THE MEN OF PRETORIA. 139 



so many who would do equally well, if not better, at 

 home. Many young fellows come out full of hope, 

 who have had no other training but that most hopeless 

 vocation of commercial clerk. Of course, some have 

 succeeded in obtaining good positions, but others have 

 almost patrolled the country, sometimes a schoolmaster 

 in a Boer's family, or the keeper of a small road-side 

 store, seeking fortune as an inexperienced prospector, 

 or even temporarily engaged as a waiter in an hotel ; but 

 you still hear no grumbling, but relief expressed that 

 they have at least escaped the restrictions on life at 

 home, breathe fresh air, and have less worry. 



It certainly is a fact that no one seems to starve in the 

 Transvaal ; and it is equally true that men whose 

 circumstances after a long stay in the country have 

 become hopeless, if not desperate, s-till describe it as the 

 finest and most improving land on earth. Whether it 

 is that the knowledge of increased age and long absence 

 from home have made return impossible, owing to 

 precariousness of the livelihood they might expect to 

 find, or whether it is the more free and untrammeled life 

 led in Boerland, and the easy way by which men still, by 

 some means or another, subsist, however bad their 

 pecuniary resources may be, are questions that may 

 perhaps be both answered in the affirmative. It is 

 usual at some hotels to let the needy speculators and 

 adventurers live on as boarders till better times arrive ; 

 and an acquaintance who once had a sleeping-share 

 in an hotel told me that the consideration was not 

 alway financially wrong. Whilst these indigent guests 

 lived free, they advertised and recommended the hotel ; 

 the food was not missed when a large number of visitors 

 had to be provided for, and in the changing fortunes 

 of the country these derelicts frequently became once 

 more able to pay their arrears. My experience was 

 that every man obtained his subsistence by some means, 

 though his affairs were in the blackest condition ; even 

 the " loafers " do not starve in South Africa. As I was 

 told by an old trader who had traversed the country : 

 No one starves, for if such a thing did occur, it could 



