Servants in South Africa

1900

Only rich people can afford to keep white servants in South Africa. All ordinary folk, says a contributor to the London Mail, have to be content with the well-meant, if casual, ministrations of the native "house-boy."

The best of all servants is a Zulu, especially if he is raw, that is, fresh from his native kraal and totally unspoiled by the wiles of civilization. Such a boy is honest, sober, quick, clean, and anxious to learn the ways of the "umlungu," or white man.

He soon becomes as deft as an English butler, and as handy as the ideal housemaid. He does everything, from cooking to answering the door, and after a little practice he does it well. His knowledge of English at first is scanty, but he soon picks up a few words and mixes up Kaffir, Dutch and English in a quaint polyglot dialect.

When they are new to their work the boys make funny mistakes. A lady once had a good but raw boy who did not understand the etiquette of visiting-cards. Three visitors called. Two of them gave the boy their cards; the third did not happen to have one with her. The boy ushered the first two into the drawing-room, but kept the third waiting in the hall, saying, "Two misses got ticket. You no got ticket, you wait outside."

The boys have all manner of strange names, usually chosen by themselves from some one or other of the words that they hear often used, such as Sixpence, "Tickey" (three-penny piece), Shilling, Breakfast, Kettle, Silly Fool, Ugly, Pint Pot, Scrubber, Chopper or Whiskey.

Of course they have their own tribal names, but they never use them in white men's houses, and if none of the aforementioned common objects serves to provide an appellation, the boy is usually Jim, Charley or John. — Youth's Companion.

Landing in Durban

1900

A novel method of leaving a steamer is in vogue at Durban, in Natal. The originality of the method arises from the peculiar character of the bay, which is a long, landlocked lagoon, connected with the open sea by a narrow channel, which flows between two breakwaters intended to prevent the formation of the bar, and so to maintain free access for ships into the harbor. That bar is the battle-ground of political parties in Natal. The Bishop of Natal, writing in Good Words, explains that politics turn more on proposals for fighting the bar than on any question of Liberal or Conservative policy.

In the meantime the bar holds its own, and the mail-steamers are too big to get into the harbor. The outside anchorage is a rough and restless place, and nine days out of ten, tugs are afraid to lie alongside a gangway. Thus it happens that passengers are driven to the alternative of escaping from the ship by the same method by which St. Paul escaped from Damascus — in a basket.

"We owe gratitude, however, to the Empress Eugenie," says the bishop, "for since the day that she came to Natal on her sad errand, the basket has increased its dimensions. It is, in fact, almost as large as the elevator in a London mansion, affording room for three or four people to sit or stand."

In this commodious receptacle the passengers are hauled aloft by a steam crane, and dropped with much care and precision into the tug lying alongside. The sensation of swinging aloft and dropping into that heaving tug must be anything but pleasant.

The shore gained, the visitor to Durban has a chance of making the acquaintance of the Natal rickshaw boy, who will gallop him up to the Royal Hotel in good style.

These Zulu boys are good specimens of their race — a race of children. They have tremendous spirits. They would think it very tame to wait their turn for a fare, like the London cabmen. When a traveller comes out of the hotel there is a wild charge of rickshaws across the street. The boys enjoy the race, and shout and leap into the air.

The dress of the rickshaw boy is a picturesque medley. It is a common thing to see one wearing the discarded tunic of a private of an English line regiment, his head covered with a child's or a lady's straw hat, ornamented with tags of lace and tied with a ribbon under the chin. Others affect the ferocious style, and adorn themselves with enormous feathers or a pair of cow's horns tied to their heads. — Youth's Companion.

This Swindler Outdoes Fiction

1908

Pittsburg Society Folk Are Victims of Alleged Remarkable Crook

Pittsburg. — A career more extraordinary than half the villains of fiction is charged against Reginald Spauldlng, or Oscar F. Spate, or George Frederick Spate, the man who proposed to introduce Pittsburg people of wealth at the court of St. James in exchange for Pittsburg money.

Pittsburgers who wined and dined Spaulding a few days ago will be horrified when they learn that he is said to have been a convict in South Africa, but they can take some consolation out of another report that he is a son-in-law of Lady Suffield, the woman who, he asserted, would bring about the introductions at the court of St. James. It is charged against the prisoner that he sold his noble wife a "salted" mine and then abandoned her in the interior of South Africa.

The Pittsburg police received a letter from Inspector McCafferty of the New York police department containing a report which one of the New York detectives made on Spaulding. The report follows:

"Spate is the same man whom I met in Cape Town, South Africa, at the Mount Nelson hotel. He advertised there for men to act as agents for the American Trading company. They were to go into the interior of South Africa and collect hides and ivory from the natives, which they were to ship to various points. These agents were required to deposit £100 in money to secure the position.

"He collected the amount from many young men. This was in March, 1903. He was arrested while boarding the steamer Walmer Castle for England. He was convicted and served for two years in the government prison. He was also at Johannesburg, South Africa, and tried to secure a franchise from the park commissioners to put benches in Joubert park, but was refused."

Simultaneously with this report, a communication reached the Pittsburg police from a source which they will not divulge to the effect that Spaulding under the name of George Fredrick Spate in 1902, was married to Muriel, daughter of Lord and Lady Suffield, who left her home in London because of a difference with her parents, and went to South Africa during the Boer war as a Red Cross nurse, in consequence her parents disowned her, and her name was removed from the records of the British nobility.

It is claimed Spate is a younger son of a noble English family.

He secured a subaltern berth in the English army and fought in South Africa during the Boer war.

It was while he was wandering about South Africa that he is alleged to have married the daughter of Lord and Lady Suffield. Spate is alleged to have interested his wife in a diamond mine which he had "salted" and finally sold the mine to her and some others for a large sum.

Before the discovery was made that the mine was "salted," Spate is said to have taken his wife into the interior of Africa, where he deserted her in the land of the Zulu chief, Mosilikaps.

He returned to Johannesburg, where he circulated a story to the effect that his wife had been killed by the natives. Spate then started to organize a new Zulu kingdom, with himself as chief, with the purported object of going into the land of Mosilikaps and avenging the death of his wife. Just about this time, however, the woman appeared at Johannesburg.