The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1899-10-08
are one must know their home g

TO REALLY know what a people
are one must know their home
life. The Beers are probably less
understood than any other people who
claim national existence. This is
partly due 10 their isolation in the great
continent, Africa, a place far out OF
the beaten track of travel and unmo-
Tested by copy seeking journalists. II
is also partly due TO the character of
the people themselves; there is nothing
so much that the Boer desires as TO be
let alone.
The average Boer home is on a great
farm where the homestead stands in
the center of a tract of land often num-
bering a dozen miles. The nearest
neighbors are miles away and the fam
lily may not see them for weeks at a
time, except at the meeting house in
town, where all go on Saturday to re-
main for the service on Sunday.
The Boer woman is very little like the
trim, handsome Dutchwomen of her
ancestral Holland. She is seldom pref
ty. Her complexion is her principal
charm, and she guards this carefully
whenever she goes out. She is never
seen outdoors without a great peaked
bonnet on her head, her visits to church
being made behind an almost oriental
seclusion of wells. This is necessary to
preserve the pink and white of her skim
for the climate would otherwise soon
tan it to the color of sole leather. Her
eyes are small and set close together,
and her features are irregular. Her
cheeks are broad and fat, and her hair
is naturally light in color, although
time and weather soon bleach it from
it's early straw color. AT a very early
age she loses all her teeth, for she is
constantly chewing sweet cakes and
confectionery. A European woman
would replace the molars that nature
has deprived her of with we'll mounted
works of art, but the Boer woman does
not do this; she thinks it would be i'm
pious thus to try to duplicate the work
of the Creator. Her figure is thick and
almost waistless. While still a young
woman she begins to grow fat, and by
the time middle life is reached she is
often so unwieldy that the only exer-
else she is able to take is to waddle
cumbersomely from one armchair to
another. She is clad in a loose scantily
made gown devoid of trimming and ap
parently waistless. The day garments
of the Beers are also their nightclothes,
so the gown is generally wrinkled.
The education of the women of the
veldts is very simple. The older ones,
or at any rate many of them, are un-
able to read and write even among the
better classes, but the younger people
show an immense interest in letters.
Al,
children of the well-to-do are able to at
tend the academies in the towns. for
heavy fees are charged all scholars.
One reason why the Boer children are
fond of their school and cry If they
are compelled to stay at home is be-
cause it is a break in the monotony of
the day. Life is dull in the Transvaal.
The school faculty usually consists of
head master and sometimes woman
assistant. The woman seldom remains
a teacher more than one term, for the
admiration of the young Boer planters
is so great for a woman gifted enough
to read and spell and thrifty enough
to earn money with her brain that
some well-to-do bachelor usually soon
persuades her to marry him. The de-
mand for wives in South Africa is never
equal to the supply.
Life in the Dutch republic is patri-
archically simple. The Beers until re-
Gently cared nothing about the gold or
diamonds with which their rich prov
inces were teeming; they wished TO
live quietly and peaceably on their
great farms, raising sheep and goats
and enough produce to supply their fam
iIy's simple wants. When the vrouw
wants a new gown or mynherr a new
pair of corduroy trousers or a high
crowned hat. he gathers up some os-
trich feathers from the birds in the
camps. or drives to market few of his
cattle and comes back amply supplied
with what clothing the family thinks it
needs for the year.