Seven Legs Across the Seas Part 9

"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 alt.i.tude--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 b.u.t.ton 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 a.s.sumed 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 gra.s.s 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 gra.s.sy 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.

CHAPTER V

The Dutch being averse to having the capital near the sea coast, as soon as they gained full control of United South Africa, on May 31, 1910, they decided on Pretoria as the capital, although Capetown was well provided with good legislative buildings. Money was then appropriated to erect government buildings in Pretoria, and a hill east of the city was selected as a site for the Parliament buildings.

Following this, a large force of government employes were compelled to leave Capetown for Pretoria, as government business was in future to be transacted in the Transvaal instead of the Cape of Good Hope. At present Pretoria, 45 miles from Johannesburg, is the capital of United South Africa. Before the war the Boers exercised control over only the Transvaal and Orange Free State, but 11 years later they also exercised authority over the Provinces of the Cape of Good Hope and Natal.

One who had imagined he would not find modern utilities and attractiveness of a general nature in a place located 'way up on the veld would be much taken aback upon entering Pretoria. Encircled by a range of hills is this, the best-looking large town in the interior of South Africa. The city being so far away from the busy centers of the world, and over a thousand miles inland from Capetown, one would not expect to find fine, clean streets, a good electric street railway system, good parks, in some of which music is furnished; shade trees, water fountains, and splendid buildings--residential, business, munic.i.p.al and governmental.

The Dutch Reformed Church, built in the center of the old market square, around which long ox teams used to slowly worm their way and seek shelter behind its stone walls from winds and shade from the sun; where auctioneers, chattering like monkeys, sold produce of burghers, brought from points a hundred miles in some instances, to the highest bidder; where Boer met Boer and sympathized with each other during lean years, discussed native wars, their troubles with England, and the ravages of locusts and rinderpest; where the last President of the Transvaal intermingled with his people, walking among the piles of pumpkins, calabashes, tomatoes, guinea fowl, chickens, hares, and buck; where, on holy days, Psalms were sung by these rough-looking plainsmen--this historical a.s.sembling place of burghers, with its old-time and latter-day memories, has been removed, and the market-place converted into a public garden, surrounded at ends and one side by imposing government buildings. On visiting the square where the old church stood, the men of full beards and broad-brimmed soft hats now look instead on beds of flowers in bloom and fountains casting rainbow spray round a circular s.p.a.ce.

One feels more comfortable in Pretoria after having spent some time in the Gold City, for he has left the red dust behind, the unattractive cyanide banks, the clouds of black smoke and the sooty buildings. The air is free from smoke, from the dirt banks, and a healthier atmosphere prevails. Pretoria is Dutch; Johannesburg cosmopolitan.

Some 40,000 people were living in this attractive place, and the population is increasing. The government departments were removed from Capetown, one after another, and with the reestablishment of each Pretoria's population naturally increased as the government employes followed. "Civil servants" is the term used to denote government employes. An increase in salaries was granted to employes when brought from Capetown or Durban, as the salaries paid in the coast cities, on which a frugal person could save money, provided little more than food and clothing in the new capital. As in Johannesburg, house rent is high, and board cannot be had at less than from $35 to $40 a month.

The cost of living here, as in Johannesburg, is from 15 to 20 per cent. higher than the coast towns.

Away from mining towns smokestacks are few and far between. Pretoria makes a better showing in this respect, as there are flour mills, an ice plant, an electric power house, and small manufactures that give the place a business appearance.

Walking a few blocks along West Kerk street, on the right hand side, may be seen a one-story stone and cement house, roofed with corrugated iron. This building is surrounded with an iron fence, built on a cement foundation. On each side of the walk leading to the house are two stone lions. In front is a veranda. In that modest house Paul Kruger lived. Walking in the same direction a few squares a park is reached. Entering by a gate, a short distance ahead is seen a large cement foundation with steps leading up, and resting on the foundation is a square granite base. The monument finishes there. Postcards bear a picture of the completed monument to Paul Kruger, but it lacks the bronze figure of the Boer President. "The monument that was to have been erected to the memory of the late President Kruger" is the wording under the picture of the "completed" monument. The bronze figure of Paul Kruger reached Lourenzo Marques, Portuguese East Africa, at the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War, in 1899. Several lean years followed the Boers' defeat, and the Transvaal was theirs no longer. What stands of "the monument that was to have been" is well looked after. Some day, however, the printing on a postcard of the completed monument will read: "Paul Kruger's Monument."

"d.i.c.k" Seddon, of New Zealand, was a great man; Brazil, Argentine, Chile and Australia have produced men they consider great, but their fame is only local. Many in other countries tell one that the United States has produced but two great men--Washington and Lincoln. Looking at things from a world viewpoint, one cannot find a man born south of the equator who measures up to Paul Kruger's fame. So, in fairness to rugged genius, it would seem no overt act would be committed if the completed monument did stand in that park in Pretoria--to the memory of the greatest man born south of the equator.

"Have you been out to Wonderboom?" is a question visitors to Pretoria will be asked. Six or seven miles from the capital is seen from a distance what looks like a very large tree, located a mile from the railroad station. Big trees with dark green leaves are rare on the veld, which accounts for Wonderboom being such an attraction. In a radius of 150 feet seven groups of trees are growing, and from each grows half a dozen trees. The s.p.a.ce taken up by some of these groups measures from 20 to 30 feet, and the clumps grow from roots of what appeared to have been large trees at one time. When vegetation of all sorts is white from drought the Wonderboom is as green as if it had been watered at frequent intervals. The trees grow 20 feet high, and cover an area of half an acre. No one seemed to know the name of the wood. "Vonderboom" seemed to be sufficient to cover all questions asked about its specie.

English newspapers published in Pretoria could not be favorably compared to the Johannesburg productions. This may be accounted for by the existence of Dutch publications, which naturally have a larger patronage than English newspapers, the population being in the main Dutch. As a considerable amount of the government printing is now done in Pretoria, this industry has improved. The pay is from $30 to $45 a week, eight hours' work. Mechanics of all kinds receive $5 a day.

All government doc.u.ments, bills, blanks, etc., are printed in two languages--Dutch and English. As the government owns the railway, telegraph, postoffice and telephone systems, any one can understand what a big item the government's printing bill is. This was agreed to by the British representatives who attended the convention at which the consolidation of the four provinces was ratified. The Dutch adhere strictly to this agreement affecting their language.

The Dutch are not a vindictive race. No tales of brutality are heard of in connection with the Boer War. Men who fought on the British side tell of having been taken prisoner and of being sent back to their command. Sometimes the Boers would take the clothes off a captive, and then direct him to where his fellow soldiers were camped. Paul Kruger would have been justified in shooting the men who instigated and took part in the Jameson Raid, on the grounds of treason, but he spared their lives. They paid big sums of money in fines, though, for their unsuccessful, treasonable offense.

The Dutch have their faults, like other races, but they seem the better able to guide the destiny of their land of plagues.

The Boer War, in a sense, proved a blessing in disguise to the Dutch.

Previous to that time proper attention had not been given to educating the young; precious few lawyers, doctors, educators and mining engineers bore Dutch names. Look through the directories of South Africa now and contrast the number of Dutch names that figure among those of the professional cla.s.s. The war woke up the Boers to a sense of a.s.suming a greater responsibility in the advancement of their country. A great many Dutch young men are students in the leading universities of the world.

Nothing feminine in sound is noticeable about the names of places in Boerland. But one often feels at a loss to account for the general use of the affix "fontein." Save for a narrow strip along the coast the country is dry. The Orange and the Vaal rivers seem to be the only two of consequence in the interior. The country is full of "spruits,"

"fonteins" and rivers which, when one reaches them, are dry as a bone.

The only things that seem to "spruit" in them are cobble-stones and rattle-snakes.

"a.s.segaiboschfontein," "Jakhalskraalfontein," "Wildebeestespruitbult"

are a few names of towns that occur to one as being decidedly masculine.

Boers, physically, are large men. Many of the older men wear full beards, and invariably wear a broad-brimmed hat with cloth band of several plies thick. They smoke calabash pipes, the weed being known as Boer tobacco, which costs 50 cents a pound. They generally carry a sjambok, a strip of rhinoceros hide about three feet long and an inch thick. Meeting one alone, the questions he asks in quick succession--"What's your name?" "Where do you come from?" "What's your business?" "Have you been in South Africa long?" "How long are you going to stay in the country?"--bring to mind this distinguishing trait of a noted Chinese who made a visit to America some years ago.

Rum is the Boer's strong drink, but he is seldom seen under the influence of liquor. In a sense, he is of a roaming disposition, for some Boers are on the trek all the time. They seem to be better suited when they have got beyond the outposts of civilization. Were it not for the Boer's inclination to trek, however, it is possible there would be no gold mines on the Rand or diamond fields in Kimberley. His battles with the native tribes and his sufferings and hardships will never be lost sight of as the factors through which the white man was enabled to live in that section of "Darkest Africa."

CHAPTER VI

We take our departure from the Transvaal and make a start for Victoria Falls, in Rhodesia, also British territory. Traveling some 300 miles out of a direct line, through Fourteen Streams, to Vryburg, on to Mafeking, finds us nearly opposite the place started from, but headed in the right direction. A gap of 40 miles from Zeerust to the main line has since been closed, which makes the trip from Johannesburg to Bulawayo much shorter. Two trains a week care for all the business over that stretch of native territory.

From Fourteen Streams, which is only a railway junction, we start northward over the treeless veld on our way to Rhodesia, 700 miles beyond. Vryburg is the next place reached where white people live, and most of the 3,000 inhabitants are engaged in business connected with farming. Nearly a hundred miles further Mafeking was reached, which has been made historical in virtue of the seven-months' siege of Britishers during the Boer War. It is located near the Transvaal border, and is a trading center for the western Transvaal. Railway car shops are located at Mafeking, and these and the trading industries give employment to its 3,000 inhabitants.

An hour's ride further, and we have crossed the Cape Colony-Bechua.n.a.land Protectorate border line. Northward from that point we pa.s.s through what seems an uninhabited country, so far as white people are concerned. A railway station is built here and there along the line, where a few Europeans may be seen; but the country is wild and populated with natives. Were one to go to sleep for six or eight hours, upon waking up he would not know that he had moved a mile, so far as any change in the appearance of the landscape would indicate. At a few stations signs of industry were in evidence, bags of corn being piled along the track.

Natives with karosses (skins of wild beasts) and native-made souvenirs surrounded the train when stops were made, spreading their wares on the ground and holding the objects of native handicraft to the gaze of the pa.s.sengers. The natives' souvenirs were the images of giraffes, elephants, lions, tigers, storks and other animals cut out of wood and painted or dyed black, but many of the imitations were far from good.

Splendid karosses are bought cheap along the line. One can have his choice of a lion, tiger, hyena, jackal, wildcat, monkey and baboon, and sometimes a giraffe. Many are as large as a buffalo robe.

"How much!" shouted a splendid specimen of a Bechuana woman, in the native language, as she held her naked pickaninny over her head--laughing heartily at the same time--at a place where the train had stopped and where natives and karosses were numerous. Pa.s.sengers were bartering and haggling with the natives over the price of karosses, and others were ambitious to sell their souvenirs. The black mother had imbibed the "shopping" spirit, when she jocularly offered her babe for sale. "Half a crown!" (60 cents) shouted a pa.s.senger.

With that offer the semi-barbarous mother quickly brought her pickaninny to her bosom, threw her arms about the little one and gave it such a hug that the baby's eyes bulged, she laughing so heartily the while as if to split her sides.

Still traveling toward the heart of Africa, we reach Mochudi and the Kalahari Desert, the eastern fringe of which we traverse, a distance of 200 miles. The dust had become so thick in this stretch of the journey that the color of the pa.s.sengers' clothes could not be detected. All the way along from Mafeking I could not keep from my mind the Americanism, "It's a great country, where n.o.body lives and dogs bark at strangers."

When the train stopped at Mahalapye we entered what is known as Khama's country. The course of the railroad is nearly on the line taken by David Livingstone, the explorer. When Livingstone and his band pa.s.sed through that section of Africa, the grandfather of the reigning chief offered every hospitality to the explorer, and espoused the Christian religion. Chief Khama, the grandson, is the most important ruler of Bechua.n.a.land, and has spent some time in Europe; he conforms largely to European customs. Besides being a strict disciplinarian, he forbids the sale of liquor to his people. He receives a pension from the English Government. Serowe, Khama's capital, located 30 miles inland from Palapye Road station, is the largest town in Bechua.n.a.land, having a population of 40,000. His subjects pay the smallest head tax of any of the tribes in South Africa.

We were pa.s.sing through a country about which the wildebeeste, gemsbuck, eland, tiger, lion, and even the giraffe, still roam. Along the railway may be seen the secretary bird, guinea fowl and also handsome cranes. The secretary bird, so named from feathers growing at the back of the head, which look like quill pens, is what is known as "royal game." "Royal game" are beasts or fowl that must not be killed.

The reason the secretary bird is protected is because it is a bitter foe to snakes. s.n.a.t.c.hing a snake in the middle with his bill, he at once begins to fly upward with the reptile, and when at a certain height will let go his prey. The snake, when he strikes the earth, is killed.