Bloemfontein is situated upon a plain. Its boundaries are well defined, but it has no suburb, if we except the native village of Wray Hook.
To the traveler, who has been wearily jolted over grassless plains, the sight of even this isolated Dutch town is as welcome as an oasis in the desert.
The inhabitants number about four thousand people. There is nothing about the town to indicate its importance; yet, here the Orange Free State has established a capital, and here it is in this quiet, respectable, and scrupulously clean town that the government assembles to transact its business without display or ostentation, but with dignity, common sense, and judgment.
The town seems like a Dutch metropolis with a veneering of English and African customs and ways. Very few of the houses are more than one story high. While water is plenty, fuel is very scarce, and, in consequence, very expensive. In fact, everything commands a high price. When Mr. Trollope visited the place, butter was more than a dollar a pound, which indicated that dairy farming was not a very general occupation.
The town—in fact, the whole country—is well supplied with schools. Dutch is the special language supposed to be taught, but English is the far more important, and, as a rule, most of the school books are printed in that tongue.
To quote from the author, Mr. Trollope, who has so charmingly described it: "I will not say that Bloemfontein is itself peculiarly beautiful. It has no rapid rivers flowing through it, as had the capital of Tyrol; no picturesqueness of hills to make it lovely, as had Edinburgh; no glory of buildings, such as belongs to Florence. It is not quaint, as Nuremberg, romantic as Prague, or even embowered in foliage, as are some of the Dutch villages in the western provinces of Cape Colony. But it has a completeness and neatness which make it very pleasing to the eye. No one is kept hungry there, or is overworked. The work, indeed, is very light. Friday is a half holiday for every one. Three o'clock ends the day for all important business. I doubt whether any shop is open after six. At eight, all the servants—who, of course, are colored people—are at home at their own huts in Wray Hook. No colored person is allowed to walk about Bloemfontein after eight. This, it may be said, is oppressive to them; but, if they are expelled from the streets, so also are they relieved from their work. At Wray Hook they can walk about as much as they please, or go to bed."
Orange Free State, like most of the South African countries, is now provided with railway lines. The Grand Trunk line extends throughout the state and connects with the chief ports of Cape Colony.