CATT, CARRIE CHAPMAN DIARY, Aug. 15-26, 1911 South Africa -DIARY OF CARRIE CHAPMAN-CATT- -SOUTH AFRICA-(PART-II) -AUG. 15th, TO AUG. 26th, 1911- Gift Estate of Mrs. Carrie Chapman Catt October 22, 1947 Made in U.S.A. Oxford Reg. U.S. PAT. OFF INDEX Pages Camps Bay, Capt. Town, S. Africa........ 60 Cape of Good Hope................................ 74 Cape Town.................................................. 50-82 Ostrich Farm.............................................. 77 Port Elizabeth............................................. 76 Table Mountain.......................................... 80 Zonnebloom................................................ 50 -50- Tuesday, Aug. 15th, I was obliged to spend in letter writing about the itinerary. Immediately after lunch we went to Zonnebloom an educational and manual training school for natives. It was an old slave quarter, where slave dens had been made into recitation rooms. Carpentering, printing, etc. are taught. We saw two coal black boys, sons of Lewanika the great chief North of the Zambesi. When the application was made for their admittance a blank was returned to be filled out. Among other queries was this: What is your father's occupation? Against this question was the reply, "King". From Zonnebloom we went to the South African College where a member of the Faculty showed us about. It seemed a very good college, with insufficient equipment in the way of buildings and library. [Photo] SOUTH AFRICAN COLLEGE AND TABLE MOUNTIAN. CAPE TOWN. -51- The evening was spent quietly at home. Meantime when I could get a moment, I read of the "Big Game" of Africa. When we found that lions and hyenas roamed over parts we expected to visit, we concluded that we should know something of their habits as a part of our equipment. I learn that there are probably 90 or more variety of antelope or deer in Africa. I tried to get some good pictures of animals native here. I append a few about with we have read. *Photo* Hairy-Eared Rhinoceros *Photo* 122 Python after repast. Published by E. Peters, Cape Town (Copyright) -52- *Photo* Hippopotamus. *Photo* Head of a Hippopotamus. - 53 - [Photo] On Zambesi where they abound. [Photo] Equine Antelope - 54- [Photo] Lion. [Photo] Giraffe. -55- [Photo] 120 Hippopotamus Published by E. Peters, Cape Town (Copyright) [Photo] Eland Antelope -56- Wednesday, August 16, proved to be a great day. We started early to see the "flower market." The flowers are nearly all wild and were numerous in variety and beautiful in color. The sellers were colored people, old and young, presenting every possible shade from white to black with Indian and Malay mixtures often apparent. It was a pretty and unique sight. It was immediately in front of the Standard Bank, where we all repaired with our letters of credit, for in this country, the shillings chase the pounds out of one's pocket book, and the "tickys" as the thrippence is called chase the shillings. [Photo] Standard Bank and General Post Office, Adderly Street, Cape Town. - 57 - Photo FLOWER SELLERS IN ADDERLEY STREET, CAPE TOWN Photo FLOWER SELLERS IN ADDERLEY STREET, CAPE TOWN These are too highly colored as a whole, but there is not variety enough to represent the wonders of the flowers. The first is best. - 57 1/2- Some sights in the streets of Cape Town. Photo COPYRIGHT INDIAN FRUIT SELLER. Photo COPYRIGHT. MALAY WASHERWOMEN. Photo FRUIT SELLERS, CAPE COLONY. - 58 - Photo General Post Office, Cape Town Photo South African University, Cape Town Another view. - 59 - We next went to see the Exhibit of South African Artists which was so surprisingly good that I wanted half the collection. As I wanted a souvenir of S. A., I bought a picture of Alice Glossup's, clearly the best there, for which I paid L21. After lunch we hastened to the Museum and I hastened home again to be there at 3 when Mrs. Murray, President of the Enfranchisement League and Mrs. Besset called. We had tea and talked of the question of S. African Auxiliaryship. They left at five and Miss Cameron and I started for a jaunt to the Kloof which Mrs. Murray said we could take before dinner. we picked up Mrs. Boersma en route. We did not realize when we started that we were going on the famous trip around the mountain. We went to Camps Bay where we stopped 20 minutes. we were so enchanted that Miss Cameron and I went again on Friday afternoon. I will save the views to represent our Friday trip. Thursday morning, we went shopping and I bought a rug, my roll having been lost upon arrival and turning up at Johannesburg. Miss Cameron bought ostrich feathers . In the afternoon the Board of Officers of the Citizens Club took tea with me, and after discussion agreed to send a delegate to Durban. We had a picture taken which is attached. In the evening we went to Wynberg by train, escorted by Mrs. Morgan, to take dinner with Mr. J. D. Cartwright, a wealthy merchant, widower, Y. M. C. A. supporter, etc. He had visited the Victoria Falls when the first train went through. He had prepared a lecture with lantern slides and has given it a great deal. After an excellent dinner we went into a large room where he showed us his views on a good screen and talked informally for an hour and a half. While the men were taking a smoke in the dining room, - 60 - we women were shown a shell collection of the late Mrs. Cartwright. The evening was momentous in its effects upon me for I straightway developed two fads. One, a determination to prepare an African lecture for the benefit of the suffrage cause, and the other a desire for a shell collection. It was a delightful evening long to be remembered. Friday, the 18th, we went shopping buying books, postals, and I a short skirt for Victoria Falls. We called at Mr. Cartwright's store for my handbag which I had forgotten. He took us up to the roof for a view which was magnificent. In the afternoon we went to Camps Bay. Photo Kloof Road, Cape Town A bit of the road. - 61 - Photo Table Mountain, Kloof Neck, seen from the slopes of Lions Head, Cape Town A view en route. Photo On the Route to Camps Bay, Lions Head, Cape Town A bit of the road. - 62 - Photo Lions Head, from Kloof Neck, Cape Town A view en route. Photo OLD ROUND HOUSE, KLOOF NECK, CAPE TOWN. (LORD CHAS. H. SOMERSET'S SHOOTING BOX 1813-1821.) - 63 - Photo Camps Bay, near Cape Town A bit of the road. Photo On the Rocks, at Camps Bay, Cape Town On these rocks Miss Cameron and I sat. Finding the spring defective, we sought a patch of dry sand. Miss C. straightway went to sleep, and I got on my hands and knees, put my nose into the sand, and immediately became possessed of the shell craze. So small are they that they are quite unnoticed unless one gets quite close to them. - 64 - Photo A bit of the road. - 65 - Photo Camps Bay, showing some of the Apostles. There are 12 and all may be seen from the Beach. When we recounted the many pleasures which Cape Town had so generously bestowed upon us, I counted this afternoon the choicest of all. - 66 - Saturday was another wonderful day. We went to Kenilworth where we lunched with Mrs. Murray, president of the Enfranchisement League. We then went by train to Simonstown, which in itself looked like a tempting place to stop. Photo GB Adderley Street, Cape Town Photo Cape Town, Table Mountain & Lion's Head from G. P. O. - 67 - Photo GB The Gardens. Table Mountain. Cape Town. Photo Grand Parade & City Hall, Cape Town. - 68 - In the afternoon we drove to the Castle, which was the former residence of the Governor. It is a very old building and now used as a barracks. Photo The Entrance to the Castle, Cape Town Photo Castle Gateway, Cape Town. - 69 - We then took a walk about the town and I paid for the picture I had bought. In the picture appended there are old slave quarters, and under the tree shown the sale of slaves took place, about 130 years ago. - 70 - Photo ST. GEORGE'S STREET, CAPE TOWN Photo Plain Street, Cape Town - 71 - Photo TOWN HALL, CAPE TOWN Photo Parliament House & Lions Head, Cape Town. 24 Photo Union House of Assembly, Cape Town. 72- We were shown the Houses of Parliament and the Supreme Court where Judge or Sir James Rose Innes was presiding. I append his house where we had taken lunch. [Photo] -73- [Photo] GB Simonstown. The Naval Station of the S. African Squadron. Here we found Cape Carts - a carriage of two seats on one pair of wheels and drove along the beach over a good road to Miller's Point. Fields of barley almost reaching the beach, a most unusual combination, interested us. We picked up some shells on the beach and had tea in a house belonging to Mrs. Murray's brother. It was unoccupied, but there was a little furniture and provision for heating water. The chief dish was a delicious sponge cake made from an ostrich egg. -74-[Photo] GB 2102 SIMONS TOWN THE NAVAL STATION OF THE S. A. SQUADRON. -75- At this point the Indian and Atlantic Ocean meet, a Mozambique current warming the waters of the Indian Ocean, so that there is often 30 deg. difference in the temperature of the water only a short distance apart. The Cape of Good Hope can be seen from this point. Photo THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE The day was one of the most memorable of our enjoyable stay. We took supper with Mr. and Mrs. Besset at Kenilworth. On Monday morning, we met Mr. Cartwright and Mr. Mansergh, Administrator of Cape Colony at the Queen's statue in front of the House of Parilament, and were shown the archives. The records are almost complete from Riebeck's departure from Holland as the first envoy of the Dutch East India Company. -76- I find I omitted Sunday. We dined at 1 o'clock with Mrs. DeVilliers, had a wonderfully good "Cape dinner," with some new dishes and the rest of the time we spent in packing. On Tuesday there were many many small errands to be done, and callers to receive and the final packing to do. We went on board the "Edinburgh Castle" just from Southampton at 4:30. Dr. J. and Mrs. B. went by rail in order to stop at DeAar and pay a visit to Olive Schreiner. We had a quiet and comfortable passage, arriving in Pt. Elizabeth Thursday morning. The ship was anchored well out and we were brought ashore in a tug. We had to go down two flights of ladders and had the weather not been calm, it would not have been a pleasant process. We arrived comfortably at the Grand Hotel, where good rooms were in readiness. Like enterprising American tourists we brushed up a bit and went to the Museum! A gentleman whose wife was secretary of the League met us at the dock, but we did not know who he was. We found him the Director of the Museum! the author of some scientific books, an original investigator and the possible first suggester of the fly as a carrier of malaria infection. He showed us about and explained many things. The Museum contains many valuable S. A. animals and curios, including poisonous snakes (alive). In the afternoon, there was an at home at Mrs. MacIntosh's at Jutland. It rained all the day, but there was a large number present and I made a speech. On Friday we lunched with Mrs. Bracht in a beautiful house and afterward went to hear Mrs. John Brown speak on social purity to the W. C. T. U. It was a beautiful speech. I had a letter of introduction to Mrs Brown and presented it. I also made a speech. -77- On Saturday morning, I wrote letters and in the afternoon went with Mr. and Mrs. MacIntosh to Dispatch by train to see a small but model ostrich farm owned by Mr. Holland. He has about 250 birds. One cock worth 100 pounds waltzed for us. He turned as rapidly as possible and then reversed. It is the method of courtship. The cock sets on the eggs from 4 p.m. until morning and does his full part of parental duty. They are nearly monogamous. There was a beautiful garden and oranges and lemons and guavas in bearing. The eggs are laid in the sand. Both birds have water bags on their breasts and the male's are larger than the female. These are pressed and the eggs are watered every day. It takes 42 days to hatch. The males are black and white, the females brown and white. Photo Excellent Cock and Hen. -78- South Africa proposes to keep a monopoly of the ostrich feather business, and will not sell a bird nor egg to go out of the country. Photo A very good and correct picture, but too dark. -79- Photo Excellent. -80- Photo ASCENDING THE "SADDLE-FACE" OF TABLE MOUNTAIN. CLIMBING TABLE MOUNTAIN.- SADDLE FACE ROUTE. The reason we did not climb Table Mountain. Photo IN "THE JAWS"; SADDLE FACE OF TABLE MOUNTAIN. -81- While in Cape Town I was invited to visit Huguenot College and learned that it was founded by two American women from Mt. Holyoke, Miss Ferguson the leader, being now retired on account of age. It is at least 30 years old. I was sorry not to be able to go and bought this picture. Photo -81-1/2- Photo King Lewinikia's Kaffir Curio Store, Livingston Photo A South African Farmyard -81-3/4- Photo Cango Caves - Exterior Photo by T. D. Ravenscroft, Rondebosch Photo Valley of Desolation (Graaff-Reinet) showing Spandau Kop Pillars to the height-of 300 to 400 feet Health resort for chest complaints C Colony Photo by T. D. Ravenscroft, Rondebosch -82- Photo Cape Town. Docks. Table Bay. Our last view in Cape Town Transcribed and reviewed by volunteers participating in the By The People project at crowd.loc.gov.