MARK TWAIN

Mark Twain

Steamboat

Mark Twain was the pseudonym of American author Samuel Langhorne Clemens, 1815-1910.  The two words “mark twain” were a Mississippi River phrase for two fathoms deep!  Clemens had, at one time, been a steam boat river pilot.

Tom Sawyer

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is still to be found in libraries and some book stores. I recently encouraged a high school learner to read it. Then used passages from the story as comprehension exercises.  At first many frowns and sighs were heard but eventually Tom’s cheeky escapades won the day.  To make things more interesting references were made to a couple of the author’s other books: The Innocent Abroad and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. To increase interest in the reading process we discussed Twain’s visit to South Africa. 

The author, during a world tour, visited this country.  He reached Durban on 6 May 1896, accompanied by his wife and daughter.  His stay here was spent travelling around giving talks and taking an interest in political issues of the time.  When questioned as to his local knowledge he referred to his acquaintance with the Jameson Raid member ( Decembr 1895), John Hays Hammond and his intention of visiting the individual then being held in the Pretoria jail. Dr Leander Starr Jameson had been the leader of a group of men trying to overthrow the Transvaal government. Cecil John Rhodes having been the instigator.  Unfortunately for Jameson and the other men, the attempt backfired and they found themselves in the Pretoria prison.  Twain also made a point of stating that he read newspapers to keep abreast of topical affairs.  He was keen to meet Rhodes whom he had been told was an “extraordinary man.”

Olive Schreiner

When questioned about local authors particularly Olive Schreiner his reply indicated a dash of chauvinism.  He had read her book  Story of an African Farm and examined the book for its workmanship and thought the greater part was “written crudely” and then stated….”it was a plenty good-enough book for a girl of her age…”  One wonders whether this statement was due to the author’s views on feminism ?  Perhaps feeling he had made a social blunder he said she had “a gift beyond the ordinary…gave large promise…which was not fulfilled in her first effort.”

When he arrived in Cape Town he gave talks at the old Opera House in the city – this building, no longer exists but at the time was approximately in the vicinity of Adderley, Parliament and Darling Streets.  When this venue was not available for further bookings the Claremont Town Hall was used.

It is obvious from newspaper clippings of the time that the American author and humorist  was very well received.  His audiences were appreciative of his style and the content of the talks.  They drew, apart from the general population, well placed government members, a number of military officers and “intelligent members of the community.”

His presentation was simple and held the attention of the people present.  He would walk slowly onto the stage, take up a position before the footlights, fold his arms and begin talking.  It was if he was speaking to a few friends and not the many people filling the halls. During his time here Twain was able to attend a debate in the Cape House of Assembly and is reported to have stated that “they quarrelled in two languages while I was there and agreed in none.”  As a visitor he admired the Cape’s scenery and the architecture of the Cape Dutch houses.  He left Cape Town on 15 July 1896.

SPECIAL MILKWOOD TREES : Sideroxylon inerme

How does one describe trees?  They are a necessary aid to a clean environment, human beings and animals find them both familiar and useful. Their fruit forms part of the food humans and animals eat, they offer shade and relief from the sun. They enhance the landscape.  The following are very specific trees that have each played a role in human lives.

MILKWOOD TREES KOMMETJIE

The milkwood trees, Sideroxylon inerme,  that are to be seen at Kommetjie, Cape Peninsula close to the Atlantic Ocean, are flourishing and have obviously been well looked after by the local authorities and are certainly not the smallish to medium in size and rather twisted trees, seen some years back. The thickets in this neighbourhood produce white flowers and purplish black fruit. No milkwood can be cut down or trimmed, without a permit from the relevant authorities.  In other words they are protected trees. Growth patterns are along the coast, from the Cape Peninsula to Mozambique.  Sometimes they do grow inland and will reach a shape called “umbrella like”.

Four of these milkwoods have been proclaimed national monuments and form part of South African history.  The term national monuments has been used above because that was previously the correct terminology.  Today the term is  provincial heritage sites.

From around the late 1490s or early 1500 when the captains of Portuguese ships sailing along the South African coast needed to get information to their masters back home,  they  are said to have hung a shoe on a milkwood tree in which they left messages.  That tree, thought to be 600 years old, now known as the Post Office Tree  is within the town of Mossel Bay.    It was classed a national monument on 9 September 1938.  This form of early coastal postal deliveries would also include inscribed  padroes – “a pillar surmounted by a cross” - as well as messages inscribed on stone and would  be used  as well, in later years,  by the captains in charge of  British and Netherlands ships.                                                                                                            

 The Treaty Tree,  in the Cape Town suburb of Woodstock,  became  a part of history after the Battle of Blaauwberg 6-8 January 1806 when General Jannsens on behalf of the Batavian Republic signed the articles of capitulation.to the British. The handing over ceremony may have taken place in a small house (now no long in existence) close by with the signing, on the 18^th January 1806, under a milkwood tree. National monument status came about on 26 May 1967.  This tree was recently inspected and it too has been cared for and shows off an umbrella like shape. It is to be found at the corner of Treaty Road and Spring Street off Albert Road, Woodstock.  In 1806 the area would have had a clear view of the sea, today it is in a very built up industrial area.  As a matter of interest the tree is within an enclosed parking area of a commercial building.  However, the immediate ground around it has been  attractively landscaped.  Sadly though the plaque indicating its history has been stolen.

TREATY TREE WOODSTOCK

The third National Monument is the Fingo Milkwood Tree near Peddie in the Eastern Cape. It also has monument status. In 1834 several hundred Mfengu arrived near the British camp at Butterworth asking for protection.  This was agreed to and because of this act,  their loyalty to the British king was affirmed, in 1835, under this particular tree.  Back in the Western Cape in the Bredasdorp district and near the farm Rhenosterfontein is a milkwood tree possibly a thousand years old.  It too was granted national monument status on17 December 1993,  because of its age and size. The girth of its trunk has been stated to be  over 3 meters and its crown over 20 meters.  From a photograph seen, it too has an umbrella shaped crown.       

These four trees have been selected to reflect aspects of the past but which have a bearing on the present.

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                                                                            Dawn.Gould1

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ANIMAL HISTORIES

The city of Cape Town and suburbs are built on a long narrow Peninsula with animals having played a part in local history. Baboons, Cape otters, cerval cats, porcupines, tortoises, are to be found on the mountainous areas while various other larger animals are to be seen in more enclosed spaces such as the Cape Point Nature Reserve or on the Groote Schuur Estate. Bird species are popular members of suburban gardens. But certain individual animals have become legendary, details of their lives still being spoken about long after their demise. 

HOUT BAY LEOPARD

Just below Chapman’s Peak Drive at the Hout Bay end,  placed on a rock looking out to sea,  is a bronze statue of a leopard.   It was sculpted by Ivan Mitford Barberton in 1963.  In 1933 and 1936 leopards were still sighted near Hout Bay and the last one was said to having been seen in 1938.  The statue can be perceived as a memorial to those leopards who once roamed the nearby mountains.  It is certainly a phtographic image that many local and overseas visitors take home with them.

JUST NUISANCE SIMON'S TOWN

Simon’s Town, a naval town, had an animal that was often in the news, in this case a domestic animal.  He was a Great Dane dog named Just Nuisance who became a well known   “naval personality.”   Able Seaman Just Nuisance was enlisted in the Royal Navy during the second World War, 1939-1945. His role, according to reported events, seems to have been that of a self imposed protector of Royal Navy ratings.  He died on 1 April 1944 aged seven years and is buried on Red Hill, Simon’s Town with a headstone giving essential life details. This well known canine continues to be remembered by the town's residents as a former important “personage”. In recent years a statue of the Great Dane was positioned on the Town’s Jubilee Square.

Simon’s Town also had, in earlier years, an unusual ship’s mascot as a visitor.  She was Rifles the leopard.  The story goes that while the coal burning ship”Narcissus”  based in Simon’s Town and part of the Royal Navy  South Atlantic Squadron visited Mombasa, Kenya in 1914, an officer bought a young leopard kitten. The captain agreed to allow the small cat aboard. In time she wore a collar with her name on it, became very tame and very used to her fellow shipmates. In 1919 the ship was decommissioned and Rifles became a resident of the London Zoo.

Philly the white horse was another animal that was often in the public eye, particularly in Camps Bay. As a young foal he was, in 1932, bought or rescued by a Mr De Beer from a farm in Hout Bay.  At this time Camps Bay was not heavily populated nor were there many cars on the roads so Philly was able to roam about the area more or less as he wanted.  The Law seemed to have turned a blind eye to his comings and goings. Gardeners prized his droppings.  This did not mean that there were no complaints such as he was a “nuisance, an itinerant beggar, a vagrant and a won’t work.” By 1962 Philly, with suitable ceremony,  was made a Freeman of Camps Bay.  By this time he had a donkey companion named Nellie.  But times were changing. Camps Bay had grown so it was decided that the two would be confined at night.  But Philly was aging and died on 9 December 1967.  A memorial plaque was placed on a wall of the Camps Bay library.  There is also a mural in the Camps Bay High School which depicts details of Philly the white horse and Nellie his donkey companion.

SEE WEBSITE: http://factsfound.isat.co.za                                                                   

English conversation classes via SKYPE

Dawn.Gould1

Phone:27 21:715 91 56

e. topmarks@isat.co.za