The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1888-05-30
Yankee Girls i'm Zululand.

Three young American ladies, sisters,
give their record of five years travel
in South Africa, in " Yankee Girls in
Zululand," book of the freshest in
terest, beautifully illustrated by photo
gravures of sketches from life. The
Journey was undertaken for the health
of one of the sisters, and the success
of the idea may be inferred from the
fact that the invalid was not only re-
stored, but was married before her re-
turn. After twenty-eight days steam
ing from London, touching at Madeira
and st. Helena, the vessel reached Cape
Town, under the shadow of its Table
Rock, four thousand feet high, dom
mating the city from every point of
view and furnishing its weather proph-
cts with a grand ever-present cloud
barometer. The young ladies visited
the Kimberley diamond mines, now
owned and worked by companies. One
of the greatest difficulties in this in
dustry is to prevent stealing. The pen
atty for buying a stolen diamond is now
fifteen years Imprisonment, but the
crime is frequently committed. One
of the young Americans (N1rs. Louise
Vescelus-Sheldon the author of the
book was the first of her sex to hold
in her hand the great Porter Rhoades
diamond, a white gem that is larger
than the Koh-i-nor. The party stayed
for time at an ostrich farm. There
are 100000 tame ostriches in the Cape
Colony, and SS00,000 are invested in
the business. A low fence is sufficient
to keep an ostrich within bounds. His
legs are long, but he is no jumper. He
can kick backward with mighty force,
but in no other direction. The ostrich
eggs are Matched by incubators. The
ostrich is hard to rear, though ready to
eat anything that comes in its way
feathers are plucked separately. The
farmer drives the ostriches into a small
Enclosure, where there is little room to
move, and deity selects mature feath-
ers. leaving others to grow. The bird
has fresh crop of feathers every year.
The difficulties of ostrich farming are
the loss of birds, occasional bad crops
of feed, severe storms and prowling
vultures, iackals and tigers. "The
prettiest sight on an ostrich farm is the
nursery, where, in large room, in in
clement weather, a score or more of
little chicks are attended by black
boy, whom they follow everywhere. ="
The most delightful "picncn of all
was the six weeks " trekking" in an
oX-cart. The ladies' magnificent equip
age consisted of sixteen oxen and a
wagon four and one-half feet wide and
twenty-three feet from end to end.
The cost of the outfit per day was quite
moderate. The oxen walk, but make
thirty miles day, and can keep it up
indefinitely. In this frigate of the road
they had a great store of provisions
and game was obtained en- route. The
first meal was sample of all. " AT
the end of three hours the oxen were
outspanned to Craze, and the boys pre-
pared our midday meal. The table,
cloth was laid, and that table-cloth was
the chief source of our solicitude
throughout the trip. Oh, the delight of
sweet. Were we not free, free as air;
the sky and limtless veldt the ceiling,
walls and floor of our dining-room
with not a creature in sight? Our
caterer had forgotten nothing necessary
to make our meals model entertain
ments." By the end of the Journey
''we had got fond of this careless, lazy
life we had been leading so many
weeks; the very oxen we had come to
know by their names of 'Blesbok, ,
Witful,' Kafir,' ETC." They saw no
snakes or dangerous wild animals on
the journey. The tremendous African
thunder-storms far surpassed any they
had seen in America, but are remem.
bered as one of the grandeurs of the
trip. The climate of this upland region
of the Orange Free State is delightful
during the dry season, which set in
soon after they started. The Kafr,
are described as fine men, graceful il
gesture and perfect in figure. The
Zulus are mighty hunters and of course
have made their reputation as fighting
men.-Erch0nge.