The Appeal. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn. ;) 1889-19??, 1898-12-03


pensed Rude Justice to Three
Tramps Accused of Murder-Dia-
monds Figure In This story-.'I
Fancy They, Got the Right 0ne,'-
Offenders Swiftly Punished.
%. The man from. South. Africa WAS ssno.x.
Ins ia the club and moralizing says TIE
New York Sun
L suppose" said he, that when these
ynchers set out to hang a 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. J
nave a great deal of personal sympathy
Tor any man who Is in danger Of lvnch-
Ing '' .''.f I~tE7T -
personal sympathy?
Yes, downright fellow feeling. 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 pilas, one Of which Is DO soned,
or something like that, If there is any
doubt, of course r..
Trial by ordealf Do you believe in
the ordeal style Of trial yourselfF'
Il d." said the man from South Africa
emphatically, because I'VE seen 1t tested
successfully sE@.'1
And what had you done to be tried,''
had been keeping bad company One
Gay was trudglng along the trek in the
north of the Transvaal, where farms are
Iar apart, towns unknown, and gold pros
pecttng and prospectors camps never
seem My blanket roll was over my shout
der, my billy swinging from it, and was
armed with only stout stick. There was
nothing to cook in the billy, for my
proWender had run out, and was in fair
~ bad condition and looking for some
friendly farmer for shelter and coffee 4
was In horribly lonely part of the s..
A. r. The Beers up there spend the whole
long year secluded. each on his farm.
rising before the sun. going to bed with
1t, and attending the nachtmaal, any
where from fifty 10 one hundred miles
away, perhaps twice a year. For ahsolrt :
ignorance of what Was going on in the
big world they were worse than babies.
and We're happy in their Ignorance. They
did not want to know; they never read a
newspaper, and the advent of a railway
would have set them all to trekking fur
ther away into the Wilderness Their idea
of duty was to hate the Uitlander and to
read the Bible
'Now a Boer Is like a Calvinist he
gets more satisfaction out Of the old Tes-
lament than the New. What with his
lonely life and his study of the Mosaic
law he is very ,superstitious, and believes
rect fnterposition OF Providence I'm daily
life. These farmers, refuse to destroy
the 1ocusts which eat mp their crops, be
cause they look on them as a plague sent
to punish them from heaven. You see
they are better acquainted with the times
Of Moses and Pharaoh than their own
They are far from Judges and law courts,
and when such am unusual thing as crime
Occurs On a farm the farmer Is apt to ne
Judge and jury and execmtioner, too, for
they have a horror of cities and stamped
papers and red tape and lawyers, and be-
lieve In the good old patriarchal system.
Justice is swift, and there are a few
graves ON these great and lonely farms
which are filled with the skeletons OF
malefacters who were caught, tried, SEN
fenced and put out 'Of the way within an
hour or two of the commission of the
deed which brought them into trouble. If
the farmer is wrong in his judgment he
has little doubt that fire from heaven or
a plague win speedily show hirn his mis-
take.
at was to ONE of these farms was
hopeful of being debtor for shelter.
Along in the afternoon came, at drift,
on two wallaber.s like myself, and I was
well aware that 1t would be gross insult
to them not to answer their hail as I
passed and accept their hospitality, for
they Were making "a meal OF coffee and
scones made of mealie flour and pumpkins
mixed, and baked on the enbers of fire
of buffalo chips. I was glad of the scenes
and coffee although my entertainers were
the toughest looking men 7 had ever met.
They turned out to be discharged soldiers
from the English ga-rtsons in Cape Col
ony and, since their discharge, had wan
de1ed about the land. Now they were on
one of their tramps, probably fresh from
tronk, and looking for work, or supposed
to be looking for work, of any kind
They said they were on their way to the
Barberton mines. We'll, you cannot choose
your company on the veldt.
AS they were going my way ard could
talk 'taal,' and We're better able from ex-
pcrience to make a bargain with 2 Boer
than I, who was a comparative green
horn. L could not refuse to chunl with
them temrorarily-it would not have been
Wallaby ettquette-so we went on together
until, toward evening, we struck a rude
wagon road which led uas to a big farm
house. We walked mp to the house. and
met one OF the finest hooking old men i
ever saw-a man SIX foot three, broad
will, q great white beard. and the kind Of
deep unlaughing eye which co9amands
I respectful greeting from the most pre-
sumptuous. He listened to our spOlkes-
nan, whom, as he spoke taal, VI could not
understand, and, although he eyed US che
after another with no very friendly look.
he finally growled some kind OF assent
10 the tramp's very. earnest appeal and
with q nod Of his hand beck0red us in
doors. We followed him into q large
room, furnished ,sparsely, but with COM
tort. There was a big table set out with
supper things, and It seemed that the
household had just finished eating. The
DID boy was more generous than had
ever expected a Boer Of that region to be
10 hated foreigners He poured out cof-
fee and we sat down and ate our fill of
boiled beef and cabbage. While we were
q w w n
save the head Of q girl peeping from an
inner room, and Kaf1lr who passed
through on some errand. The farmer left
us alone and went inro the room him
self.
We were enjoying our supper heartily,
when, over the rim of my coffee cup, my
eyes lighted on small. table in a corner
and caught the glitter on 1t of two stones.
very small but brilliant. They were rest
Ing on piece of printed paper, and I
recognized the form as one Of those slips
which the Cape authorities give a. man
who Is carrying on his person diamonds
In the rough. It is ole of the provisions
of the illegal diamond buying act that
you can be arrested and locked up and
tried If you are caught with rough dia-
monds on your person and without one OF
these licenses to prove you gat the stones
honestly. Ny cup paused at my lip, for
[ was fascinated by the sparkling pebbles,
and I remained so long, l suppose in that
position that I attracted the attention
Of the other fellows whose backs were
turned to the little table and who slowed
round in their seats to see what was
staring at. When they turned back their
eyebrows were raised and-'Wofth sf6O,'
said one. and then the farmer came back
BY the time we were through supper
and the Boer had taken us to barn
where a couple CT straw mattresses lay,
II had forgotten all about the diamonds.
+ Ny feet We're sore from long Nai9tnE azid