BoletiÌn mercantil de Puerto Rico. (San Juan, P.R.) 18??-1918, 1902-06-03
Of 4 YOUNG Amer:
icon win The British A[Tly
in Ihe Tr0lSVQ0|.

A young man and college chum,
finding life at an Eastern university
too monotonous, departed for South
Africa in search of adventure. AS he
would have a better op 2ortunity of
seeing the country by doing so, young
Tinan joined a special corps connected
with the British army His expert
ences have been many and varied, and
considerable of the information which
he has secured since arriving in the
land of the Beers will be continued in a
series of illustrated articles which he is
preparing for leading Eastern ma
gazine.
His latest letter contains descriptions
/ of the country travelled over in making
the long journey from Cape Colony to
the wilder portions of the Transvaal |
1t is dated at NVarmbad, Transvaal and
is as follows:
Talk about a winter in Florida or a |
summer in Atlantic City, neither of
them is in it with my present snap.
I'm afraid you won't believe me when I
tell you about it. But, first of all, let
me tell you about my trip up here. l
left Port Elizabeth Tuesday morning,
arrived at Craddock at $40 and at Ros-
mead Junction at 9, where met my
,, cycle track machine and brought it up
{ here with me. The trip from Rosmead
Junction to the Orange river was the
Same old story of Cape Colony; nothing
6 but rocks and brush: There is 200
: yard bridge at Orange river, guarded
. by four immense stone blockhouses.
The railroad station at that point was
i. alive with military police, all heavily
armed. 1t is the frontier of the Free
= :, State and Transvaal, and how they do
: watch civilians:
From Orange river to Springfontein
it was all hills, like Cape Colony.
= . North of Bloemfontein we came to
:, ;. broad plains, for all the world like the
J Dakotas AS we got farther north the
- grass began to get greener and more
T rank. After we left Kronstadt, 100
= miles south of the Transvaal border, the
country was simply beautiful Grass as
- high as ones knees and bright and
- = green as you could see,' and it kept
- getting finer all the time as we went
:, = north.
by the time we had crossed the
q q Vaal river and entered the Transvaal l
; - sat with eyes and mouth wide open,
II fguratively speaking - and it takes
! something in the way of scenery to
y make me stare after having seen all
!. that is of any note in the states from
:, the Atlantic to the Pacific. The fat
- open country of which am writing is
- nothing like that to be seen on the
- Western plains of the United States
" The latter is not to be compare to it in
beauty and grandeur.
"The grass is up to your waist, and
below, next to the ground, is as fine
and thick growth of grass as | ever
saw upon the lawn of a rnillionaire's
home. AS soon as we reached the
Transvaal we came into the coal min
ing district; and as we came to Glands
fontein, a junction and suburb oi
d. johannesburg, gold mines lay stretched
d out as far as the eye could reach.
tell you, it was an eye-opener. l see
no what England is fighting for.
"After we left Elandsfontein for Pre-
d toria we got into hilly country again
ID but the vegetation was just AS beautiful
a. Pretoria is a regular garden.
e. The government buildings are very
handsome. Saw old Krugers house
D. also the famous race course. Was in
+. the city five hours and saw all that was
to be seen.
North of Pretoria the country bee
Of ONES flat and open again, until you get
> five miles north of here; then another
bunch of hills, but all covered with a
rich growth of grass. This place is
" about sixty miles north of Pretoria
- - The country up here and the Free State
n are both as far ahead of Cape Colony
= as day is brighter than night.
h mot only is the country richer and
more habitable in every way, but all
Improvements are on much grander
scale. Money seems to have been pour.
ed in like water and been expended
; with a lavish hand The railroads are
: railroads-big, heavy rails and they
= have as good signal system as is in
operation on the New York Central
The yards and stations are treat to
look at after sojourn in Cape Colony.
= OF course. the English have taken pos
4 4 session of it all now.
r "Wel1, as to this place. It's nothing
s but military station and base; no civi-
). lians at ALL did not know what I
: was coming to, and maybe wasn't
4 surprised! Expected to find few SWIM
! ming pools, knowing that there were
baths here, but what dou think; mons
ter hotel and thirty lighthouses, each
! containing four bathrsoms, with hot and
!. cold water. All of it is piped from the
e hills to the north, and geologists say
+ that the source of the water is way up
e in Sahara desert, north Of B1lawayo.
The bath tubs are the finest porce-
lain, 7 feet long, 8 feet wide and 5 feet
e deep. The lighthouses are all finished
{ in qeatilul selected woods and highly
d polished Everything about them is as