Abilene weekly reflector. [volume] (Abilene, Kan.) 1888-1935, 1899-06-08

and l alone remain to receive and
forward the freight. telegraphed
| to the Mission and sent them on the
fnext through train. Elder Jesse
Engle met them at the station and
conveyed them to q hotel for the
night and in q couple Of days pro.
ceeded with them to the Mission
| which lies 30 miles eastward from
Bulawayo among the MatopPa noun.
tains. They were conveyed out in an
OK cart, the team consisting Of two
oxen and four mules, driven by Elder
Engle, Of whom wife writes: 1--WE
found ]. E. enjoying perfect health
and looking much younger than when
we parted with him in Kansas a year
and half ago" ! am yet in Port
Elizabeth anxiously waiting for our
goods (which are overdue now six
days, but am told by the agents
that cargo.boats often encounter
heavy seas which cause them much
delay owing to the heavy tonnage
carried in vessels not built for speed
but for strength and endurance. This
town contains about $4,000 people
who are struggling against great odds
for an ordinary living. Labor is very
cheap owing to the swarms of Kafiirs
and Bushmen who, like the Chinese in
America, work fJr the lowest wages
and live in absolute squalor and mis-
ery in kraals built mile or two out
from the city. All the necessary pro-
visions Of clothing and food are enor-
mously high priced. Perhaps a few
figures would prove interesting to
you. Ordinary laboring men as hod-
carriers, street and railroad guagers,
wharfmen, ETC., receive 60 cents per
day OF eight hours. Ordinary shop
and store clerks $l.O0 per day. Book
keepers and commercial writer's Of
the upper class $3.50 per day. Board
at hotels and private houses from sc
to 80 a week. l have quite often at
tended the daily market where the
produce is auctioned off by criers in
stead Of being sold directly by private
individuals. l will give you a list Of
prices: Tomatoes, 81 per bushel; pc
tatoes, $500 per hundred weight;
cabbage, 5 cents pound; rabbits, so
cents each; small chickens, 40 cents
each; turkeys, - each; eggs, go cents
a dozen; butter, 80 cents a pound;
bran, 81 hundred weight; firewood,
$5 to IS a load; corn meal, p cents
pound; oats, so cents bushel; onions
$3.50 per bushel; leaf tobacco, ] to 6
cents pound; flour, $3.50 a hundreds
weight. The market wagons differ
quite largely with our light American
spring wagon so commonly used in
the States for that purpose. BY day
light the wagons begin to arrive and
unload at the market place. They
are great massive wagons capable OF
carrying ten tons and drawn by four
teen or sixteen large, long.horned ma
tive oxen or COWS. that number being
termed "span." A colored lad goes
before and guides the leaders while
the driver with massive whip stands
on a small platform in front Of the
wagon rack and by dint Of much yell
ing and whipping manages on good
roads to make three miles per hour.
The manner Of doing business here is
very primitive compared with Amer
lean devices. Even the railroads are
such as we had before the war Of '6l.5.
The Salvation Army is very strong
here and through them ! secured a
homelike lodging;place gratis as long
as | remain which will likely be only
a few days longer. Even while wait
ing here wife sent me clipping from
the ABILENE REFLECTOR which is a
weekly caller at the Mission. So II
our lives are spared we hope to be
edited and encouraged by its weekly
visit and to hear Of much prosperity
In our home land. G. C. CREss.