The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-04-30
TIE TRANSVAAL WOMEN
Work They Are Engaged in While
the Men Are at the Front.
The Important Duty of Looking After
the Farms Has Deyolved Jpon
"reminiscences ut the Market Place
of the BOer Capita1-A Powerful
Influence Behind President Kruger

| LONDON, April 20.-With PRACTICAL.
every able bodied man and boy at TIM
front, the duty of looking after the farms
has devolved upon the women of thu
Transvaal. The Importance of this is cas-
lily realized when one considers that al
army, as a famous general said. is lik,
a serpent, for it moves on its belly. SomC
light is thrown upon the splendid manner
in which these Boer women have worked
by letter written from Pretoria by Doug
las Story. Here is his description of q
Pretoria market:
| Two long rows of wagons stood axle
deep in the mud, with their curtains rolled
up and their interiors showing In each
! was Boer woman, sometimes a couple,
and always youngster or two But there
/ was no man, and people refrained from
/ reference TO the absentees. Gowned in
black, with her sallow, wrinkled face set
! far back in her black kappie, the Boet
( woman sits on a bundle of clothing in the
| hinder part of the wagon ewing the crowd.
/ Before her on q wisp of straw are the
| eggs, pumpkins or potatoes she has
/ brought TO market. But there were other
| keen-eyed women on the market square
! that morning-women who stood guard
/ owe rheaped wagons of forage and heavy
date object was business and | stood Gu
riously by while the auctioneer disposed of
their bringings
Anxiety sat on every line OF these
women's rugged faces. They scanned the
crowd and rearranged the potatoes in the
mouth of the bags until the auctioneers
quick hammer had cleared the lot. Then
they clambered silently into the wagon
again and resumed their interrupted toilet
ma rt-af coli Ia,
brought no blush to their cheek, and they
braided their hair in the full presence of
the townspeople without n sign of embar-
rassment. Bushes are the luxures of the
rich and the grace of the effete jewellers in
towns. The veldt woman has no use for
such fopperies, and despises them.
Meanwhile the potatoes and mealies
were passing under the hammer, and |
noted the prices they fetched in war time
/ and other ignorant persons had predicted
failure in the food supply consequent
upon the absence of the men upon com
mando. We had recloned without the
Boer vrouw and a remarkably rainy sea-
son. Prices are lower today than | have
ever known them in the Transvaal When
Jameson crossed the border, four years
ago, forage was Sc los per hundred bun
dies; today it is 25s per hundred bundles
Potatoes have fallen from 45s to les the
bag. To its own establishment the Trans
vaal has emerged from the battle smoke
an agricultural country.
In war time, in the face of a possible
siege, prices IN Pretoria are less than one
half of those current in Buluwayo Forage
is 93 lis in Buluwayo, but only 25s in
Pretoria; Boer-meal is sold at 55s in Bulu-
wayo, but fetches only 25s in Pretoria. /
saw bags OF potatoes change hands today
at lbs the bag. when the price In Bulu-
wayo is 80. Whatever else may fail them.
the food supply is assured
The extraordinarily favorable season
which has marked this year of war has
seemed to the Boer women a direct evil
dence of TIE hand of God. They remember
that the ear of the raid was the blacklist
in the country's history, with its miserable
tale of drought. rinderpest, and locusts;
and they joyously proclaim the difference
from this year OF plenty. In every phase
of this struggle one must recognize the
fervor of the people, and without
a full understanding of it no one can real
lie the forces at work within the Republic.
The Transvaalers believe themselves en-
gagged in holy war. and the fact is one
which the statesmen who arrange the final
settlement may not neglect
Every night the people meet in the big
church on the kerk Square a vast congre-
CATION OF women and children, with such OF
the men as can be present there. Wound
ed burghers from the front and these on
sprinkle the audience They at
tend the service as they would a war coun-
sci. and esteem their predikant as they
would weil-tried general The war seems
TO have burned out in great part the in
huences of the gold rush, and the people |
are become simple as in their PASTORAL
days.
Meantime there is neither death nor
desolation in the silent dorps and farm |
houses. Boer women are carrying OF the !
work OF their sons and husbands, direct |
ing the Kaffir labor. and themselves driv- |
ing 10 market as goodly loads as ever were |
seen there in peace times. But 1t is |
quietly done. There are vacant chairs and !
dusty untenanted velschoen to still the |
needless iaughN and to set the sad~eyed |
vrouw bustling about unnecessary duties |
when the children grow noisy or the Hot |
tentot kitchen help shouts across the yard. |
They are not beautiful. these Boer /
women, nor promising candidates for TO-
mantle treatment, but | have seen enough |
to know their practical value in the land |
On them falls the slow sorrow of the
times. TIE politics of the war were in
other hands but the prosecution of il ~ests |
IN great part with the women. Had they /
not taken the direction of the farms into
their own hands famine would now be |
staring the country in the face instead
Of well-flled granaries and forage sheds
While the ladies OF England have been
employed devising comforts for the troops |
he Boer women have busted themselves |
with getting in the mealies and digging
up the potato crops The same wcman's
near. beats with the same divine com
passion under the Boer vrouw's lyfje as
inder the daintiest vestment from Worth
This is war OF the Cromwelian pc
'iod. The men at the front may be degea-
rated Calvinists. may have all the vices
II the century END; but the women are
imple in the faith, and their faith kept
he men in their trenches at Colenso and
It Spion kop. When the history OF this
var is written the influence of the Boer
women will demand very spscial place
they have been single hearted in their
determination to maintain the independ-
nee. and have not faltered in giving their
earest TO its defence. l saw one woman
urn dry-eyed from the train at Pretoria
With the hoarse whisper:
g He's the fourth son ! have lost for
and en- Volk since Elandslaagte. God
reserve the Republic,
with such lie the prosecution of the
var and the difficulty of settlement. Paul
Kruger has not only the back-country
'oers to wrestle with; he has the women
q and around Pretoria, who dog his steps
nd exhort him TO remember the sacred
apse the people have sworn TO defend.
heir influence ennobles patriotism but II ,
lakes policy vastly more difficult"
May He Charged With Murder.
CHESTER, Pa, April 29.-District At ,
orney Josiah Smith last night took what