presence of the moneyed class at the Cape had also another drawback:
it exasperated the poorer refugees, who could not forgive those who, too,
had fled the Rand, for having so successfully saved their own belongings
from the general ruin and remained rich, when so many of those who had
directly or indirectly helped them to acquire their wealth were starving
at their door. In reality the magnates of the Rand spent huge sums in the
relief of their poorer brethren in misfortune. I know from personal
experience, having often solicited them in favour of, say, some
unfortunate Russian Jew or a destitute Englishman who had lost all his
earthly belongings through the war. These millionaires, popularly accused
of being so hardhearted, were always ready with their purses to help those
who appealed to their charity. But the fact that they were able to live in
large and luxurious houses whilst so many others were starving in hovels,
that their wives wore diamonds and pearls, and that they seemed still to
be able to gratify their every desire, exasperated the multitude of
envious souls congregated at the Cape.

A general feeling of uneasiness and of unpleasantness began to weigh on
the whole atmosphere, and as it was hardly possible for anyone to attack
openly those who had inexhaustible purses, it became the fashion to say
that the Dutch were responsible for the general misfortune, and to
discover means of causing them unpleasantness.

On the other hand, as the war went on and showed no signs of subsiding,
the resources of those who, with perfect confidence in its short duration,
had left the Rand at a moment's notice, began to dwindle the more quickly
insomuch as they had not properly economised in the beginning, when the
general idea was prevalent that the English army would enter Pretoria for
the Christmas following upon the beginning of the war, and that an era of
unlimited prosperity was about to dawn in the Transvaal. I do believe that
among certain circles the idea was rooted that once President Kruger had
been expelled from the Rand its mines would become a sort of public
property accessible to the whole community at large, and controlled by all
those who showed any inclination for doing so.

The mine owners themselves looked upon the situation from a totally
different point of view. They had gathered far too much experience
concerning the state of things in South Africa to nurse illusions as to
the results of a war which