Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1900-05-09
aNisttllaneous 3eaaing.
BRAVE BOER WOMEN.
They Work The Farms While the Men Are
Fighting.

Fighting.
New York Sun.
With practically every able.bodied
man and boy at the front, the duty OF
looking after the farms has devolved
upon the women of the Transvaal.
The Importance of this is easily real
lied when one considers that the army,
as famous general said, is like SER
pent, for it moves on its belly. Some
light is thrown upon the splendid man
ner in which these Boer women have
worked by a letter written from Pre-
toria by Douglas Story. Here is bis
description of Pretoria market:
"Two long rows of wagons stood
axle-deep in the mud, with their cur
tains rolled up, their Interiors showing.
In each was Boer woman, sometimes
couple, and always a yopngster or
two. But there was no man, and peo'
pie refrained from reference to the
,absenlees. Gowned in black, with her
sallow, wrinkled face set far back III
her black kippie, the Boer women sits
on bundle of clothing in the hinder
part of the wagon eyeiDg the crowd
Before her on a 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 over heaped wagons OF
forage and heavy loads of potatoes III
bags. Their immediate object was
business, and 1 stood curlously by
while the auctioneer disposed of thell
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 auc.
lioneer's quick hammer had cleared
the lot. Then they climbered silently
into the wagon again and resumed
their interrupted toilet. Crowded
market square or solitary veldt brought
no blush to their cheek, and they
braided their hair in the full presence
of the townspeople without a sign Of
embarrassment. Bushes are the lux.
uries of the rich and the grace of the
effete dwelers in towns. The veldt
woman has no use for such fopperies,
and despises them.
"Meanwhile the potatoes and meal.
les were passing under the hammer,
and I noted the prices they fetched in
war time. 1 and other ignorant per.
SONS had predicted failure in the food
supply consequent upon the absence OF
the men upon commando. We had
reck koned without the Boel vrouw and
remarkably rainy season. Prices
are lower today than l have ever
known them in the Transvaal. When
Jameson crossed the border, four years
ago, forage was f6 los. per hundred
bundles today it is 25s. per hundred
bundles. Potatoes have fallen from
45s. to 15s. the bay. TO its own as,
tonishment, the Transvaal has emerged
from the battle smoke an agricultural
country.
"In war time, in the face of posi-
BILE siege, prices in Pretoria are less
than one. half of those current in Bulu'
wayo. Forage is f3 l5s. in Buluwayo
but only 25s. in Pretoria ; Boer'meaI
is sold at 55s. in Buluwayo but fetches
only 25s. in Pretoria. l saw bags oI
potatoes change hands today at l5s
the bag, when the price in Buluwayo
is 60. Whatever else may fail them
the food supply is assured.
"The extraordinary favorable sea-
son which has marked this year of wal
has seemed to the Boer women direct
evidence of the hand of God. They
remember that the year of the raid
was the blackest in the country's his
tory, with its miserable tale of drought
linderpests, and locusts and they JOY
ously proclaim the difference from this
year of plenty. In every phase ol
this struggle one must recognize the
religious fervor of the people, and
without full understanding of it, nc
one can realize the forces at work with
in the republic. The Transvaalers be-
lieve themselves engaged in a holy
war, and the fact is one which the
statesmen who arrange the final settle
ment may not neglect.
EVERY night tre people meet in the
big church on the Kerk square, a vast
congregation of women and children,
with such of the men as can be present
there. Wounded burghers from the
front and those on furlough sprinkle
the audience. They attend the service
as they would war council, and
esteem their predikant as they would
well.tried general. The war seems
to have burned out in great part the
influences of the gold rush, and The
people are becoming simple as in their
pastoral days.
"Meanwhile there is neither death
nor desolatiou in the silent drops and
farmhouses. Boer women are carrying
on the work of their sons and hus.
bands, directing the Kailir labor, and
themselves driving to market as good
ly loads as ever were seen there III
peace times. But it is quietly done.
There are vacant chairs and dusty, un-
tenanted velschoen to still the needless
laugh, and to set the sad.eyed vrouw
bursting about unnecessary duties
when the children grow noisy or the
Hottentot kitchen help shouts across
the yard.
"They are not beautiful, these Boer
women, nor promising candidates for
romantic treatment; but | have seen
enough to know their practical value
in the land. On them falls the slow
sorrow of the times. The politics OF