Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-10-20
THE REAL OUTLANDERS.
A British Statement of Their Position
and Their Trials.
From the London Mail.

mere are very lew rich OutlanderS. This
may seem a remarkable statement but it
is Gospel truth. The real Outlander is a
hardworking man of business, who just
manages to make both ends meet and
sometimes-only sometimes-makes a hun
dred or two on the share market
The current picture in the English press
of the stage Outlander"-if one may use
that term-is absurdly erroneous. He is
rarely well-to-do man, and, with a few
trtfiing exceptions, never a millionaire.
The ridiculous vaporings of tll-informed
scribes protest ingenuously that if war is
to be with the Transvaal we are fighting
in the interests of Capel Court and Park
Lane. Nothing could be more silly or in
exact.
The simple truth is contained in a short
sentence which cannot be too forcibly drv
en- home to those who labor under the i'm
presSion that the Outlander is a synonym
for plutOcrat. Nine out of every ten men in
Johannesburg are poor men. Really poor,
mind you, studying economy in every form,
stlnting themselves of everything save the
baTeSt necessities and struggling verita-
bly, struggling, to maintain an appearance
of comparative prosperity. This is in ordi-
nary times, too Not in war times, nor in
boom times, when every one is a bit
above himself.
Between 1856 and 1899 there have been
four or possibly five "booms," and then
money was made by a good many. Only,
however, to be lost again by all save the
richest folk. For the disastrous policy of
nursing the baby seems to be the special
prerogative of those who can least we'll af-
ford to indulge in that expensive pastime.
The rich folks who are quoted in season
and out Of season particularly In the for
meD as typical Outlanders are not by any
means fair examples. Taken by and large,
there are not more than a score of mil
l1onalres, and couple of hundred who
have done passably wei. Deduct these 30
from the white IElrpppap)
of Johannesburg-say 30,0O0-and reSid-
uum is left of 27.7S0 men who are the real
Outlanders and are poor men at that.
They are of all classes, trades and pro-
fessiOns-doctors, lawyers miners assayers
surveyors, clerks. shOpkeepers, brokers,
contractors, manufacturers and the like.
Wages are high it Is true. A carpenter on
the mines gets his pound shift. A decent
clerk can command ESQ a month. But eX-
penses are in proportion. Rent is terribly
high, food is also expensive; clothes, cabs,
servants, books and amusements are treble
what they are at home. The club SubScrip-
ton is one guinea a month. with an en-
trance fee, originally f20, then raised to
500 and afterward to fln, but subsequently
brought down to the lower figure. Nothing
Is cheap save tOt eco and meaiies. The
smallest current coin is a tickey three
penny piece. Coppers are unknown.
There is another important item which is
generally ROCKED in European judgment
of the average Outlander. With hardly one
exception none Of the men whose wives
dresses, carriages and horses are quoted
as typical came to the Rand as poor men.
Practically all of them had amassed for
tunes, differing in amount, but none of
them by any means contemplate, in Kim
berley in the good old days when diamonds
were diamonds and De Beers was not the
devouring monopoist of today The old
Kimberley crowd, which comprises the
much maligned magnates of Park Lane
and elsewhere, only augmented their wealth
in Johannesburg; none of them originated
1t there.
Is it generally known or, indeed, known
al ALL that during the present crisis very
many men of repute, honor and integrity
on the Rand have had to borrow money
from friends in order to send away their
wives and families to places of security
in the Cape Colony and Natal? Surely not,
or little more kindly compassion would
be eVinced. The Outlander, broadly speak
ing, is just an ordinary hardworking man
of business, who, seeing quicker turnover
for his work or maybe for his small capital
in Johannesburg than elsewhere, has
thought fit tand who shall say him Mayo
to settle down in the Transvaal, to pay five
sixths of the taxes of the country, to put
up with countless injuSticeS and political
disabilities, and when the burden becomes
too great and he protests, personally and
through his government at home is tainted
with the OpprObriOuS epithet of million
aire. 1t is just little bit hard-and it is
very untrue. Political helot he may be
In fact Sir Alfred Miner says he is-but
mlllOndlTE 6elOl-ncNGT!
The rich firms the Rand fully recog
nize their responsibility toward the coun-
try in which by their own astuteness and
against terrific odds they have made their
thousands roll up into millions. No charita-
bic occasion is ever allowed to pass with
out very substantial help from them. In
fact all Transvaal charity-and 1t Is, in
the aggregate, a very large item-is en-
tirely Outlander money. One example will
suffice At the time of the great dynamite
explosion at Ve,dschOendOrp, on the out
skirts of Johannesburg, in February, 1896,
very many deaths occurred and scores of
poor folk were seriously injured. By chance
not one Englishman suffered. All the dead
and hurt were poor Beers. natives, Malays,
coolies and Cinnamon. Within two hours of
the happening of the accident fI5,0O0 was
subscribed between the chains by the
big firms of the town toward the allevia
ton of the sufferers. Every penny was
Outlander money; no Beers contributed
Paul Kruger permitted his name to be put
at the head of the subscription list with
donation of f25 but he never paid a penny
of the money, in spite OF repeated appli-
cations
Again. the most benef1cent charitable in
stitution on the Rand is the Rev. Mr.. KEEL
Tvs Home. Here employment is found for
men out of work, shelter and food are pro-
vided and every deserving white man, be
he Boer or Briton, is succored and helped.
This home is entirely maintained by Out
lander subscriptions. grant of land was
made to Mr.. Kelly by the Transvaal gov
eminent but the conditions were so oner
Gus and the chicanery and "verneukery"
(cheat ing) on the part Of the Boer officials
was so fragrant that it was a gift of Dead
Sea apples.
Another error into which too many fall
is that every Outlander lives in Johannes
burg. Nothing could be less accurate.
Scattered throughout the Transvaal, in
townships on homesteads. in isolated little
mining camps, in sundry roadside winkels
or stores up and down country, In dorp
and on the veldt. are many hundreds of
Outlanders of all Municipalities. the English.
however, always predominating, who are
in precisely the same condition as the ma
ligned Rand pauperl
Many a country storekeeper who has pre-
ferred to remain honest, not to bride the
police not to sell liquor to natives. not to
let the ve!dt cornet run up long bill
which he never pays, has had his store
looted by vagrant Boer youths, who laugh
at his protests and threaten to shoot him If
he offers resistance. Again. 1t has often oc-
Cured that horses, oxen, goods, saddles
and money have been "commandeered" on
the smallest provocation-or on none-for
| the assistance of de arme Boer who is
called out to auell some ridiculous native
uprising, brought about by the peculations,
| brutality or incompetency of Boer ma
| tive commissioner These things are fragrant
and frequent. The Outlander ceases pro-
| dc 4