SISYPHUS in the GOLDEN CITY 1893-1895 by COMPARISON With
CHAPTER FIVE SISYPHUS IN THE GOLDEN CITY 1893-1895 BY COMPARISON with the raucous restless Johannesburg, 'the garden city of Pretoria' was j_ considered 'a dull hole'. Visitors from the Rand affected to be so depressed by the deathly silence at night, the deserted streets, lack of cabs (only jinrickshas were available) and absence of 2 audiences for entertainment that 'they never stay longer than they can possibly help'. When the railway connected the two towns in September 1892, there was no necessity for the enfevered inhabitants of the Golden City to remain unduly in the Capital whose unhurried tempo and questionable Government pursuits were so alien to their own activities. The Randlords 'sped' 3 back and forth (with a coffee halt at Kaalfontein near Irene) and Nellmapius, J. B. Taylor, Leo Weinthal and other schemers, politicians and negotiators joined them from Pretoria. Incredibly, within seven years, the feral veld had incubated a sprawling fungus of shanties, soft-brick houses and a few tall buildings largely constructed of wood and corrugated iron. 4- There were lighted streets, five miles of horse-tramways (which in 1893 carried 1,138,669 passengers and made a profit of £13, 740), lively theatres, a myriad of bars and beerballs, large stores purveying every variety of imported goods (with pleasant revenue in customs dues to the Republican Government) and a wildly miscellaneous population in which Germans figured prominently. Johannesburg had become a large and bustling town of 40,000 inhabitants of all races, whose atmosphere was distinctly raffish. The world at large contributed to its population a continuous flow of speculators, confidence tricksters, fugitives from justice, problem sons of affluent and aristocratic families, thwarted professional men seeking new opportunities to utilise their train ing, pedlars, prostitutes, merchants, artisans and pure chancers hoping to profit from what they might find.
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