At home, I have noticed the quiet amusement with which a German-American regards a raw Dutchman who has just landed. I think the Americans we meet here regard us in the same way. They are polite, and glad to see us, but they are undoubtedly amused at our appearance, our ways and our talk. . . . A peculiarity of Johannesburg is that coal mines are operated within sight of the gold mines; and in no other gold camp is fuel so convenient.
Wednesday, March 12.—The first Americans we
met in Johannesburg are interested in banking, life
insurance and real estate, and occupy a fine building
of their own on a down-town corner. One of them is
T. W. Schlessinger, formerly of New York. Eight
years ago he was a life insurance solicitor. Today he
is the controlling power in five different important
companies, and we hear it said that within two or three
years he may be the leading man of Johannesburg.
I. F. Atterbury, manager of the African Realty Trust,
is not only an American, but he comes from St. Joseph,
Missouri, which we can see from Potato Hill Farm.
And what still further endeared him to us is the fact
that his wife also comes from St. Joseph. Nineteen
years ago Mr. Atterbury was a real-estate agent in
St. Joseph, and, as the town was dull at that time, he
was greatly interested in the prosperity reports that
came in every little while from Johannesburg, South
Africa. After his arrival here, he made money, but
lost it during the business panic following the Boer
