Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1884-07-31
LIFE IN SOUTH AFRICA.
experiences in Cape Town-The Diamond
Iields-How the PeopIe Live

Eields-How the People Live
A Brooklyn, n. Y, traveller thus de
tails his experiences during a tire,
years residence in South Africa: az
landed at Cape Town." he said. "ThiI
is place of 10000 inhabitants, three
fourths of whom are blacks or Malays
The Malays have seven wives apiece
that IS the most interesting and unfor
tunate thing that can be said abou
them. The other quarter of the popu
latlon is European. A small cottage
there containing four or five rooms will
cost $40 month; good-sized dwell
ing will cost three times that sum
Coal IS SO ton; meat from 10 to q
cents pound; whisky is 20 cents a
drink; imported ale 81 a bottle. Al
the restaurant a good meal can be had
Tor 20 cents, consisting of such things
as roast beef mutton chops, soup,
bread, butter, coffee, rolls, etc In
October, November and December
there are terrific gales that sweep
over tbs 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 skyward like SO many
balloons.
- went to South Africa as trader,
Spectator, and spent much of my time
IN fact, the best part of-in the back
country. OF course. l visited the dia-
mond fields. They are in the hands of
the two companies, English and French,
who have from the Government the
privilege of working the mines. They
are not doing much in them at the
present time on account of the prevail
ing dizziness in the diamond market.
The mines are worked by blacks, and |
suppose there are about 1000 at
work at the present time. about a
quarter the number that could be found
there when times were good. The sup
er1ntendents 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 kitchen; some have only
sleeping places or hunks. The Zulu
haiilrs 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 their country, four
hundred miles away, and engage in war
fare with some OF the branches of their
tribe. There are twenty-one tribes in
Zulu Kaflirs. The workmen have few
chances to steal diamonds themselves.
but they have been known to slip one
OF the valuables into lie 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 west
ern coast, there to work from ten to
twenty years on the breakwater they
are building i'll that section. The work
men were once paid 81 a day; now they
do not get SO much. The officers who
oversee them used to get from $25 to
SoO week; now they get from $15 to
$50.
II 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
l would dispose Of to the arriving yes
sells 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 n tree or two
standing together near the banks. You
VIII often meet wild animals, tigers,
leopards, hyenas, jackals. monkeys,
and elephants, but they will
not modest you unless you at
tack them on the contrary, they
are afraid OF human being, and will,
unless ravenously hungry, run away
from you. There are plenty of poison
GUS 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 wild animals
for the sake of their skins, tiger skins
tanned being about So
1T is very hot there in the summer
season, and in some parts there is
great scarcity of water Within one
hundred miles of Cape Town you will
find 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 Won
might say, you would think you would
be drowned. The water comes quickly.
and at the moment wipes away every
thing within its immediate reach: but
the country is rs dry as ever within
few hours In the hottest season it is
l26 TO 100 Fahrenheit; in the Shade
that is, such shade as there is where
the suns rays strike directly it is from
$50 to l54. The moment the sun rises
it Is 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 affect them 50 much as 1t does
newly-arrived FOREIGNER and after
awhile. il he is strong and healthy, can
stand it pretty we'll
"The country is sparsely populated,
mostly by the Dutch and Germans.
The Dutchmeu do not till the soil, but
confine their attention to the raising of
sheep, oxen and ostriches, making it a
special business.
"If farmer is rich the children get
their schooling from private tutor he
hires to live on the place OF course
there are no public schools, and the
farmers are generally many miles apart
at distance say of half day or q