Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-10-20
THE BOERS AT HOME.
Some Notes on Their Minds and Their
Ways.
From the COrnhill Mayazipe

sumo VOTES on Their Minds and Their
Ways.
From the Cornhill Magazine
I have not myself acquired any fuency in
the Low Dutch which is spoken by the I'M
educated Boer, and also by the colored peo-
pie; but, indeed, there no advantage to
be gained by SO doing, for conversation in
any real sense of the word they have none.
How often have listened to an intelligent,
well-informed English farmer holding forth
on home or foreign politics, or even on
some subject of local interest, to one of his
Dutch neghbors, whose only part in the
conversation was to say. about three times
every minute: ia, Mr.. k; ia. Mr.
K" sometimes repeating in addition,
the last two three words of his inter-
locutor's sentence; and the constant repeti-
ton of this pregnant observation, in the
course of half an hour or so, becomes to
the silent listener equally ridiculous and
wearSome.
l think it scarcely possible for any one
who has not lived among the lower class
OF Beers TO gauge their really vast ig-
norance. They have no knowledge OF any
world outside the veldt and the little Du: CHI
village. or church place" where they as
semble four times year to receive the
sacrament and hold holiday; their lives
are as totally devoid of any intellectual in
terest as the lives of their Kaffir and Hot
tentot servants had almost said of their
goats and ostriches A large proportion of
them can neither read nor write, as often
had occasion to observe when they came to
the field cornet to register birth or
death, and did not know how to spell their
own names. One in particular | recan
VINO, by freak of fate, inherited the Illus
trlous name of Erasmus, and who came to
register the death of his wife When called
upon to sign his name he proceeded to form
iaboriously several small letters-two or
three MS four It's" three RS" and so
al
When the work, which occupied at least
ten minutes. was completed, he surveyed it
with pride and satisfaction, and remarked:
There: 1t is not very we'll written, GER
tainly, but still it is quite legible,"
The Beers. as a rule, marry very young
between the ages of sixteen and twenty;
and as the Dutch Church in its wisdom has
ordained that they shall not marry until
they nave been confirmed and that they
shall not be confirmed until they can sign
their names and repeat certain answers in
the Dutch catechism. It therefore follows
.hat When they want to get married they
forthwith learn, not to write, but to form
mechanically, and in correct order the LET
tiers composing their name, and they also
learn, not to read, but they acquire orally
that portion of the Dutch catechism which
1t behOoves them to know, and in later
LIE, for want of practice, even this amount
OF useful knowledge Is frequently forgotten.
Two marked characteristics of the Boer
which have strongly appealed to the svm-
pathy of many people not otherwise favor
able to his cause, are his attachment 10 the
SOIL and his love of independence the latter
quality being marred by the circumstance
that he does not willingly concede indie
pendence to any one else.
Inc spot of ground on which he is born
and reared seems to be almost sacred to
the Boer and moreover, to his children
AFTER him. As an instance Of this | know
Of several cases where three or four gem
erations of one family have congregated on
single farm, until 1t is impossible for the
land to support them, impossible for them
to live there in comfort or even decentlv
A Dutch farmer has, let us say three sons
When they grow up he gives them oh
piece OF his farm; they build themselves
houses OF kind; they marry and bring I'D
their children there Later on the children
or these brothers intermarry; the farm ia
then 1urther subdivided, until at last each
one mas the merest plot of ground suf-
nclent 10 reed few goats and to grow a
Few vegetables. Yet they would rather
continue to exist In this miserable manner
imam leave the original home and work
tneir way up to better condition in some
other part Of the country
More however. than even the beloved
homestead does the Boer cherish his indie
pendence, partly, no doubt, as we vaina
anything for which we have fought a stern
fight and endured much hardship He
knows that, In times past, by fierce co,r-
age, by patient endurance, by logged. nm
yielding determination and tenacity. he has
subdued the wilderness and made birnse1f
households in the fastness of the savage
kafhr and the beast of prey. He breads
notning more than to lose what has been so
hardly gained. A ~