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About The Sunday Oregonian. (Portland, Ore.) 1881-current | View Entire Issue (Dec. 6, 1908)
t 6 TIIE SUNDAY OREGOXIAN, PORTLAND, DECEMBER 6. 1903. T c pirsfr pSimw? brjpirti , JCr -f-,""-V ' v:m!9!!&ll'''' ' sA. ? ' "'Jill ik -,. v1- iL-'f ' 1 U V " -.11 i ----- i IX ti - - 'w-wfe,.' i - " " I " JSC7ZZ JZSEH rSiyZTtS RT FRANK O. CARPENTTTR. i HE whit people here are becoming excited over the negro question. During the Dast six months I have visited every colony south of the Zam besi, and the better class of Europeans even-where have fears of a race war In the future. In the United States we have one ncKro to every nine or ten white?. Here the proportion Is almost reversed. There are more than five black men to every white man. and the black men are beginning to appreciate their possi bilities. Within the past year or o they have been stirred up by some mission aries of their own race, who are said o come from the United States. The eeot Is known as the Ethiopian Episco palians and they are at work In Natal. Cape Colony and the Transvaal. Their pastors preach the equality of the races, and urge them to stand up for their rlshts. 1 have seen negroes in all the cities of South 'Africa. They wear European clothes and the crowds one sees about the stations are as fully clad as are the negroes of our small Southern towns. In many localities they are beginning to resent their treatment by the whites. In Johannesburg, for instance, they ob ject to the laws which keep them off the sidewalks and allow them to go only In the middle of the road when walking along the streets. They do not like the Jim Crow trailers to the electric cars, and they are asking for more schools. Kducating the Kafir. So far he most of the education of the Kafir has been by the missionaries. There are now something like 5.000,000 of him outh of the Zambesi, and his school children are numbered by the tens of thousands. In Cape Colony there are no government schools for the na tives. Their education is carried on by the mission schools, which are aided somewhat by government grants and are under government inspection. The na tives have to pay fees, which cover a large part of the cost, and In some dis tricts they have given money for the building of schoolhouses. The govern ment grants are about one-third aa much per pupil for the natives as for the whites, and the education given them is but little more hah the three Bs, It, is the same In Natal and also In Basutoland and Rhodesia. There are now about 80. 000 pupils in Cape Colony. 8000 In Natal and 10.000 in Basutoland. The Kafirs of the cities are fat com ing to the realization that schooling pays and they are now anxious that their chil dren should learn. A Johannesburg mer chant told me of a Kafir tenant of his who was educating his 16-year-old daughter. He was asked why he did so and replied that he had noticed that the white man was of little value without an education, and. If bo. why not the black man? He said that he did not know that his girl would teach school, but that he was bound she should learn. At present the negro here has no op portunity to get a college education. He Is not allowed to go into' the universities ,f South Africa, and as a rule the peo ple would -rather keep him uneducated. They look upon the natives as their Cod er en ted hewers of wood and drawers of water, and they want them to continue o. Thev would rather that they should not own real estate nor go into business. The mechanics-and foremen, among the whites, would rather not have the blacks learn trades, and they desire to keep the labor of the two races distinct. l.ovedaIe Co-Educational Scheme. As to the co-education of the races there is only one place in South Africa where that is carried on to any extent. Thl is at Lovedale, about 660 miles northeast of Cape Town. There is a Missionary training institution of the United Free Church of Scotland at that place,, and in it the whites and blacks are educated together. It is a sort of boarding school with something like S0O pupils; and it might be called an acad emy, although it has all the branches from the kindergarten to the normal training school. Thle school Is doing much in making teachers and native preachers. Many of the teachers of the mission schools throughout South Af rica have been educated there, and It has done much in bringing its European pu pils to an understanding of the native character. The institution consists of a large central building, a score of dormi tories', many workshops and a hospital. Connected with It is a farm on which the boys work and all sorts of manual train ing are taught. The morning hours are devoted to study and recitations, and a part of each afternoon to work upon the farm and in the gardens and shop. The school has Its military drills and physical training. It baa a brass band, and the white and black boys play cricket togeth er. Eery Friday evening there Is a lit erary society and there are occasional lectures, papers and debates. The girls have their own Industrial work, and learn dressmaking, cooking and laundering during their stay. It is n"t difficult for a Lovedale graduate to set a job. Many of the former students are now Interpreters, some are clerks In the government offices, while others are employed In the stores. t S Cents vs. $1 Per Day. In Kimberley and Johannesburg, the great centers of the gold and diamond In dustries, natives are now paid about $1 per day. This is considered enormous wages for this part of the world. Only a generation ago natives were paid S cents for 10 or 11 hours' work. Then an ax would buy an ox and a string of glass beads pay a negro for carrying a load of 70 pounds a hundred miles through the wilds. These are the wages that still prevail in parts of Uganda, British East Africa and German Bast Africa, and the white men there will tell you that It la wrong to pay more. " I remember a talk which I had with a government official of British Central Africa. We were talking about the na tive labor and I asked whether It was possible to get any work out of the blacks of Nyassaland. He replied: "Yes. we get some work from them, but both the government and .private in dividuals are spoiling the labor market. The African is a great big child, with the muscle of a man. He ought to be treated as a child and be punished when he is bad. It used to be so that the officials had this power. If a native did not obey he was brought up for punishment. He was then laid down on the ground and given 10 lashes or so with a hippopota mus whip. This hurt him somewhat, but he took It as a matter of course and did better thereafter. Now the laws are such that we can only Imprison him for small offense and we have to try him before we can give him corporal punishment. "Aa to labor," this man continued, "the negro works all right if you do not raise his wages. When he first entered British Central Africa he was satisfied with a shilling. Then we gave him 3 shillings, and now "private parties have come In and are building a railroad; they want steady labor and are offering 6 shillings." "Six shillings? A dollar and a half a day?" asked I. "No, C shillings a month. It is too much, and the worst of It Is that the native will expect that wages right along, and he cannot see why He should not have it. It Is a great mistake." Taxing the Xatlves. "A dollar and a half a month is 6 cents a day," said I. "That does not seem much to me. And even out of those wages I suppose the natives have to pay taxes." "Yes, we collect 6 shillings a year from the well-to-do and those who hare the cash; and we make all others give us a month's work on the roads, or he must bring a certificate from his employer showing that ho has done work to the amount of 2 shillings, when his taxes are remitted." "In other-words, every black man must give orie month of every year to the gov' eminent " rhIH T. "Yes. it amounts to about that," was' the reply. In South Africa the natives are charged a hut tax, and they also have to pay dog taxes and wife taxes. Every time a man is married he pays 10 shillings to the government, of which a portion goes back to his chief. In Cape Colony he pays a license fee of from 62 cents to tl-25 on every dog over three months old, and the dog tax of Natal la about the same. In one year the natives of Natal paid $11,000 In rharrlage fees, and I am told that a black man has to pay J25 to the government there when he gets a divorce. The hut taxes of Cape Colony are about 10 shillings per year per family. Four teen shillings is the amount of that tax in Natal and 10 that of Rhodesia. They recently raised the tax In Basutoland to $o, and In Natal a higher rate is paid upon all houses of European construction. These taxes may seem low to Ameri cans, but they are large in comparison with the wages of the people, and so large that they lead to the crowding of the natives, several families or unmarried adults often living In one hut. Among the Kafir Workmen. So far only a small proportion of the South African negrois has been greatly influenced by the whites. There are alto gether between five and six million abo rigines below the Congo Free State, and I venture that those employed in the mines, on the farms and in the cities will not number, all told, more than 300,000. There are something like 100,000 in the gold mines. Kimberley had 20,000 before our panic caused the De Beers Company to cut down its labor force, and there are something like 10,000 employed in the great diamond mine at Culllnan. In all these places the natives are kept in com pounds, or walled inclosures; and as far as those connected with the diamond mines are concerned, hey are not allowed to go outside during the terms of their contracts. They must buy. their food at the company shops; and although the rates there are low, the companies prob ably make a profit. Not long ago at a meeting of the De Beers Company one of the officials stated what had become of the profits made from the compounds that year, saying that $r5,000 had gone BOSTON MAN IS ENTANGLED IN A MAZE OF SENSATIONAL DAMAGE SUITS ''4 -J . ; K . ' ' ' ' ; - '. . , : J "M ir'-v. xX::xxxxmmx$MN- xml 'mmxmxmmxm Ikv "Mar- Ei -o. T ' XjX&s chasm:. cle:s, M& riA&THA MABZLLE JXWV N1 NEW YORK, Dec. 5. (Special.) One of the most sensational breach-of-promise cases ever brought in this country Is that of Mrs. Gertrude Whittemore, of Boston, against Charlqs B. Giles, Jr., a member of the famous Ancient and Honorable Artillery Com pany. Mrs. Whittemore wants $20,000 from Giles. At the same time the hus band of another woman has sued Giles on the charge of alienating her affec tions. The woman in this second case is Mrs. Martha Mabelle Dunphy, for merly Mrs. Julius Sijverstone, of Port land, Or. Mrs. Dunp'hy is a great deal prettier than her picture. Mrs. Whlt- Us GJZRZRUDE WJfTEMDRE:. temore was a widow when she met Giles. He was married, but he. did not let her know it, and he succeeded in winning her affections while she be lieved he was free to marry her. In 1904, after Mrs. Whittemore had learned that Giles was married, Mrs. Giles got a divorce on the ground of cruelty. Then Mrs. Whittemore claims Giles promised to marry her. . While engaged to her, he obtained from her Invest It for her, and later he got other" sums, the whole aggregating $1W. In February. 1907, he secretly married Mrs. Bessie Frost, and then told Mrs. Whit temore that he was through with her. Lately Jie brought a charge of larceny against Mrs. Dunphy, charging that she had robbed him while they were traveling together. This brings the case to Chicago, where the theft is said to have occurred. Mrs. Dunphy's hus band has gone to that city to defend her, and incidentally has brought suit against Giles for J23.000 for aliena tion, basing the charge on Giles' claim that Mrs. Dunphy and he were travel- 11500 on the plea that he wanted to I ing together. Meantime, the first Mrs. . .. - . . , t TiilA. H.jn morrlArl tha hrnfhor of nfle Giles has married the brother of Giles, and is apparently happy with htm. The courts will have a lively time get ting Mr. Giles of the Ancient and Hon orable straightened out. to the sanatorium, $10,000 to the library, $15,000 to the town hall, $10,000 to the school of mines and $10,000 to the Kim berley schools. None of this money helped the natives from whom it was taken. As far as I can see, the natives are fairly- well treated by their employers. The several governments try to protect them, and each has its native labor in spectors, who go through the mines, above and below ground, and report as to the treatment of the negroes. Neverthe less, the white mine overseer Is omnipo tent, and he can abuse the native it he will. I asked the American foreman of the underground workings of a mine in which 4000 negroes were employed, whether he could punish his men if they did not do as he wished. He replied: "There Is no trouble about that. If you want to mash the face of a negro down here all you have to do Js to see that you get him alone in one part of the work ings. You can then treat him as you will, and If he makes any complaint you can say he assaulted you. The word of the black man is never taken here as against that of the white man. and so we can run things about as we please." Kafir Lands. The Kafirs own land all over South Africa. Iti many places the land still belongs to the chiefs, subject to the rights of their tribesmen, and the chief has no right to sell or trade it away. In Southern Rhodesia the native com missioners assign the land for huts and grazing, giving-each kraal so much. When Cecil Rhodes died he ordered that the natives on his farms be undis turbed,, and large blocks of govern ment lands have been set aside for agriculture in different parts of Rho desia. In Natal something like 8000 acres were transferred to a trust moro than 50 years ago, and his trust was to give all the rents and profits from it to one tribe. A few years later another native trust was given 2.000,000 acres, and this is scill administered for the Kafirs of Natal. Within tho last few years the native lands have -been fenced off from those of the Europeans, and the boundaries between the tribes defined. In that colony about one-half of the negroes live in -kraals, on private lands, paying from $5 to $25 per hut to the owners- of these farms, which consist of from 1510 to 5000 acres each. One of these farms will have a group of natives upon it, and the group will be governed by its hereditary chief or headman. Every kraal will cultivate from five to ten -acres of land, and the remainder is used for grazing in com mon. In a Kafir Kraal. I had a good chance to see something of the wilder Kafirs during my stay in Marableleland and Bechuanaland. and I also met strange tribes who" are al lied to them in Northwestern Rhodesia. Nearly all the natives live In what are known as kraals. These are little mud villages surrounded by mud walls or fences of brush. Among the Zulus these kraals are circular in shape, with tiic cattlo pen In the center and tho huts running J around it. In Matabeleland thoy are somewhat irregular, and In other re gions they are built like a horseshoe, with a cattle kraal near the opening. The cattie arc herded during the day time and are always kept in the kraals at night. Tho kraal usually contains all the houses of the village. These are of different shapes In different localities. In Matabeleand they consist of a framework of twigs woven together and p'astercd with mud, and in Zulu land they are thatched down to the ground. In many parts of Rhodesia the houses are made of a framework of sticks. mcared with the clay from the white ant hills. This Is a natural cement, and is used for all sorts of buildings. In that country the negroes have granaries of mud, and they also make pigeon houses of it and put them on high poles to protect the birds from the wild animals and dogs. The ordi nary granary is the size of a hogs head or larger. It has a hole in one side, which is slopped up with clay after the grain Is put In. In Zulu land the grain Is kept in huge baskets Inside the huts. Own Several Houses. In a kraal like this one man owns several houses, corresponding to his number of wives. In the principal hut he will live with the "great wlfe,"'and on the right of that will be the hut for the spouse known as the "wife of the right hand," while on the left will be that devoted to the "wife of the ancestors," whose children are sup posed to carry the honors of the fam ily. If there are other wives Jhelr huts are built farther over. Each wife Is supposed to own her own hut, and the husband is expected to spend a weak in each before he goes to another. In the same way each wife has her own garden or field, which she culti vates, and for which she alone Is re sponsible. The women do all the plant ing, hoeing and reaping, and the more wives a man has to work for him the richer he 13. As far as the stock is concerned, this is usually oared for by the men. Milk ing time is 11 o'clock in the morning, and then tho men. stark naked, do the milking.- They take the milk in water tight baskets to their huts and pour it into skin bags, where it is allowed to stay until It ferments. The Kafirs never drink fresh milk, but they eat this koumis or fermented milk with their boiled grain or mush. They al ways have their big meal at noon, when the men eat first, and the wom en and children eat what is left. Cape Town, November 1. Its First Tellint. Puck. Eve had fabricated her first biscuits. "Just like my mother used to make!" declared Adam, fulsomely. Tears sprang into Eve's eye. "If you hadn't eaten that apple, you would never say so!" she protested. Yet it was no biiiritrr lie, on the whole, than plenty of men have since told in those Identical words.
