Omaha daily bee., 1899-05-28

would lessen their ability to take care Of
themselves will not get a concession. There
have been no sewers in Johannesburg up to
this time, but company Is now at work
putting In a system. In spite OF this fact
johannesburg is not an unhealthy place.
The government derives a considerable
revenue from the fines imposed on those who
give or sell liquor to the Kafirs. The
kafilrs are given to drinking a good deal, but
/ 1t is forbidden 10 sell or give them liquor.
! Nevertheless they get hold of good deal
OF kaffr beer. They are better protested
In many ways here than they are in the
| Cape colony.
Wood and feed are scarce and high-prced
| articles in the Transvaal All the wood tim
! bers used in the mines have been i'm
/ ported and almost all OF them came
/ from the Puget sound country. OF late years
they have had fair success at growing a
sort Of gum tree and are getting a small
| amount Of lumber from that But all the
buildings Of Johannesburg. and there are
| many fine four and five-story ones, are of
brick or stone. The residences Of the middle
class are made of corrugated iron, because
wood is so expensive. And feed commands
such prices that 1t costs about $75 per month
.
to feed stable you always watch him fed
otherwise he will get about one-third of
what you pay for.
The railroads are about the same in the
Transvaal as they are in England, except
that hrst-class there would be about equal
to third-class in England There are no
, sleepers. Every traveller carries his own
rug or blanket to sleep in and also canvas
water bottle to cool his water in, for ice is
| scarce, too. The water seeps through the
canvas slowly and evaDorates on the out
side, making what remains on the inside
! very cold
varied Experiences.
| Travellers in that country have all kinds
! of experiences, some of them amusing and
others not so much so A favorite pastime
of parties of foreigners is to shake dice to
see who nays for six bottles of pop. Then.
Instead of drinking the pop, they use it to
wash their faces and hands in. The man
who throws highest washes his face in 1t
first and the rest follow in turn. Then
number one washes his hands in it. The
water there is so filthy in the summer time
that 1t is not even used to wash in.
They have way of advertising Ameri-
can goods there and putting UP a great
talk about how American their things are.
In one of the places that had a large sign,
American Drinks, out in front l asked for
a Manhattan cocktail The bartender, who
spoke with a Whitechapel dialect, put
little Of every cordial he had in the house
but one into a tall champagne glass. l
think he used glass for ice, too Then he
offered me the mixture.
" Hold on there l said. Haven't you
forgotten one of the ingredients? There's
the creme de menthe bottle over in the
corner. l haven't seen you touch that
Well, in go three or four dashes of the
creme de menthe.
Then l offered him shilling to drink it
and a shilling and six for straight drink.
But he wouldn't drink it and l had to pay
for it and get straight drink besides.
Another time a theater advertised to
have American vocalist who would sing
American coon songs. Some men | knew
went down to hear her and the next day l
asked how they liked her. They said she
sang the coon songs in a Whitechapel
dialect!
"a representative bill of fare in one of
their restaurants reads like this Scotch
mutton broth, mutton pie, country sayle;
roast mutton with mint sauce; mutton stew,
lamb, with mint sauce; mutton fricassee,
lamb chops, stewed mulberries and rice
This meal would cost five shillings, or SIPS.
"The railway trains in that country are
wonderfully accommodating. Once / was on
train that stopped out on the open plain,
and every passenger asked what it was stop
ping for. The guard told us that the fire
man had refused to obey the engineers
orders, and the engineer was thrashing him.
When the thrashing had been given the train
proceeded.
Hats OF to the National Anthem.
ION the boat from Southampton to Cape
Town there is always a band and sooner or
later it gets around to God Save the Queen
when every mans hat comes off. l took
mine off with the rest. One day I found a
piece of music had picked up in Johannis-
burg. 1t was a medley of Marching Through
Georgia. Way Down Upon the Suwanee
River Yankee Doodle Hot Time and
perhaps few more. l gave it to the band
leader and asked him to make out some
parts to it for the band. He did and the
next day he was ready toplay it. When
the band started up on the first part of that
medley l whipped off my hat and said to
the gentlemen on the deck around me:
Gentlemen, this is the American national
anthem We always take our hats off to it.
'All right they said, and they took their
hats off. There an English lord on
board whom I had met and l went up TO
him and said:
LORD So-and-So, thls Is the American
national anthem And his lordship took off
his hat. Then l went up into the wheel
house where the captain was, holding my
hat in my hand.
Captain, l said this is the American
national anthem. BY this time the band had
got around to Hot Time but the captain
didn't know the difference, and didn't
hesitate.
"'All right he said, and he took his hat
off and held 1t in his hand until the band
had finished
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