The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1898-06-05

Paui uSruGsv asa Ms rises.

The present disturbed condition Of anaifs In
plouth Africa and the widespread feeling OF an
adaptation Of trouble there In the near future
alVo especial interest TO Mr.. Z. X.
volume. entitled Paul Kruger and Hts
1Yspsa. This IL . summary review Of the gem
oral political situation In the Transvah rather
hhsn q biography Of tho distlnuished President,
as the author says in his preface that ono OF the
ohIsf difficulties Of writing q biography Of Paul
Krnrer arises from his own reluctance TO talk
either about himself or his career. Hence 1t is
that In this historical sketch we see but little
II hho man as he 10 In private life, Mr.. StRthapl
having wisely rofrainsd from repeating tho
many half.legendRry anecdotes that have
formed the basis of some geographic sketches
that have been previously published. Mr..
Poultney BiRelow, for example, comparing the
sturdy old burgher to the nany.minded Ulys-
ses, repeated as genuine stories which would
seem 10 prove him to have been no less wonder
ful than some Of the mythical porsonages OF an
faulty. Mr.. stathanl, writing nvowedly as an
onthusiastio admiror OF his subject, and a sym.
pathiEer with the Boers In their fight for inde-
paudance. has confined himself TO more matter
of-faot affairs, and tho ugh his sympathios lead
him, at times, to take tho position of an advo-
cato rather than q historian. his work is valu'
Nhlo az q clear and concise statement OF tho
ease Of President Kruger and the Beers as
against that of MessrS. Chamberlain and Rhodes
and the Uitlander population OF the TranSvaal.
A such, and with the reservation that the an-
thor'n anxiety to make u good case has led him
t. ignore some of the strongest charges brought
against tho Boer as to his lack OF progressive
moss, his narrowness. his prejudice, and his hos
tility to all reform, Mr.. Statham's book may be
commended to all who desire to see something OF
him as presented from the viewpoint Of one who
II in synpathy with his aspirations and has q bet
tor understanding of his character than many
Of the writer's who have consciously or uncon-
Soiously misreprescnted him.
Beginning with IA comparison of President
KRUGER with his most influential,
and dangerous enemy, Mr.. Cecil Rhodes, Nr.
Statham points out as a remarkable fact the cir
Oumstance that South Africa, u country little
heard of till within the last twenty years, has,
during those twenty years, Produced two out of
tho hvo most noted personalities of the latter
decades of this century. Both have emerged
from obscurity, both have succeeded in respect
of the main object of their endeavors, and both,
In respect of minor matters. have. to a certain
extent, failed. Fame, AS he puts II, may be
acquired by striking personal success or strlk-
ing personal devotion, and those twenty years
OF South African history furnish an instance of
each. For, while the worldwide fame of
Cecil Rhodes rests upon personal success, the
worldwide fame OF Paul Kruger rests upon per-
nonal devotion"
In the year 1913 the name OF Kruger first
appears In the records of the Dutch East India
Company ut Cape Town. Between the years
1905 and 1920 there poured into South Africa
n steady stream of immigration, in which
Dutch. French. and German nationalities were
represented. Through Holland. then the col
onizinG power of Europe, lay one of the natural
channels for emigration. and the name of Jacob
Il ,Vxa, Nln Arfr;nal fo,,nda. ~ ~ - -
the Kruger family. finds n place in a list that
reads almost like a South African directory of
the present day, 30 we'll have the old Dutch
names been preserved. The stream of immi-
grafton arrived on the shores OF South Africa at
tho time when the original Dutch East India
Conipany settlement was gradually beginning
to expand and enlarge. That original settle
ment. which Mr.. Bryce has somewhat contemp-
tuously described as a cabbage garden" was.
however, founded with the same object as that
of the British Government in later years-that
IL, as q half way station on the voyage to tho
Enst Indies. Cape Town was a convenient and
strategically important place of call between
Europe and the East, and 1t was as such, and
not as o colony in our modern sense OF the word,
that the Dutch settlement originated. I'm
migrants, however, continued to arrive, and
finding all the available land in tho immediate
neighborhood of Table Bay taken up, new
corners naturally spread out into the less in.
habted districts, taking with them their
wagons and their iocks, and soon carrying the
northeastern boundary of the colony we'll up
toward the Orange River. This gradual mi
grafton is one that could have been accom-
plished only by a hardy and entorprisinS peo-
pie and at the expense of CONSIDERABLY hard
ship and suffering. Much OF the country was
barron and desolato, afRording scant pasture for
travelling flocks and liable to long periods of
drought. while tho travellers were constantly
exposed to the attacks of the Bushmen, and Sc.
we're storms from time TO time destroyed many
of their hocks. In spite Of hardships, the sturdy
pilgrima established themselves, and, in order to
cope with their enemies, the Bushmen they
formed companies of fighting burghers and held
annual military exercises. From the records,
1t appears that the KRUGER family before the
close of the last century occupied II leading po-
Bition among the most enterprising and the
hardest Of these frontier farmers. and the first
petition In which the settlers prayed to be al.
lowed such rudimentary institutions OF civil.
cation as q idnddrOst's magistrates court and
church, was forwarded to Cape Town by Jan
kruger, q grandson OF the founder of the fam.
fly, and bore his signature. together with those
of thirty other heads OF families who had made
their homes In this first outpost of South Az.
Eican settlement. 1t would seem that this on.
A6rRCLhDhb VI II original boundary mad never
been encouraged by the Dutch East India Com.
pany itself, and the independent settlers In
the outlying districts soon began to chafe IN
der tho authority and control OF the company.
officials and to resent their Interference in the
private affairs OF individuals. Tho forcible de
portAtion to Batavia of one Buitendag widenet
the breach between the representatives OF tn,
company and the moro intelligent and indie
pendent of the colonists, and when, some year,
later, the conflict between England and Franc,
led to . demand that the South African settle
mOnts should be handed over to Great Britain
many of the coloniSts wSro in favor of an,
kind Of change from the tyranny OF the Dutci
Company. even at the cost of coming und err th,
rule Of q foreign power. When the chang,
came. and Cape Town was occupied by a Brit
fish garrison. 1t had. at first, but little effect OF
the farmers In the frontier districts. II wa
not till later. when the possession Of the Cap
was finally confirmed TO Great Britain, that he
administrator, by the attempted exercise O
all undue authority, made themselves AS un