The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1898-11-05
BOSS OF THE TRANSvAAL
PETER GILIINGHAM. FRESHMAN,
POWER OF DUTCH REPUBLIC.

The Difficulties of Two Young Amer
leans Who Wanted TO Interview
Dom PauI-They Finally Succeed
ed Through GiIIingham's Assis-
tance-Irishman Held in High Es-
TEEN by the BOer President.
President Kruger of the Transvaal is a
man who may be classed as approacha-
ble-wlth limitations. Through all seasons
he rises in the morning at $50 O'Clock,
and Immediately fortihes himself with a
cup Of strong black coffee, so hot that,
to use a tropical simile of the old burgh-
ers. 1t will burn the hair off a lion. After
this he reads the Bible and prays ex-
haustively some of his most intimate
friends at times joining in the prisons.
Then the President is ready to hold an in
formal levee on the quaint little veranda,
up the posts of which creep sleep-looking
nasturtIums and vari-colored morning
glories.
From $50 to 1880 O'Clock Mr.. Kruger sits
in a rocking chair, giving rapid little puffs
at meerschaum pipe, filled with Boer
tobacco, sometimes talking very rapidly,
with a semi-sputter to one of his execu-
tive council on state affairs; sometimes
lapsing into silence, his eyes narrow ed to
a mere CLINT. and again reaching for ward
his puffy little right hand, which is minus
thumb, to greet an old Boer who may
have trekked eighty miles and camped
over night in the church square in order
to consult Dom (unc,e) Paul
about something OF vital in
terest to the rural population. In
this respect Mr.. Kruger has not departed
from the pastoral and patriarchal govern
ment under which the Beers lived when
they made their great trek" from Cape
Colony in 1885. on which expedition the
little band killed 5000 lions, and fought
innumerable battles with the savages. And
it is for this reason that he is loved so
much by the old Beers.
Mr.. Kruger however, makes one ex-
ceptiou to the guests at his early leyee,
and that is newspaper correspondents
He will occasionally talk with a repre-
sentative of the Johannesburg STANDARD
and Diggers' News, the Pretoria Press or
the Voikstein, all of which papers are
subsidized by the Transvaal government
but for the correspondents of foreign pa
pers 1t is next TO impossible TO gain an
audlenC4 ana secure an interview.
Mr.. Ellerthorpe of the London Daily Tel
egraph and representative of Black and
White had been working unsuccessfully
for two months to this end when the writ
er reached Pretoria though they were
handicapped by Mr.. Kruger's intense dis
like for everything English, so intense
that he will not allow the language TO be
taught in the Boer schools.
1t was therefore with no little misgiving
that we set out to accomplish This desid-
eratum, which had been on our minds
ever since leaving New York, three
months before, and which was brought
about by a man who occupies such a
unique position in the Transvaal govern
ment that he interested US equally with
Kruger himself.
Living in a modest frame house. the
front part of which is occupied by a bake
shop and confectionery counter, holding
no position other than justice of the peace,
and not even having the merit of being a
native Boer or Hollander. this man
wle.ds an influence equaled by no other
resident in the Trapsvaal. He is, in fact,
the political boss Of the South African
republic. He Is consulted by nearly all
the members of the RAD in both the pro
gressive and conservative parties. advises
the executive council and Is persona grata
with President Kruger who treats him
as his most intimate friend, and looks 10
him for clever advice In tickllsh politi-