The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-06-11

little gentle stone rolling, barrowing. spading or anything else that has to be done"
 They have arrived at the place of work, and have been duly booked. Last to arrive is Koko, the interpreter, who does not work; a tall, handsome young mar. very erect and stately, with small hands and feet and a brown skin. He is grave and silent, and very courteous withal. The boys grin and laugh, and, raising the right hand in salute, vociferate 'Nsuku lunga, 'Nko- is" Roko, who speaks Dutch f1uently, together with good grammatical Eng fish, grayely says, Good morning, sir.' The boys continue to tIugh, chatter and lark, but Koko preserves an impressive demeanor, sitting for hours silently
 upon a stone, puffing at his pipe. He
 is a Christian in every sense Of the word; honest, honorable and true, ever mindful of his duty, and a treasure to the white man who bosses up' the Kafirs. But though brought up at Lovedale, he wears native charms around his neck beneath his shirt. As
 he naively says, "Oh, no. of course they
 can do no good; but, you see, they will
 do no harm"
 Zazini, the chief, does no work.
 Nothing would induce him to soil his
 hands with the indignity of manual la
 Dor. He is paid extra to keep his tribe
 in order, and sits all day in a wheel
 barrow, smoking. with an umbrella
 over his head and a couple of attend
 ants behind him.
 We are engaged upon the construc- tion of a sea wall, and bank consist ing of hand-packed stone-literally
 paving the way for a railroad. The material is obtained from the noun tain above us, and is hurled downward to the sea below. These raw Kaffirs hate steady work. They can only be induced to keep up a semblance of con- tinuous labor by the constant varia- tion of the programme, and by being
 granted occasional spells of relaxation. used to give prizes for smartness and expedition in bringing down rocks. I was several shillings a week out of pocket; but was recompensed by the hilarity and temporary energy of my boys, together with approval of my su- periors when they surveyed the work done, and observed the smiling (for-
 merly sullen) black faces.
 Again, constantly change your boys from below to above, from htavy work to light, and vice vehsa, get up novel, ties for them, as wheelbarrow races and stone-rolling competitions; humor them, pet them, chaff them; learn their names and study their idiosyncrasies;
 be fire and punish mildly upon occa- sion, but never strike or bully, and gang of Kafirs will do much good work. They contemptuously regard any dealings with small stones. Such offer
 no excitement, no danger, no prospect of killing, maiming, injuring or fright | ening man or beast, animate or inani- mate thing; but set dozen of them to bring down a tWo-tonner from the hill, and they will heave and strain heroi- cally, keeping time to a monotonous,
 responsive "chatty"-somewha as sail
 ors do when hauling at a rope; thus, "Conah la DO boh--eh, boh" The spell ling is phonetic. As hlgh-bred horse will quicken his pace and tug and | strain at the collar when breasting 1 hill Shutting up at the touch of the
 whip, ho these Kaffirs toll strenuously with huge powder, never pausing un- 1 til it goes laundering down into the valley, and so into it's place, or there 1 about; for they are not particular as
 to locality. And oh! the joy in their 1 breasts (but not in the bosom of the white maD, i'm the descending rock l narrowly escapes smashing to match
 wood the passing Cape cart of the en- | gineer in chief, the commissioner, or any other parsonage. Then arises the
 shrill whistle of delight, the whoop of
 victory, and the yell of scorn; to all o.
 which I reply (the parsonage being ab- sent or missed). "Lungile-it is we'll"
 Thus, by degrees, the mountain is de- nuded of powders, and the sea wall grows.
 l The boys are subject to moods, as
 the sea. Tau turn aside for moment, l or you lead the whole to some place of safety, warned by the f1uttering red 1 flags indicative of blasting of some ad- | iacent point along the works. When you prepare to resume work, where are your Kaffirs? Truly everywhere
 save where they ought to be; some last
 to view entirely, others squatting in the 1 bush, smoking as serenely and happily
 as though the world were naught but
 school of philosophic thought; others 1 far up the mountainside are gathering 1 firewood wherewith to cook their mea- jie-meal in camp. At such time it will
 be well for you to count the gang and 1 call the roll. You cannot get them to
 realize the solemnity of labor, you can
 not bring guilty look upon those in-
 genuous brown faces. The labor of
 marshaling mob of wild cattle is re- 1 taxation compared with getting a
 Kaffir gang in order after a stampede. 1 They purchase eagerly cast-off boots, coats, trousers, waistcoats, shirts or
 hats; always bidding lone shilling"
 This standard bid (couched in their
 only English) is a joke between them
 and the white man, business usually
 resulting at higher figure. They re-
 gard all vestments from an ornamental
 rather than useful standpoint. 1 Worn-out military and police tunics
 and overcoats are greatly desired by
 them. Though always wearing the | blanket only in camp, they invariably
 don clothes when proceeding to work,
 wearing these in an original manner l ovnrcoats s1unp around the 1OinS Detti-