Wichita eagle., 1889-06-30
A LAND OF LOTUS EATERS.
LANGUOROUS LIVES OF PEOPLE
WHO LIVE IN SOUTH AFRICA.

When an American Goes There the Resi-
dents Are Surprised and Panied to Find
That He Is Neither a Horse Thief.
Pickpocket Nor BrasYadocio.
Especial Corespondence.1
NEW YORK, June 10.-"A real, imported
Yankee!" It was my proud privilege to be
so designated during short sojourn among
the loyal subjects Of her majesty Queen Vic
toria who are engaged in the rather tedious
but laudable work Of retaining for the
uses Of civilization the fertile sands of South
east Africa, which have for centuries been
given over to the domain of the white ant,
the noble savage and the wild cactus.
The conditions under which these pioneers
are slowly but surely working out the civil
ization md enlightenment Of the dark CONT
nent are very different from those which
characterized the early settlement of our
own country. Yet there is striking SINH
larity in the history of British rule in South
Africa and in North America
Just as the Dutch in New Amsterdam and
the French in Canada were subjugated and
assimilated, 50, hundred years ago, Eng
land appropriated the Dutch possessions at
the Cape of Good Hope, and the honest Hol
landers were either driven from the humble
homes and fertile lands which had been
theirs for century, or induced to throw UP
their broad brimned hats for "St George
and Merrie England"
Some Of the unfortunate Beers las the
Dutch Of South Africa are called, who pre-
ferred exile to assimilation by the ''verdomde
Englishers," made their way to Natal, 900
miles up the east coast from the Cape But
they were not long to remain unmolested by
their envious and powerful neighbors and in
l840 were again driven from their homes
while the bold Britons took forcible pos
session of the fertile valleys of fair Natal.
The Beers betook themselves to the interior
and founded the republics of Orange Free
State and the Transvaal Now the aggressive
English are pressing on the borders Of these
provinces, and before long they will be added
to the dependencies Of the British crown.
During tie forty-eight years of English
domination in Natal the colony has made
much greater progress than would probably
have been accomplished during a century
under the pioddiug, non-progressive policy of
the Beers With this statement the English
colonist justiies the piratical acquisition of
the territory.
The 1120, 900 natives of the country have been
brought under government supervision sufii-
GENTLY to introduce them to the tax gatherer,
and 40, 900 Europeans and an indefinite num-
Der of Asiatics have found homes within its
limits generally under more advantageous
conditions than surrounded them in the lands
Of their birth. And under the beneficent in
fuence of intelligently directed labor the
sIa &h,1 I've. hoY, fnf
the elephant and rhinoceros, the leopard
and the baboon, have been made richly fruit
full in all manner of semi-tropical products.
Yet Notwithstanding all this, the town of
Durham, the only seaport and principal town
of the colony, seems, to an American, insult
ferably slow. Natural English conservatism
seems to have united with the languor of the
climate to breed a generation Of lotus eaters.
The town is under bondage to the ''old set
tier" who rules with an iron hand and with
q religious regard for precedent and holy
horror of innovation, and the lotus eater sub
mits with sublime Indifference There is no
chance for business, social or political prefer
ment for any but the old settler or his heirs,
and the term new comer," constantly seen
in the public prints and continually heard in
conversation, is the set expression Of oppro-
brium applied to all who lend themselves to
what is considered irregular or revolutionary
in the community.
The cumbersome Dutch wagons, drawn by
spans OF sixteen or eighteen oxen, which fill
the streets, are typical Of the enterprise of
the country which transports goods 400 and
500 miles inland by such primitive convey
ances as these. To be sure, there Is a wretch
ed little narrow gauge railway carrying pas
sengers and goods 1S9 miles inland to Ladi-
smith, whence they are transshipped by OK
carts over miserable roads and bridgeless
rivers to the gold fields at johannesburg,
Pretoria, Klersksdorp and Barberton. Ex-
travagant prices for all the necessaries Of
life prevail at these towns, but Durham mer
chants do not overeIert themselves TO supply
the demands.
And yet the Natalians esteem themselves
an enterprising and progressive people. Per-
haps they are viewed from their own stand
point, which is very different from that
which we are accustomed TO in this country
In region SO remote from the goddess of
liberty and the Washington monument as
Natal is, it is not surprising that crude ideas
should prevail concerning what they con-
slider the eccentric system Of civilization
which obtains in the United States When
it is known that the only American news
paper ever seen in Natal is that pink of inn
propriety, The National Police Gazette,
which is kept on file in the public houses and
regarded as representative American publ
cation, the gentle reader will not wonder
that the good folks of that sequestered com
munity regard the typical Yankee tall
Americans are yankees" abroad) as ''bad