The pioneer press. (Miller, Hand County, S.D.) 1893-190?, 1899-09-14
THE BOERS AT HOME.
ARE NOT TYPICAL
OF THEIR COUNTRY.
Real Boer Despises Towns Seen ut
His Best on Lonely Farms Where
Visitors Rarely Come aud Pleasures
Are Few. "

You will hear divers answers as to
what kind of people the Beers are. The
more short-sighted and intolerate
among travellers may say that the
Beers are dirty Lot, who don't use
table napkins, IAN illiterate set of brutes
who never heard Of Kipling, an utterly
unrefined people whose knowledge OF
art is nil; in short, a backward, stupid,
unprogressive, half-civilized set who
are too thick-headed to know they are
standing in the path of that Jugger-
maui car, civilization, and must in the
end be crushed beneath its wheels. 1t
Is mistake to take Paul Kruger and
his surrounding politicians as types of
the Boer. Also it is a mistake to take
the dweller in the towns as typical. To
unearth the real Boer one must seek
the wide and solitary veldt, the hid
den valleys, the distant hills, and there
on his farm draw him out and study
him. Your true Boer despises the
town. He is essentially an agricul-
turist and a hunter Up to 1892 he
never saw railroad in his country,
and he was bitterly opposed to its COM
ing. He argues that the railroad will
drive away the game, and without any
thing to shoot at, life will not be worth
living. He is extremely conservative,
and with strangers brusque and tact
turn, but If he finds you are harmless
he can be very hospitable. He does
not drink deep. He is religious with
a gloomy, stern religion, which makes
him believe, as did the Covenanters, as
much in the old testament as in the
new. Like all people whose belief in
the bible Is Of that uncompromising
kind, he Is more or less superstitious.
He Is moral. He does not believe in
divorce laws. He marries early in
life, and is convinced the highest bless
ing is an abundance of children. He
is sturdily built, as rule, thanks to
his way of life, which is the same as
that OF his father and his ancestors
for many generations-an open-air life,
with lots Of beef and cabbage and milk.
He is good horseman and a remark
able marksman. He understands that
the man who can shoot straight and
without excitement makes, nowadays,
the best soldier. He fears God and
loves his country, but cannot under
stand the need of a tax-gatherer. He
is, in fact, the backwoodsman of last
century in the United States come to
life again in Africa. At the first hint
Of gray in the eastern sky, at the first
crow of the cock, the farm household
is up and stirring, and breakfast, with
the usual strong coffee the Boer loves,
Is over by the time the sun rises. The
men are out and about at once, look
ing after just the same chores as on an
American farm in the west, save those
who are off to replenish the larder by
shooting a springbok, hartebeest or
some such species of deer. The women
have plenty of work about the house.
The genuine old Boer farm furnishes
itself every necessary to its occupants.
farmer, or he has great, unwieldy,
carved chests and bureaus which have
come TO him from his ancestors. He
can make his own shoes. His women
dress and weave his own sleeps wool,
and make their and his clothes from
it. There is almost nothing he needs
to buy. He does not care a rap for
neckties or collars or store cothes, and
a full beard is fashionable. All he
really has to buy is farm implements,
and of these he prefers the primitive
sort, though enterprising agents have
introduced such things as moving and
other machinery. During the day he
works leisurely, content to make liv-
ing out Of the ground. He has been
seen sitting in his wagon for hours
watching an enterprising, hustling Uit-
lander with wonder as the foreigner
worked continuously with all kinds Of
newfangled machines, producing far
more from the earth than his wants
required, because he wished to market
the surplus and make money. He has
been seen thus shaking his head in pity
and not unmingled with contempt at
such folly, for the Boer is not a
moneymaker. He does not want a
bank account. So he drives his slow
moving OK wagon away on the hot and
dusty trek, meditating on the want OF
faith these Uitlanders have, who can
not trust the future to God and be con-
tent with today.