Whether we find it located beside some beautiful stream, or standing upon some barren, desolate plain, or nestled under a steep hillside in some lonely and almost inaccessible kloof among the mountains, we may feel sure that it was erected without the aid of skilled labor, and that only the roughest material, found on or near its site, was used in its construction.
It must be remembered that beams and timbers are not to be found ready cut and prepared for the builder's hands. Those that the Boers used to construct their houses had to be brought from very distant points and at an enormous expense.
The extreme difficulty in obtaining heavy timbers made it necessary to change the shapes of the houses somewhat from the most approved plan of dwellings. Necessity is the mother of invention; and the Dutch Boers, in accordance with the trite saying, "Cut your coat to fit your cloth," erected their houses to fit the timbers they were able to procure. They had to content themselves with small rooms, and deny themselves the luxury of a broad spreading roof.
Window frames and the glass to fit them were for years almost unobtainable by such settlers as located themselves north of the Orange and Vaal rivers. In many of the houses the windows were not only few in number, but exceedingly small, often seeming like mere shot holes.
The Dutch farmer has been called slow, and he no doubt is slow; for he belongs to a race not noted for its swiftness of thought or action. For generations his ancestors have lived in the wilds of Africa, and such surroundings have not tended to quicken the nature of the average farmer. Yet with all his moderation the Boer makes an excellent pioneer.
The towns in the Transvaal are as primitive in their way as the houses. In most instances they are mere villages; others are barely more than hamlets, which remind one of some of the drier portions of Holland and Germany.
A town in the Transvaal has generally a square in the center. This is usually the site for the church. There is generally one main street, on which one finds the hotel, several taverns, and a store or two.
The town has usually rather a squalid look. Evidently neither time nor money is ever wasted in mere external ornament. Utility seems to be the plan of life. The one thought of the practical Boer is not, Is it beautiful? but, Is it useful?
In the building of Pretoria, the capital of the Transvaal, the Boers have had some thought of the future. It has a situation in a basinlike hollow on a plateau some forty-five hundred feet above sea level. While so fortunate as to have a mild climate, Pretoria is subject to great and sudden changes of temperature, which are most trying to people of weak lungs or of a rheumatic constitution. Frequent hailstorms of great violence are a peculiar feature of the climate. These affect the temperature to such a degree that a hot day is often followed by a dismal, chilly night.
Pretoria, as the seat of government, has quite a dignity of its own, and with the forty-five hundred or more people within its limits has quite an imposing air of grandeur. It has broad streets, spacious squares, and many fine architectural features. There are few houses as yet upon its broad streets. The square has the usual features, the church and the residences of the chief magistrate, the lawyers, judges, and merchants. The center of the square is a paradise for wayfaring horses, for it is their favorite grazing ground.