The railroad from Durban to Johannesburg is the crookedest one might ride over. To save building a small bridge, the track turns for miles before it gets back to a straight line. When the railway was built the contractors were paid by the mile. Were the road constructed on ordinary scientific lines, the distance between the two cities could be reduced fifty miles. Yet, neat, well-built, attractive stations, surrounded with flower beds, were passed all the way.
Over the freckled veld we rolled, with Johannesburg in the distance. The sky was clear, as most always, on the highlands of the Transvaal. We had traveled to over 6,000 feet above sea level. Objects in the distance became less distinct—a haze seemed to gather. It was the smoke from the gold mines on the great Gold Reef—
"Johannesburg!"—"Johannesburg!" a train guard announced.
A well built business city is the impression made by this great gold center of the world. A long street, with all the business of the city centered in it, one would expect to find on reaching Johannesburg. That is the style of some of our western mining towns. Instead, here are buildings, five to eight stories in height, of stone, brick, and steel, some of them a city block square in dimension, with arcades leading from one street to another; large plate glass windows where goods are attractively displayed; elevators and steam heat appliances—all centralized in a space five squares in extent. This is the retail section of Johannesburg. The great banking and mining companies' buildings—splendid structures, all of modern architecture—are situated half a dozen squares from this center. The financial district is a busy place.
"Come, buyers! Come, buyers! Come, buyers!" the auctioneer cries when he has an assignment to sell something in the marketplace. Every one is used to the call, and soon a group gathers around. "How much—how much—how much?" the auctioneer starts with his glib sale talk. The articles to be sold may be crates of oranges, bunches of bananas, a crate of chickens, geese, hares, wild fowl, pumpkins, tomatoes, turnips, cornmeal, oats, hay, a pig, cattle, buck (deer), wildebeeste (gnu)—anything edible for man and beast. Dozens of auctioneers are selling goods in the Johannesburg market at the same time.
"That fellow is one of the lost tribe of Israel we read about in the Bible," spoke a Britisher who had been a produce dealer on the Johannesburg market for twenty years. "When the Rand was opened to the world," he continued, "the lost tribe cropped up in the Transvaal and that fellow is one of them." The buyer was engaged in a controversy with the old dealer, the point at issue hinging on one chicken, the Israelite contending he had bought thirteen hens, and the dealer maintaining there were only twelve to be sold. Arguments are taking place all the time between buyer, seller and auctioneer.
Fifteen wildebeeste (gnu), with bent horns, and whiskers six inches long growing straight from their noses; blesbuck, bushbuck, springbuck by the dozens, lay on the ground in the market. Meat from these animals is sold as venison. Seeing these beasts of the plains stretched out in plain view, about which most people read but do not see, creates a far-off feeling—a feeling that, were the eyes shut to the brick and mortar walls close by, one would be in a wild, unblazed section of the world.
Hundreds of ox teams in the market ground worm their way through piles of bags, hay and transports, led by the natives with bare feet and bare head. A South African ox team numbers nine yoke—18 oxen. The transport, or wagon, is 18 feet long and strongly built. Seven feet of the rear is generally covered with canvas, and under the "tent" is the home of the Boer, and often his wife, as weeks must elapse from the time a start has been made for market until their return, as the farms, in a great many instances, are located long distances from large towns. Time saving is not a factor in a great many sections of the sub-continent. The oxen plod slowly along an unkept road, always preceded by a kafir, who guides the caravan by rhinoceros-hide strips attached to the horns of the leading team. After traveling about three hours, a stop ("outspan") is made for the cattle to feed, as grass grows bountifully on the veld. So, allowing time for "outspanning" and "inspanning," 10 to 15 miles a day is generally the distance covered by a transport. "Salted" cattle are the only ones in demand for working purposes. "Salted," when used in speaking of oxen, signifies that cattle can run the gauntlet of many diseases that so often bare the veld of grazing stock. These are cattle that have been sick but survived the attack. "Unsalted" stock are in little demand, as they often get sick after starting from the farmer's home and die by the roadside.
One automobile to 15 persons is a high percentage in a city with about 100,000 white population, yet that indicates the wealth of the gold city on the high veld. There are over 800 automobiles and the same number of motorcycles in Johannesburg, and among these are the largest, most expensive and swiftest manufactured.
The term "The Rand" embraces the mining districts of the Reef, and "Witwatersrand" is used when speaking of the districts located close to Johannesburg.