LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. ^}pt^A--Amm¥'^^ Shelf .cS-^-^ UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. JOHN BULL & CO. JOHN BULL & CO. THE GREAT COLONIAL BRANCHES OF THE FIRM: CANADA, AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND AND SOUTH AFRICA BY MAX O'RELL Author of " John Bull and his Island," " Jonathan and his Continent,' " A Frenchman in America," etc., etc. SEP 20 1894 NEW YORK CHARLES L. WEBSTER & COMPANY 1894 V Copyright, 1S94, By Bainbridge Colby. [A U rights reserved. ] 3^ w X ^ THE LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WASHINGTON PKESb OF JKNKINS k McCOWAN, NEW YORK. TO MY TRAVELING COMPANIONS AROUND THE WORLD, MY WIFE AND MY DAUGHTER. CONTENTS. An Introductory Reminder . . • • .11 CHAPTER I France, the First Country of the World — Foreigners, and what is Understood by the Term — Britishers— Englishmen at Home and Germans Abroad — Branch Establishments of John Bri' & Co. . . . • • -15 CHAPTER n French Canada— Quebec— A Bit of France Buried in the Snow— The French Canadians are the French of the Seventeenth Century — Puritan Catholicism — The Frozen St. Lawrence- Montreal — Canadian Sports— I Meet Tartarin . . 22 CHAPTER HI Ottawa — Toronto — The Canadian Women — Winnipeg and St. Boniface, or England and France, Ten Minutes' Walk from Each Other— The Political Parties of Canada. . . 29 CHAPTER IV Flying Through the Far West — The Prairies — Colorado — Den- ver—The Rockies— Salt Lake City— The Mormons— The Desert— The Sierras— The Plains of California— San Fran- cisco — China Town — Impressions Confirmed — A Branch of the Firm John Bull & Co. Started in Business for Itself . 33 CHAPTER V The Pacific Ocean — The Sandwich Islands — Honolulu — The Southern Cross — What a Swindle '—The Samoan Islands — Apia — Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson — Auckland — Arrival of the Philistines . . . . • • .40 CHAPTER VI Sydney — I have seen the Harbor — The Australia Hotel — The French in Sydney — The Town — The Parks — Cupid in the Open Air — Little Clandestine Visits to the South Head— " Engaged " — Melbourne— Activity — All Scottish — The Holy Tartufes— Adelaide— Brisbane— Ballarat—Bendigo— Geelong . . . • . • -51 5 6 CONTENTS. CHAPTER VII PAGE People of Society, People in Society, and "Society" People — The " Sets " — Society Papers — " Miss D. Looked Thrillingly Lovely in Electric Blue" — The Australian Women are Beautiful — Imitation of the Old World — A Tasmanian Snob — Darling Point, Pott's Point, and Sore Point — A Melbourne Journalist on His Townspeople . . . -71 CHAPTER VIII Hospitality in the Colonies — Different People at Home and Abroad — Extreme Courtesy of the Australian — Childishness —Visit to the Four Everlasting Buildings of the Colonial Towns — Impressions — Wild Expenditure — Give Us a Prison — "Who is Bismarck?" — "Don't know" — In the Olden Time . . . . . . . -79 CHAPTER IX Colonial "Cheek" — Mutual Admiration Society — An Inquisitive Colonial — A Verbatim Conversation — An Amiable Landlord — Modest Politicians — Advice to England by an Australian Minister — Provincialisms — Napier — Opinions on Madame Sarah Bernhardt — Mr. H. M. Stanley and the Municipal Councilor — The Czar had Better Behave Himself— I Intro- duce Sophocles to the Colonies and Serve Corneille a Bad Turn — An Invitation Accepted with a Vengeance . . 87 CHAPTER X The Curse of the Colonies — A Perfect Gentleman — A Town Full of Animation — A Drunkard Begs me to give the Audience a Lecture on Waterloo — A Jolly Fellow — Pater Familias on the Spree— An Ingenious Drunkard — Great Feats — Taverns and Teetotalers — Why there are no Cafes in the Colonies — A Philosopher — Why a Young English Girl could not get En- gaged ........ lOI CHAPTER XI Types — Caprices of Nature — Men and Women — Precocious Chil- dren — Prehistoric Dress — Timidity of the Women — I Shock some Tasmanian Ladies — Anglo-Saxon Contrasts . .116 CHAPTER XII The Bush — The Eucalyptus — The Climate — Description of the Bush and its Inhabitants — The Concert of the Bush — The Tragedians and the Clowns of the Company — The Kangaroo — The Workers and the Idlers of the Bush — F5eggars on Horseback ....... 122 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIII PAGE The Most Piquant Thing in Australia — Aspect of the Small Towns — Each takes his Pleasure where he Finds it — Aus- tralian Life — Tea, always Tea — Whiskey or Water — Favorite Occupation — Seven Meals a Day — Squatters . . 131 CHAPTER XIV The Australian Natives — The Last Tasmanian is in the Museum — A Broken-down King Accepts my Penny — Diana Pays me a Visit — The Trackers — The Queensland Aborigines — The Boomerang — Curious Rites — The Ladies Refuse to Wash for the Bachelors ...... 142 CHAPTER XV Politics and Politicians — The Price of Liberty — The Legislative Chambers — Governors — Comparisons between American and British Institutions — The Politician and the Order of St. Michael anci St. George — An Eloquent Candidate — The Hon- orables — Colonial Peerage — Sir Henry Parkes — A Word to Her Majesty Queen Victoria ..... 148 CHAPTER XVI The Resources of Australia — The Mines — 2,500 Per Cent. Div- idends — Wool — Viticulture — The Wealth of Australia Com- pared to the Wealth of Most Other Countries — Why France is Richer than Other Nations ..... 156 CHAPTER XVII The Workman Sovereign Master of Australia — His Character — The Artist and the Bungler — A Sham Democrat — Govern- ment by and for the Workingman — Public Orators — Stories of Workmen — End of the Tragic Story of a Russian Trav- eler ........ 162 CHAPTER XVIII The Religions of the Colonies — The Catholic Church and Its Work — The Baptists and the Sweet Shops — Good News for the Little Ones — A Presbyterian Landlady in Difficulties — I Give a Presbyterian Minister His Deserts — Christian Asso- ciation of Good Young Men — The Big Drum, or the Church at the Fair — Pious Bankers^An Edifying Prayer . .170 CHAPTER XIX The Australian Newspapers — The Large Dailies — Weekly Edi- tions — The " Australasian " — The Comic Papers — The So- ciety Papers — The " Bulletin" .... 184 8 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XX PAGE Amusements at the Antipodes — The Australian Gayer than the Englishman — Melbourne — Lord Hopetoun — The Racing Craze — The Melbourne Cup — Flemington Compared with Longchamps and Epsom ..... i88 CHAPTER XXI The Drama in the Colonies — Madame Sarah Bernliardt in Australia — Anglo-Saxon Theatres Compared with Theatres in Paris — Variety Shows — The Purveyor of Intellectual Pleasures — An Important Actor — The Theatre in Small Towns ...,,... ig5 CHAPTER XXII Railroads in the Colonies — You Set Out but You Do Not Arrive — A Woman in a Hurry — Mixed Trains — First Class Travelers — Curious Traveling Companions .... 202 CHAPTER XXIII Spirit of Nationality and Independence — Local Patriotism — Every Man for himself and the Colonies for the Colonials . 206 CHAPTER XXIV Tasmania — The Country — The Inhabitants of Other Days and the Inhabitants of the Present Day- — Visit to the Depots — Survivors of the " Ancien Regime " — A Tough old Scotch- woman — A Touching Scene — Launceston and Hobart . 210 CHAPTER XXV New Zealand — Norway and Switzerland at the Antipodes — The Point of the Earth's Surface that is Farthest from Paris — No Snakes, but a Great Many Scots — The Small Towns — A Curious Inscription ...... 219 CHAPTER XXVI The Maoris — Types — Tattooing — Ways and Customs — Native Chivalry — The Legends of the Country — Sir George Grey — Lucky Landlords — The " Haka " — The Beautiful Victoria — Maori Villages — New Zealand the Prettiest Country in the World . . . , ... . 227 CHAPTER XXVII From Melbourne to the Cape of Good Hope — The 'Australasian' — Sunday on Board Ship — Conversions — Death of a Poor Mother — Ceremony — Table Bay — Arrival at Cape Town , 240 CONTENTS. ■ 9 CHAPTER XXViri PAGE Anglo-Dutch — John Bull, Charged with the Care of the Cape for the Prince of Orange, Keeps it for Himself — Mixture of Races — Cape Town — The Town and its Environs — Paarl — The Huguenots — Stellenbosch — Happy Folk — Drapers' Assistants — Independence a Characteristic Feature of South Africans ....... 245 CHAPTER XXIX The Dutch Puritans — "The Doppers " — A Case of Conscience — The Afrikander-Bond — Its Relations with John Bull — I'ickets at Reduced Price — John Bull lies Low — " God Save the Queen" in the South African Republic . . . 253 CHAPTER XXX Mr. Rhodes, Premier of Cape Colony — The Man — His Work— His Aim .... . . 257 CHAPTER XXXI South African Towns — The Hotels — The Usefulness of the Moon — Kaffirland — Kimberley — The Diamond Mines — The De Beers Company — A Week's Find — Life in the " Compounds" — A Disagreeable Week before going to buy Wives . 260 CHAPTER XXXII The Country — The " Veld " — The Plateaus — The Climate— The South African Animals — The Ant-hills — The South Coast — Natal — Durban, the Prettiest Town in South Africa — Zulus and Coolies ...... 271 CHAPTER XXXHI The Natives of South Africa — First Disappointment — Natives in a Natural State — Scenes of Savage Life — The Kraal — Customs — The Women — Types — Among the Kaffirs and the Zulus — Zulus in " Undress" — I buy a Lady's Costume, and Carry it off in my Pocket — What Strange Places Virtue Hides in^The Missionaries gone to the Wrong Place . 279 CHAPTER XXXIV The Orange Free State — The Transvaal — A Page or Two of History — The Boers at Home — Manners and Customs — The Boers and the Locusts — The Boers will have to " Mend or End" — Bloemfontein, Pretoria, and Johannesburg . . 2g2 lO CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXXV Johannesburg, the Gold City — The Boers again — The Future of the Transvaal — Miraculous Development of Johannesburg — Strange Society — Stranger Wives and Husbands — Aristoc- racy in Low Water — The Captain and the Magistrate . 300 CHAPTER XXXVI "Oom" Paul, President of the Transvaal — 'John Bull's Redoubt- able Adversary — A Short Interview with this Interesting Personage — A Picturesque Meeting between two Diplomats 307 CHAPTER XXXVII The Success of the Firm, John Bull & Co. — The Explanation — The Freest Countries of the World — Illustrations to Prove it — The Future of the British Empire — Reflections of a Sour Critics-Advice to Young Men — And Now Let Us Go Back and Look on an Old Wall Covered with Ivy . . . 313 AN INTRODUCTORY REMINDER. An Englishman was one day swaggering before a Frenchman about the immensity of the British Empire, and he concluded his remarks by saying, " Please to remember, my dear sir, that the sun never sets on the possessions of the English." " I am not surprised at that," replied the good Frenchman; " the sun is obliged to always keep an eye on the rascals." Here are the details of that British Empire which pre- vents the sun from enjoying a few hours' rest every night. I borrow them, bringing them up to date, from John Bull and his Island, of which volume this is the companion and supplement. "John Bull's estate, which he quietly adds a little piece to day by day, consists of the British Isles, to which he has given the rather queer name of United Kingdom, to make you believe that Pat is fond of him ; the Channel Islands ; the fortress of Gibraltar, which enables him to pass comfortably through the narrowest of straits ; and the islands of Malta and Cyprus, that serve him as advanced sentinels in the Mediterranean. He has not Constantinople — which is to be regretted. 12 AN INTRODUCTORY REMINDER. If ever he should get it, he would be satisfied with his slice of Europe. " In Egypt he is not quite at home yet. He took great care not to invent the Suez Canal. On the con- trary, he moved heaven and earth to try and prevent its being made, and he called M. Ferdinand de Lesseps, at the time he conceived the idea, ' a dangerous lu- natic' To-day he has ;^4,ooo,ooo of public money invested in the concern, and I have no doubt that now, as he receives his dividends, he takes quite a different view of that great undertaking. " From Aden, on the other side of the Indian Ocean, he can quietly contemplate the finest jewel in his crown, the Indian Empire — an empire of two hundred and eighty-five millions of people, ruled by princes literally covered with gold and precious stones, who black his boots and look happy. " On the West Coast of Africa he possesses Sierra Leone, Gambia, the Gold Coast, Lagos, Ascension, St. Helena, where he kept in chains the greatest soldier and the most formidable monarch of modern times. In the East, the Island of Mauritius belongs to him. In the South, he has the Cape of Good Hope, Natal, and he protects Zululand, Pondoland, Basutoland, Nyassaland, Bechuanaland, Mashonaland, Matabeleland, and a few other little lands about there. " In America he does not possess quite as much as he used to, but he says he does not want it. He still AN INTRODUCTORY REMINDER. 1 3 reckons among his possessions there, Canada, New- foundland, Bermuda, the West Indies, Jamaica, part of Honduras, the Island of Trinidad, English Guiana, Falk- land, etc. " Correctly speaking, Oceanica belongs to him en- tirely. New Zealand is twice as large as England, and Australia alone covers an area equal to that of almost the whole of Europe. " ' But what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul ? ' says Scripture. This is just what John Bull thought, and so, in the other world, he has knocked down to himself the kingdom of hea- ven, in his eyes as incontestably a British possession as India, Canada, or Australia." With the exception of a few omissions, more or less important, such are the assets of the firm, John Bull & Co. JOHN BULL & CO. CHAPTER I. France the First Country of the World — Foreigners, and what is Understood by the Term — Britishers — Englishmen at Home and Germans Abroad — Branch Establishments of John Bull &Co. France is the foremost country of the world. This is a fact which it were puerile to seek to prove, seeing that the French admit it themselves. Happy and content in their own country, which is able to support them, the French, of all the nations of the world, are the people who least bother their heads about what is happening outside it : in fact, the masses of the people are in crass ignorance about the rest of the planet. The Englishman somewhat despises foreigners ; the Swiss loves them as the sportsman loves game ; the Ger- man looks upon them as heaven-sent blessings that per- mit him to earn a peaceful living far from his fatherland, now turned into a huge garrison. The Frenchman has quite a different feeling toward foreigners : he does not dislike, nor does he despise them ; he pities them, and thinks them vastly amusing. The Frenchman even be- lieves in his heart that foreigners Avere created and sent into the world to minister to his diversion. He looks l6 JOHN BULL & CO. upon the Belgian as a dear, good simpleton, the Italian as a noisy nobody, the German as a heavy, pompous pedant ; he thinks the Americans mad and the English eccentric and grotesque. And he goes on his way de- lighted. I have seen BVench people laugh side-splittingly when I told them that the English drink champagne with their dinner and claret at dessert. To be sure, my own way of looking at these things is very much the same. How should it be otherwise ? After all, a Frenchman is a Frenchman to the end of the chapter. However, eight years of constant traveling about the world must have rubbed off some of my angles in the way of French provincialism, and I believe myself to have become so far cosmopolitan that the reader may accept as pretty impartial the impressions (I say im- pressions and not opinions^ contained in this little volume. Of one thing, at all events, I am firmly convinced, and that is that one nation is not better nor worse than an- other ; each one is different from the others, that is all. This is a deep conviction forced upon one by travel. To a great many people, the word foreigner signifies a droll creature, a kind of savage. In the eyes of a traveler, a foreigner is a worthy man who is as good as himself, and who belongs to a nation which has as many good qualities as the one that he himself hails from. After all, no one is born a foreigner : we all belong some- where, do we not ? I remember an American who opened a conversation with me by launching at me, as a preliminary, the fol- lowing question : JOHN BULL & CO. 1/ " Foreigner, ain't you ? " " I shall be," I replied, " when I set foot in your coun- try." We were on board the steamer between Liverpool and New York. If everyone traveled much, the peace of the world would be secure. "Traveling," said Madam de Stael, "is a sad pleas- ure." I think it is a most interesting occupation ; be- sides, is it not, up to now, the only way that has been invented for seeing and knowing the world ? Man in- terests me everywhere, whether he be white or black, civilized or savage, and that is why I travel. But in this volume the subject for treatment is not the world in general, but that British world of which England itself gives but a faint idea. To see the Eng- lishman — the Britisher, rather — in all his glory, you must look at him in those lands where he has elbow-room, where nothing trammels him and where he has been al- lowed to freely develop his characteristic traits. It was with this object in view that I set out two years ago to visit him in all imaginable climates, from forty below zero to a hundred and ten above (perfect Turkish baths) ; that I pushed into the far corners of Canada and the United States ; visited the islands of the Pacific, Aus- tralia, Tasmania, New Zealand, from north to south, from east to west ; traveled all over South Africa, Cape Colony, Natal, the now independent republics of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State; in a word, all those worlds which English energy has raised, as if by enchantment, in the most distant oceans. Another conviction that I have acquired in traveling l8 JOHN BULL & CO. is that nations are like individuals : when they succeed at something, it is because they possess qualities which explain their success. And I hope the reader, when he closes these pages, will be able to explain to himself how the English have succeeded in founding the British Empire, India I have kept for another voyage. India is not a colony in the proper sense of the word ; it is a possession, an asset of the firm, John Bull & Co., whereas the Colonies which I visited are branches of the said firm. The difference is very distinct. In India is to be seen John Bull Pacha, 2i grand seign- eur^ followed by gaily robed servitors who do profound obeisance to him. It is the master in the midst of a sub- jected people. In the Colonies the conquered races have been suppressed. In Canada you see John Bull quite at home, busy, fat and flourishing, a pink tip to his nose, and his head snug in a fur cap : it is John Bull in a ball. It is the seal. In Australia you see him long and lean, noncJialant, happy-go-lucky, his face sunburned, his head crowned with a wide-brimmed light felt hat, walking with slow tread, his arms pendant, his legs out of all proportion. It is John Bull drawn out. It is the kanga- roo. But it is John Bull still, John Bull Junior, eating his morning porridge, and living just as if he were still in his old island, eating his roast beef and plum pudding, and washing it down with tea or whiskey. He is hardly changed at all. Two full years without a break, what a voyage ! Two years without speaking, and almost without hearing, any- JOHN BULL & CO. I9 thing but English ! No French to be heard anywhere except in Canada — ^vvhat a humihation for a fellow- countryman of Jacques Cartier ! However, something that cheered me greatly was that everywhere I went I found Germans blacking boots and waiting at table, I neither speak nor understand German, and am foolish enough to boast of it ; but this has caused me no incon- venience of any kind. The Germans speak English and even frequently forget their own tongue. This is very sensible of them, for it is far easier to learn any other language than to try to remember German. And that is why the Germans of New York, Chicago, Sydney, Adelaide, and the Cape speak, think, believe, and pray with the English. I one day asked a distinguished English writer, who had been around the world several times, whether he intended to publish his impressions of Australia. "My dear fellow," he replied, "the inhabitants of the Colonies are so kind, so hospitable, so proud of their country! How on earth can I write a book and tell them how bored I was all the time I was there ? " It is a fact that no one can expect to find the country that has a future as interesting as the one that has a past. My English confrere was not only a writer, he was an artist, and young countries seldom contain the where- with to satisfy artistic tastes. On the other hand, if you have any sympathy with your subject, if human nature interests you, if you are curious to learn how nations have been born, and how national character is developed, is there not in the Colonies, just as in the United States, a vast field of observation to explore ? Sixty years ago England used to send her convicts to 20 JOHN BULL & CO. Australia, as we French still send ours to New Cale- donia, At the present time Australia has towns as im- portant and as populous as Marseilles and Liverpool. Will it not interest us to have a look at John Bull disguised as an Australian, swearing by Australia, and ready to send the English about their business if ever they should take it upon them to meddle too much with his affairs ? Will it not be interesting to watch the evolution of all the eccentricities of the English char- acter ? If the English writer in question found his sojourn in Australia tiresome, I found mine very entertain- ing. It is true that I missed seeing many picturesque scenes ; but that was not my fault. I was in the hands of an impresario,* who constantly reminded me, when I asked him to take me to see some renowned beautiful place in the neighborhood, that he was not a tourist agent, but only a lecture manager ; and he understood his business so well that it would have been ungrateful on my part to utter a murmur. My manager appeared to have no taste for scenery, and the finest prospect that could be offered to his gaze was a hall crowded with people who had come to hear me talk. If I did not see all the country, I believe I saw all the people. This is the essential point in the case of studies which, light as they may be, are studies of character. Let us, then, study the English in all those countries that are to be seen marked in red on the maps of the * Between September 21, 1891, and August 21, 1893, I gave 446 pub- lic lectures in the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and South Africa, under the direction of Major Pond in America, and of Mr. Robert S. Smvthe in the Colonies. JOHN BULL & CO. 21 world published in England— countries that John Bull has acquired at the cost of very httle blood and a good deal of whiskey, always converting the natives to Chris- tianity and their territory to his own uses. CHAPTER II. French Canada*— Quebec— A Bit of France Buried in the Snow —The French Canadians are the French of the Seventeenth Century — Puritan Catholicism— The Frozen St. Lawrence- Montreal— Canadian Sports— I Meet Tartarin. If you are in a hurry to reach San Francisco, book your seat by the New York Central Railway, but make a short halt at the Falls of Niagara, for the world has nothing grander to offer to your sight. When you have well feasted your eyes and drunk in the wonders around you, take the next train, and for two days and a half travel incessantly : get over the ground as fast as you can, and you may as well lower the blinds to spare your- self the monotony of the interminable prairies. Read, eat, smoke, and sleep, if you can. When you get within twenty or thirty miles of Denver, lift the blinds again and look about you, for the Rocky Mountains are in sight. From Denver to San Francisco do not miss a single detail of the landscape ; a series of enchantments awaits you and will unfold itself, hour after hour, as the train flies along the rails. If, however, you are not in a hurry, pay a visit to Canada, French Canada especially, for it is the quaintest and perhaps the most interesting part of the great Western Continent. In America, John Bull does not possess quite as much as he used to ; but he says he does not want it. He is *On this journey I only spent a few days in Canada. In a former volume I wrote some impressions of that country. 22 JOHN BULL & CO. 23 a philosopher. He even goes so far as to congratulate his cousin Jonathan on having made himself master in his own house, and certain wise people in Britain assert that it was predicted in the Holy Scriptures that the House of Israel should one day be divided, and that an important remnant of it would declare its independence. By the House of Israel, or the chosen people of God, must be understood the British nation ; the remnant is America. It is all as plain as A B C. Canada still belongs to England, and it is a very pretty dependency, with a superficial area almost equal to that of the United States. I know nothing more picturesque than the scenery between New York and Albany along the Hudson River in autumn, when America has wrapped herself in her mantle of scarlet and gold, and the clear blue sky is reflected in the dancing waves of the noble Hudson. From Albany, pass into Maine and New England, across immense pine forests, and later the White Moun- tains, dominated by Mount Washington. Passes, prec- ipices, waterfalls, beautify the landscape, and Switzer- land has nothing wilder or more picturesque to offer. From there push on into Canada, and let your first halt be at Quebec, on the confluence of the St. Lawrence and the St. Charles rivers. When I visited Quebec the ice of winter was break- ing' up, and the rivers were full of small icebergs, which made the crossing from the train at Pont Levis quite an exciting voyage. The skipper of the ferry-boat waited and watched until a comparatively clear passage seemed possible, and at last, with many twistings and dodgings and bumps, the boat reached the Quebec quay. The 24 JOHN BULL & CO. people speak of this annual break-up of winter as " the flood," and when the melted snow comes down from the upper town, a house in the lower part of Que- bec must be anything but a desirable residence. In many streets the roadway had been raised eight or ten feet by the snows which had been cleared from the pave- ments after each fall and heaped up in the road. QUEBEC. Along this elevated way the sleighs ran above the level of the pedestrian's head. The grandeur of the mighty cliff, crowned with the citadel, charms your gaze, and a stroll through the city will make you believe you have strayed into some old Breton town, the sing-song intonation in the people's speech, the sign-boards over the doors, Au Boii St. Jo- JOHN BULL & CO. 25 seph, A Notre Dame des Donleurs, An Petit Agneau sans TacJie, the Breton and Norman names of the shopkeep- ers, the Hue-la of the carters urging on their horses, all help to complete the illusion. Only a Norman or a Breton could feel the pleasure and emotion that I felt at seeing these children of old France in Quebec, speaking and thinking as the French spoke and thought in Louis XIV. 's time. Their lan- guage has remained the old Norman dialect of the langiie d\nl, such as the peasants of lower Normandy speak it to-day, innocent of diphthongs. Si fas sef, eh ben va here un coup. You will hear core for encore, des f one's for qiielquefois, a cette heure for maintenant. Add to this the influence of the English language, and you have the explanation of such expressions as the fol- lowing : etre particnlicr ior /aire attention, rcsigner for donner sa demission, lecturer for /aire des conferences, crosser for traverser, laisscr for quitter. The preterite tense is frequently employed instead of the past indefi- nite. Thus you may read in a newspaper : Le Gouver- neiir laissa Quebec ce matin for le Gouverneur a quitte Quebec ce matin. The Catholicism of the French Canadians is not the genial and cheerful religion of these days, but the Cath- olicism which in France, two hundred years ago, had to compete with Calvinism, and was austere, sombre, harsh, tyrannical and almost puritanical, and which to-day in Canada forbids round dances and frowns on many inno- cent pleasures. Education is directed by the priests, who, in return for this concession on the part of John Bull, stimulate 26 JOHN BULL & CO. none but feelings of loyalty to the English Crown. This is part of the excellent plan adopted by the English in governing their Colonies all over the world. One result of the wise laxity of rule is that the French Canadians take little part in politics. They are content to belong to England, because it means liberty, and assures them the enjoyment of their earnings. The French Cana- dians are hard-working and thrifty ; they marry very young, and have large families ; in fact, they increase almost as rapidly as the population of the British Isles, and families of twelve, fifteen, even twenty children are not uncommon. Few of the sons go away from home, and the province of Quebec bids fair to be soon as French as the city itself. What brightness, what briskness there is in the winter climate of Canada ! and how astonishingly little one feels the cold under that blue and sunny sky, though the thermometer may mark forty degrees below zero ! I was told that many men do not wear an overcoat dur- ing their first winter in Canada, except when driving. The air is so dry and full of electricity that everything metallic which you touch brings an electric spark from your finger-nails. I several times lit the gas by means of this spark. When you drive, it is in open sleighs. There are few covered ones. But you are mufified in furs to the very eyes, and glow with warmth as the sleigh goes merrily over the frozen snow with tinkling bells. In Montreal, and other gay cities of Canada, winter is full of delights. Skating, sleighing, toboggan- ing and snow-shoeing parties are the order of the day, and, I may add, night, for the latter generally take place by moonlight. On my arrival at Montreal, about JOHN BULL & CO. 27 six hours' journey from Quebec, I was straightway taken to see some racing on the St. Lawrence. Not boat-races, but horse-races. The ice on the river is about three feet thick in winter, and tram-rails are laid across for a service of cars. A novel and astonishinsf sight it was to me to see the horses drawing those heavy loads over the ice, as if it had been a macadamized road. Then there are the ice-boats, which skim over MONTREAL FROM MOUNT ROYAL PARK. the ice at such breathless speed that to remain on their decks at all you have to lie down and hold on. Montreal is the town of sports and gaiety /«r excel- lence; it is the home of the ice-palace. Many and merry are the fetes held within those glittering walls built of blocks of ice cemented with water. And where else can such toboggan rides be had as the giant slope of Mount Royal provides? 28 JOHN BULL & CO. During my stay in Montreal and Quebec, I often met a Frenchman, a good Parisian, a picture of health and happiness, a charming talker, full of life, happy to be alive, and getting amusement out of everything he came across ; a little bit Gascon, it is true, but so little ; a Tartarin of good society. The day I left Montreal I met him in the hall of the Windsor Hotel, muffled up in a white woolen hooded tunic, with a red sash around the waist, and on his head a woolen cap, with its tassel jauntily hanging on his shoulder. The costume was completed by immense thick stockings and knickerbockers, and in his hand he carried snow-shoes and an alpenstock — the regular snow- shoeing get-up. "Aha!" said I; "you are off on an expedition over the snow ? " " Not I," he replied ; and his good, open face beamed with fun. " I am going to get photographed.' Not all the Tarasconnais come from Tarascon. CHAPTER III. Ottawa — Toronto — The Canadian Women — Winnipeg and St. Boniface, or England and France Ten Minutes' Walic From Each Other — The Political Parties of Canada. Ottawa, three hours by rail from Montreal, is the capital of the Dominion. Like Washington, in the United States, the city is entirely consecrated to poli- tics, and you must not look for anything else in it. However, when you arrive in Ottawa, do not fail to halt a little on the bridge over the river, for you will see a picture worthy of your attention ; to right of you the falls and rapids ; to left, high against the sky, and standing on an almost perpendicular rock, the Houses of Parliament, a group of superb buildings in stone. It was my good fortune to see it, for the first time, stand- ing out clearly between a brilliant blue sky and a sweep of pure white snow. Inside, the Houses of Parliament are spacious and well appointed : the members are in clover. The library is a very valuable one, and the dis- position of the rooms has been admirably thought out and carried out. As you advance toward the west, in Canada, the towns begin to look more American and the people more English ; the web of telegraph and telephone wires overhead grows thicker ; the complexion of the women grows more rosy, and, instead of picturesque winding streets, you once more have the parallelograms and rectangular blocks of masonry that came in with tram-rails. 29 30 JOHN BULL & CO. Toronto, built in blocks, with wide streets and houses plastered with flaring advertisements, is very American- looking, But penetrate into the suburbs, and the scene changes : you are reminded of the presence of the Eng- lish, for most of the pretty villas are set in gardens, and a private garden is a thing rarely seen near American towns. There are no people who are fonder of flowers or more lavish in the use of them than the Americans, yet the growing of them seems to be entirely left to the professional gardener. I heard various reasons given in explanation of the absence of lawns and flower-beds around suburban houses. One was the extreme cold of the winters, another the extreme heat of the sum- mers, but I came to the conclusion that the chief reason was want of time. I do not know whether the villa gardens of Toronto are very gay with flowers in sum- mer. When I saw them they were thickly buried in snow ; but there were the trees and shrubs, and there, utterly un-American-looking, was the fence or the wall which reminds one that an Englishman's house is his castle. The American, having no garden, dispenses with a fence, and his house, though it may be a fine mansion, stands but a few feet back from the roadway, with its front door accessible, in truly republican fashion, to every passer-by. Toronto swarms with churches and pretty women. I never, in any town, saw quite so many of either. The Canadian lady is a happy combination of her Eng- lish and American sisters. She has the physical beauty, the tall, graceful figure, and the fine complexion of the former, allied to the decided bearing, the naturalness, the frank glance, and the piquancy of the latter. If, JOHN BULL & CO. 31 added to these, one could have the shrewd common sense, and the irresistible charm of the Parisienne, the result would be a really ideal woman. The amount of outdoor exercise taken by Canadian women in their winter games and pastimes goes far to explain the beauty of their complexions. The air of Canada is dry, the houses are heated in the same way as American houses, yet these two things, often advanced as the cause of the American belles' pallor, do not prevent the Canadian women from having brilliant complexions. It was in Toronto that I was given an insight into the system of education adopted by the English Can- adians. It is practically the American system ; boys and girls, rich and poor, sit side by side on their school benches and receive the same instruction. Among the French Canadians, education, as I have already said, is in the hands of the priest, and the standard of instruc- tion is low. Besides the cities that I have mentioned, Canada pos- sesses many important towns, such as London, Hamil- ton, etc. One of the most interesting to visit is Winni- peg, in the northwest. To reach it you have to cross, in summer, a veritable ocean of plants and flowers ; in winter, an ocean of ice and snow. It is the prairie in its imrnensity, lonesome but grandiose. A population of thirty thousand people, energetic and intelligent, is chiefly engaged in the commerce of wood and cereals. The town is flourishing, has many fine buildings and a hotel, the Manitoba, which for comfort and luxury has no equal within a circuit of five hundred miles. Ten minutes from the town, across the river, stands the little village of St. Boniface, founded by the French long be- 32 JOHN BULL & CO. fore Winnipeg was thought of, and which has remained just what it was. In Canada, you are constantly com- ing across old France standing still, while bustling Eng- land advances, spreads, and multiplies. If you set out from Quebec, and follow the course of the St. Lawrence as far as the Mississippi at New Orleans, you can do two thousand miles without going off the line followed by the early French settlers. The names along the route will sufficiently indicate the origin of the towns : Quebec, Montreal, St. Paul, Detroit, Des Moines, St. Louis, New Orleans. It seems to me that Canada, on account of its inter- ests and its geographical position, is destined one day to become part of the great American family. But if ever the amalgamation should take place, it will be with- out the firing of a shot or the spilling of a drop of blood. At present, the number of Canadians in favor of unit- ing their country to the States is only about one-fourth of the population. Although there are but two politi- cal parties, the Liberals and the Conservatives, wherever the annexation question is discussed there appear to be four camps : people in favor of annexation ; a party, largely composed of the best society, preferring the present state of things ; another, which advocates feder- ation ; and a fourth, which would like to see Canada an independent nation. To the last-named party belong most of the French Canadians. They naturally detest the idea of federation, because it would mean to them political annihilation, and as these people form a large and rapidly increasing portion of the population, I imagine that the scheme of federation is little likely ever to be adopted by Canada. CHAPTER IV. Flying through the Far West — The Prairies — Colorado — Den- ver — The Rockies — Salt Lake City — The Mormons — The Desert — The Sierras — The Plains of California — San Fran- cisco — China Town — Impressions Confirmed — A Branch of the Firm John Bull & Co. Started in Business for Itself. The journey from Winnipeg to St. Paul in winter is done on an unbroken plain of ice and snow. To go in- to raptures over a landscape such as this, one must be born in the States. An American would say, " Yes, sir, everything in this country is on an immense scale." St. Paul and its neighbor, Minneapolis, are towns of two hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants each, situ- ated at a distance of only ten miles from each other. Jealousy alone gives a separate existence to these two towns, which ought to form but one. If St. Paul elected to become part of Minneapolis, Minneapolis would have no objection ; if Minneapolis decided to merge its indi- viduality in that of St. Paul, St. Paul would think it quite natural. As to any union by common consent, as well ask Manchester and Liverpool to abide by the de- cisions of one and the same town council. Twenty-four hours of railway traveling across a flat country takes you from St. Paul to Omaha, a town of more than a hundred thousand inhabitants. Fifteen hours more and you are at Kansas City. Still the mo- notonous flatness. However, the country, which is entirely consecrated to agriculture and the raising of 33 34 JOHN BULL & CO. cattle, is prosperous and not without a certain interest. One day more and you are in Colorado, and nearing Denver. After the dreary monotony of the prairies, the first glimpse of the grand peaks of the Rockies, standing up soft and blue against the western sky, where a gorgeous sun was setting, was a thing to be remembered. Denver, twenty years ago a mining camp, to-day a flourishing, well-built town of one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. Such is America. Omaha, Kansas City, Denver, are so many budding Chicagos. But time is flying. " All aboard ! " A few hours after leaving Denver you enter the Rocky Mountains by a narrow passage which winds be- tween colossal rocks rising straight into the air. The chain of mountains unfolds itself hour by hour to your astonished eyes as the train rushes on with infinite twistings among the giant hills. The panorama is en- chanting. Then the train begins to climb, twisting and recoiling on itself like a caterpillar, till its extremities almost touch and form a circle. You reach a height of ten thousand feet above sea level, and the train steams into Leadville, "the cloud city." (Every American town is a city in American parlance.) Leadville was at one time a busy place with a large population, but the lead mines failed to yield as they had been expected to do, and the town is now a forlorn-looking one, lost in the clouds, and with " Ichabod " writ large all over it. Then you descend toward the fertile valley of the Salt Lake in Utah. The Mormons have been described ad nauseam, and there is nothing new to be looked for in their midst ; they are ancient history. By a new law of the United States, polygamy is no longer tolerated, and JOHN BULL & CO. 35 if Artemus Ward were now alive, and about to give one of his delightfully humorous talks there, he could no longer put on the complimentary ticket given to some Mormon to whom he wished to show a politeness, " Admit bearer and one wife." In Salt Lake City you are struck by the cleanliness, the quietness, and the general air of prosperity of the place. The Mormons are meek-voiced and mild-man- nered, as one would expect in the descendants of an oppressed sect. Attend- ants are polite and altogether a great contrast to the same class o f persons o n the other side of the Rockies. The Mormons continue to believe and call themselves Saints. This is a harmless mania that hurts nobody. Before eettins; into California there remains but the TEMPLE SQUARE, SALT LAKE CTrY. 36 JOHN BULL & CO. State of Nevada to cross, a sandy, arid land, which forms a curious contrast with the fertile Salt Lake valley and the luxuriant plains of California between which it lies. Some Indians, majestically draped in blankets and with feathers in their hair, a few cowboys with sombreros stuck on the back of the head give a touch of the pic- turesque to this scene of desolation, a scene almost grandiose in its dreariness. After the sandy desert is traversed, the ground begins to rise once more, nature shows signs of life again, and presently you are in the Sierras, which to my thinking are still more picturesque and much grander than the Rockies. The Rocky Mountains are certainly mountainous and undeniably rocky, but the landscape has not the majesty of the Sierras. The Rocky Mountains are wild and arid ; the Sierras are luxuriant with verdure. You are nearing the home of perpetual spring. All is gay and smiling : the blue sky, the slopes of the mountains clothed with gigantic trees, the valleys carpeted with ferns and semi- tropical plants. I have seen no other country so en- chanting. After being so long used to looking on nothing but an expanse of snow or a brown desert, the eyes are fairly dazzled by all this verdure. From the Sierras you descend into the plains of California, the train rushing through this vast garden of magnolias, orange and lemon trees, cacti and rich plants of all kinds, and all the way to San Francisco- the feast for the eyes is one of unparalleled loveliness. You are in El Dorado. I confess that San Francisco itself disappointed me. I scarcely know why, but I had an idea that this town JOHN BULL & CO. 37 must be quite different from the other large towns of America. Its name had suggested to my mind a place half Spanish, half Mexican, with an individuality of its own. In reality it is but another New York, Chicago, or Cincinnati. Market street, the chief street, differs little from Broadway, New York, Washington street, Boston, or State street, Chicago. Everywhere the same square blocks, the eternal parallelograms, the same gaudy advertisements, the same flaring posters. In the quarter where the rich people have taken up their abode the houses are handsome, but have not the gar- dens one would expect to see around them. The park is beautiful, and very remarkable as being the result of a clever victory over the mass of fine sand that lay be- tween San Francisco and the sea. This sand, which half blinded the city every time the wind blew in from the ocean, is now bound into a fair lawn by buffalo grass, and is planted over with California's lovely trees and flowers. Near by, that is to say at three-quarters of an hour's drive from the town, are the Seal Rocks, covered with the creatures that give them their name, and a visit to them also means a sight of the grand ex- panse of the Pacific ocean washing in on an apparently endless beach of smooth yellow sand. But to see a really fine typical Californian town you must go south, to Los Angeles for instance, which town is a veritable poem. I had heard a great deal about China Town and had been advised not to leave San Francisco without visit- ing this Chinese quarter. I expected to find a bit of the Orient in this great western city, but what I did see was a slum, a rubbish heap, fit to turn one sick, a dis- 38 JOHN BULL & CO. grace to a town which, after all, must be directed and governed by respectable people. Thirty or forty thousand Chinese swarm in an atmosphere heavy with rancid grease, tobacco, musk, sandal-wood, and in the midst of gambling hells, opium dens, houses of ill fame, the blinds of which are not even lowered, a vile crowd living by the most shameless vice in most ignoble dirt, and this not in some outlying suburb where it might be convenient to fling the rubbish of the community, but in the very centre of the city. Heaven be praised, I soon forgot the amazing hor- rors of the place, but the odor of it long hung about my clothing. For the third time I had visited the United States, and had now seen them from north to south, from east to west. Now I was going to see still newer worlds, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, the Amer- icas of the future. The impressions formed during the two previous voy- ages seemed to have taken deeper root, and I felt the greater number of them to be confirmed. A country especially interesting from the feverish activity which, in a century, has developed it, and made of it a shining light to the rest of the world in the matter of practical ideas ; a people straining every nerve in the race for dollars, suffering from bile and billions, and who have learned most things except the art of good self-govern- ment ; unique women, the most intellectual and interest- ing in the world, whom I can admire all the more because I have not the honor to be the husband of one of them, and therefore have not to pay her dressmakers' JOHN BULL & CO. ^ 39 bills, nor work by the sweat of my brow to cover her with diamonds. I had intended in this volume only to speak of the English Colonies. However, I do not think that these few remarks on the United States are out of place here. Was not America once one of the great branch estab- lishments of the firm, John Bull & Co., although she may have since set up in business for herself ? And is not this the future that is before several other of those branches? CHAPTER V. The Pacific Ocean — The Sandwich Islands — Honolulu — The Southern Cross — What a Swindle I — The Samoan Islands — Apia — Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson — Auckland — Arrival of the Philistines. The voyage from San Francisco to Auckland in New Zealand takes just three weeks, and, with the exception of the first two days, which are rendered often disagree- able by a shallow sea easily stirred up, the passage is generally delightful. During nineteen days we found the Pacific Ocean as calm as a lake. The Monoivai is a most comfortable steamer of about 3,500 tons, commanded by one of the most charming captains it has been my good fortune to meet with in my travels. Watching tenderly over his " boarders," always on the outlook for anything which may add to their comfort or contribute to the pleasure of the trip. Captain Carey ought to be surnamed the father of his passengers. The voyage is far from being uninteresting, for, apart from the pleasure of gliding over a smooth sea, the long and regular swell of which gently rocks one, of watch- ing sunsets of surpassing beauty, or of passing evenings under a firmament literally ablaze with stars, one lands at two veritable earthly paradises — Honolulu, the cap- ital of the Sandwich Islands, and Apia, the chief town of the island of Samoa. Honolulu is eight days from San Francisco. The 40 JOHN BULL & CO. 4I boat stopped seven hours, which gave us time to see the town of Honolulu, and to drive to the Pali, a small mountain, from the summit of which an enchanting view of the whole island is to be had. Honolulu is a rather Californian town, that reminds one of Los Angeles. A high state of civilization has been reached : you would look in vain among the Sand- wichers for a woman wearing a smile and nothing more. The type is a pleasing one : soft, almond-shaped eyes set in an amiable, smiling face meet you at every turn, and there they live, these suave-looking people, far away in the Pacific Ocean, in the midst of sunshine and per- fume, in an ideal climate, with a temperature varying from sixty-five to eighty-two degrees from the first of Jan- uary to the thirty-first of December. Their land is ra- diant with a thousand flowering shrubs, and stately with palms, cocoanut palms, date palms, and the well-named royal palm that raises its tall, straight trunk like a silver mast high into the air, bearing a drooping crown of graceful leaves at the top. Graceful, too, are the young women of the people, with their loose, white dress, hanging straight from the neck, unconfined by belt or band, a garment following to a great extent the lines of the Watteau gown. And their charming gait ! with what noncJialant ease they carry themselves ! the supple body balanced with dignity befitting a state procession. With time at one's disposal, what an agreeable fort- night one could spend at Honolulu, in the most delicious far ttiente, admiring the people, listening to the birds, breathing the perfume of the flowers, swinging in a ham- mock suspended from two picturesque palms ! 42 JOHN BULL & CO. But there is the steamer's whistle sounding, and we must go on board. It is with the deepest regret that we leave this little earthly paradise, lit up as it is at our departure by a sunset sky ablaze with gold, emeralds, rubies and topazes. In ten minutes the scene has com- pletely changed. The glory has faded, and all is rapidly being steeped in profound darkness, for, in the region of the tropics, there is scarcely any twilight. And now we have once more left the land behind, and again become a tiny black spot cast on the immensity of the ocean. Nine days' good steaming, and we ought to reach the Samoan Islands ; but in the interval we pass the equa- tor (an important event), and we are to make acquaint- ance with the Southern Cross, the famous constellation we have heard so much about, and of which the Aus- tralians are so proud that they have transferred it to their national coat of arms — a magnificent cross, they say, that illuminates the southern hemisphere. At last, then, we were going to see it for ourselves — this South- ern Cross. We counted the days, and every evening, on turning in, we said to each other, " Three days more ; two days more," and, at last, " It is to-morrow that we are to behold this marvel." I really believe that we lay awake that night thinking of it. Truth to tell, an Englishman on board, who had been round the world several times, had said to me, " The Southern Cross ? Yes, it is not bad." But there are Englishmen whom nothing can move to enthusiasm, and who will exclaim, in front of Vesuvius in eruption, " Yes", it isn't bad," as if they were looking at the belching chimneys of Birmingham. I had been led to expect a grand sight, and a grand sight I expected. JOHN BULL & CO. 43 On the iith of April, 1892 (such dates are epochs in one's hfe), the captain said to us at breakfast, " This evening at six o'clock the Southern Cross will be visi- ble." The day promised to be a superb one. Ah, with what impatience we awaited the evening ! At last the sun descended to the horizon, and in a few minutes there was a perfectly clear firmament overhead. First, I went aft, to once more look on the Great Bear, and then rejoined the other passengers, who had taken up a post of observation on the bridge. I could see nothing remarkable. I strained my eyes almost out of their sockets. Still nothing. Up came the captain, " And this Southern Cross," I exclaimed," where is it ? " " Why, there it is," replied the captain, stretching out his hand toward the horizon. " But where ? " " Why, bless me, don't you see it ? Look there — where I am pointing. There is one star, that is the foot of the cross ; there is another, that forms the head ; then there are a third and fourth, forming the arms." And then, pointing them out successively, he r^^peated, " One, two, three, four." Now, really, a fakir who had just heard that he would never see Vishnu, could scarcely pull such a long face as we did when we found out how hugely we had been taken in. Picture to yourself a cross (for a cross we must admit it to be) of the meagerest dimensions, formed by four stars, which are not of equal magnitude, and of which the fourth, the one that forms the right arm, is not even placed symmetrically ! 44 JOHN BULL & CO. The Southern Cross must have been discovered and named by some patriotic zealot, who beheved that he saw in this cross a sign that John Bull, the Christian /<7:r excellence, was destined to acquire and convert the Aus- tral hemisphere. Of all the geese that pass for swans in the Colonies, the Southern Cross is the biggest. I went to bed that night feeling very " sold," and, throughout the eighteen months that I spent in the Col- onies, I never could see the Southern Cross without shaking my fist at it. Was ever anyone so taken in ? A few days later Samoa was to make up to us for the disappointment we had just suffered. We were to see real savages, and a bay which is often compared to the Bay of Naples. On April 17th, at six o'clock in the morning, we en- tered the Bay of Apia. We dressed with all speed, and went on deck. The Samoans had anticipated us. The steamer was besieged by the natives, who had come out from the shore in their boats. Everywhere around, their merchandise was spread out — oranges, bananas, fans, sticks, mats, clubs, and all kinds of curiosities of the country. The Samoans do not at all resemble their neighbors. It is not the Papuan type met with in the Fiji Islands, or in New Guinea; it is the type that we saw in Hono- lulu (which we shall meet with again in the Maoris of New Zealand), only rather darker. The costume is lighter and more primitive, for it consists of a kind of long folded towel tied about the loins. The Hawaiians, the Samoans and the Maoris belong to the Indo-Eu- ropean race. Many of the Samoans bear more resem- JOHN BULL & CO. 45 blance to sunburnt Italians than to the natives of Aus- traha, or even the different types of negroes that one finds in Africa. The face is intelHgent, the eyes are clear and soft, the forehead high, the nose rather large, and the body superb. The skin is of a pinkish copper shade, very picturesque in the brilliant sunshine. The walk of these people is full of grace and majesty ; here are hawkers of oranges and bananas, looking like un- dressed princes; imposing and picturesque figures, with their curly hair roughed up all over the head, the strong- knit body thrown back, and the line of the spine hol- lowed out. They roam about the deck with the air of exiled kings smoking their cigar on the Boulevard des Italiens ! Nature would appear to have made them all gentlemen. The hair of the Samoans, which is dark in childhood, is daubed with some preparation of lime, with the result that when a boy is about eighteen his head is often a comic sight, the bulk of the hair being of a Titian red and the ends of a fine canary color. It is as if a red-wool mop had been trying to get itself up to resemble a gold-colored wig. A boat landed us on the island in a few minutes, when we were once in it ; but at the foot of the ladder was a clamoring crowd of would-be ferrymen, difficult to deal with, and it was a shock to find that those sweet- looking creatures could use words — English, or, rather, Anglo-Saxon ones — that made one's hair stand on end. We were careful not to pay the boatman on debarking, but only to promise him his money when we returned. This is a useful precaution to take, otherwise he exacts a fabulous sum for taking you on board. The canny individual knows that you must get back to the boat at 46 JOHN BULL & CO. any price, and if you are not on your guard he takes advantage of you. It is easy to see that these people are being rapidly civilized. We breakfasted at a little hotel looking on the bay, and there we had the pleasure of making the acquaint- ance of Mr. Robert Louis Stevenson, the famous nov- elist, some of whose works will rank among the English classics. Mr, Stevenson has very delicate health ; the line climate of Samoa tempted him to settle there, and for several years he has been living in the hills above Apia, with his family. We found him full of activity, happy, singing the praises of Samoa and the Samoans, and in a state of health which allows him to continue the production of those chefs-d'ceiivre that are eagerly devoured in England. TJie Master of Ballantrae is a book which will live as long as the Tom Jones of Fielding. After breakfast, which consisted not of a slice of cold missionary a la moutarde, but of fresh eggs and good beefsteak, we went on the veranda to smoke and talk, with the magnificent coup-d'o2il of the blue bay spread out in front of us, and then we left to stroll about the town. It was Easter Sunday, and we wended our way to the cathedral. All along the road we met the natives, who smiled at us and made signs of friendliness. " Wel- come," said some as they passed ; " My love to you," said others. What gentle, pretty savages ! And how nice the women looked in their loose sacques, like those we saw in Honolulu, their hair tidily bound up, and their rounded figures carried erect ! Two or three had adopted European dress, but the effect was very ludi- JOHN BULL & CO. 47 crous. Mrs. Stevenson had told us that it was the ambition of the native women, as soon as they could afford it, to dress in European fashion, but I imagine that since they have seen that lady in the richly embroi- dered silk gown, made in the native fashion, which she was wearing when she spoke to us, they feel much less inclined to spend their substance on corsets. The chil- NATIVE HOUSE, SAMOA. dren, the little boys especially, made us exclaim in ad- miration. The ladies wanted to kiss them all. We arrived at the cathedral, a very primitive stone structure, just in time to see the procession enter, and it was a curious sight, that little bit of Rome lost in the Pacific ! The bishop officiated ; there were the acolytes in scarlet and lace-trimmed linen, the candles, the in- cense — nothing was wanting, and the scene was most 48 JOHN BULL & CO. impressive. The edifice was crowded with natives in their most gorgeous-colored raiment, and all with faces full of awe and respect. Some knelt, the greater num- ber crouched, but all the faces had a religious gravity imprinted on them. We went on our way. A few yards further and we came upon an English missionary singing hymns under a shed. Half a dozen Samoans were joining in, with their cracked, nasal-sounding voices. I do not doubt that the good missionary does his best, and that the Society for the Promulgation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts be- lieves that he is making converts by the thousand. The contrast appeared to me as ridiculous as one which so vexes, yet amuses, any artistic visitor to Rouen, where, almost under the shadow of the cathedral, a masterpiece of stone carving, stands a little square shanty in brick, with the inscription, Wcsleyan Church. How many Englishmen with a little artistic feeling, have told me the pleasure it would give them to kick it over and hide it under the earth ! At noon the heat was intense, and we were glad to get back to the Monozvai for refreshment and the shade of the awning. At lunch time, the Samoans were ordered to pack up their goods and quit the ship. When the crowd was dispersing, we threw them money from the deck for the fun of seeing them dive to the bottom of the bay and pick up the coins, not one of which they missed. The Samoans can swim before they can walk, I believe, and the water of the bay is as clear and limpid as the purest spring water. Then we watched the swarm of boats steer for the shore and a number of the young Samoans swim back JOHN BULL & CO. 49 to Apia. We said good-bye to this sweet land with its purple hills, the luxuriant tropical verdure which we were to see no more of for a long time, to the graceful, majestic palms, and, above all, to those amiable, happy people who live on bananas and oranges and cocoanuts, and whose eternal smile seems to thank the Creator for having sent them into a beautiful world. Nine days more at sea. In five we shall have arrived at Auckland, in the north of New Zealand ; four days later we shall be in Sydney. On the Friday in Easter week we were in Auckland, a town of sixty thousand inhabitants, very thriving looking, and with an exquisitely clean appearance. Situated in the curve of a gulf, and built on several hills, this town, whose importance grows by enchant- ment, is destined to become, one day, one of the largest commercial centres of the world. The editor of the New Zealand Herald, a most important New Zealand newspaper, had been kind enough to come to meet us at the quay. We went with him in a carriage to the top of Mount Eden, an extinct volcano, and once there we were able to feast our eyes upon a glorious panor- ama of green pastures, beautifully kept gardens, coquet- tish villas, a superb harbor, and the ocean to right and left. Only two or three miles separate East from West Auckland, and to reach the town from the south, by sea, you may follow the coast on the one side or the other ; but to go from East Auckland to West Auck- land by sea would take several days, whether you went round the northern or the southern part of the island. But we shall come back to New Zealand and shall revisit Auckland. 50 JOHN BULL & CO. At six o'clock in the evening we rejoined the Mono- wai, which was soon to land us at our destination. But alas ! our delightful days were finished. From San Francisco to Auckland we had been thirty-two passen- gers in first class. We had all made acquaintance with one another, and we formed a happy and united band. On returning on board we found the boat invaded by about sixty intruders, who had come to join us and get carried to Sydney. Up to this we had, most of us, had separate cabins ; now, each was obliged to share it with a stranger. We cast appealing looks at the captain ; we would fain have asked his permission to throw all those people overboard, and we one and all made a resolution not to address a word to the new-comers, but to " boycott " and keep them at a distance — as re- spectful as the width of the cabins would allow. And now, no more Pacific Ocean : the sea between Australia and New Zealand is generally very disagree- able. A bad sea and a crowded boat, there remained nothing now but the hope of shortly reaching Sydney to keep us in good humor. On the Tuesday following, at four in the afternoon, we caught sight of the Australian coast. At five we were steaming in at the narrow and imposing passage between great steep cliffs, which forms the entrance to Sydney harbor. CHAPTER VL Sydney — I Have Seen the Harbor — The Australia Hotel — The French in Sydney — The Town — The Parks— Cupid in the Open Air — Little Clandestine Visits to the South Head — ' ' Engaged " — Melbourne — Activity — All Scottish — The Holy Tartufes — Adelaide — Brisbane— Ballarat — Bendigo— Geelong. The two finest harbors in the world are those of Rio de Janeiro and of Sydney : but the hght is generally defective in Rio, and the misty atmosphere hinders one from seeing all the details of the landscape at one time. In Sydney, the air is so clear that no detail escapes one ; everything is sharply outlined ; the harbor, with its two hundred miles of indented coast, is stretched out before the eyes of the spectator in infinite meander- ings, presenting a new surprise at each turn. It is a succession of transformation scenes. This harbor is in- contestably one of the most imposing-looking of nature's marvels. The narrow entrance between two bold head- lands is about half an hour's steaming from the city, which seems reposing on the water in the far end of an immense broken-coasted lake. From the bridge of the Monowai we are shown by Captain Carey the cul de sac where the unfortunate Dunbar was wrecked with her great cargo of human souls. The entrance of this trap bears a great resemblance to Sydney Heads, and the commander of the Dunbar, further mystified by a thick, dirty night, mistook the one for the other, 51 52 JOHN BULL & CO. and steered the unhappy people to their doom. But now we are steaming cautiously between the great sheer cliffs that form the real entrance to Sydney harbor, and in a few moments there bursts upon our delighted eyes a glorious panorama. We are in raptures and we do not miss a bit of it. It is not only the details that charm, it is the ensemble. The eye is carried constantly NORTH HEAD, SYDNEY. from each separate part to the whole. Each little bay and cove is lovely, and charms the sight, but the whole, the immense, grandiose whole, absorbs one. Here it is a rugged hill with trees that .seem to have their roots in the water ; there it is an inviting-looking beach ; further on it is a noble hill, its sides dotted over with dainty dwellings, pretty houses, each set in a gar- den, where the picturesque sub-tropical vegetation, the JOHN BULL & CO. 53 magnolia, the tree ferns, the cactus and a hundred other such plants are mingled with the loveliest flowers of Europe. After four weeks of solitude on the ocean, here we are in the midst of life again. Ferry-boats are crossing one another in all directions, plying between the city and the various suburbs. There are numbers of liners at anchor. We pass the Australian fleet. Finally, after half an hour, which passes like a dream, we are along- side the wharf at the foot of the town. We shake hands with Captain Carey and our fellow-passengers, throw a last glance of contempt at the Auckland intruders, and go on shore. My impresario and his son and some dear friends had come to meet us. They did not say, " What kind of passage have you had ? " or " How are you ? " Noth- ing of the kind ; it was, " What do you think of the harbor ? " Some journalists, too, have come to wel- come us. They crowd around, crying in chorus, " Well, and what do you think of the harbor?" It is evident that this harbor business is going to be terribly over- done. "Your harbor is a beauty, no one denies that," I feel inclined to exclaim ; " but, after all, you did not make it." I hope I am not going to be pursued and overpowered with the Sydney harbor, for I want to be able to keep it as one of my finest souvenirs of travel. It is with certain fine bits of scenery as it is with the tunes of // Trovatorc ; by dint of hearing too much of them, one ends by cordially hating them. An idea ! I will get a card printed and wear it through Sydney streets ; "Your harbor is the finest in the world." 54 JOHN BULL & CO. The luggage examined, we speed away to the Aus- traha Hotel, which we reach in a few minutes. Another agreeable surprise. The Australia Hotel, where a suite of pretty rooms has been engaged for us, is a revelation. Neither Europe nor America has anything more com- fortable and luxurious to show. The rooms are ele- gantly furnished, the table excellent, the wines first-class, the manager most obliging, the service admirable. We are going to be in clover. The Australia is a happy combination of the best features of European and Amer- ican hotels. Sydney has as much right to be proud of this hotel as of her harbor : and she made it ! Next morning, by the kind invitation of Lord and Lady Jersey, we lunch at Government House, and in the evening we are dined, or rather banqueted, by the Cosmopolitan Club. Sydney society hastens to welcome us, and invitations to dinners, dances, lunches, picnics, pour in from all sides. The Mayor and his charming wife invite us to go and hear the organ in the Town Hall ; in a word, the Australians seem determined to show us that they deserve their reputation for being the most hospitable people in the world. The banquet at the Cosmopolitan Club was presided over by the Mayor and followed by an improvised con- cert, at which we heard some high-class musicians, all, or almost all, of them French : M. Henri Kowalski, a pianist, known far beyond the Australian continent ; M. Poussard, the violinist ; M. Deslouis, the fine baritone ; Madame Charbonnet, the distinguished pianist. Music is in good hands in Sydney, for it is in the hands of French artists. The next day I met at the Town Hall Monseigneur Moran, Cardinal Archbishop of Sydney, JOHN BULL & CO. 55 Monseigneur Carr, Archbishop of Melbourne, and several other prelates. The building is magnificent, the main hall a superb one. There, again, I was proud to learn that the beautiful window had been designed by a com- patriot of mine, M. Lucien Henri, who has adapted the thousand strange and beautiful forms of Australian Jlora awi famia to architectural purposes. With M. Henri this has been a labor of love which has absorbed his brain for years, and I was glad to learn that the New South Wales Government had pledged itself to take two hundred copies of the truly great work he has prepared on the subject. As for the organ, everyone knows it is the most com- plete that exists. The organist, M. Wiegand, a Belgian, almost a Frenchman, executed several pieces, which showed to advantage the player and the instrument. Sydney is a town of about four hundred thousand inhabitants, well built, possessing several fine buildings, among which may be named the Post Ofifice, the Town Hall and the Parliament Houses; it has pretty theatres, parks and public gardens. If the town were built like an amphitheatre around the bay it might be classed among the loveliest in the world ; but the harbor is only seen in the elegant suburbs of Darling Point, Pott's Point, Elizabeth Bay, Rose Bay, etc. The city proper is built pretty much on the flat in the hollow of the gulf, and bears a striking resemblance to some of the towns of Lancashire and Yorkshire, such as Manchester, Leeds or Bradford. But if the town strikes you as merely one more gigantic monument erected to British activity — just think a moment, a town of four hundred thousand inhabitants, where sixty years ago there were but a few 56 JOHN BULL & CO. convicts — the suburbs, built upon the points that jut out into the harbor, arrest your admiration by their surpris- ing beauty. Many of the houses here are perfect httle palaces, among others, the one which was inhabited when I was in Sydney by Lady Martin, widow of the great Australian jurisconsult. The view from the house and grounds was fairy-like in its beauty, and wherever ^ •-'w-:^.-i;jj.-K VIEW OF SYDNEY FROM LAVENDER BAY. one turned in the suburbs of Sydney fresh beauties of scene met the eye. In the Museum, a great shanty in brick which disfig- ures the park, is to be found a collection of pictures signed by some of the greatest masters ; but the thing which struck me as most noteworthy was a collection of water-colors, of which the director, Mr. Montefiore, himself an artist of talent, has a right to be proud. JOHN BULL & CO. 57 In spite of the lovely climate which Sydney enjoys, the parks are not frequented by society. You look in vain for cafes or any attraction of that kind. They are simply great fields, rather well kept, where, as in London parks, meet together the street orators, the socialists, the anarchists and the unemployed. This by day. As night comes on, their place is taken by lovers who come to " coo " to one another on the benches or loll about on the grass. But if the parks have no attraction for us, the Botanical Garden more than makes amends. How lovely it is ! Situated in a bend of the harbor and gently sloping to the water's edge, planted with the rarest trees and flowers, ornamented with pretty statues, I know nothing of the kind that can compare with it. In spite of all this, one does not see many people about the gar- dens, and when I went there for my favorite walk, I could carry on my meditations perfectly undisturbed. A couple of lovers on a bench, laced in each other's arms and gazing in each other's eyes without uttering a word, a poor wretch lying on another bench, trying to forget in slumber a night passed in the open air, and a morning perhaps breakfastless, a few loiterers in the walks ; but no pretty toilettes, nothing to denote the ex- istence of a rich and elegant town a hundred yards ofT, Australia, like England, is the country of out-of-door love-making. Everyone to his taste. A deputation of scandalized people one day presented themselves before one of the cabinet ministers to beg that he would have the park gates closed at sundown. " I shall do nothing of the kind," he answered. " Leave those poor things alone. If you feel shocked, avoid the parks at night or stay in your own houses," 58 JOHN BULL & CO. For that matter this is the tacit reply which the Lon- don poHce makes to the reiterated complaints made by the public on the subject of the things that take place and are tolerated in the parks of the capital of the " moral country " par excellence. The Sydney parks, frequented by the lower classes, are not the only spots consecrated to Venus. The bet- ter-class, if not better-motived couples, quit the town and push on to the South Head, which forms-one of the majestic pillars of the harbor entrance. It is a sight to see the procession of cabs with drawn blinds gently trotting to Bondi, to Coogee, to South Head, and all those mysterious Cytheras. Arrived at their destination the couples leave the cabs, the lady closely veiled and walking with the modest bearing of a Sunday-school teacher, and wander away in the scrub, the thick, dis- creet scrub that abounds all around. These couples, to judge by their appearance, belong to the superior classes. Take a walk with a lady in these parts and no one will take any notice of you. You will be regarded with a look which seems to say, "You know what we are up to ; we know what you have come for ; do not let us interfere with one another." But do not venture there alone, as I once did, drawn by a curiosity to verify the hundred-and-one stories that had been whispered to me, for you will be received like a dog in a skittle alley, and at every turn you will be repulsed with " Engaged I " These sentimental promenades generally take place in the morning between ten and one, that is to say, at the time of day when papas and husbands are busy in the city. This shows plainly that the drawn cab-blinds do not screen young, affianced couples, to whom British JOHN BULL & CO. 59 custom allows so much liberty that thanks to it they can conduct their love affairs in public without having to lower their eyes, much less the blinds of a cab. Impossible to speak of Sydney cabs without asking why this city does not possess a single cab holding more than two people. It is not everybody who wants to go to South Head, after all 1 If you happen to be three or four going to a ball or a theatre you must take two cabs ; if you have to go to the station with six trunks, you must take six cabs Sydney is probably the only im- portant town in the world that has no public carriages with four places. After a three weeks' sojourn in Sydney, I left with great regret the charming people who had given me such a hearty reception ; I left the Australia feeling pretty certain that I should not again find such ac- commodation in any hotel in the Colonies. On arriving at the station to take the train for Melbourne, we found the director of the line, the station master and several other important officials waiting to put us into a re- served carriage and to wish us a good journey. Friends had brought bouquets for the ladies, and when the train started we carried away with us a most delightful mem- ory of Sydney. The journey from Sydney to Melbourne takes eigh- teen hours and calls for no notice. Flat stretches of country everywhere, studded with the eternal gum-tree and nothing else. At five in the morning you must turn out of your sleeping car to change trains at Albury Station. You are on the frontier of the colony of Vic- toria, and the gauge is not the same as you have been 6o JOHN BULL & CO. traveling on. Do not, on account of this, be led to be- lieve that you are about to penetrate into an enemy's country. There never has been any war between New South Wales and Victoria, but simply a mean jealousy which shows itself in all kinds of reprisals. The New South Wales man says to the Victorian, " To come into my country you shall be made to turn out of your berth at five o'clock in the morning." " I don't mind," re- plies the Victorian ; " to come my way you will have to do the same. We are quits ! " All the policy of these two countries may be summed up in the two phrases. The express train arrives at Melbourne at a quarter- past eleven in the morning, in a station which would disgrace an European town of fifteen thousand inhab- itants. The reason, do you ask ? Simply this, that absurd sums have had to be spent to satisfy the jealous rivalries of the small towns and give them finely built stations, some of them ridiculously important looking, and that there is no money left for the two metropoli- tan towns, which have plenty of business to look after and so do not torment the Government. There is no difBculty here in procuring cabs, which are not the hansoms of Sydney, but little chars-a-bancs for four persons, roofed with a tarpaulin cover like a grocer's cart, and provided with two steps, very high, very narrow, and placed one above the other, perpen- dicularly, which makes entrance difficult, and descent dangerous. The Grand Hotel, situated opposite the Houses of Parliament and public gardens, is comfortable, but after the Australia of Sydney, what a come-down ! The cuisine is not bad, but neither wine, beer, nor alcoholic JOHN BULL & CO. 6l beverage is sold under the roof of the Grand. One has to order it in from a wine merchant's, at the risk of making oneself conspicuous in the eyes of all the water drinkers and tea tipplers. The city of Melbourne was founded in 1835, and its population has increased with marvelous strides. To- day Melbourne has more than five hundred thousand TOWN HALL AND SWANSTON STREET, MELBOURNE. [Frojn a Photograph by I.INDT, Melbour iie ?[ inhabitants ; the population of the entire colony being only eleven hundred thousand. Thus, the capital is as populous as the rest of the colony. In New South Wales, South Australia, Western Australia and Queens- land we find the same state of things. It is only in New Zealand and South Africa that we find the popu- lation spread over the land. 62 JOHN BULL & CO. Melbourne cannot boast of any site that is worth vis- iting; but, as a Melbournian one day said to me, " Mel- bourne can afford to do without scenery." The city, with its activity, its broad, straight streets, its high buildings, its magnificent system of cable trams, is essentially American. In Collins street you can easily fancy yourself in New York or Chicago. If I were not always so faithful to my first loves I could almost prefer Melbourne to Sydney. Between the two it is hard to express a preference. In Melbourne I met with the same amiability, the same hospitality as at Sydney. I found there a choice and intelligent society, and a people perhaps more ac- tive than those of Sydney. For instance, the Alliance Frangaise, which kindly gave us a reception, has nearly five hundred members. The Austral Salon, to whom, also, I owe a charming afternoon, is composed of ladies and gentlemen, lovers of literature and art, who meet together to read and discuss literary masterpieces. Just as in America, one finds here intellectual life without pedantry. Mention must be made of a few public buildings which are imposing-looking: the Town Hall, the Post Of^ce, the Parliament Houses, the Treasury, the Banks and a Museum already rich in treasures. Government House, which is about half a mile from the town, is larger than that of Sydney, but neither so picturesque nor so well situated. The ballroorn is immense — quite as large as that of Buckingham Palace. The honors are done by the most popular of all the Colonial Governors, and his wife, the lovely Countess of Hope- toun. When I have said that Melbourne possesses JOHN BULL & CO. 63 pretty public gardens and elegant suburbs, I shall have almost exhausted the notes that I took in that city. Here, as well as in the other Colonies, I cannot help being struck with the fact that the English Colonies are in the hands of the Scots. Out of seven Governors five are Scottish ; the President of the Legislative Coun- cil is a Scot, and so are three-fourths of the Council- ors ; the Mayor of Melbourne is of the same nation- ality, and the Agent-General in London is another Scotsman.^ England ought not to call her Colonies Greater Britain, but Greater Scotland, and the United States might be named Greater Ireland. As for the south of New Zealand, it is as Scotch as Edinburgh, and more Scotch than Glasgow. Go to Broken Hill, the richest silver mine in the world, and you will see five great shafts leading to the treasures of the earth ; these five great shafts bear the following names : Drew, Maclntyre, MacGregor, Jamieson and MacCullock, five Scots. It is the same thing everywhere. Melbourne, the intelligent, the much-alive, closes its museums on Sundays. A deputation one day waited upon Sir Graham Berry, then Prime Minister of the col- ony, to ask him to close the taverns on Sunday. The deputation was chiefly composed of pastors belonging to all kinds of Nonconformist churches. " I am very willing," said Sir Graham, " to use my influence to try and get the taverns closed on Sundays, if you will con- sent to my using the same influence to get the museums opened instead." The reverend gentlemen appeared not to relish the terms, and as the Prime Minister did not hear any more from them, it must be presumed * Since replaced by another Scot 64 JOHN BULL & CO. that they preferred the pubhc-house to the museums as a Sunday resort for the people. In England every in- telligent person is clamoring for the opening of the museums on Sunday, and they will succeed one day in obtaining what they ask ; but it takes time, for the com- bat has to be carried on against all the allied forces of bigotry and conservatism. And yet it was the first and greatest of Protestants, Martin Luther himself, who said on this very subject, " If anywhere the day is made holy for the mere day's sake, then I command you to work on it, ride on it, dance on it, do anything that will reprove this encroachment on Christian spirit and liberty." The Germans are mostly Protestants, but on Sundays, on leaving church, they go in crowds to visit their museums before returning home. Narrow Sab- batarianism is neither Protestant nor Christian ; it is a Jewish institution. But Luther is not for England and Scotland, nor the Colonies. What they prefer is Cal- vin, John Knox, and all the enemies of simple joys and innocent recreations. I repeat, the population of Melbourne is more than five hundred thousand souls, but, like Sydney, she could spare a hundred thousand to the Bush without being any the worse for the process. I know no large town in the world containing so many parasites, drunkards, and loafers who have taken root there, but only cumber the ground. They are creatures who prefer idleness with poverty to hard work with a competency, which they could easily find away from the large towns. When I was in Melbourne the Government had opened a bureau to provide work for the unemployed. One day it was announced at the bureau that ten navvies were required JOHN BULL & CO. 65 to begin the making of a road about sixty miles from Melbourne. The workmen presented themselves at the ofifice, and their names were called according to the date of their inscription. The secretary had to call over more than four hundred names before he could get ten men who would make up their minds to leave the town to go to work in the country. Sydney and Melbourne are being crowded to the detriment of the country at large, which bemoans not having enough hands to de- velop its resources. One cannot help wondering why, in a country where the Government makes grants of land at the rate of five shillings an acre, the desire of every emi- grant, every town workman, is not to put by a few pounds, and to become by his own exertions an inde- pendent person and a landowner. The Germans do it ; the Italians, the Swedes, and the Scotch do it, but the English and the Irish seem to prefer to tighten their belts, and lounge about the corners of the public-houses in Sydney and Melbourne. I cannot leave Melbourne without expressing my thanks to the genial French Consul, M. Leon Dejardin, who gave me a most cordial welcome, helped me with his good advice, and gave me valuable information on the subject of Australia. The journey from Melbourne to Adelaide is just like the one from Sydney to Melbourne, a monotonous eighteen hours' journey through the eucalyptus. How- ever, an hour before you reach Adelaide the country be- comes more hilly, the forest grows thicker, and when, from the last hill, you look down on Adelaide the view is magnificent. Adelaide, a town of a hundred thousand inhabitants. 66 JOHN BULL & CO. has not yet attained such an importance as Sydney or Melbourne, but it is making giant strides, and, thanks to its cereals, its vineyards, and its mines, it is destined to become the equal of these two great cities. To my taste, it is the prettiest of the three. Adelaide is built in blocks, American fashion, and is surrounded by su- VICTORIA SQUARE, FROM P. O. TOWER, ADELAIDE [From a Photograph by Lindt, Melbourne.\ perb parks. Beyond this it is hedged around with blue mountains, but the town is so clean, so coquettish-look- ing, so neat, its general appearance so gay, that you for- get the landscape, and think of the comfort that must be found in all those attractive-looking houses. Around about all looks prosperous and fertile : golden corn fields, JOHN BULL & CO. 6/ vines, orange-trees bending under their wealth of fruit, rich pastures, mines of gold, silver, and copper almost in the neighborhood ; this is what you admire about Adelaide much more than its Post Of^ce or its Town Hall. I passed a week most agreeably in this pretty city, thanks in part, it must be admitted, to the cordial recep- tion extended to me by the Governor and Lady Kin- tore, the Lieutenant-Governor (Chief Justice Way) and many others whom it would be impossible to name. If Melbourne boasts of its tramways, Sydney of its harbor, and Adelaide of its parks, I believe Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, boasts of its river. At Bris- bane you are close to the tropics ; the eucalyptus is still much to the fore, but the vegetation of the tropics at last breaks the monotony of the scene, and the eye, tired of the gray-green gum-tree, rests with delight upon these luxuriant growths. Apart from the Botanical Gardens, which are good, the town contains little that is likely to interest an Eu- ropean. The Parliament House is a fine building, and there is a magnificent new Treasury, not yet in use, though long since completed. Among the towns of secondary importance, towns of from twenty to fifty thousand inhabitants, we have only to mention Newcastle in New South Wales, at one time prosperous and famous for its coal mines, but to-day, thanks to strikes, dull, dreary, and poor, Bendigo, Bal- larat, and Geelong, in the colony of Victoria. Bendigo and Ballarat, where more than $150,000,000 of gold were found in thirty years, have retained some traces of their former opulence. They possess superb public 68 JOHN BULL & CO. gardens, some fine edifices, and beautiful statues. The main street of Ballarat is of an extraordinary width, and is the finest to be seen in the Colonies. Australian towns have not generally any history. Ballarat is an exception. It was there that the miners, headed by Peter Lalor, sustained a bloody siege against the English troops in 1854. They were beaten, but their rights were acknowledged, and their defeat turned into a victory. Peter Lalor, wounded in the shoulder, took refuge in the Bush. A price was put on his head, but he managed to escape pursuit, and after the general amnesty, he became successively Member of Parliament, Minister and President of the Legislative Assembly of Victoria. Ballarat has just erected to him a statue which has come from the studio of my talented friend, Nelson MacLean. At the present day Ballarat is as dead as a dowager, that is to say, as a woman who was. In the Town Hall, you will find the walls of the main hall hung with oleographs representing the Queen, the Prince of Wales — such things as tradesmen send their customers at Christmas. It is pathetic. " How can you put such horrors on the Avails of such a beautiful hall?" I asked the Town Clerk who kindly accompanied me. " What would you have us do ? " he said. " We can- not afford to buy paintings. These are better than nothing, aren't they ? " It reminded me of a reply I got from a man in Amer- ica who was selling jewelry set with sham gems. " Does anybody really buy those things ? " I asked him. JOHN BULL & CO. 69 " Of course they do," he repHed. " What are the women to do who haven't the money to buy real dia- monds ? " However, I must add that the Museum contains many valuable pictures, and I saw more works of art in Bal- larat than in any town of the same size. Bendigo, the other gold-mining town, is more lively than Ballarat, but not so pretty. However, it has a very fine Square, surrounded with buildings which would do honor to a more important town. It has also a laby- rinth of ferns which I recommend to lovers in search of a quiet retreat, fresh and inviting. For that matter, heaven knows it is made use enough of, and needs not my recommendation ! Geelong is a sleepy little place, given up to the nar- rowest bigotry. It, like Melbourne, is situated on the coast of Phillip's Bay. It is in this city of saints (each colony seems to boast one) that one of the notable inhabitants, an antediluvian fossil, went to the booking office to ask, before taking tickets for my lectures, if it was not dangerous to take ladies to hear " that Frenchman." It was also in this interesting town that an anonymous wag sent me the portrait of Wellington, advising me to place it where I should never lose sight of it. Would it not have been more polite and more Christian to send to a Frenchman passing through Geelong a portrait of General Bosquet, for instance, who, at the battle of Inkermann, saved the lives of a whole division of English who were going to be massacred to the last man by the Russians ? Geelong was intended to be the capital of Australia, and, who knows, perhaps of the world ; but— how did 70 JOHN BULL & CO. it happen ? I know not — it is Melbourne that is the capital of the colony, and Geelong, after having held almost in its grasp the pivot of the universe, remains — Geelong. Sic transit siloria inundi. CHAPTER VII. People of Society, People in Society, and "Society" People — The "Sets" — Society Papers — "Miss D. looked thrillingly lovely in electric blue " — ^The Australian Women are Beauti- ful — Imitation of the Old World — A Tasmanian Snob — Darling Point, Pott's Point and Sore Point — A Melbourne Journalist on his Townspeople. For centuries past the Old World has tolerated an idle class in consideration of certain services that it renders to the arts, which it protects, to commerce, which it helps, to elegance, which it inculcates, and to good manners, which it perpetuates, but the young worlds ought to keep all their admiration for self-abnegation, for courage, work and the pride of duty accomplished, and ought not to tolerate any society but one which can boast of contributing to the advancement of its country. Yet there are to be found in Australia, a country which owes its existence and its outlook to valiant pioneers with faces wrinkled by toil and suffering, and arms burnt by the sun, people who are already beginning to boast of not working with their hands, parasites who imitate all the idlers of the Old World, and whose only aim in life is to obtain a footing in a certain " set." These people, people who have inherited fortunes earned by means of hard work and a life of complete abnegation, already run down the Colonies and would think it beneath them to drink a glass of the excellent wine that Australia produces. They shut their ears to 71 72 JOHN BULL & CO. Madame Melba whilst she was among them and of them, but to-day they would willingly pay five pounds for an orchestra stall, I have no doubt, if the (I'zz'rt would go and sing in Melbourne or Sydney. Colonial society has absolutely nothing original about it. It is content to copy all the shams, all the follies, all the impostures of the Old British World. You will find in the southern hemisphere that venality, adoration of the golden calf, hypocrisy and cant are still more noticeable than in England, and I can assure you that a badly cut coat would be the means of closing more doors upon you than would a doubtful reputation. And the women of that society ! They are sublime with their " sets," even away in little Bush towns ! In a little hole of a country town containing about two thousand inhabitants, I met one day a lady, with whom I entered into conversation by saying that I had met a fellow-townswoman of hers in Sydney, and I added, mentioning the name, " You know her, no doubt?" " Ye-e-es," said she, as if trying to ransack her mem- ory ; " I know her — by name, but she and I do not mix in the same society." "Just so," I said. "Not in the same set, eh?" " Precisely." The select colonial was the wife of an ironmonger of the town. My dear lady, those women, you understand, could not all be ironmongers' wives ! I know of a Melbourne lady who boasted of being obliged to drop the acquaintance of a charming and distinguished woman, because, said she, " I cannot JOHN BULL & CO. Tl have hansoms standing at my door on my reception days." Another said to me one day, "Really, the shopkeeper class is getting intolerable ; it is pushing itself into so- ciety everywhere." The father of this grand person, I found, himself kept a shop in the environs of Mel- bourne. And here let me frankly say that I am getting a little tired of hearing about the modesty and seriousness of the Englishwoman, and of hearing the Frenchwoman called frivolous. Have I not seen at bazaars in Eng- land and its Colonies — sanctified fairs organized to pro- vide an organ for the church or a peal of bells for the tower — have we not all seen women and girls conduct- ing themselves with unblushing effrontery to fill the coffers of the cause f Have I not seen in shop windows their portraits in low-necked dresses, and with their names attached ? " Why not their address ? " a French- man would say, if such things were seen in France. Our women, thanks be, are more modest and more serious than that. Not only they do not permit the photographer to exhibit their portraits in his window, but if you go to the Salon and see the portraits of our women painted by Bonnat, Carolus Duran, and the rest, you will never see the name of the original in the catalogue. On the Boulevards, it is true, one sees the photographs of our actresses, with the name of each at the foot of the picture, but that is quite another matter : the profession of the stage obliges those who follow it to keep themselves constantly before the public. Yes, many voyages in many lands have but strength- ened my admiration for the Frenchwoman, that clever, 74 JOHN BULL & CO. thrifty housekeeper, tactful, cheering wife, dutiful and devoted daughter, and wise and watchful mother, de- servedly adored of her children. But let us return to our sets and snobs. There exist in the great towns of Australia from five to ten papers, called society papers, which live on that ugly Anglo-Saxon failing, snobbery. This is a word for which an equivalent does not exist in the French language, and I think that our most implacable ene- mies would admit that we have not the fault itself. Heaven knows we have enough others, but if I some- times feel proud of my nationality it is, among a hun- dred other reasons, because we have no society papers. It would concern us little to know that Miss Jones took tea with Miss Robinson on Monday, or that Miss Brown went to Mrs. Smith's dance on Tuesday. It does not interest us to know that " Mrs. A. looked superb in pink at Mrs. B.'s ball," and that " Mrs. C. received her guests with much grace at the entrance to the drawing room," nor does it concern us to know that " Miss D. looked thrillingly lovely in electric blue." Snobbery is not an Australian characteristic, but an Anglo-Saxon one developed to the extreme in the Colo- nies. It is noticeable in England, Canada, the United States, and everywhere that the English language is spoken. In all these countries the society paper flourishes. In Australia it is not only Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide that indulge in the luxury. There is scarcely a little suburb which has not its own society paper. It is as if we had a Batignolles Gazette, chronicling the doings and sayings of that respectable quarter of Paris. JOHN BULL & CO. 75 Imagine a French person reading such a sheet, if it did exist ! The most curious part of it is, that all these Anglo- Saxon society papers adopt the tone of Censores Morum; and there is not one of them which does not set up as a weekly Juvenal, at the same time flattering its readers by giving accounts of their doings at home, with details that might well make a self-respecting hostess blush. In society, in the great towns of Australia, I saw plenty of beautiful women ; women with lovely faces sur- mounting most beautifully moulded forms ; but I think I met there some of the most frivolous women to be found anywhere. Balls, dinners, soirees, calls, garden parties, appear to fill the life of hundreds of them. Such women are quite without originality. Their con- versation is neither interesting, entertaining, nor natural. The consequence is that social life has neither the re- fined elegance and witty vivacity of Paris, nor the verve and intellectual animation of Boston and New York. The men are too apt to talk finance, wool and mutton ; the women to talk dress and scandal, discussing the ques- tion whether Mrs. So-and-So belongs to this or that "set." Happily these have not the whole field to themselves, for there are plenty of people in Australia who, while mixing in society, yet find time to read and think and to lend a helping hand to any good work that needs champions and helpers. And when I have said that I met, in the Colonies, numbers of charming people, as amiable and distinguished as could be desired in the best European society, I hope that will be sufficient to prevent this chapter from being read in a wrong spirit. ^6 JOHN BULL & CO. So, dear madam, who do me the honor to read me in Sydney or Melbourne, please understand that nothing in this chapter is addressed to you. The society of which I speak is not yours, but the other, the one that is written between inv^erted commas. .While on the topic of snobs, allow me to illustrate with a personal anecdote. There existed in Hobart, Tasmania, at the time of my visit there, a weekly rag, which, having learnt that I was once a professor at St. Paul's School, London, thought to insult me by calling me " an usher." I must say it did me no manner of harm : it was one of those would-be insults that hurt the person who utters them more than the one whom they are meant for. This was the only disagreeable note that reached my ears amid a chorus of praise, the only mud splash that I received in the Colonies, and it left no stain. M. Alphonse Dau- det, in his Trente Ans de Paris, boasts of having been an usher, so I might well be proud of it — if I had been one ! Poor silly snob ! . Place two Englishmen on a desert island, and in a little while one of them will have found out that his grandfather was better than the grandfather of the other, and he will have inaugurated an aristocracy in the island, if not started a society paper to record his own doings. The greater part of would-be society people, in Anglo- Saxon countries above all, pass a great deal of their time in discovering their ancestors, and in growing for themselves a genealogical tree, with the trunk taking JOHN BULL & CO. ']'] root in the Middle Ages. The Austrahans waste httle time on this. Like the rest of the human race, they have ancestors, but some of them would prefer to have none. Their origin in New South Wales and Tas- mania is a delicate subject, which must not be touched upon. Voltaire once said that a man cannot be too careful in the choice of his ancestors. Plenty of colonials have overlooked this sound piece of advice. It is well known, of course, that the first colonials were convicts, and so the Australians naturally interest themselves little in any but the two generations that have preceded them. Yet it must be remembered that, up to sixty or seventy years ago, England transported to Australia poor wretches whose crimes would be punished in the pres- ent day with a few days' imprisonment, or even a fine of a few shillings. Moreover, we are entering on an age when people are judged by their own merits, and not by those of their ancestors. Nevertheless, the fact remains. Sydney aristocracy has taken up its residence in the suburbs of the town, on beautiful promontories com- manding a view of the loveliest harbor in the world. These elegant suburbs are called Darling Point, Pott's Point, etc. Darling Point is the fashionable place. Just opposite this lies Cockatoo Island, where con- victs sojourned in days gone by. That is Sore Point. Botany Bay has ceased to exist for a long time past. It is now Elizabeth Bay, Rose Bay, and many other places affected by people whom I found to be, for the most part, of an amiability and hospitality which I shall never foreret. 78 JOHN BULL & CO. Mr. James Smith, one of the best-known Austrahan journahsts, commenting on Mr. H. C. J. Lingard's Juvenal in Mclbouj-nc, says : " There are few cities or communities which afford greater scope for the cen- sor and the satirist than our own ; its vices, its rehgious hypocrisies, its pohtical folHes, its social shams, its ab- ject worship of money and what money can buy, its low standard of commercial morality, its debased and debasing taste in the matter of literature, art and music, all invite the lash." I am happy to be able to say that some of the ugliest things on Mr. James Smith's list did not come under my notice at all in Australia. The things that I have tried to point out are ugly enough; but, after all, they are only foibles, failings, weaknesses. In all my wanderings in Australasia I never saw such things as, unhappily, one hears too much of in the United States — judges and juries who are to be bought ; councilmen who go into office to apply the ratepayers' money to the lining of their own pockets instead of to the paving of the public streets. I noticed nothing in Australia which could lead one to suppose that it has not the righteousness which " exalteth a nation." CHAPTER VIII. Hospitality in the Colonies — Different People at Home and Abroad — Extreme Courtesy of the Australian — Childishness — Visit to the Four Everlasting Buildings of the Colonial Towns — Impressions — Wild Expenditure — Give Us a Prison — "Who is Bismarck?" — "Don't Know" — In the Olden Time. Like the English at home, the inhabitants of the Enghsh Colonies are the most amiable and most hospi- table in the world. I say, and repeat emphatically, " like the English at home," for it would be a mistake to judge the English by the specimens one meets traveling on the Continent. And here, perhaps, a question might be asked : How is it that the English, who are so amiable at home, are often so disagreeable when they are on their travels ? And we might, in reply, quote the question that M. Labiche asks in Le Voyage de M. Perrichon: " How is it that the French, who are so witty at home, are so stu- pid abroad ? " If one wants to judge of a man, one must study him at home, when he has his natural surroundings, and he is thoroughly himself. Ignorance of the language, uses and customs of a foreign country make him awk- ward. Abroad he is playing a role for which Nature . never cast him. Setting aside the perfect gentleman — who is a perfect gentleman everywhere — a man out of his own country is more or less like a fish out of water. 79 8o JOHN BULL & CO. He does not breathe freely, he is out of his element, he is not at his ease, much less at his best. He is not him- self. I think God, when he created man, must have said to him, " Thou shalt stay at home." The Englishman at home pleases me, and I do my best to please him ; but let an Englishman in Paris stop me to ask, without even lifting his hat, " Ok est le roue de Rc'voley ? " and he displeases and annoys me, so that I promptly answer, " Connais pas / " Upon my word, I believe that their very looks are changed when they travel. I confess that I never met in England with the red-whiskered men and the long- toothed women who figure as English people in French comic papers ; but I must, in justice to our caricaturists, say, that in France, in Switzerland, and wherever the tourist is to be found, I have seen these types by the dozen ; and the most curious part of it is, that numbers of my English friends perfectly agree with me on this point. Explain this phenomenon, O ye readers of riddles ! Just like the English at home, I found the Austra- lians — and, to include the people of New Zealand and Tasmania, I should say the Australasians — great in hos- pitality. I do not remember, for instance, a single town where, on the day of my arrival, I was not put up at the club of the locality. It was who should give me a drive or a mount, a picnic or a shooting-party. The most hearty invitations were tendered from all sides. In the Bush, it is open-house hospitality ; the stranger may enter and eat ; nay, in many cases sleep, if it please him to do so. If the people of the Colonies have all the little fail- JOHN BULL & CO. 8 1 ings of a young society, they have, without exception, all the qualities. In this they resemble the Americans. And what is Australia but a newer America } But let us not anticipate. The fact is, however — so much may be stated to start with — the Australian begins to dislike hearing himself called colonial. He is proud of his country ; the spirit of nationality is growing in him day by day, and he is proud to call himself and hear himself called Austra- lian. He is proud, not only of his country, but of his little town that he has seen spring up through the earth, so to speak, and that he has labored to make flourishing. Like the American, he asks you as you leave the rail- way carriage, almost before you have had time to shake the dust from your garments, what you think of Aus- tralia, of his little town that you have only just set eyes on ; and, though the place should consist of but one small street, dotted with wooden cottages, he will offer without delay to take you round and show you the sights of the town. The sights of the town ! That is too funny for anything. People to whom I had never spoken would cross the road to come and say, " Look about you well, sir ; you are in the garden of Australia here." Each district in Australia seemed to be "the garden of the Colonies." My response also was stereotyped : " You are right to be proud of your district, which is evidently the most beautiful in the Colonies." I used to be taken to see little buildings composed of three or four rooms, furnished with a table, four or five benches, a blackboard, and a map. They were called 82 JOHN 15ULL & CO. Technical Schools or Schools of Art. In the vestibule there was always a visitors' book where I was requested to put down my impressions. Making bricks without straw was child's play to this. There was nothing to be done but adopt aaother stereotyped phrase : " Con- sidering the age of this town, I know few places that have a more promising School of Art." Is it not the counterpart of America, where in the veriest little vil- lages there is sold an album of views of the district ? that is to say, photographs of Smith's pharmacy, Jones's drapery establishment, and the hotel kept by Brown. The happiness of the Australians is something envi- able. They are so satisfied with themselves and all that is Australian. When they travel they utter cries of admiration at the sight of a hill that they call a mountain, or a trickling stream that they call a river. It is curious to find a restricted and provincial turn of mind in the inhabitants of such a vast, grand country. If you were not to congratulate them upon the things that they have accomplished, you would be wanting not only in generosity, but in politeness, and I thank heaven that I was able to make some return for the amiability of my hosts, by visiting all the post ofifices, town halls, hospitals, and technical schools of the different towns. Among my subjects for the platform was one en- titled "The Happiest Nation on Earth." It was a chat on France and the French. I have been traveling about the world a great deal during the past ten years, and have long since come to the conclusion that France, whatever may be her defects, her faults, her vices even, is the happiest of the nations of the globe, and certainly JOHN BULL & CO. 83 the country where people best understand how to hve. An AustraHan came one evening and sat by me in the smoke-room of a club. " What an astonishing power of observation you have ! " he said. " You have not been more than two months in the Colonies, and I see by the papers that you are going to give a lecture on Austra- lia." It was evident that to him the happiest nation on earth could only mean Australia. Nations are like individuals. When they are young they possess all the characteristics of childhood — curi- osity, susceptibility, the love of hearing themselves praised, jealousy of the younger brother or sister if the plums are not distributed with strict impartiality. I know a little New South Wales town of fifteen or sixteen hundred inhabitants, which, being jealous of its neighbor because a prison had been built for it, insisted that the member of Parliament should obtain from the Government as large and as handsome a prison as that of the neighboring town. As usual, the Government ac- ceded to the demand of the member. This is how big buildings spring up in the Colonies. The electors say to their representative, " If you do not obtain a new Town Hall or Post Offlce for us, we shall not vote for you and you will lose your seat and your three hundred a year." The member says to the cabinet minister, " I must have a Town Hall for the town that I represent. If you do not give it to me, I shall not vote for you, and you will lose your place and a thousand a year." And thus it is that, in the most insignificant little towns of two thousand inhabitants, in the seven Colonies of Australia, you may see a Town Hall that has cost thirty thousand pounds, a Pest Office that has cost twenty 84 JOHN BULL & CO, thousand pounds, a Court House after the same rate, etc.* To cope with this reckless expenditure the coun- try borrows money, and was last summer in a state bor- dering on bankruptcy. The Australians have adopted the device, "Advance, Australia!" but it is John Bull who advances — the funds. To come back to our little jealous town^ — it obtained its prison. But when it was completed it remained six months without inmates. What did the townspeople do but hold an indignation meeting, and pass a resolu- tion expressing the hope that the magistrates and the police would henceforward strictly do their duty, so that this deplorable state of things might no longer exist ! There is happiness in believing oneself in possession of what is best in the world, and the Australians enjoy that happiness. They are satisfied with their lot, and no longer concern themselves about the affairs of the Old World, which has ceased to interest them. I was talking one day to an Englishman who had been estab- lished in the Colonies nearly fifty years. We talked about Europe, and I had occasion to mention Bismarck and a few other well-known names. I verily believe that he had never heard any of them before. Presently I said to him : "■ Perhaps you do not take much interest in the things that are going on in Europe ? " * In Maryborough (Victoria), there was a ceiling bought for the Court House at a cost of £b,ooo. To put it up, workmen were had over from Germany. The town has not yet four thousand inhabit- ants. JOHN BULL & CO. 85 " My dear sir," he replied, " to tell you the truth, I shall soon have been fifty years in this country, and now I can do without Europe altogether." The true Australian takes more pleasure in hearing the amateurs of his own particular town than in listen- ing to the great singers whom Europe sends him from time to time. Left to himself, he takes his pleasures at his club, at church bazaars, at meetings social and polit- ical — in a word, in everything local. Open any of the newspapers published in the Colonies, and you will see no European news, so to speak, unless it be in Sydney or Melbourne; but these two cities are not Australia. The real Australia consists of hundreds of little centres of population scattered over a continent of about the same size as the whole of Europe. If, however, an Australian cricket team happens to be in England or America, long cablegrams, at eight shillings a word, keep the Australians posted up in their successes or reverses. The local interest dominates everything. The Ameri- cans are more advanced. They have passed through their transformation period. Europe interests them ; but it must be added that America is but six days' jour- ney from Europe, whereas from Australia to England is nearly a six weeks' voyage. Besides, Australia is much younger than America. Yes, it is young, that broad, brave Australia, and when I think of what it has accomplished in a few years, it seems to me that it can afford to laugh at its own lit- tle foibles, even as I laugh. I was one day taking a drive in Broken Hill, the rich- est place in the world in silver mines — Broken Hill, eight years ago a desert, to-day a town with forty thou- 86 JOHN BULL & CO. . sand inhabitants. We were passing a little tumble-down building. "What is that old construction?" I asked my com- panion, an engineer of the district. " Oh, that ? " he replied. " In the old times it was the Court House." " In the old times ! " I instinctively thought of the days of the Crusaders. " What do you mean — ' in the old times ?' But I thought Broken Hill was only about six or seven years old?" " Oh," said he, carelessly, " I mean three or four years ago." That is the olden time of Australia. CHAPTER IX. Colonial " Cheek" — Mutual Admiration Society — An Inquisitive Colonial — A Verbatim Conversation — An Amiable Land- lord — Modest Politicians — Advice to England by an Aus- tralian Minister — Provincialisms — Napier — Opinions on Madame Sarah Bernhardt — Mr. H. M. Stanley and the Municipal Councilor — The Czar had Better Behave Him- self — I Introduce Sophocles to the Colonies and Serve Cor- neille a Bad Turn — An Invitation Accepted with a Ven- geance. You find in the English Colonies all the traits of char- acter possessed by the Americans and all peoples that are relatively very young: not only childishness and irreverence, but self-sufficiency and " cheek." Each English Colony is a little mutual admiration society, jealous of its neighbors and fully persuaded of its own superiority. The strong provincialism of the Australians proceeds from their isolation and complete ignorance of the Old World. Their self-sufficiency springs from the democratic spirit — the spirit of inde- pendence inculcated in them from the tenderest age, and which makes every free-born Briton say, " I am as good as my neighbor," which may be interpreted, " I am a good deal better." It is an English sentiment that flourishes in colonial air. Let the greatest scientific men of England meet at the Mansion House to do homage to M. Pasteur, and 87 / / 88 JOHN BULL & CO. publicly acknowledge the complete success of his great discoveries, and you will see in the newspapers next day a letter from some pretentious ignoramus, declaring that M. Pasteur is overpraised and that his discoveries are far from satisfying the writer of the letter. If a French workman found himself in the Sorbonne or the College de France, and heard a lecture by a Caro or a Renan going on, he would respectfully leave the hall and say to himself, " This is a little beyond you, my boy ; you have come to the wrong place." An Eng- lish workman, an Australian still more, would quit the building in contempt, probably shouting, " What in- terest can there be in such stuff as that ? How does the fellow get anyone to listen to it ? He is a fool." A strong characteristic of the lower-class Australian is irreverence. Not irreverence for many things that still claim obeisance in the Old World. If it were but that, I could almost admire him for it ; but, unhappily, he utterly fails in respect for most things that are held, and always will be held, in well-deserved respect in any world worth living in ; for instance, such things as old age, talent, hard-earned position. He speaks of his parents as "the old man and the old woman ; " and if he is not quite sure of being able to write lines as fine as Shakespeare's, it is because he has never tried. In England, the people of the lowest class often speak of their children as "encumbrance." In Australia it is the parents who are the encumbrance. For this spirit of irreverence the parents themselves are largely to blame. They do not subject their chil- dren to proper discipline ; in fact, young Australia can- not be said to know the meaning of the word " discipline." JOHN BULL & CO. 89 What a boon compulsory military training would be to the youth of Australia in making them know what sal- utary restrictions and perfect, unreasoning obedience mean ! It is to be regretted, too, for his sake, that woman does not make her influence felt enough to act as a subduing, restraining, elevating factor in his existence. In every corner of the globe where two or three Eng- lishmen have congregated, you find that insupportable person, the man who writes letters to the newspapers to make known his opinions urbi et orbi. Political, re- ligious, social, commercial, literary and dramatic ques- tions — all these are within his domain ; he is omniscient. The type is to be found in London ; in the provinces it is rampant. He decides the greatest State questions, gives advice to the sovereigns of Europe, criticises the achievements of Edison and the discoveries of Pasteur ; nothing is sacred from the pen of this conceited wise- acre. He has a remedy for all the evils on earth, and modestly signs his letters Veritas^ /ustitia, Observe?', more often Pro Bono Publico. These people are the Perrichons of Anglo-Saxondom. What cool impudence, what bounce they have, some of those good Australians ! I was stopped one day in Sydney streets by a young man, rather well dressed, who tapped me on the shoulder and said, " Are you Max O'Rell ? " " Yes ; what do you want with me ? " " Oh, nothing. I wanted to have a look at you, that's all." If you are proud and stuck up, do not go to Western 90 JOHN BULL & CO. America nor to the Colonies, where you would soon be brought to your bearings. On getting to the hotel of a certain Australian town one day, I inquired for the ad- dress of a gentleman for whom I had a letter of intro- duction. " Where does Mr. B. live ? " I asked. " Do you mean Dick B. ? " replied the landlord. Men are known as Tom, Dick or Harry in the Colonies and " out West." In another Australian hotel the landlord came to me soon after my arrival and, with a pleasant but somewhat protecting smile, said, " There are about a dozen com- mercial travelers staying in the house ; if you like, I will introduce you to them ; perhaps, if you make a good im- pression on them, they will go to hear you in the Town Hall to-night." This obliging host wanted to do me a good turn. His intentions were excellent. I thanked him, and declined. The following is a verbatim account of a conversation overheard in Broken Hill on the day after my first lec- ture there. The miners were all on strike, and two of them were sitting on a fence, having a quiet chat. " Well, Bill, what did you do last night?" "Why, I went to 'ear Mac O'Neil." " Mac O'Neil ? Who the is he ? " " Oh, don't yer know ? One of Smythe's * lit'ry ," with an accent of great contempt on the lifry. Every Australian goose is a swan at the very least. Just opposite my hotel in Wagga-Wagga (how one * Mr. R. S. Smythe is known to every colonial as the manager of literary men's lecturing tours. JOHN BULL & CO. 9 1 must be handicapped when one hails from Wagga- Wagga !) there were three Httle shops, one a draper's, an- other an ironmonger's, the third a grocer's. The first was called Imperial Emporium, the second, Hall of Commerce, the third, Great Commercial Entrepot, pro- nounced by the inhabitants Interpott. I pass over the Louvres and Bon Marches of Tara- kundra, Maratitipu and Ratatata. In a town of fifteen hundred inhabitants, I saw in- scribed over the door of a little shop where in the win- dow reposed a few pounds of cherries and strawberries, Palais de Fruits — in French, if you please. But what is this compared to the little shop in Inver- cargill, New Zealand, where cheap toys are retailed, and which bears the proud name of LeviatJian Toy Depot ? In the politicians of the Colonies the self-sufficiency becomes epic. A democratic politician is self-sufficient enough anywhere ; judge for yourself what he must be in the Colonies. Sir George Dibbs, Premier of New South Wales, and Knight Commander of St. Michael and St. George, went, in the spring of the year 1892, to pass a few months in England, and to profit by his voyage to enlighten the English Government on colonial matters. For months the Australian newspapers were full of telegrams, descrip- tive of the doings and sayings of the great statesman. He had dined here, danced there ; he had passed several days at the castle of Lord A. or hunted with Lord B. ; he had been presented to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, and had kissed the hand of the Queen. It was Dibbs, served up with a fresh sauce day after day. Great was the surprise of his admirers at home to read one day 92 JOHN BULL & CO. that the democrat, the ahnost repubhcan Australian, had knelt before Her Majesty to receive the order of knight- hood. " He deserved it," said some. "Going on as he was, he could not escape it," said others. " Well, it is all over now ; the English aristocracy have corrupted him ! " Some laughed, some made fun of it ; others be- gan to be angry. Cablegrams continued to pour in, but soon announced the return of the new-made knight. Was it a courtier or a faithful colonial that would pre- sent himself once more among them ? Sir George came home and reappeared at a great re- ception held in his honor at the Sydney Town Hall, in his old part of friend of the people. It was not a violet and cherry colored ribbon that had changed him. He had done his best to avoid the bauble. The Queen willed it, and he had to bow to her wishes ; he had done it " to oblige the lady." The next thing to do was to explain to the young democracy of Australia the pur- pose of his voyage. The minister got through this very neatly. I extract from his modest discourse the following pas- sage : " I am told other people have tried to do the same thing before me and that I was traveling over old ground. I admit that is quite true. Great events and great success are not achieved by the first attempt. It is not the first broadside that wins the battle, but that continual pegging away which we read of in the life of Abraham Lincoln. I had numerous interviews with Mr. Goschen, and found in him a hard nut to crack. One look at his hard, strong lower jaw told me that I had met a foeman worthy of my steel {applause). Mr. JOHN BULL & CO. 93 Goschen did not like our fiscal policy. I told him that that was no concern of his, but only the concern of the people of New South Wales {cheers), and Mr. Goschen succumbed in very little time." If England, in her maternal solicitude, offered to lend Mr. Goschen to Australia to reduce its finances to some- thing like order (as he has already been lent to Egypt) the people of the Colonies would reply that Australia possesses Goschens by the dozen, and that John Bull may mind his own business, and keep to his own country. The Minister for National Defence of one of the Aus- tralian colonies (formerly a tradesman) was on the Thames one day with several English ofificers. He fell to criticising the fortifications and to explaining how easy it would be to take London. The naval and mili- tary authorities listened to the ex-shopkeeper and kept their countenance. The sang-froid of the Briton is prodigious. For many a week the anecdote was the de- light of the London clubs. On the occasion of a public holiday-making, the mayor of a little town asked me to accompany him to where the townspeople had assembled to pass the day in merry- making. When we reached the place, a deputation came to welcome His Worship (thus do English mayors modestly compete with the divinity). Mr. Mayor, without alighting from the carriage, got on his feet and addressed a few impressive phrases to the crowd, who listened in respectful silence. "Yes, my dear fellow-townsmen," said the worthy mayor, " enjoy yourselves, for you deserve to. Such a hard-working community as this can take its holidays with a light heart and easy conscience, I thank you for 94 JOHN BULL & CO. the kind words you have addressed to me. I feel them very deeply. As long as I have the honor to be your mayor, you may rest assured that I shall always take an interest in the recreations of the people." Never did a Royal Highness, opening a public recrea- tion ground, go through his part with more solemnity. The more isolated the town, the more accentuated the provincialism. On the east coast of New Zealand there is a little town of three or four thousand inhab- itants, the personal importance of which is Homeric. The town is Napier. I had just given a lecture in Wellington, the capital of New Zealand. The hall was crowded, and never did I speak to a warmer or more appreciative audience. As the people were leaving the hall, my manager caught the following scrap of conversation : " What a success ! " Then followed a few flattering remarks. " Not bad," said the person addressed ; " but it would not do for Napier ; we are more difficult to please than that." My manager never dared take me to Napier. When one has satisfied Paris, London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, New York, Bos- ton, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, etc., one is sorry not to be able to add Napier to the list. It was in Napier that, after the eminent baritone Santley had made his appearance there, a newspaper gave it as its opinion that there were at least twenty amateurs in Napier who could sing quite as well as Santley, and iniicJi louder,- JOHN BULL & CO. 95 I should have Hked very much to give a lecture in French at Napier. I should probably have heard next day that my French was far from irreproachable. I one day met a good Australian who lived in a little town of a few hundred inhabitants in the colony of Vic- toria. He v/as unable to speak or understand a word of French. He had been to Melbourne to see Madame Sarah Bernhardt play Adrienne Lccouvreur. " Well,'" said I to him, "what do you think of our great tragedienne ? " " Not bad," he replied ; " but I think she is much overpraised ! " A few years ago Mr. H. M. Stanley made a lecturing tour in Australia, under the auspices of Mr. R. S. Smythe. A few days before taking Mr. Stanley to New- castle, New South Wales, Mr. Smythe was in that town making preparations for the great explorer's appearance. He meets a town councilor of his acquaintance. After the exchange of the usual civilities, the town councilor says to the famous lecture manager, "Well, Mr. Smythe, whom have you brought us this time ? " " I mean to bring Mr. Stanley to Newcastle next week. How do you think he will do in this town ? " " I should not like to say," replied the worthy town councilor. " I have given several lectures in Newcastle myself, and I have never been able to get a good house." A little newspaper of Nelson, a New Zealand town of about two thousand inhabitants, speaking of a lecture given by Mr. Stanley, remarked that Mr. Stanley was well enough as a lecturer, but that " he was not well up in his subject." 96 JOHN BULL & CO. It was this same paper which, upon the expulsion of the Jews by order of the Russian government, pubhshed an article entitled, " Oiir Warning to the Czar." The Czar had better behave himself. I myself had the happiness of not displeasing the mighty organ of Nelson too much, for it declared that my lectures were " excellent," but^ " unfortunately, not equally balanced." I was let off easy. But the best souvenir I have of this kind is perhaps this one : It was in B., a little town of from twelve to fifteen hundred inhabitants in Cape Colony. I was to give a public lecture in the Lyric Hall one evening. Lyric Hall — what a name for it ! Four wooden walls outside, benches inside, and at one end a stage framed in with boards, on which a few nymphs and sylphs had been painted after a fashion. On the right and left were two long panels, bearing the inscriptions, Music, Drama. Under these headings came some names, five on either side : Shakespeare, Dante, Milton, Moliere, and Corneille on the right-hand panel ; Beethoven, Berlioz, Wagner, Rossini, and Verdi on the left-hand one. I went with my manager in the afternoon to see the hall. The proprietor happened to be there. When he had a spare moment, it appeared, he came there to sit and contemplate his handiwork. For it was of his crea- tion, this Lyric Hall ; it was he who had built it ; he who had suggested the decorations and the inscriptions. The whole thing had sprung from his own brain, and he was not a little proud of it. j(MiN JUJLI, cSi c:(). 97 I went up to him. " Allow me," I said, " to thank you for what you have clone for France. You wished to choose five of the greatest dramatic poets of the world, and you have given a place to two French ones." " How do you make that out ? " he responded. " Shakespeare is English, Dante Italian, Milton Eng- lish, Moliar French, and CornJiill Spanish. That makes only one Frenchman." I kept my countenance. Did not the Cid make con- quests after his death? He had perhaps acquired Cor- neille for Spain in this little African town. " I think you are wrong," I ventured timidly, " if I maybe so bold as to advance an opinion after yours." "Oh," said he, ''you may be mistaken, like other people." " Certainly ; but that which gives a little weight to my opinion is that I was born a few miles from Corneille's native town." The proprietor of the Lyric Hall said no more, and went away. That evening, after the lecture, he came to me. "You are right," he said; " Ch by J. Valentine & Son, Dundee.'\ Drink, contact and intermarriage with the whites, etiolate the Maoris, and in every part of New Zealand except King's Country, where they lead their natural life, their numbers are rapidly decreasing. Adieu, New Zealand, most beautiful of lands. Often I think of thy poetical legends, and feast my eyes again in imagination on thy lovely landscapes ! I would fain JOHN BULL & CO. 239 enjoy again the hospitality of thy kind inhabitants, and Hsten to the Hquid language of thy natives. I fancy I hear again their melodious Mokololulu, Kirikitata, Warakewera, Waramanatikipu. Good-bye ! Ta-ta ! CHAPTER XXVII. From Melbourne to the Cape of Good Hope — The Australasian — Sunday on Board Ship — Conversions — Death of a Poor Mother — Ceremony — Table Bay — Arrival at Cape Town. Several companies send from London to Australia ships which touch at the Cape on the vv^ay ; but only the Aberdeen Hners go from AustraHa to the Cape ; the others continue their route around the world by Cape Horn and Rio Janeiro. There is consequently no choice. I remember having read in Mr. Froude's interest- ing Oceana, that the great historian had made the voy- age from England to Melbourne on board the Anstra- lasian. Seeing by the papers that this ship was about to sail, I said to myself, "If the Australasian is good enough for Mr. Froude, it is certainly good enough for me," and I went forthwith to engage cabins. The distance from Melbourne to the Cape is about six thousand miles. The Australasian does the voyage in twenty-two days. Twenty-two days lost out of one's life, spent in doing nothing ; the most monotonous, the most wearisome interval, during which not one glimpse of land is to be had. Never mind, thought I, I shall utilize those twenty- two days for work. Work ! Alas ! man proposes, but the sea indisposes. And the Sundays ! Oh, the Sundays ! Even the harmless games that are played on board ship on week- 240 JOHN BULL & CO. . 24 1 days are suspended. It would be shocking to play a game of quoits ; chess, I suppose, would be criminal. If you were to propose an innocent game of beggar-iny- ncigJibor, the passengers would veil their faces in dis- may at your boldness. Reading and hymn-singing are the only pastimes tolerated. It is curious the connec- tion there is in some minds between high sanctity and flat music. Those who cannot sing, lounge about the ship and read and yawn away the day, and long for the Monday. We are thirty-two passengers in the saloon. Out of these there are not two who do not express their regrets at having to pass their Sundays thus, but, mind you, there is not one who dares venture to be frank and sincere and to act according to his conscience. It is the fear of the qu' en dira-t-on in all its idiocy; it is cowardice pure and simple. It is impossible to travel on an English boat without having the bore who seeks to convert you, and that be- fore trying to find out whether his victim may not hap- pen to be as good a Christian as he. He was on board the Australasian. Every Sunday he held classes in the saloon. He had succeeded in persuading half a dozen passengers to go and hear him re-ad a chapter of the Bible and discuss its contents. He had his own views. Where is the true-born Englishman who has not his own views on theology? It is a craze. I know few English- men Avho would not be able to preach a sermon to their neighbors, and found a new religion. This good man declared music to be " one of the snares of Satan," and every time we made a little music on deck to enliven our evenings, he kept away. The English nation alone can boast of producing this species. 242 JOHN BULL & CO. and no nation in the A\orld thinks of being jealous of the production. Day followed day, and each resembled the one before. Not a single incident to break the monotony of the three weeks' passage. Or rather, yes, there was one, and a very pathetic one, too. We had among the second-class passengers a gentle old woman of over seventy, the mother of two married daughters, one living at the Cape, the other in Aus- tralia. Having lost her husband, the good soul had realized the little money at her disposal and had gone to her daughter at the Cape to seek a home with her. This daughter had sent her on to the sister in Austra- lia, but the poor woman was not to find rest there. Her son-in-law w^ould none of her, and she had been fain to embark for the Cape again to see if daughter number one would not give her shelter for her re- maining days. Struck with apoplexy, she died in mid-ocean. The previous Sunday I had noticed her at divine service, dressed in her best, and looking almost happy. Her corpse was sewn up in canvas, covered with the Union Jack, and brought on deck. Surrounded by passengers and crew, the captain read the burial service, and at the moment where the words, '' I commit thy body to the deep," were substituted for, " Dust to dust and ashes to ashes," the boat stopped steam, and the sail- ors, who retained the body by cords, lowered it into the sea amid impressive silence. The boat, having deposited its burden in the ocean, steamed ahead again. The dead woman's purse contained two shil- JOHN BULL & CO. 243 lings and sevenpence half-penny, and the daughter she wanted to join at the Cape lived sixty miles from Cape Town ! The poor mother had found rest, and there was no need now for her children to trouble about her ; at last they were rid of that useless piece of furniture which the lower-class English call mother. A few flying-fish, from time to time a school of por- poises, once or twice a whale — beyond that nothing. The blue sky overarching the blue sea. At last, on the 2d of April, 1893, we sighted the coast of Africa, and soon we were following it pretty closely from Algoa Bay to Table Bay, in which nestles Cape Town, the capital of Cape Colony. Before entering Table Bay, we passed Danger Point, where in 1852 the transport ship Birkenhead came to grief and sank, while the soldiers on board, seeing death inevitable, said " Good-bye " to the world by singing " God Save the Queen." I do not know any town more picturesquely situated than Cape Town. The houses are dotted over an area of four or five miles, at the foot of three mountains, the central one of which stands up four thousand feet into the air, and has a breadth of two miles at the top. The summit of this, Table Mountain, is an immense plateau, which, seen from the sea, is perfectly horizon- tal. Often it is covered with clouds that spread over its surface and fall on either side, giving just the appear- ance of a white tablecloth. It looks as if the table were spread for some Titan of those parts. The clouds have melted, the sun goes down in ^i bed of gold, throwing its fires on every corner of the pano- 244 JOHN BULL & CO. rama. An hour later, the moon inundates the scene with her ghostly light. The engines are stopped, and the boat lies in the offing, ready to continue her journey to-morrow. Not a sound reaches our ears as we lie at anchor. Only the thousands of lights glittering in the town re- mind us that we are among our fellow-creatures once more. We shall land to-morrow morning. CHAPTER XXVIII. Anglo-Dutch — John Bull, Charged with the Care of the Cape for the Prince of Orange, Keeps it for Himself — Mixture of Races — Cape Town — The Town and its Environs — Paarl — The Huguenots — Stellenbosch— Happy Folk — Drapers' As- sistants—Independence a Characteristic Feature of the South Africans. South Africa is composed of two English colonies, one of which, Cape Colony, is very Dutch ; of two inde- pendent Dutch republics, which are perfectly English ; of several territories, such as Bechuanaland, Mashona- land, Zululand, Pondoland, Basutoland, Nyassaland, Matabeleland, and of a few other little lands protected by the firm, John Bull & Co. At the beginning of the century the Cape was still a Dutch colony, but the English, fearing that Napoleon, who had just placed his brother Louis on the throne of Holland, might make use of the Cape to possess him- self of India, installed themselves there in 1806 to take care of it for the Prince of Orange, dethroned by Buona- parte. Now, one of John Bull's mottoes is that of the late Marshal MacMahon, "/j/ svds.fy reste " — Here I am, and here I stay. He was in the Cape, and he stayed there. You would more easily withdraw a lump of but- ter from a dog's mouth than John Bull from the terri- tory where he has installed himself. 245 246 JOHN BULL & CO. The colony was definitely ceded to the English in 181 5 by the Treaty of Paris. Many old Dutch families are still to be found in the principal towns of the south of the colony, but the active Dutch element, the farmers, must have steadily retired northward as the English advanced. These Dutchmen, now known as Boers, went and founded the Orange Free State and the Transvaal, or South African Republic ; but now they cannot very well go any farther, for the English have just taken possession of Matabeleland, and the circle is made : the Boers are now completely surrounded, at the south by the Cape, on the west by Bechuanaland, on the north by Mashonaland and Matabeleland, and on the east by Natal, Zululand, and a Portuguese territory, which the English will never allow them to acquire, even if the Portuguese should ever be willing to sell it, for this territory contains Delagoa Bay, the only harbor of South Africa. What is the political future of the Boers, that hand- ful of people, antiquated and stubborn, but brave and patriotic, who occupy a country emboweled with gold ? We may be able to answer the question presently. An interesting interview with President Kruger will help us. But let us stay a moment in the Cape. The South African Colonies differ essentially from those of Australasia. The latter are purely British, and, with the exception of the Maoris of New Zealand, the native population is little seen, save in skeleton form, adorning the museums of the large towns. In South Africa, the white population is mixed, British and Dutch ; and the colored population, far from being JOHN BULL & CO. 247 extinct, seems everywhere to be full of life, an African and Asiatic population, ranging from the ebony black of the Zulus to the rich olive of the Malays : Hotten- tots, Kaffirs, Zulus, Fingos, Pondos, Basutos, etc. I like Cape Town, with its old Dutch houses, the animation of its streets, the splendor of its public build- ings, its Parliament,- its gardens, its picturesque environs, its refined society, its Malay population — whose women look like Madonnas adorned for a great church proces- sion. Every day I used to go and feast my eyes on a su- -^ !Si«»ttt»B !i.^ -&,5«.jpi^!t««SS«>.- TABLE MOUNTAIN. perb view. Taking up a position at the end of Adder- ley Street, I had, on the right, the Museum and the Botanical Gardens ; in front, an immense avenue of centenary oaks ; on the left, the Parliament ; and, as a background for the whole, Table Mountain, which seemed to almost overhang the landscape. I could never tire my eyes of this magnificent sight. A drive that I shall never forget is one that I took in company with the late M. Joseph Perrette, French consul at the Cape, and several friends. We first passed through the fashionable suburbs of Newland 248 JOHN BULL & CO. and Claremont, which are scattered over with lovely villas, set in a veritable forest of oaks and eucalyptus ; then we saw the smiling plains of Constantia, celebrated for the good wine they produce ; from thence we went through a delightfully undulating country to Houts Bay, where, under a blue sky and a genial sun, we lunched in the garden of a family of Kaffirs. After that, following the contour of the mountain, we re-en- tered Cape Town by the Victoria Road. I do not know Sorrento, but I can scarcely believe that it can be possible to take a lovelier drive than the one we took around Table Mountain. About twenty miles from Cape Town there are two most picturesque and interesting little towns, perfectly Dutch, named Paarl and Stellenbosch. Paarl (Pearl) is composed of a single street seven miles in length, at the foot of a mountain range, along a narrow valley. This town is the cradle of the Afri- kander-Bond, a patriotic association which has for its object the future emancipation of South Africa. It was here, too, that a number of Huguenots took up their abode in the beginning of last century. The De Villiers, the Duplessis, the Du Toits, the Leroux, are everywhere ; they fill the highest and the most lowly posts ; a pious population, peaceful, intelligent, and hard-working. Those descendants of the Huguenots, victims of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, I have seen them in England, in Holland, in .America, everywhere the same. It was the cream of France which was obliged to leave the country in 1685 that Madame de Maintenon might become a king's wife. These Huguenots are completely lost to France. J(HIN lUIIJ, & CO. 249 Those I met in Africa not only speak no word of I'^-ench, but they do not even know how to pronounce their own names. I was lunching one day on board the Srot, the finest and fastest boat which plies between England and South Africa. Many notabilities of Cape Town had been invited. The director of the company whispered to me, " There is the Chief-Justice of the colony. I will introduce you to him ; his name is Sir Henry di Filchi." *' Di Filchi," I replied; "how do you spell the name ? " " V-i-1-l-i-e-r-s," he said. "You don't say so!" I exclaimed ; "and that makes Filchi ? Can it be possible ? " This is how it came about. When those Huguenots took refuge in Holland, and from thence went and settled in the Cape, then a Dutch colony, they found a tyrannical government that for- bade them to speak French, or teach it to their chil- dren. At the end of fifty years they had become Dutch; to-day they are British subjects, but their hearts are more Dutch than English. As for France, they have completely forgotten it. Alas ! what do they owe to France, who ignominiously chased them from her shores ? If you go to Canada, you will find a French popula- tion that has been subject to Great Britain for a hun- dred and fifty years past, but these have remained French in heart. Not only do they continue to speak French, but they do not, and will not, speak anything else. I mean the masses, of course. John Bull leaves them alone. He says to them, " Speak what you please, 250 JOHN BULL & CO. worship God as you will ;" and those French Catholics of the seventeenth century have remained French and Catholic, so that to visit them is to visit the France of two hundred years ago. This is a fact which, among a thousand others, has explained to me the success of the English. They are past masters in diplomacy. The governing hand is firm, but wears a velvet glove. They seem to say, " Do not mind us, make yourself at home." But John Bull is there all the time. The town of Paarl received its name from a rock situated on the top of the mountain, which is said to resemble pearl when the sun strikes it. I was quite willing to believe it, and even went so far as to see it ; and if you wish to please the Paarl people, I advise you to do the same. As in the case of the Southern Cross, faith is a great help. There are skeptics who believe because they see ; there are more accommodating people who see because they believe. If every town in the world should take part in a revolution, Paarl and her neighbor Stellenbosch would be the very last to join. Nothing more peaceful could be conceived than these two pretty little towns. Hard- ly a creature in the streets. About three o'clock a few people indulge in a sedate, slow walk. Stellenbosch is embowered in oaks which were brought from Europe, and flourish in this climate like the proverbial green bay. Every street is an avenue, a cathedral nave of green leafiness which the sun scarce- ly penetrates. Along the streets, on either side, runs a stream in which the housewife does the family wash. JOHN BULL & CO. 251 The snow-white houses with their orange-colored shut- ters are quite picturesque. Outdoor foot-gear must be taken off at the door, I should think, as in Holland. The bright colors, the luxuriant greenery, the eternal blue sky, make up a delicious picture of calm and re- pose. From twelve to two, the shops of Paarl and Stellen- bosch are closed. The worthy shopkeepers are dining and taking a siesta, and as their customers are doing the same, trade in no wise suffers. What a contrast to those feverish Americans who at one o'clock put up on their door, "Gone to dinner; back in five minutes." Ah, my good De Villiers, Duplessis, and Du Toits, how sensible of you ! Five minutes for dinner, what folly ! Take your time, let digestion proceed quietly, and you will die of old age. And to live long and happily, is not that the great desideratum with most people ? Life is only given to us once ; let us make the best of it while we have the chance — we shall never get another. I admire the independence of the South African shopkeepers. The day after my arrival in Cape Town, I discovered that my stock of handkerchiefs was getting small. I went to a draper's shop, and, as politely as I could, asked the assistant to show me some new ones. When the purchase was made, I said to him : " Will you please get them marked for me ? " "What do you take me for?" he replied; "cannot you get some ink and mark them yourself?" There was no rudeness in the expression of his face, nor in the tone of his voice. He was right. Could I not buy marking ink and do the thing myself? 252 JOHN BULL & CO. " It is not a service that I ask you," I rejoined ; " I am willing to pay for your trouble." " It is not done anywhere, sir." " I beg your pardon," said I ; "it is done in France and England, for instance ; but perhaps you never heard of those countries? " " Well, yes, I have heard of them ; but I can't say that I exactly know where they are." It was stupid of me to be offended. I ought to have shown appreciation of the young man's independence by buying his handkerchiefs. I went to another shop near by, instead. I related the incident to a journalist who came to in- terview me in the afternoon. Later on, I saw the mat- ter commented on in the press, and amongst other re- marks, the following : " The man in the Cape Town store who brusquely replied to Max O'Rell's request to have some handkerchiefs marked, ' Do it yourself ! ' was unconsciously presenting to this student of national characteristics the text and keynote to a whole treatise on South Africa." Independence, then, is a characteristic trait here. I am delighted at that : it is a very excellent trait. I hate servility — but I do love politeness. CHAPTER XXIX. The Dutch Puritans — The " Doppers " — A Case of Conscience — The Afrikander-Bond — Its Relations with John Bull — Tickets at Reduced Price — John Bull Lies Low — " God Save the Queen " in the South African Republic. The nations that John Bull has conquered have generally received the Bible in exchange for their terri- tory. The Dutch received nothing in exchange for South Africa. They were more religious, more Prot- estant, than the English, and they are so still. As Puritans they outdo the Scotch, and even the austerity of the followers of John Knox cannot be compared with that of the Dutch Reformed Church. Not con- tent with this Reformed Church, the Cape Dutchmen and the Boers of the interior have started a dissenting church still more strict and austere, whose members have received the name of " Doppers." To these good people music is sinful, and their monotonous chants in church are not accompanied. They object to hymns and canticles. They sing verses of the Bible at the rate of one word per minute, each word dying away like the note of a crow in distress. These Dutch Reformed churches dominate the English ones throughout South Africa, and the English population, to avoid the possi- bility of the Dutch outdoing them in the matter of piety, often join in the Dopper devotions. The Doppers are as practical as they are pious, aud when they have to decide a case of conscience, they do it in a manner favorable to their interests, 253 254 JOHN BULL & CO. For example, in their eyes dancing is a mortal sin, but although they let their halls for lectures and concerts, they never let them for balls — without doubling the price of hire. So much for the hall, so much for soothing their conscience. It is just what the Scotch cab-drivers do in Edinburgh and Glasgow on Sunday — double their fare. John Bull has nothing to teach the Dutch. The English and the Dutch at the Cape would do very well without each other, but they live in peace and co-operate honorably in the development of the colony. It is true that the Parliament is opened by the High Commissioner in the name of the Queen of England, whom he represents ; but autonomy is so complete, that the Dutch feel themselves as free as if they enjoyed that perfect independence which they hope one day to obtain — by purely constitutional means, of course. At present they form the Con- servative element in politics, and support the Afri- kander Bond. This association calmly pursues its aim, and not a single member would think of taking up a gun to hasten its realization. It succeeds in making the Ministry do pretty much what it wishes without giving umbrage to the Queen's representative. Its chief, Mr. J. H. Hofmeyr, plays in this colonial Parliament the part which the late Mr. Parnell played in the House of Commons — the friend or the enemy who must be always taken into account. The members of the Afrikander-Bond hold, with the greatest impunity, meetings, at which they express their hopes in the frankest terms. What does the Government do ? What does it do ? It sends police- JOHN BULL & CO. 255 men to these meetings. To arrest the orators and hale them before a tribunal for high treason ? Not at all ; to protect orators and audience, and to assure them of their right to give their opinions in public, even when one of those opinions may be, "that John Bull be turned out and the independence of the South African Colonies proclaimed." And that which best shows how little John Bull's yoke makes itself felt in the Colonies, is perhaps the following incident, which always seemed to me extremely piquant and full of British humor. When the delegates of the Afri- kander-Bond wish to go by train to take part in some meeting, held in the provinces by one of the branches of this patriotic but revolutionary association, the Minister of Railways* gives them tickets at reduced fares. In presence of facts like these, the Dutch have a right to call themselves perfectly independent. Thus, you see for yourself, John Bull " lies low " all the time. And yet there he is. He advances by small steps, but they are sure ones ; and the English language makes such progress, that in the free library at Burghersdorp, one of the most Dutch towns of the Cape, I found two thousand English volumes and about, forty Dutch books. There is something so fascinating in the English education, that the young, who thrive and expand in its liberty, get anglicized at school, whatever their nationality may be. English education, that is what makes proselytes for England. How many Frenchmen in London have said to me, with a sad sigh, " These * The railways at the Cape belong to the Government, and are administered by a Minister, as in Australasia. 256 JOHN BULL & CO. English schools corrupt my boys, and I do not see how I am to keep them French." The young Dutch boys at the Cape play foot-ball and cricket, and get anglicized at school. But in this line the most striking thing I saw was at Johannesburg, the most important town of the Transvaal, that perfectly independent South African Republic. When, at the end of a concert, the orchestra plays the national hymn of the Transvaal, no one pays any attention, and the audience talks and remains seated ; but the moment the first notes of " God Save the Queen " are struck, every one rises, and all the men's heads are uncovered, so that you really ask yourself whether here also you are not in one of the branches of the firm, John Bull & Co. CHAPTER XXX. Mr. Rhodes, Premier of Cape Colony — The Man — His Work- His Aim. About twenty-five years ago, a boy of fifteen, con- sidered by English doctors to be in the last stage of consumption, set out for the Cape, not with the idea of being cured, but to prolong his existence by a few months. The unique climate of South Africa cured him. The boy is now a man of forty, in perfect health, a millionaire twice over. Premier of the colony, the in- dispensable man in South Africa — and his name is Cecil John Rhodes. Mr. Rhodes is six feet high. His head is large and powerful looking, his eye is dreamy but observant. He has the quizzical look of a cynic, and the large forehead of an enthusiast. 257 / HON. CECIL RHODES. [From a Photograph in the possession of the Editor of "South Africa^'l 258 JOHN BULL & CO. When he laughs, which is not often, the left cheek shows a dimple that you would think charming in a child or a young woman. The face is placid ; it is that of a diplo- matist who knows how to wait and see what you are go- ing to say or do. All suddenly this face lights up, and the gaze becomes resolute ; it is the face of a man of action, who knows how to seize an occasion and turn it to account. His dress is neglige, and his hat impossible. MR. RHODES HOUSE. I have seen him go to the Parliament House in a gray cut-away coat, and go into his room to put on the black frock-coat which is de rigueur for the colonial members. The sitting over, the black coat is put away in its cupboard. Prigs take offence at his free- and-easy ways. There is a story that he was once present at the opening of a new railway line. The station happened to be by the sea. In the middle of JOHN BULL & CO. 259 the ceremony, all at once, Mr. Rhodes is missed, and every one wonders what has become of him. Suddenly some one espies, a hundred yards off, the figure of the Premier, en Apollon, coming out of the sea and going towards his clothes, which he had left on the beach whilst he took a dip. ■ Opportunist par excellence, Mr. Rhodes serves John Bull and the Afrikander- Bond, and takes care that they both serve him. His ambition is to acquire for the mother-country all the South African land as far as the Zambesi. If John Bull gives him a free hand, this will be realized, and Mr. Rhodes will be Prime Minister of an English colony larger than all Europe. If John Bull hampers him, and busies himself too much about that which, according to Mr. Rhodes, concerns him very little, you may one day hear of an independent African Confederation, with Mr. Rhodes for President and Mr. Hofmeyr for Vice-President. Whatever happens, you will certainly hear of Mr. Rhodes. CHAPTER XXXI. South African Towns — The Hotels — The Usefulness of the Moon — Kaffirland — Kimberley — The Diamond Mines — The De Beers Company — A Week's Find — Life in the "Com- pounds " — A Disagreeable Week before Going to buy Wives. Just as in America, Australia, and all new countries, there is terrible monotony for the eye in South Africa. Describe one little town and you have described all. You do not find money squandered on public buildings as in Australia : that is because the Dutch element acts as a curb to English push and improvidence. Every town has its market-place, in Dutch fashion — an im- mense square, where the Reformed church generally stands, and Avhere the Cape wagons, veritable houses on wheels, drawn by oxen, and conducted by Kafirs armed with a whip ten yards long, make halt. No walks, and very few walkers. A few negresses doing the street scavenging with their hands, gathering up the ex- crement of the oxen, and carrying it away on trays borne on the head to their houses, where, when dried, it serves to make fires. Some old Dopper, who has just risen from his siesta, walks with slow tread and suns himself. With the exception of Kimberley, which is lighted by electricity, and Cape Town and Port Elizabeth, which are lighted by gas, the towns are nearly all lighted by lamps. A few towns, such as Worcester, George Town, very pretty and picturesque places, depend upon the 260 JOHN BULL & CO. 261 moon. No moon, no light, and people stay at home. As in Australia, no drainage. All this strikes one with astonishment after a visit to America, where little holes of a hundred inhabitants are lighted by electricity. And yet the country is not asleep. It advances with rapid strides, and business flourishes. The hotels all resemble one another, and so do the bills of fare, except that a few are worse than the others. Everywhere the same routine. At six o'clock in the morning, the nigger knocks at your door. You have to rouse yourself, and rise to open the door to him. He places on your night-table a cup of atrocious coffee, which I advise you to take as you would a dose of castor oil, toss it off quick and do not think about it. After that, you get under the bed coverings again, and be- lieve that you are going to be left in peace. Sweet but short-lived illusion. At half-past six the negro returns. You are obliged to get up again and reopen the door to him. He comes to fetch the cup. Useless to tell him the night before that you do not take coffee in bed. That is no business of his. He has his routine to go through, and, to carry it out, he has the intelligence and the fidelity of a French sentinel. As in America and Australia, if your neighbor at table takes you for a stranger in the land, he cannot resist the temptation of asking you the eternal question, " Well, sir, and what do you think of South Africa?" Here, as in Australia and New Zealand, the important towns are on the seaboard — Cape Town, Port Elizabeth, East London, Durban. Port Elizabeth has a grreat 262 JOHN BULL & CO. commercial importance, and the future of East London is assured. All these towns are now in direct communi- cation with the diamond mines of Kimberley and the gold mines of Johannesburg. In a few months Durban will be so connected also. There are two towns that I would advise the traveler not to miss — King Williamstown, a pretty place embow- ered in verdure, and a veritable hive of activity, and Grahamstown, the city of saints, inhabited by 16,000 f,lr„t inl<;ml,.ly human beings perfectly petrified, and lighted by a few paraffin lamps as sleepy as the inhabitants. But it is the journey that I recommend more particularly : about eighty miles' driving to do across that most interesting country, the centre of Kaffirland. You pass through groups of kraals, where the natives continue to live as if no white man had ever yet set foot on African soil. The last eighteen miles or so before reaching Grahams- JOHN BULL & CO. 263 town present a series of enchantments. The country becomes wild and hilly. You enter Pluto's Valley, along the bottom of which you pass between steep and wooded crags, peopled with large baboons, which gam- bol around you, or, perched on a tree or the edge of a rock, calmly look down on you from the height of their grandeur. Add to that; at about six o'clock in the evening, a marvelous sunset. You will arrive in town shaken, stiff, bruised, famishing, and enchanted with your day's journey. It would be out of place in a book like this to describe the towns. The reader who wishes to obtain precise information about the population, the commerce, and resources of such and such a town in South Africa, will find them in the numerous guides at his disposition. We study life everywhere, and commerce statistics are not much in our line. But we must halt a little at Kimberley, whose diamond industry has been the saving of Cape Colony. With the exception of a few streets graced by pretty villas, Kimberley is a town built of brown mud in the midst of a desert. Its market-place is the vast- est in the colony, but it is surrounded by tumble-down buildings, which give it a pitiful air of desolation. At Kimberley you will search in vain for anything but diamonds ; but as this search has been so fruitful that all the companies have been obliged to amalgamate so as to regulate the production and prevent these precious stones from becoming too common, Kimber- ley deserves a visit, and there are happy people to be seen there. Before going to the mines, and to show you that Kim- 264 JOHN BULL & CO. berley is not an adventurers' camp, but a town inhabited by intelligent people who read and study, I must make mention of the public library, one of the largest and best stocked that I saw in the Colonies, and which pos- sesses about fifteen hundred volumes in the French lan- guage, representing all that is best in our literature, from the poetry of Malherbe to the novels of M. Al- phonse Daudet. Twenty years ago, a young negro, serving on a farm situated between the Vaal and the Orange River, found a little white stone, which he showed one day to a traveler passing through those parts. The traveler bought the little stone, and sold it for ;^500. It was the first Kimberley diamond. The news got abroad, and a crowd soon invaded the borders of the Vaal. They sought and they found. In twenty-three years Kim- berley has yielded diamonds which have been sold in the rough for the fabulous sum of ^^3 5, 000,000. The lovely Countess of Dudley possesses a diamond, called the " Star of South Africa," valued at ^25,000. A few weeks before my visit to Kimberley, there had been found a diamond of four hundred and twenty-eight carats. The De Beers Company sold it to an Indian prince for the pretty little sum of ;^i 5,000. Companies have been started in the neighborhood, riches have been reaped, and Cape Colony, which twenty years ago was at a very low ebb, now enjoys the greatest opulence. A few years later, Johannesburg, with its gold mines, completed the fortune of this land, which compensates for the aridity of its surface by the wealth that lies underneath. Africa will lack bread and water before it lacks eold and diamonds. "■W"'^ 365 JOHN BULL & CO. 267 Under the guidance of Mr. Gardner F. Williams, an American, the general manager, I visited the subter- ranean mines of De Beers and Kimberley ; and near by I plunged my eyes into the depths of a pit, the surface of which is twenty acres and the depth three hundred feet. In this pit negroes, like a swarm of black ants, dug and threw the precious mud into the tumbrils, which went off and emptied- their contents into machines. When the sand is sifted, it is sent to sheds and placed on tables, where workmen, under the surveillance of lynx-eyed watchers, search for diamonds with little rakes, and throw them into locked tin boxes. These boxes are sent under escort to the office of the company, and there the diamonds are spread out and classed by experts, according to their size, color, and purity. These different groups are placed on tissue paper on a table, where I saw over ;^200,ooo worth. This was the find of the four preceding days. They were of all shades — white, yellow, brownish, some red- dish-white, others opaque, others of a bluish-gray. The yellow ones, it appears, are much sought after by the Turks and Indian rajahs, while the Americans are the best customers of the company for white diamonds. But that which interested me most at Kimberley was the life led by the miners, in whom were represented all the tribes of South Africa — Kaffirs, Zulus, Pondos, Fin- gos, Basutos, Hottentots, etc. The negro who works in the mines accepts a contract which makes him the prisoner of the company during the time his engagement lasts ; but the good negro is delighted with his lot. He has fresh air, good food, and amusements. If he is ill, he is well looked after, and at 268 JOHN BULL & CO. the end of a year he has in his leather belt, which serves him for a purse, from sixty to eighty pounds with which to buy oxen, and with these oxen to buy wives who will work for him, and allow him to pass his life in the softest oi far nientes. So, to attain this end, he joyfully accepts a year of imprisonment. He will sometimes even walk five hundred miles to reach Kimberley, and try and get enrolled. How many poor whites do I know who would consent to a year of imprisonment without dishonor, to live on their means for the rest of their lives ! The miners are lodged, or rather barracked, in great en- closures called " compounds," which communicate with the entrance to the mines. The " compound " is an immense square, surrounded by iron sheds, where the miners live in sets. They are grouped according to the tribe to which they belong. The centre forms a large court, several acres in size, where they amuse themselves by day. They cannot have any communication with outsiders, and, to prevent the possibility of their throw- ing diamonds over the roofs, the whole compound is covered in with close wire netting. Accompanied by the manager and several ofHcials of the De Beers Company, I went into the court, visited the sheds and the hospital, and I can say that, having seen everywhere that crowd of negroes, laughing, amus- ing themselves, and all looking resplendent with health, I came out of the " compound " with the conviction that I had been looking at people who were happy and satisfied with their lot. One "compound " is occupied by two thousand men ; the other by nearly three thousand. • Peacefulness and order reisfn in the two ereat " com- JOHN BULL & CO. 269 pounds " at Kimberley. The only quarrels that ever arise are tribal ones, childish quarrels that are quelled by a gesture from the superintendent. When the miners are not on duty, they are free to do what they like. They play cards, dance, sing, give them- selves up to trivial merrymakings, do their cooking am- icably en famillc, and as I said before, pass the time in the happiest fashion. As you see, every precaution is taken that no diamond may escape the company. The only semblance of cruelty to which these good blacks, who are just like children, are submitted, is the regime they are compelled to live under for the last week of their engagement. But they are warned of this : one of the clauses of the contract which they agree to before entering the service of the company, gives them in detail the description of the treatment they will have to undergo before being set at liberty. For one week they have to live naked, and in com- plete imprisonment, not being allowed any communica- tion with their comrades of the " compound." They have to wear hard leather fingerless gloves of enormous dimensions, which prevent them from using their hands, and oblige them to take their nourishment like four- footed animals. Their belongings are taken away and searched, and during that week they have but a blanket belonging to the company to cover them. Their bodies are examined in every part, and never was this expres- sion used with stricter exactness. Their teeth even are examined ; and if they have swallowed some precious stone, the gloves prevent the possibility of their hand- ling it to swallow it again. In fact, every precaution that 2/0 JOHN BULL & CO. it was possible to think of has been adopted ; and when this week of incarceration is finished, and the negroes have left the " compound " to return to their homes, the company is pretty certain that not one diamond has been stolen. CHAPTER XXXII. The Country — The " Veld " — The Plateaus — The Climate — The South African Animals — The Ant-hills— The South Coast — Natal — Durban, the Prettiest Town in South Africa — Zulus and Coolies. In South Africa the land is scarcely more clothed than the natives who inhabit it. When you have trav- eled north for a few hours, all vegetation disappears : no more trees, no more shrubs. The grass grows on the earth and on the sides of the mountains as the hair grows on the head of the Kaffirs, in little tufts here and there. In spite of this nakedness, the land has in its very desolation a grandeur and a beauty of its own. Thanks to the blue sky, it is not at all sad-looking. It is an or- iginal style of beauty, and if you are only careful to start from the principle that it is not necessary for a land- scape to resemble Devonshire in order to be beautiful, you will easily admire those that South Africa has to show. From the tops of the highest plateaus you get views that root you to the spot with admiration. In its own line, nothing grander could be conceived than that infinite stretch of veld, scattered with flat-topped moun- tains of different heights, which give to the scene an appearance of a great ocean in a fury. And the climate in winter ! I saw nothing but blue sky for four months ; the air was pure and bracing, the atmosphere dry and charged with ozone ; a climate 271 2/2 JOHN BULL & CO. in which a person with only half a lung may fairly ex- pect to die_of old age like the strongest. And thus one sees numbers of Englishmen who have come and buried themselves in little villages, where they are dying of ennui. But they had rather die of ennui than of con- sumption. And they are right ; to bury oneself in an African village is better than to be buried in Europe, THE VELD. you know where. To live anywhere at any cost, so that he lives, is man's motto. The ideal climate of Africa allows you to undertake things which you would not think of undertaking in any other country. Interminable journeys in trains, in mule or ox wagons, will be powerless to rob you of health or good humor, A sound night's sleep invariably dis- perses all traces of fatigue. You Avere so jolted and shaken in the wagon the day before, that you felt your- JOHN BULL & CO. 2/3 self all over on alighting, to see what had become of the various portions of your anatomy ; but when morning comes, you are fresh and active, ready to start again. Traveling in South Africa no longer presents any dangers. The natives have accepted their fate, and no longer attack white people. The wild animals have re- tired northward as civilization advanced, and now one must go as far as Mashonaland to find lions, elephants, buffaloes, and all the big game of Africa. Tartarin would find no more lions at the Cape, in Natal, or in the Transvaal, than he found in the suburbs of Algiers. You find a few leopards, monkeys, antelopes, and ga- zelles, but that is all. The antelope may still be shot in the neighborhood of almost all the towns at the Cape. These creatures are the prettiest of the inhabitants of South Africa : graceful animals with soft brown eyes, fantastic and symmetrical horns, they present themselves under the most varied forms. The most curious is the oryx gasi'lla, or gem-bok, whose parallel and perfectly straight horns are a yard and a half long. The oryx gazella is the only one the lion is afraid of. When it is attacked it lowers its head, and its adversary runs the risk of being spiked. His majesty Leo, in his wisdom, thinks twice before venturing. The museums of the principal towns contain the com- plete collection of African antelopes. The finest private collection is in the club at Kimberley. Ostriches in the wild state are now rarely met with in South Africa, but the country abounds with farms where these bipeds are reared in innumerable quanti- ties for the sake of their feathers. But on the veld, nothing : no animals, no vegetation. 274 JOHN BULL & CO. To find wooded counti)', you ha\-c to go as far as Bechuanaland. The buildings are of stone, of brick, or of mud, like those of the ancient Celts. Wire is used for fencing, and the excrement of oxen for fires. The South African desert is hardly inhabited now except by ants. At a certain distance you catch sight of what you suppose to be the huts of a kraal or village of the natives. The}' are ant-hills, xarying in height from three to six feet. There are some which attain a height of twelve and e\-en fifteen feet. These ant-hills are hermetically closed with earth, and present a per- fectly even surface, covering" a quantity of cells and gal- leries. Every ant remembers its address more easily than a New Yorker who lix'es at 1934 One Hundred and Forty-ninth Street, West. If you scrape the surface of an ant-hill, or make a hole in it, the little }-ellow ants will come out b}- thou- sands, and prove very aggressixe. Others will go and tell their neighbors in the lower stories, and presently the whole population will appear and entirel}- coxcr the mound. The}' will abandon their in\-aded home, and go to seek a new site, where in a few weeks the}' x\ill ha\e built with prodigious activity another ant-hill, just like the one that you demolished or simply injured. I should be sorry to con\'e}' the impression that South Africa has no pretty scenery, for the whole south coast, from Cape Town to Natal, is a succession of beautiful landscapes. The forest of Knysna, the district of Oudt- shoorn, with its passes, its caves, its interesting ostrich farms, the Buffalo River, at East London, with its hills wooded to the water's edge, reminding one of the Eng- JOHN HULL & CO. 275 lish Dart or a miniature Rhine, and, above all, Durban, the prettiest and most coquettish town in the South Af- rican Colonies, with its massive but graceful Town-hall, its beautiful public gardens, its hills scattered over with elegant villas set in sub-tropical vegetation. And what a contrast to the. eternal monotony of the veld! what wealth of color ! Indians in picturesque costumes, TOWN-HALL, DURBAN. Zulus dressed in white tunics bordered with red, living and moving under a clear blue sky, beside the intense blue water backed by green hills. Durban is a feast for the eyes, a rnignardisc. That which adds greatly to the pleasure of a stay in Durban is the excellence of the Royal Hotel, by far the best hostelry in South Africa. It is built around a 276 JOHN BULL & CO. courtyard full of palms and ferns, among which foun- tains play ; the cooking is excellent, and the service done by Indian coolies, whose thoughtful attentions NATAL SCENERY. are a treat after the independent manners of the colo- nial or German gentlemen who act as waiters in South African, as well as in American and Australian hotels. What a sad figure they cut, those poor, emaciated, JOHN BULL & CO. 277 lanky Indians, by the side of the Zulus, who are the personification of health and strength ! What a limp, nerveless race ! As one looks at them, it becomes easy to understand how John Bull made the conquest of India. In the out- skirts of Dur- ban you see the places where these Indians dwell, tumble- down shanties which the most wretched and poorest Con- naught peasant would hesitate to lodge his pigs in. Outside, in the sun, sit these miserable crea- tures, dirty and abject -looking ; women with men's heads in their laps search- ing among their lords' locks, monkey fashion. The children scratch their backs against the doorposts, while their parents scratch their heads. Most of the animation of these people comes from parasitic suggestion on the surface. The more industrious of them work on the sugar and RAILWAY STATION, VERULAM, NATAL. [From a Phoiograph by H. S. Eli.erbeck, Nuial.'\ 278 JOHN BULL"& CO. tea plantations that abound in South Natal. Others are domestics, A few Parsees, rich merchants and tradesmen of the town, fat and flourishing, clothed in long gold-embroi- dered raiment, form a curious contrast to the poor half- clad coolies, whom you see hawking a few bananas at the railway stations, and patronized chiefly by some chattering, merry Zulus, who are installing themselves in high glee in one of the third-class carriages provided in this country for the colored people. CHAPTER XXXIII. The Natives of South Africa— First Disappointment— Natives in a Natural State— Scenes of Savage Life— The Kraals —Customs— The Women— Types— Among the Kaffirs and the Zulus— Zulus in " Undress "—I Buy a Lady's Costume, and Carry it ofif in my Pocket— What Strange Places Virtue Hides in— The Missionaries Gone to the Wrong Place. It will take me some time to forget the cruel disap- pointment I felt on making my first visit to a kraal. It was at Port Elizabeth. I had not yet pushed into the interior, and had only seen civihzed savages. I ex- pressed to M. Chabaud, French consul in Port Eliza- beth, a wish to see a kraal. " That is very easy," he said ; " two or three miles from here we have one. and next Sunday, if you like, we will go and see it. Most of the Kaffirs who belong to this kraal work in the town all the week, but on Sunday you will see them in their natural state." With what pleasure I accepted the pro- posal ! I should see real savages at last. My visit to the kraal lasted five minutes. I found the " savages " singing Wesleyan hymns, while the small fry played at ball, and whistled that all-pursuing air, " Tararaboomdeay," which for two years I had not been able to get away from. Decidedly I had not gone far enough yet. Most of the towns in South Africa have near them a kraal, called a location, where the Kaffirs employed in the town as porters, carters, servants, etc., live in huts. But in the interior of Cape Colony and Natal, in the 279 28o JOHN BULL & CO. Transvaal and in Zululand, I studied the natives a little, and by the aid, sometimes of Kaffirs and Zulus who spoke a little English, or some English people Avho spoke Kafifir or Zulu, I was able to gather some inter- esting facts in talking to them. A kraal is composed of several huts, generally set upon an eminence which commands a view of the sur- rounding country. The hut is built in hive form : poles set in a circle, and flexible rods running horizontally around, the whole perfectly closed by means of earth and branches; one single opening allows the air to penetrate, and the tenants of the hut to enter and leave their residence with a stoop. It is there that they eat, sleep, and pass their time, chattering like magpies. I have seen as many as twenty of them in a hut, the diameter of which at the base was certainly not four yards, the old, the young, the babies, all swarm together with dogs, fowls, and other creatures more closely domestic and of much smaller dimensions, which I need not particular- ize. A sickly smell of rancid fat, which the bodies of all the South African natives exhale, mixed with the smell of wood smoke, tobacco smoke, and food together, make a composite perfume which it in not in my power to describe. There are odors which, to have an idea of, you must have smelt for yourself. I passed a whole day in a kraal, living like the Kaf- firs whose guest I was. I lunched and dined off mealies and fruit. The bill of fare was not recherche, my table companions had not precisely Mayfair manners, but, on the whole, it was more interesting than dining out in London. JOHN BULL & CO 281 All these good folk seem happy. Children of the sun, they pass their lives frolicking and showing their beau- tiful white teeth. The women, less playful, attend to all the needs of the family. Of all the domestic animals invented for the service of man in South Africa, the most useful is woman. There are few offices she is not called upon to fill. I TRIAL OF NATIVE OUTSIDE COURT OF JUSTICE AT A ZULU LOCATION, NATAL. {From a Photograpli by H. S. Ellerbeck, Nciid/.l have seen these women with a large pail of water on the head, a baby in a shawl on the back, another pail of water in the right hand, and a can of mealies in the left. With the body erect, a swinging, wagging mo- tion of the haunches, the shoulders well squared, the back hollowed, they walk with a firm and regular step, and, as a relief, without removing the long pipe which 282 JOHN BULL & CO. generally adorns the mouth, they expectorate right and left, describing parabolas fit to make a Tennessee man expire with envy. The Kaffir women are simply beasts of burden. The habit, contracted in childhood, of carrying heavy weights on the head and walking barefooted, has given these women their decided gait and erectness of body. The price of a wife is from ten to sixteen oxen. She brings her husband nothing but her virtue, and he asks no other dowry with her. The aim of every native in South Africa is to be rich enough to afford several wives. When he has three, he can knock off work, smoke his pipe, loll in the sunshine, majestically stalk about the kraal, and live in clover generally. The wife is all the prouder of her husband because he takes things easily and makes her work. She ad- mires him. " Why should he work," said a Kaffir's wife to me one day, " since he is rich enough to have wives to work for him? If I were a man I should do the same." There was resignation and logic in this. Oh, Parisian and American women, who keep men in leading strings, what do you say to this ? Jealousy is not a failing of the South African women, and all these wives live in peace together. The wife of a Kaffir, a Pondo, a Basuto, or a Zulu, much prefers that her husband should have many wives ; first, because it means a sharing of the work to be done, and also because it flatters her pride to think that she belongs to a man who is well-to-do. She is proud of her husband, and puts on her grandest air when she can say, " My husband has many wives." 283 JOHN BULL & CO. 285 And she looks down with pity upon the woman who has no companions to share the caresses of her hus- band. Good creatures, who understand what is due to the lords of creation ! You should see them going to fetch the beer of the country, and bringing it home on their heads in enor- mous wide pitchers, and then standing respectfully in line, upright and silent, while the men, squatting in Turkish fashion, drink out of the pitchers. This is gal- lantry of much the same stamp as Englishmen exhibit when at certain banquets they invite the ladies to look at them from a high gallery. Here is a family on the road : the man in front, then the wife, followed by the children. I have seen all the inhabitants of a village walking thus : men first, next the women carrying all the loads, after them the chil- dren, the whole party in Indian file. The children are winsome. Where are the children that are not .? I saw, among the different races of South Africa, young girls of from twelve to fifteen, superbly formed, perfect ba7'bcdicnncs. Their skin is soft as velvet, their shoulders and arms a sculptor's dream. But, unfor- tunately, that skin has no elasticity, and early loses its freshness. Married life and motherhood, which so often improve white women, destroy the charms of most of the native women of Africa. From the European point of view, they are generally ugly in face. However, I saw a pretty one here and there. Among others, I remember a young Kaffir woman who had brought her baby to the doctor of the 286 JOHN BULL & CO. district to be vaccinated. She had the roguish pretti- ness of a Parisian woman, and the red kerchief bound about her head and jauntily hfted over one ear, made her quite provokingly picturesque. When they leave their huts, the Kafirs, both men and women, wear a blanket dyed with red earth, which, slung over the shoulders, adds much dignity to their ?^'-!-4'v^. DISTRICT SURGEON VACCINATING ZULUS. \Fiom a Photograph by H. S. Ellekbeck, Natal.'] appearance. At home, the men are clothed with the air of the atmosphere, and the women deck themselves with a hundred and one baubles on the neck, arms, and legs. From the wrist to the elbow, the arm is gener- ally covered with a load of brass bangles. Of all the natives that I saw in South Africa, the Zu- lus are much the handsomest. What superb fellows JOHN BULL & CO. 287 those men are ! What a happy blending of firmness and gentleness in the look ! what dignity in the car- riage ! Men of over six feet, admirably proportioned, whose movements are simple, dignified, natural, and graceful. Nature has moulded no finer male figures than these. The Zulus are brave, intelligent people, moral and honest ; and what helps to keep the race healthy and handsome is, that the men and women never contract very early marriages, while the Kaffirs often marry mere children. In a kraal a few miles from the r,pot where the un- happy Prince Imperial met with his sad and untimely death, I saw nine hundred natives of the country, men, women, and children, who had come out of their huts to be examined by the vaccinating doctor. What in- teresting types there were to study in this assemblage ! The young girls adorn their heads with strings of beads, that hang gracefully about the ears, their necks with more beads, their arms and legs with circlets of brass and beads, and around the waist is a narrow leather belt, from which hangs, in front, an infinitesimal apron of beads and fringe. When they are married, they don a little petticoat about a foot deep. Their hair is greased and brushed straight back off the fore- head, in the form of a Turkish fez. The women are generally much smaller than the men, thickset, plump, and shapely in their swarthy beauty. For the sum of a sovereign, I one day bought the whole costume of a young woman, and carried it off in the side pocket of my coat. After taking off the last piece of adornment, she stood there a few moments smiling, happy, with the money in her hand, as uncon 288 JOHN BULL & CO. scious of her nudity as a new-born babe, and I looked at her with the same admiration and respect that I should have felt in the presence of a beautiful statue, or of a model with pure sculptural outlines encased in bronze tights. Among the New Zealand Maoris, the young girl is not virtuous, but once married she is faithful to her husband, who never concerns himself about the life his wife may have led before he married her. Among the Zulus, the young girl's virtue is exem- plary. She may throw everything to the winds, but never her virtue. She may play at love-making, but though she go to the edge of the precipice, she is sure- footed and will never fall. She knows that, so long as she is virtuous, she is worth sixteen oxen to her father, and that if her husband discovered, after marriage, that this was not the case, he would send her back to her father and re-demand his oxen. Her fidelity is a filial one. Her father values her virtue as part of his stock in trade ; he tends her, fattens her, and does his best to make her attractive and marketable. The young woman is proud to feel that she is valu- able, and the one who has been sold to her husband for sixteen oxen looks down with contempt upon a mem- ber of her sex who has only fetched ten. In Zululand^ there are "sets " of the upper sixteen who look down on the lozver ten. I amused a Kafifiir woman very much one day by tel- ling her that, in France, a woman without a dowry very often did not find a husband. " The women buy their husbands, then, in your coun- try ? " she said. JOHN BULL & CO. 289 " Yes," I replied, " and sometimes the remnants of a man." Great was her surprise. Her reasoning was not so much at fault, after all. She thought that it was more flattering for a woman to be bought by a husband than to have to buy one. Woman has a value in South Africa, she thought. What can her value possibly be in France, where some old notary, who marries a young wife, exacts an indem- nity of two hundred thousand francs with her ? A Zulu one day confided to me the following reflec- tions on polygamy in his country : " It is polygamy, boss, that is the cause of our pros- perity. As soon as a Zulu becomes a man, he works hard to save the money to buy a wife. When he has obtained her, and grown tired of her, he sets to work again to earn enough to buy another, and so on." Old Zulus of patriarchal age go in for matrimony. They are more ambitious and fonder of women than the Kaffirs. Besides, in their hands marriage is a com- mercial enterprise. These shrewd men buy wives as other people buy live four-footed stock, to increase their wealth. Thus, when the Zulu marries, he hopes to have many daughters, who will be salable and bring him oxen. At the birth of a boy, he makes a wry face. The Zulus are virtuous, moral, and honest as the day, and the missionaries who have settled there to convert them have gone to the wrong place. If you lose any- thing, no matter what, in a kraal, and a Zulu finds it, he will run after you. Now, the Zulu can run several miles without stopping, and you may be sure he will 290 JOHN BULL & CO. not stop until he has overtaken you and handed over that which you left behind. These remarks apply to the Zulu in the raw state. The converted Zulu is quite a different person. In a hotel at Pietermaritzburg, Natal, I was one day admiring three splendid young Zulus who did chamber- maids' and errand boys' work, and I asked the proprie- tress where she had got them. '"A long way from here," she said, "in a kraal. I never engage natives except in the raw state." " Why do you not take them," I asked, " from the missionary schools which abound in the neighbor- hood?" " Oh," she said, shaking her head, " none of those for me." This set me thinking. After all, I said to myself, this is only one person's opinion. The proprietress probably has a prejudice against the missionaries. I drew no conclusion, but resolved to put the same ques- tion to all the hotel proprietors whom I came across. Everywhere the answer was the same : " No converted Zulus for us." Many English people will be surprised to hear this, but I can aflfirm that no one in the Colonies ignores the fact. In the natural state, the Zulus are honest, and their women are virtuous. When they have gone through the apprenticeship of civilization in the mis- sions, the women's virtue often loses much of its rigid- ity, and the men lie and cheat like " Christians " of the deepest dye. The Zulus are virtuous and honest by instinct, and it is difificult to see how their child-like souls can be im- JOHN BULL & CO. 29I proved by a theory which, after all, may be summed up in these few words : "Do not sin, but if you do sin, make yourself easy, you have only to believe and all your sins will be blotted out." " Let us sin, then," say the converted Zulus too often ; " the more we sin, the more will be forgiven us." It is not the seed that is bad, it is the ground that is not prepared. This will not prevent plenty of good English people from continuing to send missionaries to South Africa, nor from making collections to increase their number. I simply state a fact, and give it with the authority of every one who engages native servants in the Cape and in Natal. Missionaries have never done me any harm, and in this volume I have not to try, thank heaven, to please or displease any one. I say what I think, I repeat what everybody in the Colonies knows, and if, in so doing, I unhappily offend certain people who think they ought to feel offended, I shall sleep none the worse for it. CHAPTER XXXIV. The Orange Free State — The Transvaal — A Page or Two of His- tory — The Boers at Home — Manners and Customs — The Boers and the Locusts — The Boers will have to "Mend or End" — Bloemfontein, Pretoria, and Johannesburg. The Orange Free State or Boer Republic, and the Transvaal or South African Republic, now independent States, were a few years ago branches of the firm, John Bull & Co. The Orange Free State is a large desert, five thousand feet above the sea, on a plateau whose superficial area is about equal to that of France. The climate of this country is the driest and healthiest in the world. The land is a succession, a superposition, of plateaus, hills and mountains crowned with enormous boulders. It is desolation, isolation, immensity. Only since seeing the vast landscapes of Africa, have I had a true idea of space. Towards the middle of this century, a large number of Boers, wishing to escape from the continual en- croachments of the English, quitted the Cape, and went with their flocks and herds to an immense district situated between the Vaal and Orange Rivers. They soon organized themselves into a republic, and began to hope that they were now forever out of the reach of the English. They were mistaken. You are never out of the reach of the English. 292 JOHN BULL & CO. 293 The Boers have a bad habit, which has constantly been the cause of quarrels between them and the English. In the eyes of the Boers, the aborigines of South Africa are not human beings to be conciliated, but wild animals to be tracked and exterminated when- ever occasion offers. When they did not kill them, they made slaves of them, and drove them to work with great leather whips that they would never have dared used about the oxen that drew their carts. They neither sought to civilize nor instruct them, nor even to convert them, for they do not admit that the negro can have a soul. This did not please the English, who themselves get rid of troublesome natives in the countries which they invade, but get rid of them by a much more diplomatic process — conversion and diver- sion, the Bible and the bottle. In 1845 the Boers of the Orange Republic fell upon the Griquas, an important tribe living to the west of them. They were going to exterminate them, when the English came to the rescue of the savages, vanquished the Boers and annexed their territory, under the very plausible pretext that their independ- ence was a continual menace to the tranquillity of South Africa. A number of Boers, furious at seeing themselves once more under the domination of the English, packed up, crossed the Vaal, and settled in a new country, which they called Transvaal, and where they soon founded a new republic. A few years later, England, fearing not to be able to control territories that were attaining such alarming proportions, allowed the Boers of the Orange Republic 294 JOHN BULL & CO. to proclaim afresh their independence (1853), an in- dependence which they still enjoy ; but when the diamond mines were discovered in 1870, just where Kimberly now stands, all that district was taken away from the Boers and rechristened British. The Boers settled in the Transvaal repeated in 1877 the offence which had cost them the indepiendence of the Orange Republic in 1845. They resolved to exterminate the natives of the territory which they had invaded, and were going to put their project into execution when the English conquered and annexed them. Everything seemed lost to them, for it was no use thinking of advancing farther northward. Their only hope was to reconquer their independence, and that at the point of the sword. In 1880 they revolted, and defeated the English at Majuba Hill, after having killed the English general, Sir Pomeroy Colley. The Transvaal was declared free, but under the protection of England, on the 25th of October, 1881. Three years later, England completely retired from the Transvaal. It is now well known that the Transvaal and the surrounding territories are all underlaid with gold, but it is quite certain that the Boers never will dig for it.* In a very few years the country will be overrun by gold-seekers from all parts of the world. The Boers will continue to scratch the surface of the earth, but they will not dig far below it. They occupy immense * It is seriously coniectured that it was from these parts that Solo- mon got the gold for the temple at Jerusalem Searches recently made, proved that a civilization formerly existed in South Africa. I saw in Mr. Cecil Rhodes' study a beautiful bronze statuette which has been excavated in Mashonaland. JOHN BULL & CO. 295 tracts of land which they do not cultivate, and ni their hands the country makes no progress. I have seen farmers whose farms were as large as Devonshire, and who contented themselves with pasturing cattle on a few hundred acres. They are ignorant, behind the i t "is PROSrECTING FOR GOLD— TRANSVAAL. [From a Photograph by H. S. Ellerbeck, Natal?^ times, stubborn, and lazy. They refuse to till the earth with modern implements. They do the kind of farm- ing that was done in the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob Their houses are often like pigsties. Before cxoing to bed, they take off their boots, and call that 296 JOHN BULL & CO. undressing. The floor is their bed. Skins are spread on it, and there all the family — men, women, and children — sleep higgledy-piggledy. Once or twice a year they set out in their wagons for the nearest town, where they go through two or three days of de- votions. The richest go to the hotels, others erect tents, or live in their wagons during their stay. When they have departed, the inhabitants of the town fumigate the place. Take all that is dirtiest, bravest, most old-fashioned, and most obstinate in a Breton, all that is most sus- picious, sly, and mean in a Norman, all that is shrewdest, most hospitable, and most puritan and bigot( d in a Scot, mix well, stir, and serve, and you have a Boer, or if you will— a boor. No, the world of to-day goes round too rapidly to allow the Boer to stand still. He will have " to mend or end." For a long time the Boers refused to have trains in the Transvaal, because this kind of locomotion is not mentioned in the Bible, and it was only by calling the railways "steam tramways " that they were induced to have them at all. The Transvaal Parliament, the Raad, has refused to have the Government Buildings insured against fire, because, " if it be God's will that they shall burn, there is no going against it." The most sublime thing in this line is the discussion which took place in the Lower House of the Raad on the extermination of locusts (Session 1893). I have extracted from the papers the following account of part of the debate; JOHN BULL & CO. 297 " Dr. Leyds, Secretary of State, read a communication from the Cape and Orange Free State Governments, requesting cooperation in the destruction of locusts. " Mr. Roos said locusts were a plague, as in the days of King Pharaoh, sent by God ; and the country would assuredly be loaded with shame and obloquy if it tried to raise its hand against the mighty hand of the Almighty. " Mr. Declerg and Mr. Steenkamp spoke in the same strain, quoting largely from the Scriptures. " Mr. Wolmarans proposed a general day of prayer and humiliation for South Africa. " The chairman related a true story of a man whose farm was always spared by the locusts, until one day he caused some to be kilh.d. His farm was devastated. " Mr. Stoop conjured the members not to constitute themselves terrestrial gods, and oppose the Almighty. " Mr. Lucas Meyer raised a storm by ridiculing the arguments of the former speakers, and comparing the locusts to beasts of prey, which they destroyed. '• Mr. Labuschagne was violent. He said the locusts were quite different from beasts of prey. They were sacred animals, a special plague sent by God for their sinfulness." This is how far the Boers have reached in the end of the nineteenth century. And, in looking at the assembly, you are prepared for anything. A few intelligent heads here and there : but the great majority is composed of rough-looking sons of the soil, with large, square heads, and small, sleepy, though cunning eyes. The Boers are all dead shots. They do not wildly 298 JOHN BULL & CO. aim into the mass ; each picks out a man, and that man's hour has come. Every shot tells. If they do aim into the mass, they bring down their enemies thirteen to the dozen. They count on their sure aim to preserve their independence. The two South African Republics possess three towns BLOEMFONTEIN, ORANGE FREE STATE. which must be mentioned : Bloemfontein in the first, Pretoria and Johannesburg in the second. Bloemfontein is a town of five or six thousand in- habitants, that resembles the most modern towns of the Cape — a market-place, a comfortable club, negroes, dust ankle deep and pure air. The Parliament and the President's house are rather pretty buildings. At one end of the town there is a fort garrisoned by the JOHN BULL & CO. 299 regular army of the republic, which is composed of about forty soldiers got up like Prussians, But if there are few soldiers in the two republics, every man is brave and a good shot, and twenty thousand men are ready to bear arms in defence of their liberty. Beyond the town, the yellow desert, arid and dusty, stretching away to the horizon. Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal, is more inter- esting. Verdure has been brought there, pretty houses have been built, and the Government Building, which cost over two hundred thousand pounds, is the most massive and imposing-looking public building in South Africa. As for Johannesburg, that demands a special chapter. CHAPTER XXXV. Johannesburg, the Gold City — The Boers again — The Future of the Transvaal — Miraculous Development of Johannes- burg — Strange Society — Stranger Wives and Husbands — Aristocracy in Low Water — The Captain and the Magis- trate. The most marvelous monument of British energy and perseverance is Johannesburg, the city of gold. Johannesburg, which is seven years old and no more, is to-day a town of 60,000 inhabitants, well built, pos- sessing first-class hotels, shops as important, as those of the large European towns, elegant suburbs, dotted over with charming villas ; and although there is not a tree to be found growing wild within five hundred miles, Johannesburg has a very promising park and beautiful private gardens. And please to remember that the railway was only brought to Johannesburg a year ago,* so that each stone, each plank, each nail that served to raise this city in the desert, by enchantment, so to speak, must have been brought there in heavy carts drawn by oxen, at the rate of about a mile and a half an hour. Johannesburg is not only the most important town of the Transvaal, it is the most important town of South Africa. The Boers cannot boast of having contributed either to its birth or its growth ; Johannesburg is a cosmopol- * At the time I write these lines (December, i893\ 300 JOHN BULL & CO. 3OI itan town, where every nation seemed to me to be rep- resented except the Transvaal. The Boers are farmers and sportsmen, nothing more. Their ancestors were farmers, and they do not conceive that they themselves could be anything else. Ignorant, bigoted, behind the times, these Dutch Bretons, transplanted in Africa, cul- tivate the soil like the contemporaries of the patriarchs, and refuse even to look at agricultural machinery. They do not change their ideas — nor their linen. They are hospitable, slaves of routine, dirty, brave, and lazy; they have much religion and few scruples ; they are content to live as their ancestors lived, and ready to die on the day that the independence of their country is in danger. The Transvaal will never be an English colony. The English of the Transvaal, as well as those of Cape Col- ony and Natal, would be as firmly opposed to it as the Boers themselves, for they have never forgiven England for letting herself be beaten by the Boers at Majuba Hill and accepting her defeat, a proceeding which has rendered them ridiculous in the eyes of the Dutch pop- ulation of South Africa. Johannesburg will absorb the Transvaal ; the apathy of the Boers will be bound to give way to the ever-increasing activity of the English ; but the prestige of England will profit nothing by this. The Transvaal is destined to become an Anglo-Saxon republic, which will form part of the United States of South Africa. With me this is not a simple impression, but a firm conviction. To form an idea of the significance of this town, so flourishing to-day, we must go back to its foundation. Johannesburg has been raised in the desert. No riv- JOHN BULL & CO. enou! town, rivers, no roads, no trees ; that is to say, no means of trans- port, no means of construction. Seven years ago the spot was occupied by a few tents, which served as shelter to the daring pioneers who had ven- tured thus far to seek for gold, at the risk of death from hunger or at the hands of sav- ages. It was only at the end of two years that they could get ^h wood and bnick to begin the semblance of a The greatest hindrance was the Avant of water, JOHANNESKURG, PAST AND I'RESENT JOHN BULL & CO. 303 and those who wished to indulge in the luxury, I do not say of a bath, but a simple ablution, had to do it in seltzer-water at two shillings a bottle. But irrigation works have been carried out, and the town now pos- sesses reservoirs. This is a happy thing, for the price of seltzer-water has not changed. In Johannesburg you pay two shillings for a glass of beer, one and sixpence for a cigar, and everything else is proportionately ex- pensive ; but the inhabitants earn money easily, and so no one grumbles. The streets of Johannesburg are wide and straight ; the town possesses pretty theatres, excellent hotels, and, I repeat, all that modern civilization can demand. Experts assure us that the gold mines of Johannes- burg are inexhaustible. If this be true, and I do not doubt it, in less than ten years this town will be one of the largest commercial centres of the world. At present it is a gambling den, where you are blinded by dust, but need strictly to keep your eyes open. Alongside distinguished, serious, and most hon- orable people, you have a decidedly mixed and contra- band society — millionaires, broken-down swells, shoddy barons, and financial gamblers, adventurers of all na- tions — German, English, French, Italian, Greek, Le- vantine, Jews, by birth and by profession, living from hand to mouth, passing their lives between the hope of being millionaires and the fear of being bankrupt. Pretty women, with painted cheeks and tinted hair, on the lookout for adventures, dying of ennui, passing their lives in card-playing, dining and dancing ; while the men are at the Stock Exchange, the club, or drinking and chatting with barmaids covered in rouge and dia- 304 JOHN BULL & CO. monds, and whose wages are twenty-five pounds a month without extras. DwelHng in the midst of these, I re- peat, exists a colony of delightful people, who necessa- rily hold somewhat aloof from this crowd — an aristoc- racy of manners, a choice set, composed of financiers, merchants, engineers, people such as one meets in the best society in Europe, and of whom I have not spoken much, precisely because they differ in nothing from their fellows in any other community. Well, after all, the history of Johannesburg is but the history of San Francisco, Denver, and every other town in the world to which the discovery of a precious metal has suddenly attracted an adventurous population in search of easy gains. Towns of this kind, and the most flourishing of them, are like revolutions — they have been started by adventurers. I do not by any means employ the word adventurer in its objectionable sense. What strange ups and downs they see, some of these adventurers ! What cases of pluck, and what pocketing of pride you meet with, and cannot but admire ! - In an Australasian town I visited, there was at the hotel an Englishman of high breeding, good education, arid perfect manners, filling the position of handy-man. He kept the accounts, watered the garden, wielded a feather-duster on occasions, and went to the quay to meet the boats and secure patronage for the establish- ment, wearing a cap bearing the name of the hotel in red letters. This man had been a captain in the Eng- lish army ; he was an officer no longer, but still every inch a gentleman. I remember an English lord who was philosophically earning his bread by making jam-tarts in a Californian JOHN BULL & CO. 305 town. The baker who employed him paid him a dollar a day. He accepted his position without much mur- muring ; but he had one thing to complain of, which was that the Chinese cooks in California worked so cheaply that this occupation seemed to hold out no prospect of future advancement. " These confounded Chinamen," he would exclaim ; " if it was not for them, one could get on ! " What pathos in these few words ! In its own line, the following incident is still more piquant : At the Cape I had made the acquaintance of an Eng- lishman, well informed, well dressed, full of good spirits, excellent company, a man holding a good position in the town. I met with him again at the club of an in- land town. My manager and I were talking to him when another gentleman came into the smoking-room, took up a paper, and sat near by to read it. "Ah," said our Englishman, "there is my old friend Brown ; I must introduce you. He is one of the mag- istrates of the town, a charming fellow; he will be de- lighted to know you." Gay as a lark, light as a feather, he rose, went to fetch his friend, brought him to us, and made the intro- duction. " My old friend Brown," said he, tapping him lightly on the shoulder. Mr. Brown bowed rather stiffly, exchanged a few words with us, and reapplied himself to his newspaper. Our Englishman left us. We remained in the smok- ing-room. Mr. Brown, in the friendliest manner possi- ble, came back to us. 306 JOHN BULL & CO. "What impudence," he began, "to introduce me to you as one of his old friends ! In my capacity of mag- istrate, I gave him three years' imprisonment for em- bezzlement five years ago." "My old friend Brown! a charming fellow!" I thought the thing was immensely droll. CHAPTER XXXVI. " Oom " Paul, President of the Transvaal — John Bull's Redoubt- able Adversary — A Short Interview with this Interesting Per- sonage — A Picturesque Meeting between two Diplomats. Mr. Paul Kruger, President of the Transvaal, is a man whose personahty is one of the most striking in South Africa. One may say that on the figures of President Kruger and Mr. Cecil Rhodes all the political interest of the country is centered. Mr. Cecil Rhodes, the pioneer of British civilization, alert and enterpris- ing; President Kruger, the old Boer, cautious, slow- going, patriotic, the last defender of Dutch interests, a wily diplomat, who, the head of a little republic com- posed of about twenty thousand men able to bear arms, holds his own against the British, has foiled them more than once by diplomacy, and once beaten them in bat- tle on Majuba Hill. Mr. Cecil Rhodes, who drives the wheels of the South African chariot ; " Oom " Paul, who acts as a drag on these wheels. His Honor, the President of the South African Re- public, or of the Transvaal, surnamed by his people ''Oo)n PauV (Uncle Paul), is a thick-set man, rather below the middle height, who carries his seventy-odd years lightly. His forehead is narrow, his nose and mouth large and wide, his eyes small and blinking, like those of a forest animal ; his voice so gruff and sonorous, that his ya is almost a roar. From his left hand the thumb is wanting. It was he himself, when a child, 307 3o8 JOHN BULL & CO. who, having one day hurt this thumb badly, took it clean off with a blow from a hatchet. He barely knows how to write, and he speaks in that primitive language, the Dutch patois spoken by the South African farmers : "OOM" PAUL. PRESIDENT OF THE TRANSVAAL. I is, thou IS, he is ; Wc is, you is, they is. Uncle Paul's eye is half veiled, but always on the lookout : it is the eye that he is obliged to keep on the English. The wily one says he does not speak nor understand a word JOHN LULL & CO. 309 of English. I am willing to believe it, although the joke is hard to assimilate. I had the pleasure of being introduced to " Oom " Paul by Monsieur Aubert, French consul in the Trans- vaal. It was in the Parliament, or Raad, during the few minutes' interval allowed to the President and members for a smoke between the debates. I begged him to 1 ^ 1 ku ft 1 t^^^^H^H ^L ^H |H^^^^^ ak. 1 -s 1^' :-T \ "l€!^. l^WI^T^ e.^» •»«■-) ?Rf 8» - OOM PAUL S PRIVATE RESIDENCE, PRETORIA. give me a few moments' interview in his own house, and he willingly made an appointment for five o'clock that evening. The editor of the Pretoria Press very kindly accompanied me, and acted as interpreter. I do not know if President Kriiger took me for some spy in the pay of the English, but I seemed to inspire him with little confidence, and during the twenty min- utes that the interview lasted he never looked me once 3IO JOHN BULL & CO. in the face. Whenever I asked him a question, he took some time to think over his answer ; and then it would come out in a weighty manner, the words uttered slow- ly, having been turned over at least seven times in his mouth. Here, in a few words, is the gist of the con- versation : " I suppose, Mr. President, that since the victory that your brave little nation gained over the English on Majuba Hill, the Boers bear no animosity to England ? " " To-morrow is the 24th of May, and, in honor of Queen Victoria's birthday, I have adjourned the Parlia- ment." Here, to begin with, was a response which for caution I thought worthy of a Scot. "They fear in England," I went on, "that the victory may have made you arrogant." " That is absurd ; the English might easily have re- paired their defeat and crushed us. They recoiled at the idea of annihilating a people who had shown that they were ready to shed the last drop of their blood to save their independence." " Johannesburg is, I see, completely given over to the English. Before ten years have passed, the gold mines will have attracted to the Transvaal a British popula- tion greatly outnumbering the Boers. And Johannes- burg is hardly forty miles from your capital." "The English are welcome in Johannesburg. They help us to develop the resources of the Transvaal, and in nowise threaten the independence of the country." " That is true, Mr. President ; but the Transvaal seems to be now surrounded on all sides. I hear of troubles in Matabeleland, and if the English take pos- JOHN BULL & CO. 31I session of that vast territory* you will be completely encircled." " That is why I claim Swaziland, which will allow us to extend our country towards the sea." " Towards the sea, yes ; but to the sea, no," " I can count upon eighteen thousand men, sir, who will die to the last man to defend the independence of their country," And the only reply that I could obtain to one or two more questions on the dangerous position of the repub- lic which he governs, may be summed up in these words : " We are ready to die, every one of us," But they will not need to die ; for if ever the English invaded the Transvaal in their search for gold, and suc- ceeded in getting the government of it into their own hands, they would keep it an independent republic ; that is to say, they would take into their own hands the reins now held by " Oom " Paul, and the change would only be a change of coachmen. The English Crown will not profit by the change, for the Transvaal, I re- peat it, will never be an English colony again. The President's mode of life is primitive. He smokes an enormous pipe in the drawing-room, where our inter- view takes place, and expectorates on the carpet in the most unceremonious manner. His salary is i^8,ooo a year, and his indemnity for public expenses ^^500 a year. He saves the salary, and lives comfortably on the indemnity. When it was decided that Sir Henry Loch, High Commissioner for South Africa, and President Kriiger should meet and discuss the details of the Swaziland * They have taken possession of it since this interview. 312 JOHN BULL & CO. Convention, they both journeyed to Colesberg, and both put up at the same hotel. It is President Kriiger's habit to rise at five every, morning. Having taken a night's rest after his journey, Sir Henry Loch rose at six to take his morning tub. On his way to the bathroom, in the usual light cos- tume, he passed in the corridor the quaint figure of " Oom " Paul, enjoying his early smoke, in a frock coat covered with orders, a high hat, and — slippers. Opposite his house stands a church where the Dop- pers of Pretoria assemble on Sundays. It is often " Oom " Paul who preaches the sermon. He loves theological discussions. He is a mixture of the Scot and the Norman. Even this mixture fails to give an idea of the shrewd and clever Dopper. CHAPTER XXXVII. The Success of the Firm, John Bull & Co. — The Explana- tion — The Freest Countries of the World — Illustrations to Prove it — The Future of the British Empire — Reflections of a Sour Critic — Advice to Young Men — And Now Let Us Go and Look on an Old Wall Covered with Ivy. It is neither by his intelligence nor by his talents that John Bull has built up that British Empire, of which this little volume can give the reader but a faint idea ; it is by the force of his character. Thomas Carlyle calls the English " of all the Nations in the World the stupidest in speech," but he also rightly calls them " the wisest in action." It is true that John Bull is slow to conceive ; but when he has taken a resolution there is no obstacle that will prevent his putting it into execution. There are three qualities that guarantee success to those who possess them. John Bull has them all three : an audacity that allows him to undertake any enterprise, a dogged perseverance that makes him carry it through, and a philosophy that makes him look upon any little defeats he may now and then meet with as so many moral victories that he has won. He never owns himself beaten, never doubts of the final success of his enterprise ; and is not a battle half won when one is sure of gaining the victory ? To keep up the British Empire, an empire of more than four hundred million souls, scattered all over the globe, to add to its size day by day by diplomacy, by a 313 314 JOHN BULL & CO. discreetness which hides all the machinery of govern- ment, without functionaries, with a handful of soldiers and more often mere volunteers, is it anything short of marvelous? And at this hour, I guarantee that not one single colony causes John Bull the least apprehension. One magistrate and a dozen policemen administer and keep in order districts as large as five or six de- partments of France. There is the same justice for the natives as for the colonists. No Lynch law, as in Amer- ica. The native, accused of the most atrocious crime, gets a fair trial, and a proper jury decides whether he is innocent or guilty. All those young nationalities, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, enjoy the most complete liberty, political and social. The English respect their susceptibilities so much, that during the Transvaal War, the Cape Parliament having decided to refuse to allow the English troops to disembark at Cape Town, Gen- eral Roberts and his army were obliged to land at Dur- ban, and arrived too late to save General Colley, who was killed at Majuba Hill, or to prevent the destruc- tion of his men. John Bull did not consider himself more at home at the Cape on this occasion than a fa- ther visiting his son-in-law would consider himself in his own house. During my stay in Africa a company of musicians announced a concert at Bloemfontein, the Boer capital. According to the English custom, the program was to terminate with " God save the Queen." It was a want of tact on the part of the artistes, no doubt. JOHN BULL & CO. 315 The authorities ordered that the English national anthem should be taken out of the program. If, in any part of the British Empire, any singer took it into his head to sing " God save the President of the Boer Republic," I guarantee that there would be no objection raised to it. On the contrary, the English would probably say, " Why, that is a song quite new to us, let us go to hear it." The Chief-Justice, the first magistrate of the colony of Victoria in 1892, was a republican, a partisan of Aus- tralian autonomy. He hid his opinions from no one : but his talents as a jurisconsult and his reputation as a man of integrity were so well known and appreciated, that John Bull did not hesitate an instant about placing him at the head of the colonial bench. All these new countries, which are so many outlets for the commerce of the world, are not monopolized by the English for their own use only. People from other nations may go there and settle without having any for- mality to go through, or any foreign tax to pay. They may go on speaking their own language, practicing their own religion, and may enjoy every right of citizenship. And if they are not too stubborn or too old to learn, they may lay to heart many good lessons in those nurs- eries of liberty. If I have not succeeded in proving that, in spite of their hundred and one foibles, the Anglo-Saxons are the only people on this earth who enjoy perfect liberty, I have lost my time, and I have made you lose yours, dear reader. The inhabitants of the Colonies in the present day 3l6 JOHN BULL & CO. are proud to call themselves Australians, Canadians, and Afrikanders. The spirit of nationality grows stronger day by day, and it is John Bull himself who feeds it. Every Englishman who goes and settles in the Colonies, ceases after a few years to be English ; he is a Canadian, an Australian, or an Afrikander, and swears by his new country. These Anglo-Saxons have an aptitude, a genius, for government inborn in them, and it is out of pure politeness toward the old mother- country that they accept the Governors she sends them, and this only on the understood condition that they shall occupy themselves as little about politics as do the Queen and members of the Royal Family. If the Queen of England dared to say in public that she pre- ferred Conservatives to Liberals, the English monarchy would not have ten years to live. If the Governor of any colony allowed himself to speak on politics in pub- lic, except by the mouth of ministers elected by the people, that colony would proclaim its independence the week after, and the Governor would have to avail himself of the first steamer sailing for England. If ever any colony mentioned in this volume should proclaim her independence, she may gain prestige in her own eyes, but she will not be casting off any yoke, for she could not be freer than she is at present. She will be a junior partner starting business on her own account, and thenceforth dispensing with the help of the head of the firm, who guided her early steps without ever demanding an account of her movements. There are many people in England who believe that the future fate of the British Empire is to be a Con- federation, having London for its centre, and that the JOHN BULL & CO. 317 Colonies will favor the scheme. If there is one pro- found conviction that I have acquired in all my travels among the Anglo-Saxons in the different parts of the world, it is that the Colonies do not want confedera- tion, and will never move toward the realization of this dream in which so many patriotic Britons indulge. To begin with, the Colonies are much top jealous of one another to care for amalgamation. Each one will in- sist on keeping its individuality, nay, its nationality. Moreover, not one of them has the least desire to be mixed up in any quarrels that England may one day have with any European power. John Bull would be wise to get the confederation idea out of his head. With the exception of Canada, which may possibly one day become part of the United States, the Colonies will remain branches of the firm, John Bull & Co., or they will become independent. For any one who has felt the pulse of those countries, it is impossible to think otherwise. A sour and unkind critic might thus sum up his im- pressions of the British Colonies in the southern hem- isphere : " I have seen mountains without trees (South Africa), trees without shade (Australia), plains without herbage, rivers without water, flowers without perfume, birds without songs, a sun without pity, dust without mercy, towns without interest," etc. A kinder and fairer critic would reply to this asser- tion : " It is certain that the countries which have a fu- ture are less interesting to the traveler with artistic tastes than the countries which have a long history. America and the Colonies have no old cathedrals nor 3l8 JOHN BULL & CO. ruined castles to show. The inhabitants of the Colo- nies are enterprising people, who in half a century have founded cities, I might say nations, capable of compet- ing in commercial importance with cities and nations that it has taken ten centuries to develop. I have seen in the Colonies, skies without clouds, winters without cold, festivity without boredom, food almost without cost, hospitality without calculation, millionaires with- out pride, birds with gorgeous plumage, trees with health-giving properties (how such a list could be ex- tended !), and kind hearts everywhere." There are two kinds of critics, those who complain that roses have thorns, others who are grateful that thorns have roses. The colonials have all the qualities and all the little foibles of the English, and if isolation has intensified some of their faults, it has also accentuated their vir- tues. For any young man, steady, hard-working, and per- severing, no country offers such present advantages and future chances as the Colonies. The Colonies have no room for blase young Euro- peans who have only the remnants of themselves to offer. They are like fair young brides with the con- sciousness of their own worth ; what they want is fresh and ardent youth, workers of all sorts, skilled artisans, intelligent vineyard hands, hardy field laborers, men with healthy bodies and upright minds, practical and laborious, To all such the Colonies promise success, and invariably keep their word. If I were a young man of twenty, I would probably JOHN BULL & CO. 319 go and settle in one of these young countries, but I have arrived at an age when it is hardly possible for a man to start a new life. I am too much attached by a life's souvenirs to old Europe to be able now to do without her. After years of travels through new countries, I was longing to see some old ruin that would remind me that the world had other pages than these freshly written ones. The day before I left South Africa to return to Eu- rope, Sir Thomas Upington, the genial and witty judge of Cape Town, said to me ; " Well, after all these long travels, what are you going to do now ? " " What am I going to do ? " I replied. " I am going to Europe to look at some old wall with a bit of ivy on it." LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 020 715 762 4