The Middlebury register and Addison County journal. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1883-1885, 1884-07-11
LIFE IN SOUTH AFRICA,
n VISIT TO CAPE TOWN AND THE
DIAMOND FIELDS.
How the PeorIc Jivc-Ehc Cost OF XIV.
ing-WorhaCSo the Diamond Mines
"A Hot Place in SKINNER.

A Brooklyn On. " traveller thus de.
tails his experiences during three years
residence in South Africa: 81 landed at
Cape Town." he said. This is place
OF 10000 inhabitants, three -fourths of
whom are blacks or Malays. The May
lays have seven wives apiece; that is the
most interesting and unfortunate thing
that can be said against them. The other
quarter of the population is European.
small cottage there containing four or
five rooms will cost $40 month; good
sized dwelling will cost three times that
sum. Coal is $1j ton; meat from u
to % cents pound; whisky is 30 cents
drink; imported ale 81 bottle. At
the restaurant a good meal can be had
for % cents, consisting of such things as
roast beef, mutton chops, soup, bread,
butter, coffee, rolls, etc. In October,
November and December there are ter
rifle gales that sweep over the town. The
drivers of vehicles wear green spectacles
on account of the dust, and the women
at the approach of the hurricane, sit
down promptly for fear of sailing sky
ward like so many balloons.
Il went to South Africa as a trader,
Spectator, and spent much of my time
in fact the best part of tin the back
country. OF course, | visited the dia-
mond fields. They are in the hands of
the two companies, English and French
who have from the government the priv
ilege of working the mines They are
not doing much in them at the present
time on account of the prevailing dull
ness in the diamond market. The mines
are worked by blacks. and l suppose
there arc about 9, 900 at work at the pres
ent time, about quarter the number
that could be found there when times
were good. The superintendents and
better class of workers live in houses
made of sheet-iron; the common delivers
in small brushwood houses. Some of the
houses have three rooms and a kitchen:
some have only sleeping places or bunk.
The Zulu Katfirs live in the meanest kind
of huts. They only work long enough
to earn some money with which to buy
guns; then they go back TO the country.
four hundred miles away, and engage in
warfare with some of the branches of
their tribes. There are twenty tribes
of Zulu Katfirs. The workmen have few
chances to steal diamonds themselves,
but they have been known to slip one
of the valuables into the pocket of some
visitor in the hope of seeing him later
and arranging with him as to its sale,
and the visitor has had the diamond
found on him by some of the officers and
been promptly sent off to the western
coast, there to work from ten to twenty
years on the breakwater they are build
ing in that section. The workmen were
once paid 81 a day; now they do not get
so much The officers who oversee them
used to get from S25 to $50 a week now
they get from $l5 to $25.
81 rode into the back country on a
cart, keeping the west coast and endeav-
oring to trade with the natives for skins,
ostrich feathers and other goods, which
| would dispose of to the arriving vessels
at Cape Town. The country is dry and
barren; there are plenty of stones, but
no trees, the tallest bushes are not over
four feet high. At the numerous rivers,
where they cross the roads, you will now
and then find tree or two standing to-
gether near the banks. You will often
meet wild animals, tigers, Loop
ards, hyenas jackals monkeys
and elephants, but they will
not modest you unless you attack them
on the contrary, they arc afraid of a
human being, and will, unless ravenously
hungry, run away from you. There arc
plenty of poisonous snakes there six feet
long, which jump at you and bite YOU
quickly, if you are not on the lookout
for them. The natives eat the meat of
the buffalo and the buck, and hunt the
] Will ,ip l.. fr,r ho oil Of 81
tiger skins tanned being about 50.
1T is very hot there in the summer
season, and in some parts there Is a great
scarcity of water Within one hundred
miles of Cape Town you will find a nice
country and water enough, but beyond
| that it is very dry. In the winter time,
when the rains come and swell up the
rivers like flash, as you might say, you
would think you would be drowned.
The water comes quickly, and at the
moment wipes away everything within
its immediate reach; but the country
is as dry as ever within few hours,
In the hottest season it is 1876 t.
1870 Fahrenheit in the shade
that is, such shade as there is--where the
suns rays strike directly it is from $50 tC
1874. The moment the sun rises it i:
hot; the moment it sets it is cool
People cannot, Of course, work all day
in such weather; they stay in the house
from 10 to B. but Of course the heat does
not effect them so much as it does &
newly arrived foreigner and after awhile
if he is strong and healthy, can stand i
pretty well.
The country is sparsely populated,
mostly by the Dutch and Germans. Tht
Dutchmen do not till the soil, but con
fine their attention to the raising o
sheep, oxen and ostriches, making it (
special business.
IF Il farmer is rich the children ge
their schooling from a private tutor h'
hires to live on the place. OF cours,
there are no public schools, and tn,
farmers are generally many miles apar
at a distance say of half day or {
days walk"
The Telephone Fifty Years Ago.
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