Show MILES OF TIN STREETS AFRICA Peculiar Architecture of the Kaffir Quarter of Johannesburg Mining Camp After struggling half an hour through pungent of clay cracked by the heat of the si n into a thousand fissures dodging shunting trains and snorting engines on a mazy goods ho visitor to Johannesburg himself on the outskirts of Tin Town Topographically the district Is technically it is the ex expropriation area It is the Kaffir quarter of the City Here the black man foregathers wife Kand family and here the fiery cross of revolt is ith what results only the future can show writes a correspondent of the London Express Tin Town is more I ban u umile mile In length and of a amile mile In breadth Jt is laid out with great regularity on the American block system The streets are unpaved and the at attempts tempts ut the construction of side sidewalks walks are pitiful In their The roadways of red earth dotted with crawling Kaffir babies are mar marred red by unpleasant undulations and hol hollows lows filled with stagnant rain water near which myriads of pugnacious mosquitoes are forever buzzing The crowning feature of Tin Town is Its architecture Never were houses more strangely nor the weird structures more ac accurately realized The principal materials from which this great living area has been con constructed are petroleum tins the tin or orline line linings of imported packing cases and large Quantities of the lead used in the tea trade From these limited means with battens of wood for use as framework are constructed dwelling ling places very similar to that made by Peter Pan and his wonderful crew for the protection of Wendy man is his own architect and and the work of erecting these W or fourteen feet high sties is simplicity itself First the ground Is marked out generally exactly square and at each of the four corners a sturdy stake some ten feet In height is driven In These are strengthened and supported by cross pieces Then the architect his wife and oldest chil dren wander in search of tin In the one seldom sees pe in a cask It is generally sold in two four or tins The consumer purchases a specially manu pump and draws off the oil as he needs it As the tins are not re they are pressed Into all sorts of strange services Filled with earth they are used for building walls painted green they are turned into flower boxes they arc in common use as pails drinking troughs for cattle boilers cooking utensils besides a thousand and one other familiar ob Yet despite this accommodativeness many find their way to the rubbish heaps and are eagerly pounced upon by the homing Kaffir The tins are cut open hammered flat and nailed to the upright battens In Ina a couple of hours given a sufficient supply of material the citadel walls are complete and this sound box of a ahouse house only requires the corrugated iron roof and a tin chimney or rather smoke outlet to finish it The luxury of fire grates s unknown The fire may be lighted anywhere and the dense volumes of smoke arr expected to ascend skyward In the manner pro provided vided Those of the in Jo burg who do not dwell in mining com compounds pounds reside in one of the several miles of Tin Town streets Seen from a distance in tho strong glare of the African sun the bizarre collection of human d looks like some en enchanted chanted city The tin walls re reflect back the suns rays of silver and even the dull roofs of corrugated gated iron are transmuted into some something thing mystic wonderful by tho phil philosophers stone o tho sun At close quarters scales fall from the eyes and the awakening Is rude indeed The Kaffir multiplies and these unsavory roads are always filled with their naked copper skinned offspring They crawl about the ant infested roadway and paddle or floun der in hollows of foul smelling wa ter with evident enjoyment They ar plump little mites these children They are much more is and develop more than European infants and they certainly take life much more good The mate population of Tin Town does not arrive home until evening but always before 9 for by the law of no black those in charge of rickshaws is allowed on tho streets after this hour Then he can loll up against his tin walls making them crackle and rat tle like concentrated thunder and smoke his clay pipe while he his short but seditious cuts to free dom domIn In the frail habitations of Tin the flames of revolt have been steadily fanned since the peace and it would be a suicidal policy to underestimate the present menace or to ignore what is behind it |