The Princeton union. [volume] (Princeton, Minn.) 1876-1976, 1881-04-07
THE AFRICAN BOERS.

THE AFRICAN BOERS.
Who and What They Are-Their Mode Of Life
A correspondent Of the Chicago
Tribune gives the following interest
ing description of the people lately at
war with the British;
" 1t has been left to be generally un-
derstood that the Beers descendants of
those gallantand noble-m minded Dutch
and French refugces-have followed
the footsteps Of their forefathers even
IS the America n of to-day has advanc-
ed from the enlightenment of the
vOyagers in the May Flower.
But this implication is wrong in
every way.
Two centuries have rolled past, and
we find the scions of those liberal
minded men still warning against self
constituted authorities, but in this
respect only like their progenitors.
They have continued to retire from
The governance of England, battling
6ercely with opposing negro aborig-
ines the while, till they crossed the
broad Orange and established them
selves at last on the bare-looking but
fertile plains beyond that and the
Vaal River, like the nomads of Script
ure history, rich in flocks and herds.
Even here their quarrelsome
natures became apparent, for, instead
OF forming as one state under one
ruler, they set up two baby republics
those dwelling between the Orange
and the Vaal are known as the people
of the Orange Free State, whilst
their more turbulent neighbors across
the Vaal styled their country the
Trans Vaal Republic.
Gent to convince their well-wishers of
the thorn-in-the-fesh kind of neigh
bors they would be likely to be to bor-
dering alien races and tribes, a pro-
gress through the land would quickly
efface any sentimental ideas concern
ing their ancestry and reveal the
naked fact Of their degeneracy.
1t is not difficult to give credence
to the Darwinian theory of physical
advancement by culture and selection,
when one sees such an inversement of
the theory in these Beers. Spring
ing from men and women pre.eminent
in their time for thought and advanc-
ed ideas, they have become genera
ton after generation less and less
cultured, till they have arrived at
their present level of ignorance and
brutality. A veritable boer, 1, e.,
farmer, or daveller IN the country, is
the most animal Of White-skinned
humanity. The low, ignorant, de-
graded cotiers of the West Of Ireland
have the very sufficient excuse of
poverty, for their condition. But
these Beers are lords of far-stretching
acres, of herds Of cattle or sheep, and
of unwilling slaves; they have ample
time and opportunity for study and
improvements; but their ambition, if
they have any, is not in that direction.
A Boer is human, and that is the
best, or worst, that can be said of
him. He exists to cheat and lie
whenever opportunity offers, in a
manner almost inconceivable and
with stolid persistency that would
be envied by Arab merchant or Yam
kee notion peddler. -..
The average pro-slavery BOer is we'll
to do, but there are no evidences OF his
prosperity about his dwelling other
than stock. He lives in a house truly,
but as such monument of filth, ignor-
ance, and brutishness. tits low-pitch-
ed, ill-ventilated, small, and gives
one the idea of being the last refuge Of
destitute pauper rather than the
mansion Of an opulent landholder.
AS class, Beers are devoid of
virtue, save that of courage, which
they possess in common with all the
savage tribes of South Africa. They
are intensely lazy, and exert them
selves only in the pleasures of the
chase. AS hunters they are experts,
and as marksmen, especially in the
rare atmosphere of their own elevated
plains, they are without equal in the
world. The English may boast them
selves of their volunteer rihemen, but
put hundred of them on the scrubby
plains of the Transvaal against the
Beers, and ere night there would not
be an Englishman left, whilst the
Beers would probably be unable to
count scratch amongst them. Their
accuracy Of judging distance seems
marvellous to any one new to the coun-
try. The constant out-of- door life and
hunting expeditions have developed a
fine physique and athletic form-even
among the women this is noticeable
but the facial expression is dull, stolid,
and animal. They have no aspirations
after education and culture, and but
few houses possess more of a library
than the old family Bible.
Yet providence has much to answer
for this Incidence. Their lot has been
Cast in fruitful land, where but lit
tie labor is required to obtain album
dance for home consumption. The
fertility of the soil is remarkable !;
and there is nothing to prevent the
vast interior plateau of South Africa
from becoming a great grain-produc.
ing region hut Incidence and drought.
The latter, however, could be over
come by industry in great measure,
as in the teeming plains of India and
China, where as arid looking wastes are
made to yield their two, three, and
four crops a year by the patient, untir-
ing, insignificant hand irrigation of
the eyot and coolie. What little labor
is put into the soil is by the native
pSeudO-strvantS. bat actual sLnyps.