The San Francisco call. [volume], July 09, 1899, Page 23, Image 23

About The San Francisco call. [volume] (San Francisco [Calif.]) 1895-1913

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The Passing of the Boers
THE passing of th*' Bn»r now
hastens apace. Th« beginning of
Mb end is at hnnd. and at any
moment may come the burst
that will announce the last act of the
most interesting historical drama that
has com* upon the world's stage dur
ing the century.
And a bloody tragedy will this last
ect be, as have been most of the others
in his history, for however comical the
situation and ridioulous the attitude
of the Bow may appear to Europeans,
he is a furious. God-fearing lighter,
and, man to man, has already pro Ted
himself more than equal to Britain's
best, as witness the several bloody bat
tles of the short two months' war
of 1881, ending with the disastrous de
feat and rout of the British at Majuba
HilL Then he was not so well equipped
with arms and munitions, while his foes
the most modern of both. Now
the Boer has the very best that plentl
ady gold will buy, and is. more
an expert in their use under any
;; conditions.
Well may the British Government
ite to again er.ga.se with such a
Vet the time is full; the national
sis of the English merchant and
are impeded by the Boer, and
cost what blood and
treasure it may.
The Boer whom the British found at
rlony in 1806, when the fortune
r gave them th.it their first start
in the game of land-grabbing: on the
Dark Continent, was not, as is often
supposed, of pifre Dutch extraction, al
gh that strain largely predomin-
!!•• was the ultimate product of 104
- growth fron a mixed stock of
inders, ■ ■ Swedes and
Finn? with a few British— ll6 men in
horn Captain Jan Van Riebcek, on
behalf of the Dutch Kast India Conr
brought from Holland in 14125, to
blish a n»vi«-tu?illing post for
=hJps ai th-= < • k»od Hopei
- latertht port became a col
the sense of thq word
i making per
• ■ ■ ■ • rr< mnding ci mn
■gan the d
if th* r»a! Boer — not in Cape
visited by ships of all nations
nd from the Indies and cor
■ • with Europe and
: out in the country .if th»
•. the lion and ih>? eriraffe. who
■ . le place before him: war
:h<> first and fighting tin
Lnd hie like, who numei
CURIOUS SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA PINES
IS THE ONLY GROVE IN THE WORLD OF A
THIS PECULIAR SPECIES. J
OX the san<l.=tone rlfffH that jut out
into the sea eighteen miles north of
the bay of San Diego, and in the
unsightly little canyons that mar
the beauty of the sandstone formation,
is found the Pimis Torreyana— pine tree
that with the exception of a few speci
mens growing in Lower California, on
Santa Rosa Island, off the coast of South
ern California, and near San Pedro, is
found in no other part of the world.
The gmve in Ban Diopo County con
tains nearly a thousand specimens of the
rare and unique pine, which in spite of
V»e buffeting winds from the ocean and
Grove of Plqus TorreyaQa on SaQta Rosa Islaod.
abounded, from his flocks and "kraals";
he spent half his time in the saddle, al
ways with ready rifle. His horse \va*
as a part of himself, and his aim as
quick and true as his eyesight.
The growth of the colony, though
slow at first, became more rapid after
the middle of the seventeenth century,
as its importance began to be more ap
preciated by the Dutch East India
Company. With visiting ships came
men from all nationalities, and loads
of young Dutch women were regularly
sent out from Holland to provide them
with wives. The revocation of the
edict of Nantes, 1685, sent several hun
dred French Huguenots, most desirable
to the Cape.
This process of admixture and as
similation produced not Holland
Dutchmen, but South African Dutch
men, Boers not to be duplicated else
where on the face of the earth.
Cape Colony passed permanently un
der the British flag with the capture of
Cape Town by (General Baird in ISO 6.
though it had been held by them under
a Governor sent out from England
from IT9"> until restored to Holland by
the peace of Amiens in 1808.
Though inaugurated with fair prom
ises \vhi< h were well pleasing t-> the
colonists, who had' suffered long under
the oppressive exactions of the Dutch
East India Company, the rule of their
new masters soon became far heavier
than that of the old.
General Craig on taking possession
Issued a proclamation stating, "The
monopoly and the oppression hitherto
practii >-il for the profit of the East In
dia Company is at an end. From this
day forward there is free trade and a
free marker. Every one may buy from
whom he will, sell to whom he will,
employ whom he will and come and go
wherever he chooses, by land or by
water. No new taxes will be levied,
and those in existence which are found
oppressive to th>- people will be done
away with. The paper money shall
■ ■ontSmie to hold Its value, but the
English make thoir payments in hard
coin." This from the representative of
the British Government sounded well
and promised contentment and pros
perity; Had his successors lived up
to his promises the Boers would have
lons remained In Cape Colony, the
••ijv-at Trek" would not have been
- .md the history of Boer wars and
British defeats in the past and now
about to come would not have to be
written.
The policy outlined by General Craig
was entirely ignored by his next suc
cessor and those after him. In its
place were measures calculated to
-rush the very life out of the colony.
\U important offices were held by
Englishmen with inordinately large
LOVES THE SEA AND WILL GROW ON
BARREN SANDSTONE CLIFFS.
the ravages of thoughtless woodchoppers
has thrived and grown and lent beauty to
the otherwise barren landscape along that
part of the coast. Though it has been
nearly half a century since the prove was
discovered and the species given a name
by a FCientist, no definite steps have ever
been taken by the authorities of San
Diego to preserve the trees. The City
I of San Diego— the corporate lim
:t- of the city extend to a point further
north than the grove of pines— has now
before it an ordinance setting apart the
pine lands ac a park reservation, and
there Is not a member of the Council bo
THE SAN FRAXCISCO CALL, SUNDAY, JULY 9, 1899.
,v- * <£*<**, ♦ <$> *. # <$> -f. ♦ <$• ♦ #■ $> <$► «. ♦ ♦ 4> 4> <& $ $ •* • ♦ * * <*■ ♦ <^ 6 <&&■&&<&&ss•&** *■ <?> *• ♦ •«• * ■& * <s> -^ ■■»
;. ' ♦
I The hardy mem of the Transvaal can "trek 9 ' ♦
% mo longer. The British SMrroiind them and the %
; hand of England begins to dose. The Boer has I
I gold and can fight. Will he wan 9 or is the day near I
I when he shall at last fall before his old 9 bitter foe? j
salaries, which consumed more than
two -thirds of the whole revenue. All
trade with countries >-nst of the Cape
was reserved for the English Kast In
dia Company and heavy duties were
imposed on all goods brought from the
West In other than English bottoms.
The Government fixed the price at
which the farmers should furnish sup
plies to the garrison and ships of war
calling at the Cape, and further large
issues of paper money were made. Op
pressive personal laws, tyrannically
enforced, abridged the liberties of the
colonists and kept them in a state of
sullen discontent. An influx of 5000
British settlers in IX2O-21 was followed
by a decree requiring all official docu
ments to be published in English and
all proceedings in the courts of law to
be in that language, and then that all
memorials and petitions addressed to
the Government should be in English
or have a translation attached. The
outside Circuit Courts were done away
with and aJI criminal cases required to
be taken to Cape Town. In no other
colony has Great Britain ever pursued
such harsh measures as were had in
dealing with the Bo«-rs.
The reduction of the value of the
paper money, much of which had been
Issued by the Government, to three
eighths of the face of the notes, and
making English silver legal tender at
that rate of exchange, caused a lose
of some $4,000,000 to the colonists, most
of which fell upon the farmers in the
outlying settlements.
A military police, composed of Hot
tentots under English officers, was .an
other great cause of complaint.
Finally the last straw came in the
shape of the emancipation proclamation
putting an end to slavery in the colony
after December 1, 1834. The "Great
Trek" began in 1835. The Boer farmers,
almost to a man, left Cape Colony and
sought new homes in the unexplored
regions to the northeast.
It was proposed to pay the colonists
for their slaves set free. A commission
fixed their value at about $15,000,000.
Of this amount the home Government
cut off two-thirds actually and the rest
practically, by requiring each claim to
be proved before a commission in Lon
don, and payment then to be made in
3^ per cent stock.
The farmers could not well make the
disloyal to the city as to vote against the
adoption of the ordinance.
This pine tree was first made known to
the world by Dr. C. C. Parry, a noted
botanist and member of the Mexican
Boundary Commission in 1850, who, finding
it "was a new species, dedicated It to the
veteran American botanist. Dr. John
Torrey who may be called the father of
systematic botany in America. This plant,
so far as the United Stattw is concerned,
is practically confined to the locality near
J,a Jolla, though It is said that a few scat
tered trees are found near San Pedro, in
the mountains of Lower California and on
Santa Rosa Island. The tree is known to
th© world only thraurn San. Diego. For
long journey to London, and, selling
their claims for a small fraction of their
face, forswore allegiance to the British
crown, abandoned everything they
could not readily carry with them and
"outspanned" into the unbroken wil
derness.
The exodus began in 1835, and for the
next three years party after party of
Boers, numbering from ten to 11 ft y
families, carrying all their belongings
in huge wagons drawn by ten or twelve
span of oxen each, poured from Cape
Colony across the orange River and
then over the Drakensberg Mountains
Into the more inviting country of Na
tal.
Sir George Napier, then Governor of
Cape Colony, in a proclamation issued
in July, 1838. set forth the principle
which has governed the attitude of the
British Government toward the Boers
ever since. It invited the Boers to re
turn, and at the same time informed
them that her Majesty's Government
was ".determined not to permit the cre
ation of any pretended independent
States by any of her Majesty's sub
jects, which the emigrant farmers con
tinued to be." The Boers protested,
then resisted, but were overpowered,
and in 1843 Natal was proclaimed to be
a British province.
They spread out over what is now
the Orange Free State and some of
them crossed the Vaal River and blazed
the way for a larger emigration that
wa« soon to follow.
British aggression followed them into
the Orange country, and in spite of th.^
warnings of Pretorious, their leader,
that the Boers would resist or "trek"
again. In 1848 the country between the
Orange and Vaal Rivers was proclaim
ed to be British territory, under the
title of the Orange River Sovereignty.
The Boers gathered and fought, but
were beaten In the battle of Boomplatz,
near Bloemfontein a.nd most of them
"trekked"' across the vaal, to join th-ir
companions, leaving their farms to
British emigrants from Cape Colony.
Again they formed a new republic,
the Independence of which was formal
ly recognized by the British in January,
1852, by what was called the Sand River
Convention, which "guaranteed in the
fullest manner on the part of the Brit
ish Government, to the emigrant farm
ers across the Vaa! River, the right to
manage their own affairs and govern
a number of years a wanton destruction
of the grove near La .Tolla had been going
on, more than one-half of the trees being
cut dnwn for firewood. Doubtless this
will cease now that the land is to be set
apart as a park reservation.
The wild seedlings <lo not bear trans
planting. A few years ago the County
Board of Supervisors, with a praisewor
thy desire to preserve to posterity a few
of these trees, had a dozen removed to
the Courthouse grounds in San Diego, but
to-day not one Is living to tell the tale.
The seeds do not germinate readily, ami
only pHinstaklner care ran carry them
d\> : r the ilrst three months. Then they
are safe, and a sturdier grower Is not to
be found. That they love the .sea is
shown by the tenacity with which they
cling to "the crumbling sandstone over
hanging the beach. Some day California,
will awako to the fact that here is tho
tree to reforest the barren coast hills.
There has been a great demand on the
part of European botanists and horti
culturi.-ts fur seeds of this pine, and they
have been largely-- cultivated in Europe,
more for their rarity, however, than for
their beauty.
The Pinus Torreyana is a small tree
twenty or thirty feet high and twelve to
fifteen Inches In diameter. The leaves are
crowded at the ends of the thick branch
lets In the axils of lanceolata, strongly
fringed braots, very stout, eight to twelve
lneh«« long, young sheaths fifteen to
•lghteen lines long, old ones six lines
long (a line Is one-twelfth of an
inch); cones ovate, four to four and one
half Inches long by three and one-half
inches thick, patulous or defluxed on pe
ducles an inch long; umbo short and stout
or sometimes elongated and lnnexed;
seeds oval, eight to ten Hues long, twice
as long as the wing which encloses the
■eed. The Plnus Torreyana Is fifty miles
from any other species of pine. In many
respects It resembles the historic Pinus
Plnea of the ancients, which has-been
cultivated from time Immemorial.
In a paper read before the San Diego
Society of Natural History November 2,
1883 the discoverer of the Pinus Torrey
ana Dr C. C. Parry, tells how he found
the rare and interesting pine tree. He
said- "In the spring ot 1850, when con
nected with the Mexican boundary sur
vey my attention was first called to a
peculiar species of pine growing on the
Pacific Coast at the mouth of the Sole
dad Valley, San Diego County, by a cas
ual inquiry from Dr. J. L. Le Conte, the
distinguished American entomologist,
then staying In San Diego, asking 'what
pine It was growing near the ocean beach
at that locality? Not having any speci
mens to show, he simply mentioned at the
times Its dense cones and its long, stout
leaves, five In a sheath. Not long after
an opportunity offered the writer for a
personal investigation, having been or
dered by Major W. H. Emory to make a
geological examination of the reported
coal deposits on the ocean bluff above
Soledad.
"In making a section of these strata
it was necessary to follow up some of the
■harp ravines that here debouch on the
ocean beach, and here my attention was
taken up by this singular and unique
maritime pine, which, with its strong
clusters of ttrminal leaves, and Its dis
torted branches loaded dow.i with pon
derous cones, was within easy reach of
botanical clutch. From the note? and
collections there made a description was
drawn up dedicating this well-marke.i
new species to an honored friend and in
structor both of Le Conte and the writer,
viz.. Dr. John Torrey of New York, as
Plnus Torreyana, Parry.
Though sixteen years have passed since
Dr Parry read that paper before the His
torical Society, it was' only within the
past few weeks that steps were taken to
set apart the pueblo lands upon which tha
Plnus Torreyana stand for park purposes.
An electric road may soon be running to
La Jolla. and It is not unlikely that an
extension of the road will be built to the
"Torrey pines."
themselves, according to their own
laws, without any interference on the
part of the British Government, and
that no encroachment should be made
by the said Government upon the terri
tory north of the Vaal River."
The Boers prospered in their new
home in spite of dissensions among
themselves :ind troubles with their na
tive neighbors, and in 1877 the idea of
annexing them to the British Crown
again took definite shape..
Sir Theophilus Shepstone, on behalf of
the British Government, came Into the
country on a visit of inspection, and af
ter consulting with a few of the inhabi
tants, on April 12, 1877, hoisted the Brit
ish Hag at Rustemberg, not far from
Pretoria. An interval of peaceful but
strong protest against this violation of
the Sand River Convention was follow
ed in December, 1880, by an uprising of.
the Boers, led by such men as Kruger.
Jnubert and others, who are still leaders
In Transvaal affairs. The British gar
risons in the towns were besieged and
when a strong force was sent from
Natal, under Sir Evelyn Wood, to their
assistance, the Boers met them at the
border and In four successive engage
ments, defeated them with terriblo loss,
especially of officers, and at small cost
to themselves.
At Majuba Hill, the last and most dis
astrous engagement to the British of
this seven weeks' war, they had every
advantage of position, on the summit of
Majuba Hill, where they were attacked
on February 26. 1881, by an inferior
force of Boers in three columns. Out
flanked and surrounded, the whole Brit
ish force, among whom were the fa
mous Gordon Highlanders, broke and
fled in utter rout, leaving many
dead on the field. A peace dictated by
the Boers, reaffirming the guarantee of
1852, was forced from General Wood,
who withdrew his forces.
The Transvaal Government has no
standing army, and, with the exception
of four volunteer organizations of 1200
men, know little of marching in line and
drilling, but they have some 38,000 able
men ready for service on short notice,
as was seen by the promptness with
which the Jamieson raid was ended in
18!»6. In the last three years they have
expended some $8,000,000 for arms and
ammunition, all of the most improved
patterns.
CORNSTALKS FOR NATIONAL DEFENSE
UNITED STATES NAVY WILL CARRY A
EELT OF CELLULOSE ARMOR.
ANEW device in warship construction
baa been found, which, it is believed,
•will make the American navy, chip
for ship, the superior of any other In
the world. Curiously enough, the ma
terial for this improvement comes, not
from our seaboard products, but from the
waste of Western farms. Itß value lies
in the fact that it will prevent a vesiel'9
fighting ability from beinK destroyed even
after she has been pierced in a dozen
places.
Mr. Lewis Nixon, formerly a United
Stateß naval constructor, and who Is now
engaged In building warships for the Gov
ernment at Ellzobethport, N. J., says of
the new invention:
"The value of some light substance that
will preserve the stability of light
armored vessels by displacing water that
might filter after a projectile has been
appreciated by naval constructors ever
since we began to build steel armored
vessels.
"To meet this need the French orig
inated the use of cellulose, which, .when
fired into, swells up under the Influence
of water and prevents further inflow.
After various trials It was adopted in
our navy. Thus, In the Columbia, tho
Boers Defeat Gordon Highlanders on Majuba Y\U\-
Since the discovery of the rich gold
fields within their borders, bringing in
a large influx of foreigners, mostly
British, and the gradual cutting them
off from any further "trekking" by
British annexation of the country to the
west and north of them, they have seen
the Inevitable and prepared for a last
and long struggle.
They may be successful for a time.
PREVENTS WATER COMING IN WHEN
PIERCED BY PROJECTILES.
New York and the Olympia, there are
protective decks of ample strength to keep
out the shells of any vessels they are
liable to engage, while their stability is
protected by belts of cellulose several feet
thick along the edges.
"No thoroughly satisfactory cellulose
material for this purpose was discovered,
however, until the pith of cornstalkß was
utilized in its manufacture. Corn pith Is a
perfect obturator. It absolutely prevents
water from coming- in by the opening
made by an 8-tnch shell. When chemically
treated It Is thoroughly fireproof and in
every way It meets the requirements of
the situation. , . *
"For keeping out water a celluloß© belt
of three feet may be said to be about as
efficient as a 6-lnch belt of steel, so that
we can protect our stability, when we
have & good protective deck back of it to
protect the vitals, with 100 tons of cellu
lose, where we should require 1000 tons of
armor."
The use of corn pith for this purpose
was suggested several years ago by Pro
fessor Mark W. Mersden, who had ob
served Its remarkable absorbent quali
ties. Ke brought the matter to the at
tention of the Cramps, and at their sug
gestion de-vised an apparatus for separ
ating the pith from the stalk. In 1595 the
naval authorities were induced to make
a test of the new product. A 250-pound
projectile was fired through a steel coffer
Corn Pith Used for Armor.
but with a large disloyal population In
their midst and the might of the British
Empire against them from without all
around, cut off completely from all
communication with the outside -world,
the result is a foregone conclusion.
Whether in two or ten years, the Brit
ish flag will ultimately triumph, the
Transvaal will have passed and the
Boer will follow.
dam packed -with cellulose three feet
thick. The shell made a hole a foot in
diameter through the structure. The
water was Immediately turned on and
continued for an hour. At the end of
that time not a drop had come through,
and the packing at the hole In the rear
of the plate was not even dampened.
Three factories now In operation are
pmployed In turlng out the product. The
largest of them is at Owensboro, Kv.
The others are at Rockford, 111., and
Chester, Pa.
Sinct- the whole process of this manu
facture is a new one, the machinery by
which It is carried on had to be espe
cially devised. The problems which it
presented baffled the inventor for tome
time, but he has at length succeeded in
perfecting machinery which make it pos
sible to turn out the finished products on
a large scale.
The stalks must be well ripened before
cutting-, and must be thoroughly cured.
After stripping off the ears the farmer
hauls the stalks to the factory, where
thuy are paid for at the rate of $3 per
ton.
The piles of stalks, Just as they come
to the factory, are fed into big cutting
machines, which chop them into short
lengths. Elevating shafts carry them to
the roof of the factory, where they pass
over great screens with fans to separate
the leaves and lighter parts.
An ingenious machine, with upright
knives, strips off the "shlve," the hard
outer portion of the Btalk and the tough
fibers that run lengthwise of the stem.
Only the soft inner portion is left.
From the stripping machines the whol»
mass falls upon long traveling strips or
canvas. The elastic nature of the pith
causes It to bound up and down on the
canvas until it falls' off into a receptacle
prepared for it. The chopped up stalks
and leaves go on to the end of the travel
ing curtains, where they are dumped into
cribs.
The pith goes next to the compressor,
where it is packed to about one-fourth
its former bulk. Even then It is so light
that only about three tons can be packed
into an ordinary freight car. The other
products are carried away for mixture
into the prepared food in which they are
used.
For a new industry the cornstalk busl
nrps is remarkably active. By the end of
a decade the statistics of the cornstalk
industry will probably be counted in mil
lions, and its influence in adding to the
prosperity of the great corn belt should
be very marked.
23