THE JOHANNESBURGERS

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5505, 4 March 1896, Page 2

THE JOHANNESBURGERS

SCATHING COMMENTS. [FBOM OUR LONDON COREESPONDENT.] London, Jan. 16. The attempts of the Johannesburgers to put a better face on their apparent treachery to "Dr Jim" have not, so far, been attended with brilliant success, and a gentleman of mordant wit suggests the golden city might appropriately be rechristened " Judasberg." The evening papers are great at patriotic poems just now, and the Pall Mall Gazette lets off some scathing verses on the Outlanders. Here are .eight lines : — Helots of Boers ye have been, their lxelots ye still shall be. Their brand on your craven foreheads shall sever to ■ from the free. » Grab, when the till is opened ; at the crack of tho musket, fly ! Gibber' with fear when ye see draw near the death that ye dare not die I Live then, and s>ame the living ; live, as the . mongrel can, Safe in the friendly limbo of the scorn of God and man; Nor heaven nor earth will judge yon; ye must take your cause to try Where, deep in Hell, your brethren dwell, the worms tuat caunot die. A TRAP FULL OP RATS. ■A. Telegraph correspondent who reached Johannesburg in the midst of the political ferment gives a graphic description of the scene which met his view. He says : — Most of the shops were closed and their, windows barricaded. The greater portion of the gold mines were deserted and shut down. At the railway sjtation an excited frantic crowd was fighting . for places and throwing off from the carriage doors those trying to escape. In the afreets of the town larger or smaller throngs were ' gathering and parading, especially thick round the Gold Fields Office, where they were demanding information. Being told that up to Thursday night Jameson was reported safe, tKey became generally- enraged and wanted to set fire to the offices, and threatened to hang their leaders who had not started to his assistance. The spectacle on all sides was in many respects excruciatingly comic, if it had not been so tragical. ... j Amid all this uproar the Johannesburgers were to be seen drilling in. the public squares, forming up into fours, with badges and ribbons and most of the paraphernalia of war. But among them one' could plainly see many clerks, shopmen and people of every white nationality, w,ho were supplying by panic and agitation the real spirit of the belligerents. Many among them were holding their rifles ' as if they had been umbrellas or walking-sticks^ their captains and lieutenants vainly shouting to the chaos in the hope of reducing it to order. I suppose there might have been picked out of the uiob of noisy insurgents some thousand good men and true, of real colonial grit ; but the rest were the merest riff-raff. 4 The National Committee had lied to them and to the world about the arms in its possjssion. Ido not believe they had more than 3000 serviceable rifles, carried for the most part by a set of rowdies, described by a Cape politician, as ." having a half-crown cigar in their mouths, a quart of champagne in their stomachs, and their brains in their pockets." Against this unwieldy mass was silently ranged 8000 Boers closing round the town, and so strong is the spirit of gambling in the place that bookniakers were betting on the event arid laying a" hundred to one that "Dr Jim" ■fl^ould come through safely. Great ncr- , vousnesSi however, prevailed among' some • of .these heroes; A. noted financier got '4wy.- by -bribing l^ Boer guard tor let.hini through the^lkdies' lavatory; on: payment of <^25 sterling. - Another , evaded the troops by dressing up as a black woman/ With regard to the Boers, the correspondent says they had' spies everywhere watching everybody, and it is clear that they were well prepared beforehand for all emergencies. In every outlying household mobilisation had been well prepared for, and every detachment was well warned, well armed and well mounted. The Boer' , commandos were everywhere hidden behind hills, with patrols scouring the country, and they really held Johannesburg, says the correspondent, like a trap full of rats. THE JOHANNESBUBd • PRISONERS' EAST LOT. By special permission, Mr Melton Prior and the Times' correspondent at Pretoria visited the Johannesburg prisoners in gaol. Dr Jameson's officers 'were kept separate from the Johannesburg prisoners, two negro gaolers keeping guard between them. The latter prisoners were in two lines of buildings on opposite sides of a large courtyard. Never (says the ,Times telegram) have a more miscel-, laneous lot of human beings been brought together in prison before. While the Johannesburgers, dressed mostly in fancycoloured pyjamas and wide-awakes, were grouped together under a temporary verandah, playing cards and marbles, reading' newspapers and novels, or writing letters, stalking across the yard went a negro, clad in seedy European clothes, who the gaoler told us was Malaboch, the chief whom the Boers had recently fought against. , Away in a shed were two Hindus who had murdered a Kaffir. In another qorner was a courtyard full of Kaffir prisoners. In separate cells were Boers. The ; Johannesburgers were in excellent spirits — far better, in fact, than when Carrying out a revolution. A body of men looking less like- revolutionists it is impossible to imagine. Whisky arid soda ■ were offered us by each group as we passed. Anything they like they are allowed to buy and bring in. All that they complain of now is the heat. They are necessarily very crowded, and at first eight of them had been lodged in cells 12ft by 12£ ft, with one small window, and locked in at night. The sanitary arrangements, too, had been very bad, and the vermin were , swarming. They are now allowed to sleep outside. Colonel Ehodes, and Messrs Phillips, Farrar and Hammond are kept separate from the rest. The authorities are evidently anxious to do their best for the comfort of the prisoners, but it is to be hoped that they will soon hold a preliminary investigation and release the bulk of them on bail or parole.