davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-21

mountain and Lions Head to the city
with beautiful views in sight all the way.
But let us go down and take walk
through this capital of South Africa
Capt Town is the gate to this end of the
continent and for more than two hundred
years IL has been the chief door through
which the whites have gone in and out
II has now in the neighborhood of 300, 900
people and is one of the fine little cities
of the world. Laid out as Dutch town
in avenues running from Table mountain
to the sea and crossed by other streets at
right angles, its old Boer buildings are
gradually disappearing and 1t has now
shops and streets which would do credit
to the largest cities of the United States
IL has a post office structure which sur
passes in size that of any American city
OF twice its population, and its parliament
houses are perhaps the finest buildings in
Africa. They were erected some years
ago at cost of more than a million dol
lars. They are OF the renaissance style
with porticos upheld by Corinthian col
umns and are surrounded by beautiful
gardens. in which marble statue of
Queen Victoria stands at the front. Each
of the houses has a floor space as large
as that OF the house of commons in Eng
land. and the building contains throne
room, showing the allegiance Of the coun-
try to the king. The parliament which
meets here is that of Cape Colony and it
governs this vast territory. comprising the
best of the lands south of the Transvaal
including Kimberley and it's diamonds and
also the chief sheep and cattle growing.
fruit raising and ostrich farming parts of
this continent.
Cape Town is largely the business capt.
tai of South Africa. 1t has the head
quarters of all the big banks and of the
chief exporting and importing firms.
Adderley street. the principal thorough
fare, is lined with big business blocks.
and there is a wholesale section which
has many fine buildings.
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-21

During my stay here 1 have had talks
with some of the leading financiers as
to the financial conditions of this part
of the world. Business is still bad and it
has been so since the BOer war. The re-
cent panic and depression in the United
States have seriously affected the dia-
mond mines and nave led to the discharge
of thousands of hands There are many
other men out of employment and not a
few of the business men are mortSaged
up to their eyes.
1t seems to me that times cannot but
continue bad in South Africa for a good
conditions were excellent, and during it
prosperity reigned. The people here are
naturally as optimistic are and
they have all the push and energy OF a
people developing a new country. When
times are good they borrow all the money
they and bet on the future. Before
the war much of their business was done
on credit, but conditions were then COM
paratively fixed and they could rely on
meeting their bills AS long a s the strug-
gle continued Englands purse-strings
were opened and money flowed like water.
business was doomed to correspond with
the new conditions. Many buildings were
erected in all the cities, and especially in
Cape Town, Durham and Johannesburg.
New ships were brought into the carry
ing trade, new institutions of all kinds
created and wages and expenses, already
high. were enormously increased. Then
the war ended and the soldiers left. ne
money flood was succeeded by money
drought and the creditors began to ask
for the payment of their bills. This caus-
ed failures in all departments of trade,
the tide of immigration turned the other
way and thousands We're thrown out of
work AT the same time stores and houses
became vacant, the prices Of property be-
gan to drop, and the competition for ten
ants brought down the rents.
This situation has almost steadily con-
tinued since the war and tn country is
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-21
4 CAPE TOWN. THE CAPITAL OF SOUTH AFRICA y

pays 6 PEI cent dividends. Nearly all of
these banks have had a considerable re-
duction of deposits during the past two
years, and their stocks have fallen in
value.
When it is remembered that South
Africa is largely Il desert and that it
has. all told, only about 100000 white
people, the wonder is that it can support
such banks at all 1t seems to me that
business Of all kinds is much overdone.
The steamship lines are too many the
railroads too expensive and the cities too
big for the populations. This is especially
SO considering that the products of these
100000 whites are almost altogether
owned in Europe, and the profits of their
tabor are spent there. The diamond
mines and gold mines are owned abroad.
They are worked by cheap native and
Chinese labor, and the country lacks the
means of prosperity of the great produce
ing regions of the United States. Indeed
the Beers claim that South Africa would
be far better off if it had less gold and
diamonds and went more into agriculture.
They think that higher wage rate would
benefit its industries, causing more OF
the money to be spent at home.
IN many respects Cape Colony is better
OH than the TransVaal the Orange Free
State and other provinces of South Africa.
Ii is given up to farming and stock rails
ing and is q land of mixed industries.
The colony is one of the largest of the
British possessions of this part of the
continent. 1t is 900 miles long and 400
800 miles wide. being more than four
times the size of either New York or
Pennsylvania. 1t is twice big as
Great Britain or Ireland. and, including
years ago, it is bigger than Texas or
any country in Europe, with the eXcep-
ton of Russia
Cape Colony is the oldest part of South
Africa and is by far the best settled. 1t
has almost many white people as Bos-
ton, and its colored population num-
bers almost as many as there are souls
in Chica go. There are many good-SiZed
towns. This place. with its suburbs, has
100000; Kimberley has about $3.50. and
Port Elizabeth $4,000 or more. Wood
stock has $4,000; Grahamstown, 14,00O,
and East London, % 900. There are towns
of from 1850 to 10GJ0 scattered here and
there over the country, and there are
many thriving farmin;. communities.
In coming here from the TranSvaal L
rode for day through the Orange River
Colony. and from there across Cape Col
ony to the Cape of Good Hope. The
land is all high and dry and the most
of 1t has a climate in which white
man can work. The Orange River Col
ony is about as big as the state of New
York. and its population of whites is not
half as large as that of Buffalo. The
country is mostly a grassy plain, fading
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-21

now getting down to a hard-pan basis. II
will probably improve later on, but JUST
now its condition is bad.
Banking here is not the same as in the
United States. With us every little town
has its individual bank, and there are
hundreds of small institutions operating
with capitals of $4,000 and upward.
Here all the money is handled by half
dozen great banks, with branches reach
ing to all parts of South Africa. These
big banks report to each other and. al
though competitors, work largely in har-
mony. If a mans credit is bad it soon
becomes generally known, and if one
bank drops him he has little hopes from
the others.
AS to the extent of the banking, l have
before me some reports of the big in
situations The Standard Bank of South
Africa is now doing d business of some
thing like $3.50 600 900 per annum on a
capital of less than eight millions. 1t has
about S100, OOG 900 worth of deposits, and
its profits are 100000 and upward per
year. During great part of its exist
ence it has paid as much as is per cent,
and 1t is now paying 16. Notwithstanding
the hard times.
Another big institution is the Bank of
Africa, which has a capital of $1,000 900.
This bank has deposits of s3OGO0.0OO or
$50 600, and it's assets and liabilities
are about $4,000 900. 1t has been paying
13 per cent until recently. when the divi-
dends were cut to 10 per cent. with a
prospect Of going down still lower. The
Natal Bank, which does business chiefly
IN Natal and the Transvaal, has cap
ital of only $25O1,OO0, but its deposits
amount to something like $19.0OO000 or
SO, GOO, 600. and it pays about II per cent
The National Bank of South Africa
with a capital of over 100000, has de-
posits of $4,000, coo and pays per cent,
while the African Banking Corporation
has running accounts of from $50 900, 900
to So 100000 on capital of So coo. 900, and
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-21

then to maids and matrons of the middle
class so hard put to t-poor things,-to
dress fashionably on their incomes from
Investments
Girls found they could make their own
Irish lace. And what uses they found for
it--entire Irish lace blouses. collars. ra-
bats. entre-deuX and motives to encrust
in lingerie skirts, blouses and under
wear!
So much SO that great bowls were heard
from Dublin to London when the French
made Irish lace display dawned on the
Anglo-French exposition. And now in
Parish Irish lace mantles-rea1 Irish lace
though rather coarse, real rmantles,
though rather short-can be bought down
as low as $50 cash without injuring their
vogue as garments of the highest fash
ion.
And finding they could do their Irish, -
these French girls and married ladies
turned to Venice point
Now, if Irish lace is crochet work, Ven
ice may be likened to embroidery
Lace began with embroidery In the
sixteenth century the Venctians intro
duced into 1t openwork designs cut in the
canvas and surrounded by various works
in needle point.
Next they began to draw threads in the
canvas on which later on to work. These
are called cut-point embroidery and
drawn-thread embroidery. But the open
work designs gave birth to the reseul, a
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-21

clouds would rest upon it and fall down
over its sides like a tablecloth.
Table mountain is $500 feet high one
side of ii is such that ii can be climbed
in three hours, and in that space of time
YOU can reach one of the finest views Ill
the world. The mighty southern ocean
stretches beyond you at the front and on
the right and the left. You can almost
follow with your eye the course of Bar
tholomeW DiaZ when he discovered the
Cape of Good Hope. That was six years
before Columbus started out to find the
new world, and the ocean below us was
then so rough that he named that point
the Cape of Storms. IT was along the
same track that Nasco da Cana went on
around the continent to India a few years
later, skirting Cape Agulhas, the south
ernmost point of the African continent
which lies down there a little off TO the
left.
Cane Town is just under you, so close
that YOU can toss a rock into its streets,
and beyond it IS Table bay, the great port
of entry for the whole of South Africa
Diaz and Da Cana had ships OF less
than one hundred tons, the mighty steam
ers which are floating down there at The
wharf each run high into the thousands
of tons and more than TWO thousand OF
them leave and call every year Ships
with a tonnage aSSreSatnS more tlan
ten millions went in and out of that port
within the last twelve months. and this
has become one Of the great water gates
of the world
Tht. harbor looks small from the top OF
the mountain but il has more than two
miles of uuayS, which can accommodate
vessels drawing thirty feet. 1t Is smell
tered by a break-water thirty-six hundred
feet long. and its larger division, Victoria
basin, covers thirty-six acres. Looking
hn af oct pif
cranes. and back of them the warehouses.
which can store seventy thousand tons
of cargo at one time, and at the reser-
voirs, which hold mountains of coal.
Among the ships are boats from East
and West Africa, from London and lam
burg. and great liners on their way To
Australia and India. There are the mali
steamers of the Union Castle Company
which carry not only passengers. ana
express but the vast treasures which are
always flowing out of the diamond and
gold mines OF this great vault
Now turn your eyes from the harbor To
the great hill which lies across the ravne
from where we are standing. That is the
Lions Head. which forms another part
of the background OF the horseshoe val
ley surrounding the bay. That peak is
almost high Table mountain. and
the electric car which you can see wniz-
Zing along at its feet. looking pygmy
like In the distance. will give you one of
the finest street ear rides of the world.
You can take il in the heart of Cape
Town and wind your way around the bay
under this great Table rock and come
back through the valley between Table
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-21

button and as clean as a pin. 1t lies
right on the Atlantic, washing its feet
in Table bay. Behind and above it
rise the two mighty rocky formations
known as Table mountain and the Lions
Head They are bedded in green and
they shut out the half desert lands which
fade away into the great Karoo. far her
north.
Table mountain is rightly so called. 1t
is a mighty block OF rock which rises al
most straight up behind the town to a
height more than six times that OF the
Washington monument, cutting the sky
line with a Jagged horizontal front two
miles in length. II you could take one
of the htghest % our Allegheny noun
tains, slice Off It's top so that 1. looks
like table and plant il down behind
Boston you might have about the effect
that Table mountain has at the city of
the cape. The mountainsides would need
to be cut so as TO be almost precipitous,
and Its top should be regular as
though the gods of nature had smoothed
Il off with A knife. Standing I'm Boston
there would be times when the whole
great Table rock would be clear and
clean-cut. At other times X would be lost
In the mist. and again low. oyerhangins
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-21
IRISH noT1F Or DE11eN

laces: but once more, IN these last days.
it and Venetian point have had good luck
escaping the wrath of the great dress
makers. One reason has been lesser cost.
Another reason is that you can cut them
thus not "hindering inspiration" Lastly,
Irish and Venetian lace have a heavy
body. You shall see how this detail made
their fashionable ~vogue-when France
lately rlised her import duties on them!
1t seems only yesterday, when the hand
of Partisan dressmakers bore its heaviest
on lace: and Paris notwithstanding,
yet tanned by submission-thirSted for it.
Some rich and eccentric beauty, finding
that French customs duties now prohib
ed commercial importation of it, gave up
some 500 while in London for a heavy
Irish lace mantle-and sprung it on Paris.
X
I say yesterday. perhaps it was four
years ago. In any case. the mantles-es-
Gaping dressmakers and their wrath
were wonderfully useful Worn over any
kind of summer gown, the simplest.
cheapest linen thing the Irish mantle
made combination elegant and rich be-
yond compare.
Instantly the Paris craze for making
Irish lace was started. 1t was in demand
for nantes, and those customs made it
possible for French girls to produce it
probably. So bread cast upon the waters
long ago in 1916 by the French Mdlle. Rie-
go de la Blanchardiere came back. first
to a thousand working girls of Paris,
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-21

out here and there into desert. Consid-
cradle stock is Erazed near the railway.
l saw droveS of cattle. a few sheep and
now and then herd of AnSora goats.
Most of the territory has been practically
inaccessible until within the past ten
years
AS to Cape Colony. its northern por-
ton is of much the same nature. The
land drops in mighty steps known as the
Karoos The upper karoo at the north
ranges in altitude from 1900 to 5000 feet.
1t is almost desert and droughts are
frequent Below this is what is known
as the Great Karoo, consisting of rolling
plains rising gradually to a height OF
about 1000 feet. This country is COW
cred with a sort OF sheep BUSH upon
which the cattle. goats ana sheep reed
1t is dry and healthy and is fitted for
stock raising. Still further south about
the Cape and west of here back OF the
ocean is a large area devoted not ohiy
to stock but to grain and fruit raising
Rack Of the Cape of Good Hope are large
VINEYARDS, which produce something IKE
ron million gallons of wine and hllliioh
baIf gallons of brandy every year,
anu Use reaches, apricots, apples anu
- and ship fruit in coid storage
Ptondon and the United States. :,
Great part of Cape Colony Is Wen
prassed and there is conslderdoie SUN
farrninp The average ranch contains
about 1000 acres and upward lahu vi
that kind selling for 81 or IS per acre;
The grass is thin. and IL IS estiiiidteu
that every head OF cattle VIII need from
ten 10 twenty acres and every sheep one
or two acres In the haroo even more
land will be required
At present the colony has about l2.oooUo
sheep 100000 goats, 2,oOo.ooo cattie ana
one-half million horses and mules The
farmers tell me that there is some money
in horse raising as the country does not
raise enough for its own needs. The mar
ket price of draft horses is now S1UO and
upward.
The chief stock now grown here are
sheep and goats. The climate and feed
make excellent wool, and the mohair is
good. The country is now ex-
porting something like sl0G00,0t1 worth
of wool annually, and it's mohair brings
the highest prices. 1 am told that there
are 3OO0.Co0 Angora goats i'm the colony,
and that good ones are now selling for
upward of s. apiece.
AS to the sheep, they remind me of
those of Australia. They are Merinos,
which were brought here centuries ago
from Spain and which formed the start
of the Australian stock. There is also
common cape sheep which thrives well.
The farms are largely in the karoo. The
sheep are usually kept In large hocks.
single farmers having as many as 10000
each. FRANK G. CARPENTER
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-21

produce sumptuous tissues fit for prin-
ceSSeSi
1t was Il French lady, Mdlle. Riego de
Ia Blanchardiere. and she invented Irish
lace just after the great famine of 1910
Ito give those good and pretty girls some
work
Her model was a piece of Venice point.
selected for her by philosophical esthetfc
Jesuit father; and the noble French girl,
copying it in crochet with audacity and
ingenuity that rose to inspiration, &C
tually turned out Il new kind CT lace, re-
sembling the Venice point only in heavy
richness a lace OF naughty and preten-
tious appeal that had but to be seen by
the young beauties o. the court of youn g
Victoria to be adopted by them with en-
thuSiasm.
The new industry brought great relief
to Ireland In thousand cottages the
pretty girls of Erin sat beside their happy
mothers with their threaded crochet nee
die, turning out the motifs by the hun
dreds-to be later joined together in a
sumptuous bewildering profuson that al
most concealed the reseau of the network
holding all together, itself an irregular
and charming kind of motif!
In 1880 Queen Victoria wore a queenly
mantle of it. and when in 1876 the En-
press Eugene returned from her Wind
sor visit. she brought back to France Il
similar mantle and the vogue of Irish
lace--invented by French girl.
1t had its ups and downs with other
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-21

ton, was himself astounded at the mass
of work presented to his amateurs lace
exposition by young girls and married
ladies OF all classes.
American ladies' visiting Paris are the
moro impressed because the high Partisan
dressmakers had so banished the great
iaces from their own creations"
Fashionables who would blush to put
on imitation pearls or rabbit skin ermine
have been trained W by these arrogant
dressmakers to sport machine-made chan
tilly brussels. venice and Irish lace az
their natural decoration.
Why? How? Having accustomed eli
ents to pay dearer for their gowns than
for art objects. they know that expense
and $500 for charlottesville combina-
lions of cheap tissues, dinky tulles and
ribbons: shall they add lace that costs
$50 the yard? They'd have to charge
$500 for it. Also, who wants to see O
lovely client flourish round three seasons
in gown Of rare chantilly? They would
rather sell her something new and dear
and fifmsy every season.
So the great dressmakers found the
great laces an Obstacle to their Gin
spiration" with the added pretext that
they are "too precious to be cut
The proof that the demand for modern
real lace had SO gone down that the
workers had fallen off In number-while
demanding higher priests that ancient
and historic laces sell at auction cheaper
than they could be reproduced.
In 1905 two collars and cuffs in old
venetian rosepoint were knocked down a,
the Hotel Drouot for 500; a large f1ounce
ana skirt front in Bruges point, 500,
while In 1906 a f1ounce of Venice point
bearing the arms Of Austria and France,
from the trousseau of Marie Antoinette
herself, was sold for 81, 4OO-and it meas
ured nearly yards
In l3Of prices were even worse Sixteen
yards or splendid ancient English arplira-
ton fetched 5000. less than $40 per yard
All this Is below the old cost price in the
Gays when courtiers of Louis XIV maid
their 1860 livres fer a pair of cuffs. And
VET should you order new lace of the
same class made-why, the cbantiilv
prloai ven of Anna Gould. when she
espoused Boni de Castellane, cost som
to make. wow"
Such was the situation when the craze
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-21

tissue with regular meshes, which was
the beginning of network.
Then. inside these mesheS, they began
embroidering different designs. From this
to lace was but a step. They cut out and
notched the meshes and the bands of net
work. invented new and varied points
and lace was created,
Watching a Partisan young lady do her
Venice ] seem to see the whole evolu-
ton of lace in her dainty productions.
This is not bobbin lace-it came into the
world later. AS in doing Irish. the girl
seems to be crocheting, SO when she does
in and out the canvas!
Both also make motifs or desiEns. In
Venice lace such motifs are detached
squares for insertions. When long bands
Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-11-21
TE1JHLAcE The NoTE:5 UN17ED

making English point: and others ac-i
tually throw bobbins round lot of cum
ningly placed pins stuck into a big cush-'
ion brussels chantily. yalenciennes.
Why not buy Neutrality-suspicious. ma
chine-made copies of chantiIly SO fine that!
professionals in the I'D days turned
out but two yards in Their year? First.
in copying such fine work the machine
has limitS-threadS tear when they get too
fine. Thus machine-made copies always
are more coarse than the originals. Sec
ondly. they do not last. Thirdly. they
look what they are-machine-.nade.
Wake up and make your own la @!
Irish and Venetian. because Vt theft
heavy sumptuosity. can never be replaced
by anything but their own selves.
STERLING HELLO.