The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1883-06-16
Our 0lio.
In South Africa.

at last. ana SIT gazing VacanIly lnUo space,
watching adventurous travellers passing to
and from the diamond fields of Kimberley,
which, whether from the difficulty of reach
ing them or the still greater difficulty of
finding anything there to repay the trouble
of the journey, may ftly represent voyage
to the moon. After few months of this
land of promise any man might well leap
for Joy to find himself in country where
he can venture across the road without
being struck dead by the sun or enveloped
in whirlwind of dust suggestive of Father
Time having broken his hour-glass just
overhead; where clean sheets and water
enough to wash ones little finger are not
among the impossibilities of life; where
YOU can sit down to dinner without finding
yourself set upon by a coroner's jury OF
energetic flies where going to bed does
not necessarily imply serving as monster
bill of fare for some hundreds of epicurean
mosquitoes where one may travel some
what faster than eight or nine miles an
hour, and in somewhat more comfortable
fashion than by being jammed into mass
of perspiring farmers and scrupulously dirty
mail-bags where persons about to hang
themselves probably their first impulse
out here) need not walk 80 miles for a
tree on which to do it; where the ther-
mometer sometimes falls as low as 800 in
the shade, and where, when you ask for a
plate of beef, you may indulge not wholly
chimerical hope of getting it, instead OF
being presented with something which is
best imagined by multiplying the toughest
steak you ever tasted by 800 and subtract
ing the gravy.
Let me try to sketch my surroundings
as sit here under the hotel veranda, which
is furnished with metal roof by way of
making everything cool and comfortable.
In the middle of its huge struggling back
yard kind of paralytic hen-coop on wheels,
facetiously called the hotel omnibus, is
standing motionless amid circle of irrev-
erent fowls, which, With their heads on one
side, are obviously passing disparaging crit
icism upon it. Suddenly yell is heard
suggestive of mad dog having a tooth out
without chlorofOrm, and greasy wide
awake hat is seen flying like. a bombshell
through the open door of the bar, followed
by the sprawling figure of Kafr, who,
having had the impudence to demonstrate
against deficit of twenty-five cents in the
change given him by the honest bar-ten-
der, has been summarily 'Efred out" In
striking contrast to this bit of animated
nature, here is touch of still life in the
form of dog lying rolled up on the stoop
with its head propped against the door
post and its very tail supported by the foot
of bench, in unconscious imitation of the
overcome passenger who fell down upon
the deck and then clutched rope to keep
himself from falling up again. Note that
animal well, for it is Il representative dog.
The typical South African bow-wow has
always pencil pointed muzzle, neutral
tint suggestive of a napkin stained with
mustard, and a body SO lean and lank that
you might almost cord parcel with it.
His head is usually turned half round, as
| if he were engaged in counting his own
ribs, sufficiently easy matter at any time
When you first approach him he looks at
you for moment with a cannibal CLEAN in
his sunken eyes, but instantly droops his
tail and sinks away with the sullen resig-
nation of one who has long since given up
all hope of ever again getting anything fit
| to eat.
To the right of my position lies the town
market-place, vast oblong desort of shift
ing sand, called by courtesy D'Urban
square. In the heart of this abridged Sa-
hara stands gaunt church, very much like
pepper-pot stuck ON the top of tea
caddy, and looking SO unutterably forlorn
amid that tremendous solitude that it would
bel positive charity to build another church
alongside to keep it company. Just oppo-
site is a prim, stOne-fronted bank, which
prudently guards against any exaggerated
idea of its resources by printing up ''lim-
ited'' upon every available door and win
dow. Yonder, with a four r-pillared colon
made in front of it, and chaste simplicity
of style, tempting one to suspect that the
architect had borrowed his plan from the
achievements of his infant son with box
of toy bricks, stands the noble town hall.
In the scanty shade of its porch sit native
couple. The gentleman is resplendant in
new pair of trousers, seemingly made
from canvass cover of packing case, for
the inscription "Hobson & Co." is still
legible. He would appear, too, to be bit
of dandy in his way, for he wears watch
key in his left ear by way of earring, re-
calling the story of the Jamaica negro who
turned his masters decanter labels into
ear drops and staggered through Spanish
Town with port on one ear and SHERRY"
on the other. The lady's chief ornament
is a pair of broad new shoes of the genuine
Kafir type, 4. e., a great fat block of wood
under the sole, held to the foot by huge
red-topped peg fixed between the first and
second toe, and accompanying its wearer's
march with perpetual click, click, as cease
less and maddening as the click of ''grand-
fathers clock"
Look at that young fellow coming slowly
across the square in gray suit and broad
leaved hat, from under which peeps face
scorched so red that boiled lobster would
look quite consumptive beside it. By his
close-cropped hair and the stiff, awkward
way in which he moves his limbs, you
begin to suspect him of having been living
for the last few months at the expense of
the government, and holding an official
post making necessary the wearing OF
gray uniform and set of neat though
simple iron bracelets. In reality, however,
he is neither convict nor criminal, and this
suspicious stiffness is merely the unavoid-
able legacy of his four days journey hither
from the Kimberley diamond fields, wedged
in the corner of jolting post-car, with no
shelter from the burning sun but tattered
strip of canvass. If you get into conver-
sation with him, he will tell you many
things well worth hearing low dia-
monds have fallen in the market, and how
i'll even the best mines are now faring-
how difficult it is to get supplies at the
fields, where he has himself seen $3.4O paid
for single cabbage-how the majority of
the diggings are not paying at all, the higher
levels having been exhausted, and the ex-
i kha