The record-union., 1897-07-18
THE LAND or THE BOER.
CHARACTERISTI AND LIFE OF
THE KAROO FARMER.
An English View of His IntoIer-
ance, Ignorance and Uncleanli-
ness-The Desolation of the
Weld.

| ness-The Desolation of the
Weld.
The Great Karoo, the dry, healthy
plateau which Olive Schreiner in mo-
ment of happy inspiration once de-
scribed as the future sanatorium of the
world, is a little world in itself. Wedged
between the comparative civilization of
| the southern section of the Western
Province and the latter-day GolcOnda of
| Kimberley and bounded on the east by
the land peopled by the descendants of
the English settlers of 1920, the Karoo
has developed characteristics peculiarly
its own.
1t is the breeding ground of all that is
bigoted in the political system of the
country, and all that is retrogressive in
the commercial side of the South Afri-
can nature.
Physically the land presents the ap-
pearance of utter desolation. Nature
shows nowhere a sharper contrast than
| that which presents itself to the visitor
on passing through the Hex River Rail-
way Pass on his journey northward. No
| longer does the eye rest upon smiling
valleys or catch the CLINT of the trout
stocked stream dancing in the bright
sunlight. In the place of the vine-clad
slCpes the orange groves and the peach
orchards he beholds the veld-an ex-
panse of country bounded only by the
horizon, utterly barren of trees, and
clothed only by stunted, dust-laden
| bushes resembling gorse. The bushes
grow between the stones in tufts like the
wool upon a Hottentot's Uranium. The
scene is one of depressing loneliness
"a region of emptiness, bowling and
drear." There is not a redeeming feat
ure in the landscape To paraphraSe a
South African commonplace, the birds
have no song, the flowers are without
smell, the rivers are almost wholly de-
void of water, and alas the women pos
sess not beauty.
But stay! The weld has one redeem-
ing feature. 1t is a great sheep country.
Sixteen millions of the ovine species
browse upon its dWarfed herbage. But
nature draws the line at this number
Periodical droughts and the ravages of
scab keep down the ovine population
ana thus insure the Boer a handsome
price for his slaughtered stock
The effect of environment upon the
human race is strikingly Illustrated in
Cape Colony. In the lower reaches of
the Western Province the wine and
brandy farmer presents the appearance
Of a prosperous publican; eastward the
cattle farmer takes after the manner Of
his fat beeves; the dweller in this bar
en-, inhospitable Karoo bears the stamp
OF a man engaged in constant strug-
gle against heavy odds. There is little
Of the wild Boer about him-he is too
near civilization for that. AS rule,
the Karoo farmer is a slender, wiry
man, with a skin resembling crinkled
parchment clad in shabby suit, a
blush coat corduroy trousers and a
cw-crowned billy-cock encircled by q
band of the eternal black Grape. He
drives poor mules and rides in a spring.
less cart.
The Schaap-boer (Anglice; Sheep
farmer). save the fortunate individual
who chances to be in touch with the
railway or with some up-country viii
lage, lives the life of a half barbarian.
His homestead, unless he be very
wealthy, and married to a woman who
was educated in Cape Town, usually
consists of a low, rambling tenement
of sun-dried brick, with mud floor.
If the homestead be located in the
neighborhood of a spring, a few green
| trees or weeping willows grace the
| front exterior; but the planting of
| trees necessitates some little work, and
the average sheep farmer holds man
ual labor of any kind in supreme con-
tempt His habits are unspeakable.
a1 oIa &c ri h11t
| this is ascribed to the scarcity of water
| and the consequent inability to obtain
daily bath. He has a habit of gath
ering all his family-grown up sons
daughters and sometimes his sons and
law-into the same bed
room with him; but this is accounted
for by the fact that the nights are cold
on the high plateau, and that the bed
rooms have no fireplaces. The sleep
ing Boer lacks not wakeful company
The belated traveller who accepted the
hospitality of a bed might be excused
the impression that he had stumbled
| across a Coptic monastery.
Living away in the weld the Boer has
little need of advanced education. Able
to read his Bible, and to spell out his
sedition-preaching newspaper, and to
scrawl his name upon a ballot paper
he considers himself perfectly equipped
in an educational sense All else of
learning he regards as superf1uouS and
unnecessary. The length of the school
life of the average Boer child is six
months. The Government reports show
that in some districts 70 per cent. of
the white (Boer) children of school
age never attend school The answer
to this-actually given in the Cape Par
lament this very session is that the
father teaches his son to read, and the
minister prepares him for church mem
bership. BY the way, the chief qualifi-
cations for membership in the Dutch