AN ANTI-GERMAN RIOT.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXVII, Issue 53, 2 July 1915, Page 6

AN ANTI-GERMAN RIOT.

JOHANNESBURG DEMONSTRATION. A Dimedin lady, now resident, in South Africa, supplies the following account of the anti-German demonstratioiis in Johannesburg on May 12; What a Johannesburg! A dense crowd going all one. way.—we went too. .Then crash! bang! ami the sound of plateglass smash-smashing under the blows of poles, chairs, or brooms. J can only tell. \"ou of the look of things "and the feel of it. the smell of it, and the faces and remarks of the crowd. ;Xo riot business about it—the most •perfect order; no looting—merely the windows broken and the contents, followed by the wooden fittings, flung out into the streets, piled up, and, burnt! A tense excitement, a big* •blaze, and men.and women quietly, smilingly watching it! On the pave'taeii'ts we waded through plateglass inches deep. It slid under one's feet. (2|te small boy enjoyed it. and so did we. It somehow felt nice. It was most intensely exciting, if somewhat grim and amusing, too, and pathetic l Quite pathetic to see how one small boy clung.to,three boxes of chocolates. He had managed to grab them from the. street, where they had fallen shore of the big pile. ,He clung,to them; he was rather a ragged urchin, with such a. look-in his eyes—eyes saying so 'plainly: "Don't, take'them ji way from me. I've .never, even' tasted one ever* just watched them through the win r dows always." I was: so glad he had tbgro> .Very few people of that' crowd had anything from a,H the glorious things. They oply wanted to see them burning, and smell them "burning, or Jo scrunch them under their.feet: My! "the things we .trod on and waded throtigh. Envelops,, burst from, their band, and, flew "We °Y?F the heacls of the, crowd.' An .avalanche of. wigs, hair 'oils,, and scents smelt ..strongly. We crunched gaily amongst tobacco tins—the contents Jhad been emptied on to the. fire. Broken bottles, empty barreis—we miss.ed that, fire, and I beseve it was a perieptly. "glory" one. Wo one drank, the whisky or the brandy or- lemonade. a nd." . sodawa ter; al,l Were poured, oni one counteracting the other. Then., the chocolates that escaped and .flew from the flying boxes—we trod on these;'.and. from the seed shops we trampled deep, many inches deep; on empty' seed • packets, catalogues, dried', pea~s, and beans, fowls' feed, and smashed flower, pots, and Unielt the "smell of burning potatoes] the broken crockery, would supply ; ,every hen in the universe for years .with grit. I Then came a place where we waded ;in: qtwte. a lot of water. The fire engine had tried to protect a building and the {mob had cut the hose, .and the Water ran all about everywhere. You know I the native dearly loves a' cencertina, :«n*d owe firm evidently must have catr ered .for them, lor we. next waded' through broken ones, from the squeaky -bits to the* gaUy-colqred papery ones. j*Eg* was all. v , the same, , On trod the crowd, sometimes getting . awkward bangs from the trumpets,.. .pf gramor phones. We went for dinner by and by... Xo crowd there-,, at least, not so much as usual. The long, room in the hotel is usually quite full. The. bal- ! oony was. All those tables were full (.that could look, down on the crowd. 'We were. all. awfully hungry, and it '.was We last dinner together for good!.ness" knows how long., and we had much Jita talk, of, but etveryy.now. and agam ;i)he noise from, outside drew us to the lend to look- down too. The small boy 'was hoisted,up, and someone —his mo'..tljer, I thinkfr-told him it was the anti-Germans breaking the German .things, an&bjvaud by his clear, distinct, littler voice wanted to know if the ' anti-Germans had ants on them! Lots of smiles, but qnite broad grins when he'd been told he wa« a little antiGerman himself. /'Oh, mother, she a naughty girl?" in''a clear, indignant .voice. # His wrath succumbed to a .tempting sweet.

So far the sympathy of Johannesburgers was with the crowd. Afterwards some regrettable mistakes occurred for which, n Q "doubt, we frill by and by pay. These thoughts, however, came later. One man in- the train going home exclaimed:, "Well, I've been* through the Jameson raid, 'through the Boer war, in the rebellion, "and seen Johannesburg during the 'strikes,, but I've never met anything to .compare with this." And' surely never again will such a sight be seen, the noise of an approaching crowd, heralded by dozens of huge motor cars, eacli one packed and over-packed two deep on the steps; the tense faces of the hundreds of men who had charged themselves with leadership, followed ■by their throng of .sympathisers on foot, on motor cycles, on every kind of vehicle, and each crammed to overflowing. The halt Before a marked shop, the wait' while the leaders veri; tied it by their list, then the deluge of blows; next the flames in the-mid-dle of the street, then the effort to gee out of the way of the more than busy fire brigade! Then the final installation of the solitary policeman, somewhat consoled for his unusual position bv his more than unusual cigar.