The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1899-08-03

P. Y. Black, of New York city. author Of the
following article the controversy between the
Beers and the ui flanders. lived tor number
study OF the history and condition of the coun-
try)
triarch, survival of a past breed of men.
and the Engiishman, the clean shaver.
clear-eyed advance agent Of the coming
race. have been arguing and wrangling now
for many years-somewhat to this effect:
Abraham" says the Englishman. WAS a
frst-rate sort in his day. To contemplate
at this distance. he was, with his .fiocks and
herds and pastures. extremely picturesque.
But today he would be in the road. You
are kind of lost Abraham You are in
the road Why don't you march with the
times, step out along with the rest, Join
in with advanced civilization"
Il abhor your civilization" the Boer re-
plies. Il have fed from it, not once nor
twice, but continuously. l have watched it's
advance from distance and can still see in
1t little to admire. / hate your customs.
your luxuries, your deformed and crippled
creeds, your militarism. Instinctively I
know that you are evil, and I flee from
you
THAT" says the Englishman sis the kind
OF talk one might expect from a child. All
round you you see civilized people pouring
in. They have made. in spite of you, your
country as wealthy as it isl
Il did not ask them nor want them to
come
but you allowed them. and now you treat
them as little better than helots. You must.
for they are numerous, at least allow them
a voice in their own government"
mo" says the obdurate Boer. "If do
that they will very soon introduce your
laws. your customs. Then this will be no
longer land of Beers, but a European
colony. We insist upon being as our IA
theirs were: We will not introduce the thin
edge Of the wedge"
Then you will be swept away by the
tide"
81 trust in the Lord says the Boer.
The tide is rising inch by inch and foot
by foot. Will the picturesque. patriarchal.
free people be swept away, or will the old
rock, Kruger, defy the flood and repel it ?
That is what the world is watching to see
THE BOER'S ORIGIN
Modern common sense is largely on the
side of the Englishman; sentiment declares
for the Boer. 1t is absurd, no doubt, that.
in this crowded world, where men are
Il,
country should be partially barred to la
Dor and capital. But, on the Beers side,
especially in the ears of liberty lovers,
there is great deal to be said He did
much, he suffered much, he travelled far to
make his home. Has he not distinct right
to rule it as he pleases? The case for Eng
land is pretty we'll known; to understand
the Boer brief one must glance at his his
tory.
Boer, or boor, or peasant-the words have
the same significance. The Boer is and has
been always. and still desires to be, a tiller
of the soil. 1t is his nature Such aristocrats
as Holland had in South Africa, when Great
Brit, ii obtained possession, were chiefly
Dutch officials, who went home when their
places were lost They left behind them a
considerable settlement of humble folk, who,
since then, while renOuncing Holland have
never fully amalgamated with Englishmen.
England certainly treated them with consid-
GRAFTON, meddling neither with their laws
nor their religion, but the two peoples have
never Though there are thousands of Beers
in the British possessions today united in
one family; they have been but neighbors.
Their habits, their ambitions, their modes
OF life are too dissimilar, for--at least for
many years-the colonists who left England
for South Africa were Of the better
classes while the Boer remained the sim
pie peasant. The Beers kept stepping back
ward and inland in order to feel freer They
hated the English language, While the Eng
lish did not trouble themselves to learn the
Dutch. But the Englishman is..restless and
forward moving. He, when he felt himself
firmly established in the land, began to
press inquisitively inland, to explore. One
sees the situation. The Boer, running from
the ta:gatherer and new tangled notions,
loathed by his tradition-loving SOUL es-
tabishes himself for year or two on a new
farm or virgin soil. He signs with relief,
and is happy, when one day he wakes up
to find the Englisman smiling at his door.
Here's that fellow again. cries the poor
Boer, and at once upstakes and desperately
plunges farther into the wilderness to hide
himself. He was running from an over
whelnling flood, and at last many Beers gave
it up and let themselves be surrounded. But
one sturdy band cried out: "All Africa is
not Englands. Their possessions have a
boundary. Let us go beyond that!" And
after incredible suffering and loss of life
from Chaka's Zulu warriors, the great
trek" was accomplished, and the South AZ
rican republic, beyond the Rival Vaal-the
Transvaal-was chosen as the home of that
band, who left, however, thousands of their
brethren in English territories, where they
have remained ever since. Does this exodus
not appeal strongly to men of Western
states whose fathers underwent similar
hardships to make a home for their chill
dren?
In 1852 England formally recognized the
Transvaal or South African republic, as a
free state.
YEARS OF PEACEFUL POSSESSION
1t is probable that the Beers imagined
that now, for them, the millennium had ar
rived. To realize the height of their beati-
tude, must study the nature of the
people. Among them were a large number
of Huguenot descendants, of the strong
breed of fugitives who settled in Holland
about the time of the voyage of the May
flower Not alone from them, but from the
blood of those old Dutch Protestants who
defied Alva, comes the Beers deep-seated
religious belief. 1t is now instructive in
him. Mans aversion to a snake is explained
by some persons by the fact that when we
were monkeys the snakes climbed trees to
swallow the baby monkeys. So the Boer
resents the neighborhood Of any church not
his own. His mind is stored with traditions
and legends OF old-time prosecutions where
by his fathers and mothers were martyred.
He never would enter Church of England
place of prayer, and probably was at no
time certain, when living under English
rule, that he would not be compelled to
subscribe to it's doctrines, for the Boer is
the most suspicious of men. Now in the
Transvaa1 he at once reared his simple
barn-like temples, and had the Joy of know
ing that his children could never be con-