1897
I arrived at Johannesburg Park Station on March 17th 1897, glad to get off that train. My father was there to meet me also a friend of his. We walked along to the Market Square I gaping around in amazement at the bullock wagons, never having seen anything of the kind before. We went into a bar or canteen as it was then called, and my father called for three English beers I saw him put six shillings on the counter, and didn’t see him take any change back, so asked him the reason why, and he said the three glasses of beer cost two shillings each. Well I nearly fainted, and was speechless for about five minutes, for where I come from, the same bottles of beer cost only 2 ½ d.
We stayed in Johannesburg at the Cornucopia for a few days, when my father started work at the George Goch to sink a shaft, which was partly down, in the centre of an old slimes dam and then was about 300 feet of sand to go through which was very wet. Well my father warned the Mine Captain that, the length of the setts, which were six feet, ought to be reduced to three feet in this quicksand, otherwise the shaft would collapse, as the sand was simply running away from the back of the timber.
No notice was taken, untill one day a hanging bolt broke and the whole shaft, except the top 20 or 30 feet, twisted round right round, showing that there was nothing at the back of the timber. My father left at once, and we went out to Krugersdorp on the West Rand.
There he started work at and I started at the George and Hay or West Rand Mines 1st April 1897 stoping with boys . Of course I didn’t understand the kaffir language, but soon picked up enough
