The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-10-19

the KafYir.
The Boer to-day is not the man he
was in 1881. If it comes to fighting this
will be speedily apparent. Circumstah-
ces have changes him nightly. A new
generation has sprung up, ana the eVo-
ution of degeneracy is even more
NAKED in the young Boer than 1t was IN
his father At Majuba our opponents
were sturdy men, poor, hungry, ill-clad,
ill-fed and good marksmen to man.
1t is very different to-day. The causes
are simple enough. The Boer of nine
teen years ago eked out bare living
from hand to mouth. He had to "shoot
for the pot" The daily food of his fam
lily depended upon the game he shot.
He was homekeeping sober man of
strictly religious principles, according
to his lights, and knew nothing of the
ways of the outlander.
The son of his hardy pioneer has hand
a totally different up-bringing. Thir-
teen years ago began the great rush to
the Witswatersrand gold fields. Thou
sands of strangers poured into the
country, bringing with them money,
customs and luxuries which had been
hitherto unknown. Many Boer farm
ers sold their farms, or options thereon
for thousands of pounds Their sons
earned money as "kurveyors" or trans
port riders. There was no longer any
necessity to shoot for the daily food
A certain number of inefficient schools
were established. The outlander
brought with him all manner of vices,
which the idle young Boer was only too
ready to assimilate. He rejected the
advice of the ''predikant," or pastor
The towns, now rapidly springing up
on the gold fields, attracted and re-
PEELED him. He drank ''square-face' or
''dop" in place of coffee. He learned
what a hotel was, what staircase
looked like, and what a music-hall
meant.
In Pretoria came an increasing de-
mand for sons of the country to take up
government positions, and if young
Boer could only read and write an APP
pointment was his, at salary which
meant to him riches beyond the
dreams of avarice. Then, again, in
Pretoria, he had money offered him at
every turn There We're contracts to be
made. 'jobs" to be done, concessions to
Bribery and corruption were blatant
and ever present The outlander was
only too ready to b4 fieeced. What did
the young Boec want? Was it gold
watch. or four wheeled spider, or his
hotel bill for month? Certainly!
Here's a check! tn return. little fa-
vor. A concession, of course. And so
the ball rolled on.
No wonder the Boer to-day is degene-
rate 1T is impossible that he could be
anything else. He is really only semi
civilized, and that fact accounts for
much of the misunderstanding between
his government and ours.
Descended though he undoubtedly is
from some of the very best Huguenot
stock-as witness the frequent recur-
renee of such names as De Villiels
pronounced Filijee), Celiers pro-
nounced Celljee), Serrurier Labus-
chagne, Foure Joubert and many 9TH
ers-yet, owing to hardship, expatria-
ton, wildness of surroundings and
want of intercourse with his kind, he
has gradually returned to primitive
state-has degenerated In fact, though
by no means on Nordau lines to a bigo-
ted ignorance.
The history of South Africa tells us
that the Dutch took possession of the
Cape Colony in 1862, under Jan Van
Riebeek, and that in 1888 a large party
of French settlers, fleeing from the re-
vocation of the edict of Nantes, were
sent out from Holland for colonization
PURPOSES were granted lands around
Stellenbosh, at Drakenstern, and at
Fransche Hook (Frenchman Corned.
They intermarried with the Duach col
onists. and this combination of the
strong religious feeling and skill in
farming of the French, together with
the business qualities and stolid cum
ming of the Dutch, produced an ideal
colonizing and pioneer race. The gov
ernorship would seem to have alterna-
ted between French and Dutch, for we
read that in TIA the governor was LIE
MARQUIS de Cbavonnes, and in 171S one
Gysbert Van Noodt.
very important element, which if
often overlooked, has tended much
more than is generally supposed to one
side Nof the present Boer nature. This
is the constant intercourse with natives
and the consequent assimilation of some
Kaffir characteristics. There was no in
termarriage, Of course, but DUNG the
ticks often lasting from two to ten
years, when the hardy Boer pioneers,
with womenkind and children, pluckily
ventured to the unknown north. they
were accompanied by slaves, probably
Hottentots and Bushmen, who became
in a way companions. at any rate to the
children, who naturally picked up many
pf their ways. Now a prominent char
acteristic of all African races is sub
tie diplomacy of language, largely as
sisted by SMILES drawn from the sur
roundings of daily life. A Kaffir will
rarely. if ever, say yes or no to direct
question. He will equivocate, circum-
locute and do everything except lie
outright He is vastly pleased if he
thinks he has deceived you, even If only
verbally, The Boer is much the same,
and the highest compliment one can
nav him is to call him "slim" or cum
ming. General Joubert's nickname is
..Slin Piet," and he is proud of 1T. The
Boer and Kaffir methods of diplomacy
are vastly similar.
To turn to another side of the Boer
character. The Voorttrekker was tha
true adventurer, as understood in the
strictly Elizabethatl sense. Time and
again during the last two hundred years
he had set forth Into the unknown,