The Anaconda standard., 1899-11-21
IN DOM PAuL's OWN DOMAIN.
Life in Transvaal Depicted by Niece of
Kruser.


Transyaal lives in San Francisco, says
the Chicago Chronicle. She recently
expressed herself in an interesting ar
ticle in newspaper on the status of
affairs in Dom PauIs domain. She
said in part:
1t is strange indeed that T. sannie
Kruger, should be in San Francisco
while my kinsmen in far-away Africa
are battling for their rights. Writing
In English is a difficult task for me,
but l pen this as sacred duty in the
hope of piercing the dense veil of ig
norance that shrouds even the intelli-
gent Americans conception of my ma
tive land.
/ am Boer girl descendant of a
long line Of Beers. ! am as proud Of my
Boer ancestry as the British aristo-
erat is of his blue blood. Prouinr
thousand times of my Boer lineage
than of the slight English strain that
is also my kirthright.
My grandfather was half English,
half Beer; my grandmother, a Boer
girl, was sister of the present wife Of
Dom Paul MY father is nephew Of
President Kruger. Therefore. l am
douhly related to them--a grandniece
to both the president and his wife, by
ties of blood as well us marriage. Cen
eral Piet Joubert Is also my great UNI
Gle.
1t is now a year since I first touched
American soil. A spirie of unrest and
travel, very un-Boerlike, and probably
due to the drop Of English bloo,, has
characterized our branch Of the family
A twelvemonth ago I came to America
with one Of my brothers. An interest
in a mine in Arizona brought US to
this corner Of the country.
Unlike most of my Boer cousins, /
have spent much time abroad, receiv-
ing the greatest part Of my education
in France and Belgium. where I was
taught music and painting.
While President K"uger severely con-
demns foreign education and customs,
he forgaye my parents for allowing me
to study in Europe. Dom Paul is ex-
ceedingly fond Of music and aeknowl-
edged that my musical talents could
better be developed in foreign lands,
After each Of these visits abroad Dom
Paul would put ME through a severe
catechism.
and taken out of me the groove Of Boer
customs. But it has not blunted my
Boer patriotism nor made me love my
people the less, nor hate less intensely
the robber bands that would steal the
land to which my ancestors "treked."
must confess that in no other coun-
Try is ignorance of the Botr SC marked
as in America. In France. in Spain,
the Germans, even the Italians, know
that the Boer is not Zulu. But here
In America people look at me quizzical-
ly when told am Boer girl. Their
usual exclamation is: why, you're not
black" Why, you're not red re-
taliafe with equal amazement. / am
no more a Zulu Than they are Ameli-
can Indians.
Surely all Boer girls do not look like
your" is the remark that usually follows
on the heels of this last one.
Why In the name of mother Eve they
i lyrn r;rlf,
are not all cut off the same bolt. am
neither more nor less a type of the Boer
girl than typical American is Of your
countrywomen. have both individual
and racial characteristics. I am much
,slighter than most Boer girls, but my
features and coloring are typical of the
race.
We Beers are simple folk, with
few caste and class lines. But even
we have distinctions. There are the
Beers OF the towns and those who live
on isolated farms. A "dopper," as we
call him. is equivalent I think, in your
language to a. "hayseed."
A "dopper" girl dresses and looks as
different from town-bred Boer girl
as your country lass does from the
city-bred maiden. Your. farmers
daughters are not duplicates of your
daughters of wealth and fashion, are
they? No more are we like the "dop-
per" women.
f The "doppers" all dress in gowns cut
after the same pattern. A cheap print
of bright color. made into skirt, gath
cred full around the waist, a blouse
simply made, with low band for a
,collar--this is the usual "dopper'' cos
tune, completed by a sunbonnet. On
Sundays and holidays they wear around
their waists a narrow ribbon of gay
color, tied in a 'Dutchy' bow-short,
stiff loops and long ends.
We Boer girls of the cities dress as
our fancies and the fashions of our
neighbors dictate. If We wish to copy
English styles they are always before
US. AS rule the Boer girls have their
clothes made very simply. We live in
the saddle, always riding astride. so
We cling to short skirts rather than
trailing gowns
True, we are found of bright and
gaudy colors. If for this we are to be
classed as barbarians, on what plea
will you forgive the vivid scarlet and
orange dear to the Spaniard or the
crimsons and green's of the Italians?
Your clothes-surely they were not
made in African" say my questioners.
When the American girl goes to Paris
she brings gowns and ribbons and
laees and fol-de-rols She discovers
that the cut of her gown, so much ad-
mired at home, does not quite reach
the Parisienne perfection. She must
dchtioWlSuSe lhaL lieF coat lauS snort
of the chic French wrap; her hat looks;
clumsy in comparison with the chapeau
fashioned by a French modiste.
Certainly I have had gowns made in
America, just as Miss Smith or Miss
Jones visiting in Paris buys Partisan
gowns But I feel at home in them. /
would not wear such elaborate gowns
in the Transvaal, but they far more
closely resemble our dress than the cos
tunes that imagination has painted
for us.
A Mother Hubbard is frequently pic
tured. The most popular idea clothes
the Beer In skins or the scanty drapery
Of the savage.
Nothing of the kind. Our mothers.
as rule. wear two-piece garment.
Skirt and waist are both very simply
made. We of the younger generation
pattern our clothes after the foreign
ers for dress occasions.