Los Angeles herald., 1907-08-04

grapes from the Cape orchards; Malay
I women with regular, oval features, carry
ing upon their backs enormous bundles
of washing: Beers with wagons and oxen,
cracking their long whips round the mar
ket square; half-castes and natives from
every tribe between the Zambesi and
Table Mountain, pass and repass, intent
upon their business. There is the sturdy
farmer from the back weld, making his
first visit ''to town." with his round
fringe, veldschoen of Unframed antelope
hide and nautical trousers buttoning at
the sides. and the Hebrew, predominant
In everything, In the saloon trade, the
cigarette trade, the factories, the gen.
eral stores
Before the war there existed in Jo-
hannesburg a syndicate, well organized,
with wide notifications controlled by
half a dozen mlllionaires, which sold
liquor Illegally to the natives at an enor-
nous profit. The penalty for conviction
of engaging In this traffic has now been
made life Imprisonment, and the strin-
gency of the law has mended matters,
but not ended them. Illegal whisky and
struggled opium are now the desperate
enterprise of few smaller men, who
cent profits which can be made by them.
In the old days, when Johannesburg
was still a mining camp, when beer and
champagne were both retailed at So the
bottle, In the corrupt and palmy days OF
the Kruger 6ligarchy, the liquor dealers
had a monthly turnover of millions, the
natives were debauched by Cape gin, and
all work upon the mines had to be sus-
pended between Saturday and Tuesday.
until they had recovered from their in
toxication. Vile alcohol, manufactured
from potatoes at a cost of about two
cents gallon, was colored. bottled and
retailed at - cents a drink. Usually the
manager of the nearest mine received a
salary from the syndicate to close his
eyes to the affair; and the majority of
the detective force likewise received a
salary from two different and, theoret-
ically, opposing powers. The bars in
which the liquor was sold were simple
rooms, adjoining some store, access be-
ing obtainable only through n single
door. The liquors stood upon disappear
Ing sideboard, which, when spring was
pressed, sank through n trapdoor In the
floor Spies stood at every corner in the
vicinity to keep watch against the ap-
proach of strangers of n suspicious ma
ture and should such draw near, an
electric signal bell rang out its warning,
so that the detective, rushing into the
store pistol in hand, would find nothing
more exhllarating than a party of KAT
frs bargaining over q blanket. Unless
one of these same bargainers happened
to be confederate of the raiding party,
and had retained the alcoholic bever-
age in his mouth through the me-
dunn of small sponge, and had thus
kept the evidence which was to send
the shebeener down to Cape Town for
a number of years, to help In construc-
ton work on the breakwater.
But the vengeance of the liquor syn
dictate was no less far-reaching than that
of the Illicit diamond brokers at kim
berley, and thus 1t occurred that the
role of Noah Claypole was never popu-
lar one.
Today the traffic Is chiefly In opium.
The importation of fifty thousand coolies
from China, accustomed to smoking it,
has led for an Unsuitable demand for the
product. Upon the Rand the name given
to the districts along the gold reef, there
exists yellow population of indentured
seryants-virtualy serfs-equal In num-
Der to all the whites in johannesburg I
Lodged In overcrowded compounds, where
they are confined like animals, liable TO
be logged for any infraction of disci-
pline by their white oyerseers. who have !