Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1885-03-12
SOUTH AFRICA
\ Montanian m the TransvaaI Gold
Fields.


Fields.
Moses Moore, a former esteemed resi-
dent of Montana, now in South Africa.
writes an interesting letter, dated at
Moody's Reef, Dekaap gold fields, Trans
vaal, TO Mr.. Neal Nawter. Mr. Moore says:
Ii required two months TO day for
your letter to reach me from Helena
tolerabe quick time in this slow country.
As you seem anxious TO know what | am
doing will tell what know about my
self and surroundings. In a small way
commenced selling goods in this region
about two years ago. / first packed
merchandise on my back to Poverty creek,
an eight mile stretch from the Kantoon
river. There were twenty-five stores in
the camp at that time, and only one now.
so YOU can Judge how the diggings turned
out, though | can't complain. i soon made
enough to buy donkey and cart for $40,
and prospered. ! could haul 800 pounds,
which made quite freight outfit-for
South Africa. There were few steep
places on the road where j, was necessary
to double trip and double team, which
means that j packed good part of the
load up the hills myself. Now / have got
over all that. i have a very good bust
ness and credit to the extent ! want on the
coast at Natal, 400 miles away. | have
also some interest in mines here, but thus
far have made nothing from that source.
Some of the richest gold quartz ever saw
is here. bet il is in very small quantities.
There is Lothing yet TO justify expensive
machinery. A few months more will tell
The warm weather is at hand. IL will
he hot enough about the HOLIDAYS. and a
good many miners will die of the fever. /
think am fever proof, as have never en-
joyed better health anywhere. Negro
labor is plenty at one shilling day-about
"a cents. Their fodder is corn meal, with
one shillng's worth of beet neck or shanks
on Sunday-feast day-when generally
all get drunk, the trader gathering in all
their weeks wages
Merchandising has a profit. have 200
sacks of neal 200 lbs. to the bag. This
staple cost me "a shillngs per parcel de-
I livered, and sell the same at 30 shillings
My store is about the best one in the camp.
/ II is built of what we call waffle and daub,
small poles wove in with brush, covered
y wit vla Ii
with fresh cow chips" This makes
comfortable habitation in hot weather
! would much like to get the HERALD
-Helena's first and best paper-regularly,
but paper mail is uncertain in reaching
here. Occasionally one gets through from
Ohio. Try to send me the HERALD, and
will let YOU know if receive it, want
/ to hear about the old settlers of Helena,
whose welfare is always of interest TO me
among them my old friends, James Fer
I gus, Bill Weir, old man,Smith, and others.
A few words about this great AIoody's
Reef. IL has created great excitement in
South Africa, but just why is not yet APP
parent. 1t is pegged out in claims for
: seven or eight miles. A claim is $50 feet
on the reef. Some of them have been sold
for thousand pounds sterling or nearly
$1,000. have four claims, and that sum
of money or less would buy all of
them. / have seen some surprising
prospects-one days work, for instance, OF
two negroes with dolly" realized four
teen ounces of gold. This product was
from about 80 pounds of quartz. A
dolly" is something like an old fashioned
churn, worked with a spring-pole and
negro power. All do not do so well, by
any means, as there are hundreds here
that barely make enough to live on. All
the reef speak of Is private property.
The tax for working privilege is enormous
three pounds ten shillings per month for
permission to dig, whether anything is
found or not. On top of that is a fuel and
hardly wood enough in the county to
build sheep corral. There is further
assessment of 12l per cent. ON all gold you
find-that is, if you find any. So you can
Judge the difficulties South Africa miner
has to contend with. / mention these
matters lest some one in Montana might
be foolish enough to abandon that glorious
country and come to this uninviting land.