r, and on the whole more generally satisfactory
at Pilgrim's Rest in the early seventies than it is in any South
African community today. There was, of course, the inevitable
percentage of loafers, idlers, and scoundrels, but these were kept in
their proper place. Public opinion was a very effective force; in
matters affecting the general welfare of the community, opinion quickly
translated itself into action when the occasion demanded it. Thus the
blackguards knew perfectly well that if official justice occasionally
halted, its unofficial equivalent was apt to be short, sharp, and
decisive in its operation. The prison was a bell-tent containing two
sets of stocks. Under ordinary circumstances a prisoner was
accommodated by having both his legs secured. However, occasionally,
when an unusually large number of culprits were run in, they had to be
content with only one wooden anklet apiece. No color line was drawn,
except, to a certain extent, in the matter of the application of the
"cat." Natives and colored men were flogged for whatever offence they
happened to be found guilty of. Europeans were fined, with the
alternative of imprisonment, except in the case of a serious offence
such as tent-robbing, for instance. For such a crime, an almost
unpardonable one in a scattered r mining camp, where tents had very
often to be left unprotected the white man got his five and twenty as a
matter of course. I only knew of one case of tent-robbing by a native.
This was in the early days. The culprit was shot on the spot and thrown
down a disused shaft. No questions on the subject were asked.

I will illustrate what I mean by saying that no color line was drawn. I
once had a mate, John Cameron, a Highlander from Skye. John usually
became inebriated on Saturday night, but would turn up very early on
Sunday morning. One such morning he did not appear. While I was at
breakfast a passing digger told me that my mate was in gaol for
assaulting a policeman.

I started off to see what could be done. The gaol was about four miles
from where I lived. I arrived there in due course. There was no one to
prevent my entering, for the prisoners were secured so well in the
heavy, iron-bound stocks that escape was an impossibility. I found poor
John secured by one foot and lying on the ground between two similarly
secured Kaffirs. He was in a horrid condition, as, being a powerful
man, it had been found necessary to stun him with a club before his