Cape Colony

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9. Odds And Ends



Ours is a village divided against itself. It came into existence with the railway, of which for some time it formed the terminus. In those days, strings of bullock waggons and mail-carts left and arrived at this point from places in the interior.

When the plans for our township were first drawn up, it was divided into village and railway camp.

The railway property is governed from headquarters or Cape Town, and the village is practically controlled (?) from the same quarter, for its inhabitants, outside railway employes (of whom, with the exception of four white families and a handful of natives, it is composed) are not strong enough, either financially or in voting power, to do much independently.

Railway employes are, as a body, of little use to any township. They do not know for how long they will be able to live in one place, and so take little interest in its progress, nor are they likely to spend money on improvements, which they might never enjoy. For the same reasons, our particular village has no governing body with powers to manage the aflEairs of the township, which are consequently left to manage themselves, with disastrous results to the death-rate.

It is true that the Government appointed a Board of Health for camp and village. After a year of existence nothing had been done beyond drawing up a reasonable set of rules, which the Government neither accepted nor rejected. At the time of writing, not one member of that Board exists. One member died, two left the township, one retired from ill-health, and the remaining member retired because he felt lonely. After a year's work and letterwriting, the village was in the same state as it was to begin with, and the deathrate as high as ever.

A new Board has been appointed, who hope for better things and a more useful existence.

The inhabitants of the towns and villages along the railways are very much like the members of one big fiunily. Any one travelling by the Cape railways must have noticed how the stations en route are often crowded with the inhabitants of the camp or village surrounding it, and how every one seems to know every one else, exchanging friendly greetings, learning the latest news, and gossip time to study this family feeling is on such occasions as New Year's night The up and down trains used to cross each other in our township just at midnight. On New Year's night it was a sight worth seeing. When the trains arrived, every one fraternised with every one else, shaking hands like old friends, drinking toasts, and roaring out songs of loyalty and Midship.. Their singing was accompanied by the clanging of every variety of bell in the camp, and the squealing of the whistles of every engine in tiie sheds, which was able to get up steam enough for the purpose.

It is surprising how many people you get to know after spending a year or two in a camp. Wherever one goes about the country afterwards, one is nearly sure to meet with somebody he knew before.

This big Cape " family " is not so large, but that the individual members are often very jealous of each other, yet it is large enough for certain members to look with disdain upon their less pushing brethren. There are also in the Cape " family " rich relations who override their "poor relations" without much mercy, or without allowing them much liberty. I have often wondered that these poor relations did not protest and claim equal rights and freedom with those amongst whom they lived.

Amongst the more numerous class of people in Cape Colony - the working class - there is in private life and aflFairs a spirit of charity, but even that is doled out by cliques who are very clannish : that is, the railway people stick to themselves, the townspeople do the same, the farmers too, and it is the same between Dutch and English, and so ad infinitum, with the usual exceptions which prove the rule. From my own experience, it appears almost impossible for all classes of people to pull together for the general welfare, and, looking ahead, it seems to me that it will be a very long time before they do so.




Even the smallest village has nearly always four prominent buildings besides the nil railway buildings. They are : the school, which in many cases is under railway management, and is attended by Dutch and English children, some of whom have to travel many miles by rail to school each day ; the church, which in the smaller camps and villages is often only opened once or twice a month for service ; the hotel, with its often none too comfortable bedroom accommodation, and its crowded bars and canteens ; and the general stores, where anything can be procured, from bread, milk, groceries, and hardware, to lace and patent medicines.

It is a marvel how the supply of the hundred-and-one diflferent lines of odds and ends sold in a general store can be kept up in saleable quantities, but it is managed by the huge mercantile businesses, whose enormous buildings are well worth exploring. A general storekeeper's trials are almost innumerable. Perhaps the greatest of them is the intense heat which melts his butter and candles, and turns his meat bad in a few hours. Dust storms, too, cause unending trouble. The dust is so fine, and the wind so strong, that it finds its way everywhere, soiling and spoiling almost everything it settles upon. Amongst other enemies are armies of ants, weevils, bees, and flies.

These storekeepers have also to lay themselves out to meet the needs of all sorts of customers, English, Dutch, and natives, each class with endless requirements. I was told of one man who kept three separate price-lists for his English, Dutch, and native customers. He charged the two last classes a great deal more than his English customers, and said it was necessary, because of the large loss sustained in dealing with Dutch and natives, owing to bad debts.

With the exception of oiie or two items, the goods found in these stores are what one would buy anywhere in England. A good many American goods are noticeable. In most of these Colonial stores *^ bush " tea can be booght. It costs sixpence a pound, looks like the clippings of a privet hedge, including the twigs, and is said to be a tonic Barrels of red or yellow earth will, too, be found in some stores, which the natives use to colour their blankets and persons witL Crushed mealies or samp is also kept in stock, and is largely used by the natives for food, and, when boiled, it forms an important item in their diet.

It is an interesting sight when visiting one of these stores just after the monthly Government pay-train has arrived, to watch the very motley crowd who gather there to spend part of their newly-acquired wealth on luxuries, such as tins of sardines (of which they are very fond, and which they will eat in the shop), or to pay their back debts.




Our township was little disturbed by the howls of war, which swept along our northern borders and through the two doomed states, as English fought the Boers for mastery and Boers fought the English for liberty.

With the rest of South Africa, we felt a painful throb of anxiety before and just after the Boers issued their ** Ultimatum." It was thought quite probable that the Dutch in the district would rise, and there were many anxious consultations as to what should be done if the township was attacked. Bumours, too, reached us of buried arms, fortified laagers and insults to English people in the neighbourhood. One of the Dutch nachtmaals fell about the same time, and was largely attended by strangers as well as by local Dutch. It was believed that these nachtmaals were used by the Dutch in many places to stir up their bad feelings against the English. The result in this district did not justify the suppositions held against the Dutch. They remained as a body loyal and quiet.

Our only real personal excitement happened on a certain night, just when anxiety was at its height. Some especially v alarming rumours had been floated the day before, and we went to bed in fear and trembling, prepared for anything before the sun rose again.

We were trying to sleep peacefully, and had partially succeeded, when we were awakened by the furious barking of dogs and general clamour. This was shortly followed by the firing of a gun and weird squeals, which evidently came from some person or animal in pain. We thought that it must be the beginning of the end, and were quite prepared to receive anybody who might come. But no one did come. Enquiries next morning revealed the fact that some halfwild native dogs had been serenading our neighbour, and then began to fight each other. As our neighbour was unable to sleep through the noise, he bad turned his gun on the intruders, with fatal results !

Our township lay on one of the main arteries to the North, and all day and all night train-loads of soldiers (stowed into open trucks, in fact, into anything that could be made use of) steamed North, at intervals with train -loads of horses and munitions of war ; while the trains coming South were laden with refugees, first from one district, then from another, as the Boers advanced. These refugees brought the most extraordinary stories with them of what was going on in the North, for which they vouched the truth, but which nearly always turned out to be false. Though we did not believe half of what we were told, we gathered all the same in groups around those refugees, who were willing to give any information. The refugees were of all colours and classes. Men, women, and children were mixed up almost without distinction, travelling like the soldiers in any kind of conveyance which could be used for the purpose.

It was not until the line of khaki had inserted itself along the northern borders of the Colony, that people began to breathe more freely. We then said to each other that the Dutch had lost their one chance of doing untold damage to Cape Colony.




Our township went " Mafeking mad " like the rest of the English world. Why for Mafeking especially, is not clear at first sight, for there were other deeds of equal prowess during the war. The relief of Mafeking had been promised, expected, and reported so often and for such a long time, that sentiment and expectation were fanned to a white heat, and when the relief did come, the bottled-up spirits of the people escaped with a loud report I was in my house when the official news was posted at the Telegraph Office, but it was quite unnecessary to go there to find it out. As soon as it became known that the official information had come to hand, village and camp became centres of pandemonium. Engine whistles shrieked, everyone shouted, the natives caught the excitement, and beat wildly on empty paraffin tins, and every bell in the place joined in the din. Going to the station to share in the rejoicings, we passed the school-house, where two or three youngsters were ringing the bell in a way that it had never been rung before, others were on the roof yelling - we could see those on the school-house yelling, and the bell swaying furiously, but could not hear a sound from either, as it was completely drowned by the noise aroimd.



THE END.