Now it happened that the entire retail trade of the place
was in the hands of two Jewish merchants. The more fashionable of the
two shops took advantage of our necessities and demanded most exorbitant
prices for its goods. "Lime juice cordial," _e.g._, which could be got
for 1s. 6d. or 1s. 3d. in Capetown, was sold for 2s. 6d. and 3s. at De
Aar, and the other charges were correspondingly high. Nemesis, however,
overtook the shopman, for the camp commandant hearing of his evil deeds
placed a sentry in front of the store and so put it out of bounds. He
held out for a couple of days, while his more reasonable if less
pretentious rival flourished exceedingly, but a daily loss of L200 is
too severe a tax on the pertinacity of a Jew, or indeed of anybody, so
the rival tariffs were arranged on similar lines, and the sentry sloped
rifle and walked off. The mission workers at De Aar--some excellent
people--dwelt in two railway carriages on a siding. There were, I think,
two ladies and a gentleman. They worked exceedingly hard and their
mission tent was generally well filled. It is astonishing what keenness
is evoked by evangelical services with "gospel hymns". We all sang a
hymn like "I _do_ believe, I _will_ believe," with an emphasis which
seemed to imply that the effort was considerable, but that nobody, not
even a Boer commando, could alter our conviction.
Pages:
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39