The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1899-10-12
OTHER LANDS THAN OURS.

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OTHER LANDS THAN OURS.
Rudyard Kipling, who is essentially
English is taking a hand, metaphor
cally speaking. in the fight between the
subjects of Her British Majesty and
the Beers down in the south end of
the hitherto designated Dark Cont
nent." In verse. which may be consid-
cred heroic, he is urging the people,
"one Of whom he is which" to beware
of listening to the old king Rud
yard is smooth" if we may be per-
mitted to resort to the pathos of the
singer of slang. Gifted beyond the lot
of ordinary mortals, with a practice
Lucrative, too, of years. in the Jug
Cling of words, he is enabled to make
favorable impressions where a man as
sincerely honest as it is possible to con-
ceive would fail; with knowledge of
that. he seeks to assert the supremacy
of the British empire over the noble
thoughts of men who may be classified
with those who signed the immortal
Declaration of independence.
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But then there are Others" if again
we NAV be permitted to resort Ito the
accepted vernacular of the ordinary
people: those who go to make up the
population of this republic. Olive
Schreiner, the novelist of South Africa,
who has made trek" wagon a sort
of Cape of Good Hope palace car; who
has clothed the stolid Dutchman of the !
Transvaa1 with a sturdy integrity |
which would adorn the most honest |
man in the world, comes to the front |
with d defense of the position of these
rugged old fellows which merits atten-
ton. She is brave and fearless, too, is |
Olive. There isn't bit of hesitation on |
her part. Without waiting to see where |
the chips fall. she news to the line of
truth. God bless her!
Olive issues an appeal to the world
In sentences which are not only enter
taining, but almost fascinating; which
appeal first to the reason and then
make the blood course quicker through
the veins, she relates that these stOlid
old "biltong" eaters come of a stock
which came with the Angles and the
Saxons and made the British ancestors
of those who seek 10 down the South
African republic, quail before their on
slaughts
Olive was born and reared in south
ern Africa The hills and plains of
The dark continent are hers. Where the
yeD1cboL< paDtarn6 op5 ~ oio,5 81
oped over the plain was where she
saw the light of day. Underneath the
southern cross which blazes its glory
through the sky, she learned life's les
son. The people are her kin and she
s theirs. She knows them by heart,
md when she declares, speaking of the
Beers:
Even under the early Dutch govern
nent of the East India company they
we're not always restful, and resented
Interference and external control. They
frequently felt themselves Undergo
rukt' (oppressed). and taking their
runs and getting together wife and
-hildren and all that thew had. and
nspanning their wagons, they 'trekked'
way from the scant boards of civiliza- !
ion into the wilderness to form homes
f freedom for themselves and their
escendants, =
She speaks a truth which is apparent
all who have studied the question.
But Olive does not stop there. She
ontinues, to the great disadvantage
those who would suppress a stolid
eople, who contain within themselves
ne sentiment of liberty and independ-
nee:
Men and women are still living who
an remember how, sixty years ago. the 7
pot where the great mining camp of
now stands was a great
lence, where they drew up their wag-
MS and planted their little homes. and
ought inch by inch with wild beasts L
reclaim the desert. In this great
orthern land, which no white man O
ad entered or desired, they planted
le1r people, and, loving it as men only L
an love the land they have suffered ?.
nd bled for, the gallant little republic 1t
ley raised, they love today as the
wiss loves his mountain home and the A
his bikes 1t is theirs, the
est land on earth to them" T
Two people have made South Africa
lown to the world. One did it with N
e sword of war, the commanding G
ade which directs armies; the other
It'll the pen, silent in action, yet po- a
Mt in results. 1t is common to say: T
he pen is mightier than the sword" g
lie rendition is an error 1t should
ad; Beneath the rule of those en-
ely great. the pen is mightier than L
e sword" Who shall say the pen of B
i've f5chreiner is not greater than "
e blade of Joubert, or the youthful
ljoT general youthful in experience "A
what is meant, who will command L,
f5ritannic majesty's armies as they
vance to dispossess the Beers? -
. Y,
olive, in her appeal. continues:
Born in South Africa, our eyes first q