The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-12-09
RAN zIGzAG FOR HIS LIFE.
NARROW ESCAPE FROM RUDE
IDEAS OF B0ER JUSTICE.

KepuDl1c-An AnhubANant DtspenseS
Rude Justice 10 Three Tramps Ac-
cused of Murder.
From the New York sun.
The man from South Africa was smok-
ing in the club and moralizing.
Il suppose" said he. "that when these
lynchers set out to hang man they usu-
/ ally get the right man. but it must some
times happen that they get the wrong
| one-they are so dreadfully impetuous.. l
have great deal of personal sympathy
for any man who is in danger of lynch
ing"
Personal sympathy?"
Yes, downright fellow feeling. l have
always the fear that he is the wrong man.
and lynching is too positive proceeding
altogether He ought to have a chance
a choice of pills. one of which is poisoned.
or something like that. if there is any
doubt, of course"
Trial by ordeal? Do you believe In the
| ordeal style of trial yourself?"
| II do" said the man from South Africa.
emphatically, because I've seen it test
| ed successfully"
And what had you done to be tried?'
I had been keeping bad company One
| day | was trudging along the trek in the
north of the Transvaal, whore farms are
far apart, towns unknown, and gold pros
! pecting and prospectors' camps never
seen. My blanket ron was over nv shoul-
der, my billy swinging from it. and l was
armed with only stout stick There was
nothing to cook in the billy, for my prov
ender had run out and ] was in fairly bad
| condition and looking for some friendly
farmer for shelter and coffee. / was in a
horribly lonely part of the s. A. r. The
| Beers up there spent the whole long year
secluded each on his farm, rising before
the sun, going to bed with it. and attend
ing the nachtmaal, anywhere from fifty
20 100 miles away, perhaps twice year
For absolute ignorance of what was going
on in the big world they were worse than
babes, and were happy in their ignorance
Ihey did not want to know; they never
read newspaper, and the advent of a
railway would have set them all to freak
ing further away into the wilderness.
Their idea of duty was to hate the Uit-
lander and to read the Bible.
Now a Boer is like a Calvinist: he gets
more satisfaction out of the Old Testament
than the New. What with his lonely life
and mis- study of the Mosaic law he is verv
supersutious, and believes in witches and
Epcoks and the most direct interpositio,l
Of Providence in daily life These farmers
refuse TO destroy the locusts which cal
up their crops, because they look on them
as plague sent TO punish them from
heaven. You see they are better acquaint-
ed with the times of Moses and Pharaoh
than their own. They are far from Judges
and law courts, and when such an unusual
thing as crime occurs on a farm the far
ner Is apt to be judge and jury and execu
TONER, FOO, for they have a horror of ci
ties and stamped papers and red tame and
lawyers, and believe in the good old natrf-
archai system. Justice is swift. and there
are rev graves on these great and lonely
farms which are filled with the slele-
tons OF malefactors who were caught tried
sentenced and put out of the way within
an hour or two of the commission of tba
deed which brought them into troIIbla r.
tHe farmer Is wrong in his judgment he
mas niue doubt that fire from heaven or
a plague viii speedily show him his mis-
take. no ms
1T was to one of these farms was
nopeIui OF belng debtor for shelter. Along
IN the afternoon l came, al a drift on two
Wahabers like myself, and | was well
aware that it would be a gross insi,It ~
lhem not to answer their hail as I nassed
ana accept their hospitality, for thew were
making meal of coffee and scenes noa[,o
OF mealie flour and pumklns MIXED ana
baked on the embers of a fire Nof hnrfaio
chlps | was glad of the scenes and coffea
dlthough my entertainers were the tough
est looking men | had ever met The,
turned out to be discharged soldiers fron,
the English garrisons in Cape Colony. and
since their discharge, had wandered about
the Iand. Now they were on one of their
tramps, probably fresh from tronk and
looking for work, or supposed to be look
ing for work, of any kind They said tbe,-
were ON their way to the Barberton mines
Wen you cannot choose your COMPANY on
the ve!dt.
AS they were going my way and could
tak taal,' and were better able from ex
perience TO make a bargain with a Boer
thah l, who was a comparatively green
norm, l could not refuse to cbum with
them temporarily-it would not have been
wallaby etiquette-so we went on together
until, toward evening" we struck ,lde
wagon road which led us to a big farm
house. We walked up to the house. md
met one Of the finest looking old men
ever saw-a man some six foot three
broad, with a great white beard. and the
kind of deep. unlaughing eye which com
mands a respectful greeting from The
most presumptuous. He listened to our
spokesman, whom, as he spoke taaI |
could not understand. and although he
eyed us one after another with no very
friendly look, he finally growled some kind
of assent TO the tramp's very earnest an
peal and with a nod Of his head beckon-
ed us indoors. We followed him into a
large room, furnished sparely but with
comfort. There was a big table set out
with supper things, and it seemed that The
household had just finished eating The
old boy was more generous than ] had
ever expected a Boer of that region to be
t9 hated foreigners. He poured out coffee