The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1899-12-09

this worthy family had it not been that
one OF the girls volunteered 10 give me
q specimen of her boarding school pol
| ish. She accompanied herself on the
piano and sang-did say sang! wen,
| Wen let it pass then-"Far Away.
| That reminded me that had other du-
| ties to perform and despite my good
old uncle's cordial invitation to spend
the night at his house L was soon Tar
away myself.
Experience With Doppers.
As a contrast to the foregoing, allow
me to relate my experience one night In
a 'Dopper' house. The Doppers are
! the lowest class of South African
Dutchmen, and as rule they seem n, en-
tiFely free from any Intuition. They
| have q money-saving instinct, but it can
hardly be dignified by calling 1t ampl-
ton. since when they do acquire money
IL appears to make no difference 10
their habits. To my tale, however.
1t was near SHUTDOWN and masses Of
ominous clouds, as black as a tinkers
pot, were gathering in the west. Every
now and then clap of thunder would
make my horse snort with fright An
African thunderstorm is something
which would make even King Lear seek
the nearest shelter. and l looked for
one. A mile or 50 from the road
was on l saw a small house, and L
dashed my steed at it, reaching the
door just as the rain came pelting
down IN sheets 1t proved to be Dop-
pers house, who, seeing me approach,
had opened the door for me. Giving
my horse to a scantily attired Hoten-
tot hey | lost no time in accepting the
Boers invitation to enter. The first
thing [ noticed was that my hosts
n rs ints I,a1 hi frly Dnh
web spun across the opening above the
top button. / observed it in q casual
way without trying to conjecture how
IL came there, but I subsequentlyfican
TO the conclusion that it happened on
account of the Doppers never taking
his clothes off There were three
young men and two full grown young
women in the "zit kaamer" Sitting
room), besides DOM and ''tante, land
three or four young children. The boys
had Just returned with the old man
from nloughine ord were then bout to
eljoy The luxury of a Dutch bath. There
were only two rooms in the house. the
eating drawing : snOking-Work-
1ng-court1ng ROOM in which we all
We're, and the kitchen. The three boys
and pa had removed their 'veldtsch-
oens"-they wore no soclkS-and exhibit
ed a considerable amount of real es-
tate on their ankles. A Hottentot girl
came in with a dish of hot water and
rag, and beginning with the old man,
she went the round of the ploughmen,
washing the four pairs of substantial
feet in the same bowl of water Dom
then took the "vaadook," or dish cloth.
which the servant girl had used, and
after wringing it partially dry, wiped
his face with it and then passed it to
the nearest son., who having COM
pleted his additions passed the rag to
his brothers. The last Beers face left
you in considerable doubt as to wheth-
er he had cleaned one-half or dirtied the
other. Somehow. 1 didn't feel as hum
CRY as l did when 1 first entered the
house. Ny uncle, after this refresh
ment piled me with questions as to my
occupation, destination, nationality and
habits, and having apparently satisfied
himself, handed me his tobacco pouch.
felt that / was getting along pretty
well, under the circumstances, until
made a break for which l don't think
'tante" ever forgaye me. The floor
was made Of earth and antheap beat
en- down hard and polished until it re-
sembled ebony. Ordinarily, it required |
a wel1-balanced skater to move over it |
with ease. and to make matters worse, |
my host was XpectOrating freely and |
over the surface. On rising, |
after drinking the stuff they called cof !
fee. to place the empty cup on the |
table, didn't exercise sufficient care !
in putting my foot down, with the re- |
suit that 1 sat on the floor in italics, |
and "tante's" best visitors cup was !
to atoms. She tried to smile, !
but her face evidently hurt her The |
young folks laughed long and bolster !
ously at the incident, and, since jokes |
are scarce among the Beers, are prob |
ably still laughing at it. Supper came /
along soon after. and / managed to |
swallow something for appear
ance'S sake. The storm still ragged vio
lently, and | saw it was no use at
tempting to continue my journey before
/ then began wondering if
there were any buildings near at hand |
where the family slept. 1 was not left
in doubt long. The room we were in
had d loft. and shortly after supper
one of the boys climbed a ladder and |
began throwing feather beds down
from the loft. The other boys moved !
The dining table to the side of the room
and began arranging the beds in a cir
,le in the middle Of the floor This,
hen, was our bedroom as well.
Family Bedroom.
My host pointed my bed out to me
Ind set the example by turning in as
ne was, after removing his coat 1
lon't know why he removed his coat;
perhaps he was afraid of creasing it.
The old lady, after seeing that the sons
we're in position, blew the light out 1
vas at first glad she did this, because
he convenient darkness hid my burning
bushes, but I soon wished she had
brown the candle out into the rain
t was Dutch candle, homemade
rom all sorts of fatty substances, with
wick in it like horse blanket. When
he old lady blew it out it had some
wo inches Of burning rag, which gave
Tut the rankest compound of villain
JUS smells that ever offended mortal
lOstril. This was an inconvenience
which passed away in time. There were
thers that did not Dom was, I be-
ieve. the boss snorer of the century.
The noise he made would have turned
bull frog green with envy. And then
lie had so many surprises in store for
-ou. Just when you expected him to
,et right down to basso profundo he
would emit a sibillating sound like
n engine letting off steam; then he
would choke and gurgle violent