86 A NATURALIST IN THE TRANSVAAL. 



The rain again commenced on our return, and we 

 found Pretoria once more a scene of mud, with the usual 

 results of detained mails and an almost impossibility 

 of heavy transport. The arrival of the weekly mail is 

 to the European exile an event of the first importance. 

 Seven days' intellectual stagnation, in which the only 

 recorded events are found in the dismal swamp of Boer 

 politics, Church squabbles, and mining reports, render 

 the new home journals most attractive, though the con- 

 trast apart from purely literary studies is the record 

 of the same motives being applied to a larger and more 

 complex field. The same elements that compose the 

 social and political fabric of Boerland are found at the 

 root of our own national institutions ; but in Europe 

 the stage is larger, the principal parts are acted with 

 more dignity, and the scenery and decorations more im- 

 pressive. The subject matter is the same, but the oratory 

 has been more developed at home ; the " Oom Paul " 

 of the Boer and the " People's William " amongst our- 

 selves represent only a difference in degree and not of 

 type. So it is with the civilization of Pretoria, which 

 has reached a gaol and permanent gallows, but not yet 

 acquired a workhouse ; it has recognized crime, as ours 

 has, but still lacks the accompanying abject poverty of 

 our own more developed towns and cities. Thus our 

 home papers recorded the acting of a great national 

 tragedy or superb social comedy, whilst the Transvaal 

 existence has only yet advanced in politics to an ordi- 

 nary drama, and in social distinctions to a farce. Midas 

 may arise and does appear in the Boer republic, but he 

 has not the potentiality for display which the plutocrat 

 possesses in Europe, and appears ridiculous where our 

 own creations are sometimes only offensive ; it is the 

 difference between the processionary splendours of a 

 travelling circus and the more gorgeous vulgarity of a 

 Lord Mayor's Show. Tims a long and late night with 

 the London papers was always a weekly treat compared 

 with the uninteresting records of Transvaal communities ; 

 but how different the impression became when leaving 

 the townships one once more visited the solitudes of 



