The Birmingham age-herald., 1907-07-21

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 q dozen millionaires, 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 Bmuggled opium are now the desperate enterprise of n few smaller men, who stake their liberties against the 1 ,000 per cent profits which can be made by them.
 In the old days, when Johannesburg was still mining camp, when beer and champagne were both retailed at s5 the bottle, In the corrupt and pamy days of the Kruger oigarchy, 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
 
 retailed at 12 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 salary from two different and, t1eoret- ically, opposing powers. The bars in which the liquor was sold were simple rooms, adjoining some store. access be- f-x ol1k ain ofo door. The liquors stood upon a disappear ing sideboard, which, when a spring was pressed sank through trapdoor In the floor. Spies stood at every corner in the vicinity to keep watch against the ap- proach of strangers of a suspicious na- ture; and should such draw near, an electric signal bell rang out It's warning, 80 that the detective, rushing into the store, pistol In hand would find nothing more exhilarating than a party of Kaf- frs bargaining oyer blanket. Unless one of these same bargainers happened to be confederate of the raiding party and had retained the alcoholic beyer- age in his mouth through the me dium of a 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 dIcate 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 fin 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 a yellow population of indentured servants-virtually serfs-equal in num- Der to all the whites In Johannesburg Lodged In overcrowded compounds where they are confined like animals, liable to be fogged for any infraction of disci- pline by their white overseers. who have learned the summary ways of the Boers with natives, from time to time some of this seethlng horde overwhelms It's guards, breaks out, and takes to life of pillage and murder along the outlying districts
 South Africa Is not an especially law abiding country, and the punishment of the opium smuggler is usually summary.  He is offered the choice between fog ging and period of Imprisonment, and. of course, chooses the former. There upon he is strapped tightly to wagon wheel and receives fifty lashes from whip of hippopotamus hide, wielded by half-castes. These men, delighted at talk ing thefr revenge upon one of the white race, do not spare the victim. His back is literally cut to pieces, and, at the end, half-dead and streaming with blood, he | is flung out of the compound.
 | One of the illustrations depicts the l great market square, feature common | to all South African cities, which are | built around them. When one of the | frequent tornadoes comes along 1t be- | comes a reservoir of dust, which invades every corner of the town, compelling the housewife to en9a2e in an additional