Lincoln County leader. [volume] (Toledo, Lincoln County, Or.) 1893-1987, 1900-02-02
LIFE IN A BOER HOME.
DOMESTIC LIFE OF THE TRANS.
VAAL PEOPLE.
A Young Englishman's Description of
One Family, Which, 1t Is to Be Hoped,
Is Not True of A1l-Conterp pt for Ap-
pcarances and Cleanliness.

A young Englishman gives an inter
esting description Of his experiences in
a Boer home in South Africa. He had
just recovered from q fever which had
confined him for time to q hospital,
and being acquainted with q young
Boer in Pretoria, he obtained letters of
Introduction to the family and went
out to the homestead to get built up.
He says:
Jacobus Grundling and his family re-
ccved me tthe entrance of their home.
The deadly apathy which pervades a
Boer household is not easily disturbed.
l was stared at for a few moments,
asked few questions, and the only
memberof the family who spokea little
English told me in shamefaced sor
Of way, as if he were saying somethIll
discreditable, that his brother had once
told him that he liked me, but the resi-
of the family contented themselves
with shaking hands.
This over ! was invited inside. The
homestead, like BOcr farm houses. is
stuck in the open veldt, and built close
to a stream, bounded on one side by
garden, in which grew orange, lemon,
citron, peach, apple, and pear trees. The
houses are built of red bricks, baked in
the sun, the spaces between the bricks
being filled with mud, which to keep
from drying to dust has to be contin-
ually moistened with water.
That Of Mr.. Grundling would not
have looked so repulsive had the roof
been thatched. AS tie Boer, however,
has no eye for the picturesque, he finds
galvanized corrugated iron an admira-
BILE substitute. But If the outside was
not prcpossessing, the inside was alb
sOlutely forbidding. Wood Is scarce in
the Transvaal, so the houses are never
more than one story high, which does
away with staircases.
Another feature Of home life for
which these people entertain Il most
lofty contempt Is furniture and domes-
Tic crockery. All the furniture belong
ing to mine host was Enthusiastically of
home origin; the stool on which l was
invited to seat myself while partaking
of Boer national beverage, coffee, hav-
ing only two short legs. Cups and
SSjucers, as well as knives and forks,
being unknown among these primitive
people, was handed my coffee in a
basin. l should have liked little
milk, but milk, although the Beers are
a pastoral race, is practically unknown
nthe Transvaal, and sugar they despise.
To describe one Boer family is to de-
scribea Boer families. There are, be-
lieve, about 10000 adult men in the
Transvaal, and from what l have seen
of them they so resemble each other as
to convey the impression that they all
belong to one family.
There are several young men in the
householder Jacobus Grundling, all tail,
and powerfully made, with long matted
boards and unkempt hair, and all incon-
ceivably dirty. They all wear dirty
corduroy trousers. very short jackets,
which make them look like gigantic
boys, no collars, dirty ragged flannel
shirts, billycock hats, and veldshoons.
which are shoes made of untanned
leather, and, like the furniture, of hope
manufacture.
The average weight Of Boer young
lady is 160 pounds, increasing to 200
and upward as they get older Every
man forms his own ideal Of beauty, and
the Beers signifies his in one expressive
word-bulk.
A Boer lady seeking to win the af-
fections of an American would proba-
bly, endeavor to keep her face and
hands clean, but, as all Boer lover
cares about is the weight avoirdupois,
she can afford to be as untidy as the
most slovenly of her European sisters.
There was only one bedstead in the
house, and this I occupied. l had no
compunction in doing this, as l soon
found that the Beers do not undress on
retiring for the night. A few skins are
sufficient for their wants.
l experienced so many novel sensa-
tions during my stay, that even when l
discovered a couple Of collins under my
bed one night when endeavoring to
eject one of the wretched Transvaal
dogs which had taken shelter there, l
was not surprised. 1t seems that wood
being scarce in the Transvaal most
families keep few coffins in stock for