sponge
cake, narrower at the bottom than at the top. The weight of an ingot
is 1,000 ounces, its value about $20,000.
In early years the dirt that passed over the quicksilver was
considered of little value, and was washed away. The dirt is now
treated by what is termed the cyanide process. Remaining in large
cyanide tanks, any gold contained in the dirt is reduced to a liquid.
The liquid next goes to the extracting room, where it passes through
inclining tanks, 12 feet long by 6 feet wide, composed of five
compartments. The floors of these tanks are covered with 8 inches of
zinc shavings. The liquid slowly passes from one compartment to
another. Any gold contained in the chemical solution adheres to the
zinc shavings. The shavings are then taken from the tank and put in a
retort. At the same time sulphuric acid is placed in the retort, which
causes the zinc to dissolve. The sediment in this instance is also
like black mud. This is next put through a drying process, put in
another retort, when the gold can be seen, poured into a mold, and
dumped on a floor in ingot form. Some of the mine owners are very
obliging to visitors who wish to look about the works. The mines range
in depth from 2,000 to 4,000 feet.
Twenty thousand Europeans and 200,000 natives are employed in the Rand
mines. Paul Kruger, nearly 30 years ago, fixed the wages of the white
miner at $5 a day. Contract miners, however, earn as much as from $200
to $300 a month; but the average wage of the Rand miner is $160 a
month. The natives' wage runs from 50 cents to a dollar a day and
board. The hours worked are eight, three shifts comprising a day's
force.
Compound is the term used for an enclosure in which native employes
are kept. As many as 3,000 to 4,000 kafirs work in some of the mines.
From the mine they go to the compound, where a bunk is provided, a
place to make a fire, and food is furnished. They are not allowed
outside the enclosure at night, but on Sundays and holidays most of
them are free. Tact has to be exercised when assigning kafirs to their
quarters and to working mates, as a hostile feeling exists between
certain tribes. If members of unfriendly clans be not kept apart,
fights and murders often occur.
Weasel-eyed, idle, easy living Europeans are found in considerable
numbers in mining districts. Were the natives allowed their liberty in
the evening, it would result in their complete demoralization, for the
crafty gentry would succeed in getting bad whisky or vicious rum into
the compounds, receiving a big price for the poison, in addition to
offering inducements to the "boys" to pilfer nuggets or heavy-bearing
gold quartz.
"Scarcity of help, scarcity of help," is the cry of mine owners in
South Africa. Sharp competition prevails between mining companies for
"boys," and it is a scarcity of this class of labor to which they
allude. A European trader may have the confidence of natives in the
district in which his store is located, and when help is wanted labor
agents call on the merchant. When a trader induces natives to go to
the mines, the firm to which they have been sent will pay him $15 for
each "boy" as a bonus. If the company failed to pay the bonus, it
would thereafter get very few "boys" from that trader's district. In
thickly populated centers like Kaffraria a dealer may control as many
as 1,000 natives. In such instances companies pay him an income of
from $100 to $125 a month, in addition to the $15 a head, in order to
keep in his good graces. If a "boy" should engage to work for the
shorter term--six months--and rehire at the end of the term, the
trader from whose district the kafir originally came would be sent an
additional sum of $15. Where labor agents deal with native chiefs for
mine "boys," the chief expects a "bonsella" of $2.50 for every "boy"
leaving his district to work in the mines. With bonuses, clothes, car
fare and other incidentals, it costs the mine company from $25 to $30
to get a "boy" from the kraal to the works. Mine owners claim they pay
out a quarter of a million dollars a year in bonuses for native help.
It is also claimed that the mining industry could not be conducted at
a profit with all white labor.
Twenty-one thousand graves in Braamfontein Cemetery, a great many of
these containing two corpses, strongly emphasizes the terrible toll of
human life paid to King Gold in the Transvaal mines. This is but one
European graveyard, as there are several smaller burying places in the
Johannesburg district. Besides those in which only Dutch and English
are buried, there are Jewish, Malay and Mohammedan graveyards
scattered about the city. Braamfontein Cemetery is filled, and a new
one is filling fast. This appalling mortality has taken place during
the past 30 years.
Eighty-nine open graves--mound after mound in as regular order as are
boards in a floor--is a gruesome setting that forces one to cast a sad
glance at the clouds of black smoke pouring out of the hundreds of
smokestacks on the great Gold Reef, and at the gray-colored cyanide
banks that half encircle the city of Johannesburg. These unbroken rows
of freshly dug graves were in the European section of Brixton
graveyard, and at the other end of the large burying ground--the
native section--eighty freshly dug graves presented a grim
foreground.
"Bubonic plague?" the reader may ask. No, phthisis.
Eighty in a thousand of ordinary miners, and 140 in a thousand of
workers using underground drilling machines, are affected with
phthisis. As gold-bearing rock is being blasted all the time, miners
inhale the fine dust during working hours. Respirators, a device
covering the nose and mouth, having a sponge at the mouth, and two
openings at the side covered with a fine wire screen to admit of air,
are worn by some of the workers, but, as it proves cumbersome, a great
many miners discard that life-extending invention. Phthisis here
signifies the drying up of the lungs. The dust inhaled settles in the
cells of the lungs, with the appalling result mentioned.
Seven years is the average lifetime of the Rand miner. On the
headstones in Braamfontein Cemetery, carved in granite, most of the
ages are found to be in the twenties and thirties. Few stones observed
bore ages of 40 years and over.
The average number of burials in Johannesburg is ten a day; Europeans
average four and natives six. People not engaged in underground work,
and not connected with the mines in any capacity, also become affected
with phthisis. As on American prairies, the wind blows on the veld
nearly all the time, and generally with considerable force; hence the
air is full of dust from the powder-crushed cyanide banks.
Priest, preacher and missionary may be seen at cemetery gates all the
time, more particularly in the afternoons.
"Will there be any more funerals today?" was asked of a native who had
just filled in a grave.
"Yes, baas. Two wagons coming now," he answered, pointing to the road.
The natives are buried in a burlap sack, drawn tight and sewed,
reducing the natural size of the body considerably. Two corpses rest
on the bottom of a grave. Six inches of dirt cover these, when two
more of the sacked bodies are lowered, making four in one grave.
The city of Johannesburg receive $7 for every kafir buried in Brixton
graveyard--$28 for a grave containing the bodies of four natives. The
owners of the mines at which the natives had worked must pay this
burial charge. Deaths of natives are caused more by accidents in mines
than from phthisis, as kafirs will not, as a rule, work more than six
months in the year.
At the end of Brixton graveyard, where Europeans are buried, could be
seen, from a distance, undertakers in long coats and high hats;
hearses, ornamented with white or black cockades, drawn by horses of
the same color; clergymen, their heads bowed and reading from books,
with groups of veiled people huddled in small areas--putting people
underground and the circumstances attending these ceremonies are of
very frequent occurrence in Johannesburg.
The grave-diggers have no slack seasons; they are busy the year round,
which accounted for so many open graves. As they were sure to be
needed, it was better to be ahead of the demand than crowded with
orders.
"Don't Expectorate!" is the cautionary sign confronting one at almost
every turn in the Gold City. Where the "Don't Spit!" sign appears
frequently one knows he has reached a place where lung trouble is
prevalent.
Paved streets in some of the South African cities has not been
considered so much of a municipal duty as in other parts of the world.
The soil being hard, the rain, coming in showers, flows off as it does
on paved streets. As the sun shines 365 days in the year on the high
veld, the ground is dry in a short time after a shower has passed.
Walking in the streets instead of on the walks is a local custom one
quickly notices. In Johannesburg good, wide walks may be practically
free of people though the street space is occupied by pedestrians from
curb to curb.
"Joburg" is the local term used almost exclusively by South Africans
when speaking of Johannesburg. When one hears another say
"Johannesburg" it is a pretty sure sign that he is a stranger in
"Darkest Africa."
Living expenses are much higher in Johannesburg and other up-country
cities than on the coast. House rent runs from $25 to $40 a month;
meat was 18 cents to 30 cents a pound; street car fare is very high;
in a general sense, expenses are 20 per cent. higher than in the coast
cities. Boarding houses charge from $35 to $40 a month; hotel
accommodation is expensive, too, the cheapest costing $3 a day; rooms
cost $1.25 a day in all the hotels. Six cents is the least sum for any
small article. A newspaper costs six cents (threepence), the
bootblacks charge 12 cents for a shine, barbers 18 cents for shaving;
it seemed as if one was handing out six cents at every few squares to
a street-car conductor, so short are the "stages"--in fact, few things
can be had for less than six cents.
Dutch, British and Jews comprise the majority of the population, Jews
numbering one-third. Germans are also quite numerous. Americans, up to
the time of the Boer War, held high positions with mining companies,
but they have been thinned out since the country changed hands. Every
country of the globe is represented in that cosmopolitan center.
On pay days "Joburg" is a lively place. The saloons seem to get the
biggest part of miners' wages. They spend their money like lords. In
no place are bars better patronized. A glass of beer costs 12 cents,
and stronger drinks 24 cents. The barmaid, a woman engaged tending
bars in public drinking places in British territories, is not seen
behind the bar of saloons in cities and towns of the Transvaal, men
being engaged at that work.
Years ago, when the game of baseball was played, which took place
weekly and on holidays, crowds of people used to attend. Games are
still played at weekly intervals, but only a few attend--sometimes not
more than 100 persons. On the other hand, big crowds attend the
English games--cricket and football.
"Closed on account of dust." "Open--Closed on account of dust." Such
signs will be found secured to doors of most business houses. The wind
blows so generally, and nearly always so strongly, that all doors must
be kept closed, whether of business or dwelling. With unpaved streets,
and the half-circle of great cyanide banks about the city,
Johannesburg, as appearing to some visitors, is not a choice place of
residence. The climate of the Rand possesses one virtue--there is no
malarial fever. On the other hand, the lips swell, chafe and crack
from the effects of both the wind and high altitude, this causing an
irritating feeling. Laundries do a good business here. Collars are
changed twice a day, as the soil, being red, and the almost constant
high winds, with the dry nature of the country, keeps the dust flying
about most of the time. One will not have lived in this city long
before he will have eaten his allotted "peck of dirt."
In Ludlow Street Jail, New York, prisoners are kept who are not
considered criminals--that class of men who cannot pay their debts and
who have not been adjudged insolvent. The city pays for their food. In
Johannesburg, if a man is sent to jail for a debt, the creditor must
pay the city 50 cents a day for the debtor's board. Precious few
prisoners of this class are found in the Johannesburg jail.
Newspapers of the Rand are fully up to the requirements of the city,
four dailies being published, two morning and two evening. The morning
papers issue Sunday editions, one of these including a colored
magazine section. It has required constant fighting by the owners to
maintain the Sunday editions, as it is an innovation in British
territory. Opponents had injunctions issued against these
publications, and in other ways the publishers were put to much
inconvenience. This edition still appears on the street, however, but,
by a court decree, dealers and newsboys are prohibited from soliciting
sales. Printers earn good wages on the Rand, running from $30 to $55
weekly, with the working hours seven and eight. One finds here
linotype machines, web presses, color presses, stereotyping--all the
modern machinery in use in the North. South Africa is the one country
where printers can do as well, and sometimes better, than in the
United States.
Mechanics and miners are so well organized that they have a building
of their own. They pull together on election day, and, as a result, a
number of union labor men are sprinkled about the upper and lower
Houses of Parliament. Eight hours is the maximum working day in South
Africa among skilled mechanics and miners. Wages run from $4.50 to $6
a day.
In years gone by the Dutch suffered so much from the natives during
their treks that they have a pretty good idea of how to manage them.
No blacks crowd Europeans off the walks in Johannesburg, for the black
man is not allowed on them; he must walk in the street. This policy
saves trouble for both black and white, for it prevents arguments and
fights. He is not allowed to ride on street cars. In railroad
compartments colored and half-castes are prohibited from intermingling
with Europeans. "Reserved" is posted on the doors of certain
compartments, in which one generally would find well-to-do colored
passengers.
The native is not allowed to live in towns and cities here. What are
termed "locations" are built by the municipality, and in these places
the natives are kept to themselves. The Boer plan is much better than
the English, as, if the black man be given too much liberty, it
generally proves injurious to him. Dutch authorities are very severe
on men smuggling liquor to natives. Five hundred dollars is the fine,
and in default of payment the smuggler must serve five years in jail.
Indians leaving Natal for the Transvaal generally come to grief. On
arrival they are promptly taken into custody, and when 50 to 100 have
been collected are put into box cars of a train headed for Portuguese
territory, and soon find themselves in the hold of a ship sailing from
Lourenzo Marques for India. Indians have spoiled the Province of
Natal, so the Dutch are taking care that that race do not get the
money that belongs to the white man in the Transvaal. Though Indians
are British subjects, it makes no difference to the Dutch. Australia
has barred them from that country, too.
An art gallery, a museum, a large public library, a good zoo, sports
grounds, parks where music is furnished, theaters, schools, churches,
hospitals--all the public accessories that make a city are found in
Johannesburg; also most modern city fire-fighting appliances, an
electric street car system, electric and gas plants, fully in keeping
with those in cities of the same size located in the countries of the
North.
"Necessity is the mother of invention," so, as there is practically no
timber in South Africa, and brick buildings cost quite a sum of money
to erect, homes had to be made of something else. Corrugated iron was
the material that answered the purpose of brick, wood and stone. About
all the timber required to erect one of these houses is for joists,
scantlings, and doors. The sheets of corrugated iron are nailed to the
joists and to the scantling at the roof. Sometimes there are plastered
interiors, but a great many have no more protection than the sheet of
iron. They are very hot in summer and very cold in winter. They pop
and crack all the time from expansion and contraction. These houses
are seldom more than one story high. "Wood and iron" buildings is what
they are called.
"Pipe Hospital" may be seen over the door of a tobacco store. It means
that pipes are repaired there.
A broad-brimmed hat, with a thick outside band, the latter often
brown, with a white speck here and there, is the head-covering worn in
the interior of South Africa. It is the only hat a Dutchman wears.
Derby hats are in little demand in that part of the world. One
occasionally sees a man wearing that style, but soft hats hold the
day.
Snow fell in Johannesburg a few years since, the first in 20 years,
and it proved an epoch in the history of the country. Important events
that took place before or since are referred to as having occurred
before or after the storm. Still, the weather gets cold enough to
freeze water, but the sun warms up everything in the daytime. By
reason of the high altitude--over 6,000 feet--the weather is never too
hot in summer.
To General Louis Botha the people of not only South Africa, but of the
world, owe a great debt for saving the Rand mines. The time Botha
rendered this service was when Lord Roberts, with his invincible
forces, was outside the gates of Johannesburg prepared to enter the
city. Most of the gold mines on the Rand had been wired and powerful
explosives placed at sections where the greatest damage would take
place from an explosion. It was planned that as soon as Lord Roberts
entered the city an electric button would be pressed to set off the
bombs, which would ruin the mines. Botha, of course, was well aware of
what was to occur. A messenger was dispatched by him to Lord Roberts,
bearing a request from the Boer commander to delay entering the city
for 24 hours. Lord Roberts acceded to the request. During the interval
General Botha pleaded with his Boer sympathizers not to blow up the
mines. It required his utmost persuasive ability to dissuade the men
from carrying out their purpose. He eventually got their promise that
the mines would not be molested. Had Botha been narrow-minded or
vindictive, instead of a broad-minded man, in dealing with Lord
Roberts, the world's output of gold since that time would probably
have been from $100,000,000 to $120,000,000 less annually.
Johannesburg is named after a Boer--Johannes--whose farm was located
on a portion of the Gold Reef. It was about 1885 when gold was
discovered.
The Great Trek by the Dutch from Cape Colony to the Transvaal took
place in 1835-38. Being dissatisfied with English administration in
Cape Colony, they, like the Mormons in America, kept going into
uninhabited parts, stopping only when they believed they had gone
beyond reach of everybody, where they could live their own lives in
their own way. There were thousands in the Great Trek. In 1852 a
government was formed, and M. W. Pretorious became the first President
of the South African Republic. In the early seventies there were about
25,000 Boers in the Transvaal. In 1876 the republic practically
collapsed, when England assumed responsibility. In 1877 the British
flag was raised in Pretoria, but the Dutch did not relish that
innovation. During 1881 the Boers attacked the English garrisons, and
in January, 1882, the British suffered successive defeats at Majuba
Hill, under command of General Colley, the latter being killed at
Ingogo Heights. Eight hundred English officers and men were killed in
the engagements, and on the Boer side 18 were killed and 33 wounded. A
few lean years for the Dutch followed. Later, the gold fields of
Barberton sprang into existence, then the Rand, and undreamed of
wealth poured into the Transvaal, towns springing up as if by magic.
It was during this early heyday period of the Rand that adventurous
spirits such as Barnato, Hammond, Beit, Rhodes and others figured
prominently in the life of Boerland--some there by reason of the
opportunity to vent their inborn desire for adventure, others as
agents of Great Britain, but all playing for high stakes round the
green table of the great Gold Reef. With the exception of the Jameson
Raid, in 1895, the Boers enjoyed peace and prosperity up to the
opening of the Anglo-Boer war in 1899, when, three years later, the
Transvaal and Orange Free State became British possessions.
On May 31, 1910, the four provinces--Cape of Good Hope, Natal, Orange
Free State and Transvaal--became the Union of South Africa, with
General Louis Botha, Premier, his Cabinet, save one, being composed of
Dutch members. Each province has its legislature, like our State
legislature. A governor-general, appointed by the King of England, is
the representative of the Imperial Government in South Africa and
Rhodesia. With the exception of eight Senators, appointed by the
Governor-General, the members of the National and Provincial
Parliaments are elected by popular vote. One is safe, commercially
speaking, in saying Johannesburg is more than half of Boerland.
Law and order in the Gold City conform to the British standard. Noted
crooks and adventurers are found about places where gold and diamonds
are mined, yet few big burglaries take place. In stature, the
policemen of Johannesburg are second to none. They are of splendid
physique. Native policemen are used in that city also.
The ravages of cattle diseases in South Africa is strongly suggested
on seeing refrigerator cars being emptied of frozen meat. The poorer
portions of beeves and sheep find their way to the compounds, the meat
being eaten by the mine "boys." The frozen meat comes from Australia
and New Zealand, arriving every week, and is shipped to what is called
an agricultural country.
What seems an inexcusable lack of enterprise, combined with
mismanagement, is seen at every turn. Cattle hides are shipped to
Europe, while boots and shoes worn in South Africa are made in
England, Germany, Holland or the United States. Wool is shipped to
centers North, and hence all the woolen goods come from Europe. One
may ride through sections that should make splendid farming districts,
but these are held by landowners in tracts of from 2,000 to 30,000
acres, and only a small area is under cultivation. Lack of water is
the reason given. One sees no windmills, however. Rain water is often
stored in a crude pond, which is generally muddy from sheep and cattle
walking in it. This dirty drinking water alone is enough to kill the
stock.
Every animal of field and farm seems to have a mortal enemy. With the
cattle, one of three diseases--East Coast or tick fever, rinderpest
and red water--is apt to decimate them at any time; two or three
diseases wipe out sheep; there is what is termed "horse sickness,"
horses also dying from eating grass when dew is on the ground, and
meningitis menaces mules.
At least four drawbacks figure in raising grain--drought, hailstones,
locusts and poor farming--the worst being the presence of the black
man, meaning poor farming; though his hut rent keeps the white man's
coffee-pot boiling, at the same time it unhands him industrially. When
one sees a piece of plowed land it is generally but half plowed, a
grassy strip of sod often appearing between furrows at some part of
the field. It would be a rare thing to see unplowed strips between
furrows in England, on the Continent, or in most of the farming States
of America.