South African Customs. 245 



the manners and customs of the people from a wrong stand- 

 point. Having, generally, been accustomed to the society of 

 people of good education and of sufficient leisure to cultivate 

 the refinements of comfort, if not of luxury ; they do not 

 realise the fact that the moneyed people with whom they 

 associate in South Africa are the representatives of the 

 artisans and tradesmen of England and Holland. Conse- 

 quently, it is unfair to apply to them a standard of culture 

 which is not appropriate to their class. In the education 

 which is to be derived from social intercourse as well as from 

 books, South Africa has of late years made rapid strides, and 

 there is no doubt but that in the near future, when society has 

 settled down, the most of the relics of barbarism, which either 

 amuse or annoy the visitor, will be removed, even before they 

 are things of the past in the parent countries. The member 

 of the Athenaeum, Carlton, or Army and Navy Club who 

 comes out, probably remarks that the ordinary man whom 

 he meets, cares but little for art, science or literature ; that he 

 pronounces the words * clerk ' and ' Derby ' as they are spelt ; 

 that when speaking of his wife, he calls her Mrs (whatever 

 her surname may be) ; that he considers a lady a fine 

 musician if she can play a waltz on the piano ; that when 

 comfortably seated he is not particularly inclined to jump 

 up and offer his seat to a lady who is obliged to stand for 

 want of a place to sit on ; that when ladies are present, he 

 sometimes thinks it superfluous to ask their permission if he 

 wishes to light his pipe or cigar ; and that he sees no harm in 

 cleaning his nails in public and even at meals. The visitor 

 will also be surprised to find that at hotels the waiter invari- 

 ably brings him cold instead of hot milk with his coffee ; and 

 that the horrible cesspool system of sanitation is almost uni- 

 versal up country. If, however, he be a man of the wide, and 

 not only of his own narrow, world, he will know that in 

 similar grades of life in Holland and in England, the people 

 are equally, if not more, deficient in education and refinement. 

 As regards any want there may be of studied courtesy to- 



