Daily capital journal. (Salem, Or.) 1896-1899, 1897-06-01
From Johannesburg

The following interesting items are
taken from a letter received from
Win Newton, an old resident of Sa-
lem, which will be of interest to hIs
many friends. Win has recovered his
health entirely and is again robust
and hearty:
"The place seems to agree. with me
and l look better and feel better than
l have for manv years. When the
showers come, aud they come often,
we work inside. 1t thunders harder
here than any place l ever was in and
don't wonder at the KafrIrs shouting
at the storms when they come up to
drive them way. The clouds are
sometimes ibky black and nearly
touch the ound and when it rains
1t pOurs down in torrents.
"Times are pretty hard aud dull
he,e at present, the smaller mines are
closed, though there are hundreds of
them yet running. The reef is about
sixty miles long and all covered with
mines and those worked are on
small scale and all the or is low grade
and takes lots OF money to work it.
They go vtbree Thousand feet deep in
SONS places.
81 met some old Anaconda friends,
(the Langtrys,) they are doing as well
as they did in America but say they
would rather live in Gods country.
Everything is foreign aud Eng
llsh and African money is used,
The African money has Paul Kru-
ger's bead on one side. They have
such queer looking cars here. They are
painted black with six long seats in a
coach and two in compartment, they
look something like large hotel buss.
A door on each side Of each compart
ment. They are pretty fine inside,
have high backed leather seats All
through trains are different and cars
are not so large as in America anG are
varOshed and sraiued same as ash.
All bridges are steel and telegraph
poles are iron.
"Our rooms are all well furnished
and lighted with electric lights and
very comfortable. l have the first
frost to see yet since left the states,
July is the coolest month here and |
June has the shortest days. They
sometimes have ice bere which is
somewhat Of a curiosity to the ma
tiyes. 1t doesn't get hot here in
Tltnsyaa. We don't drink auy wa
ter witGout being boiled.
There is great excitement at |
Bulowayo now aud manytare going |
from here, but none o. our American
camp will 60. There is no railroad |
there yet, but will he in about 8
"Cecl Rhodes is the RAILROAD ing of |
fricd and BarnieS Barna'to Is the
money king. He is said TO be the
richest man in The Wor'l, but there |
are Yankees who are worth more.
"They think they have struck King
old mines in Bulowayo.
"There is now a big thunderstorm |
On and raging like everything. The
Kaffirs have been going by in droves.
They make more noise when they
walk than gang of Cinnamon. The
Kaffers are great for fancy colored
They carry them both in
sun and rain. have not learned to
to talk much of their language yet.
sit is the custom here to knock off
work Saturday afternoon and Sunday
and we need 1t. 1 think it requires
more rest here than in Montana 1
eat bananas VII ,ch is the healthleft
food l can get. The boarding house
living is pretty good but it is not
home; (another big drove Of Kafiers
just passed, nearly naked each carry
ing his club and shield made Of cow
hide.)
"The scenery of the country is beau
tiful and when 1 return to America L
II n lof nf A fFi0a uinWo