| Show A CHAT ABOUT THE BOERS where is this transvaal any anyway wayll oh it is vie fie place that gold com comes es from such a remark dropped outside of the cullen a couple of days ago made me wonder if the majority of newspaper readers geography was as hazy ably the average individual would hazard the remark that the transvaal is in africa but when pruned down to a more concise statement as to longitude and latitude would hurriedly murmur something 13 g regarding having learned it at school you know forgot pressing engagement au revoir pedantic bore the transvaal otherwise known as the south african republic is at pres ent undergoing the distinction of having the eyes of the whole civilized world upon it who are anxiously awaiting the outcome of the first act playe j last week when men after their last cartridge was spent with killed and wounded and starvation staring them in in the face surrendered to a superior force of Boer burghers this is not by a long way the first time that the transvaal has been the theater of warlike scenes but another story as rudyard kipling would say cape colony proper the extreme southern limit of the continent of africa was originally settled by the dutch in the seventeenth century but england who had even at that remote period passed through the kindergarten stage of her land grabbing propensities looked upon the cape of good hope as a very desirable coaling station to possess it being a convenient port for east in dia men to call at to cut a long story short the wish was father to the thought and cape colony has been under the union lack jack for a couple ot of centuries in 1833 the slavery agitation was started to be a slave owner on british soil became a misdemeanor the boers who were large slave owners took very unkindly to this notwithstanding the imperial government allowed them consolation money A great many of 0 the boers indignantly declined to take any recompense but with muttered imprecations packed up their belongings left their homes and participated in a huge trek anglice exodus these s dutchmen with a couple of thousand wagons herds etc etc headed northward to 10 found and settle up a new republic the history of this great trek reads like a romance the boers contending every step with the native tribes notably the zulus who in one battle annihilated of the white vanguard finally lead and powder triumphed over assegais asse gais under the able generalship of andries the trekkers ekkers Tr split up into two parties the one occupying what is is now the british colony of natal the other founded the orange free state in both cases england again essayed the annexing act when diamonds were discovered in the orange free state kimberley which was undeniably in the free state was added to En glands possessions possess possessions tons natal alter after some diplomacy was also annexed the boers in disgust again trekking northwest into the territory that is now called the transvaal internal dissentious dissent ions native wars and an empty treasury induced the boers in 77 to call upon england to help them peace under the british protectorate however was ot of short duration in 1880 1880 the boers broke out in open revoir A dekatch jentof ment of troops was hastily dispatched fron cape colony as a precautionary measure and at brinkers Bron kers on the border line one hot morning the troops were met by a score of horsemen who warned the redcoats red coats not to cross the alne the british officer with wilh a sarcastic remark sounded thead the ad vance fifteen minutes later the entire companies were annihilated with the exception of some five or six men who lived to tell the tale being shot from ambush the majority of the troopers caught napping were shot lolling on the transport wagons in their shirt sleeves with pipes in their mouths which fact although not reported in the papers I 1 got from a man who was on the scene british disasters followed thick and fast the boers schooled in native warfare never exposed themselves every rock and krantz concealed a deadly sharpshooter who would bag his man and when things assumed a tropical aspect would silently steal away on his belly to where the horses were concealed and skip the war practically ended in the macuba hill disaster where half a scotch regiment was shot to pieces the general in command sir george colley being among the slain gladstone much to the afie indignation dig nation of the english war lingoes jin goes conceded to the plucky pioneers their ic six years later came the gold discoveries at the randt that have made johannesburg famous as being the ophir of the nineteenth century with that came a 0 great influx of immigration in eluding gold seekers from america australia and england whose modern progressive go ahead ideas fairly made the moss backed boers sit up and rub their eyes with astonishment railways were demanded that was preposterous it would ruin the transport riders freighters who made up the larger proportion of the Afric ander population of the transvaal bridges were urged stuff a useless expense our fathers got along without them why not we laws were made making the burden oi taxation fall upon the shoulders of the alien mining population at the same time all privileges to have a voice in the government and vote which these heavy taxpayers demanded was made practically beyond they thew reach and this state ot of affairs has been growing worse since go 90 until it culminated in dr athe jamisons Jami amisone ami sons fatal expedition on be halt of the chartered comp tomp anys police ten days ago had the program been carried out in its entirety and the mining population strong risen and outflanked out flanked the boer ambush a new pro gres sive hustling republic would have been the sequel taken as a class the boers are area a rough uncouth lot of people with very few exceptions after being in daily contact with them for a couple of years I 1 cannot recall any individual bright flights of eloquence or intellect on their part from the fact that they are farmers more or less isolated from the outside world their coU conversation never soars above cattle and horses and redwater A big percentage of them can neither read nor write and abd when told about modern inventions and distant lands they smile in an incredulous manner like the hottentots Hotten tots they are superstitious to an absurd extent modern inventions are looked upon as flying in the lace face of providence As for railways they are thought to be instigated by the evil one to ruin thel the transport riders I 1 have in my minds eye a typical boer farm say on the you have been riding for an hour and on all sides of you stretch out the veldt dotted here and there with conical shaped hills called kopjes which apparently are composed of huge boulders ranging in size from a house to a coal oil can that appear to have been thus piled three or four hundred feet high by giant hands bands the whole lana landscape seems to quiver under the brassy sun not a sound is heard but the occasional chirrup of a cricket the squeak of your saddle and the patter of your horses hoofs yes there is a taint faint bark of a dog heard in the di distance stancel on rounding a spur ot of a kopie kopje a low looking white stone house with its adjacent sheds kraals ostrich camps and kaffir huts lies before you according to Afric ander rules ot of hospitality you ride up and dismount amidst an assortment ot of yelping mongrel curs A boy clad in a fragment of a castoff cast off shirt and fresh air takes your steed ten to one no one will appear so you stride on to the and tia through rough the door ten to one again oom paul and family will be sitting in the room drinking coffee minus milk and sugar amidst a cloud of tobacco smoke and flies screen doors are unknown in in south africa pater familial fa milias grunts dadig 11 and you proceed to make a circuit and touch the outstretched hands bands of the entire family including the juveniles who are always omnipresent the they y all sit still and stare you out of countenance or make derogatory remarks in dutch silence reigns supreme for minutes finally you are offered a cup of awful coffee and by degrees mine host starts the conversation by asking your name occupation age destination state of ot your finances married or single singe and other questions that bat would make the most callous census taker green with envy finally it if you happen to be of foreign birth you get nicknamed redneck red neck 11 because the way tenderfoot newcomers necks burn in the sun whilst on the coffee subject I 1 highly offended a boer family by refusing to participate I 1 caught the frau in the very act of wiping my cup preparatory to filling it with a napkin she had been using to wipe her eyes with just previously A visit to a boer family is to say the least of it a very tr trying y ina ordeal until one gets versed in in A Afric irl cander ander etiquette lumber being a scarce commodity the floors are constructed from a concoction of pulverized ant heap cow dung and bullocks blood which forms a glossy cement like surface for fuel the cattle and stock kraals are cleaned out twice a year the deposit being cut up into blocks that burns readily taken as a representative class of people the boers are a phlegmatic easygoing easy going hospitable and when they take a fancy to one staunch race the n ante are all good riders and wondrous with mighty frames and hands like shoulders of mutton the majority of them make their own shoes veldts choens from undressed hides they one and all entertain a great antipathy for the natives the feminine portion of the community like their consorts have a tendency to accumulate avoirdupois pois a three hundred pound graull frau being of so common occurrence as to cease causing comment GEORGE E CARPENTER |
