Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-07-29
Wife of TransvaaI Commandments
Chief is q Good Soldier

Chief is a Good Soldier.
From the Philadelphia Press
Since the days of Cleopatra the number
of women to actually take part in the con-
quot or the wars of their respective coun-
tries nave been few. At the present day
there Is only one woman who, with any JUS
lice, can be termed "a general in petit
coats and that is Mrs. Joubert wife of
General Joubert, commander-in-chief of
the TransVaal forces. Mrs Joubert has ac-
companied her husband in all the wars he
has undertaken. Her CHEEKY face almost
hidden from view under the folds of a
hinge black cappie, has become such a ia
mlliar sight with the burghers that the in
congruity of one woman walking in and out
among an armed force of several thousand
men seems commonplace From the DAYS
of her earliest childhood Mrs Joubert has
been used to wars alarms. She can load
and fire off gun with almost as much skill
as slim Piet" (Anglice, Clever Piet)
himself and on many occasions has shown
the greatest courage
1t is not generally known that it was to
Mrs. Joubert that the great defeat of the
English at Maiuba was greatly due The
general considered the position unassaiIa-
bic, but Mrs Joubert, her eyes afire with
patriotism, urged the attack, eventually
oonquering the scruples of her husband and
the other commandments. The result is
known.
Mrs Joubert's last appearance at a war
occurred during the recent Magatoland cam
paiSn, at the extreme north of the Trans
vaal An artillery. burgher and native
force of nearly 10000 men was dispatched to
the front to subdue the rebel chief NJ Pefu
intranched in a series of rocky Businesses
backed by the Iimpopo. Notwithstanding
what was feared would be the bloody nature
of the war. the hcat-over 100 degrees in the
shade-and the fever, the plucky woman
joined the general a week Or two after his
arrival at the Hoofd Lager, accompanied
by only two three little Kaffir maids
Finding General Joubert in an anything
but comfortable tent, she routed him out,
erected tent of her own and installed him
amid all the comforts Of home. What was
more, she reconstructed the generals mess
arrangements and cooked his meals with
her own hands. The wife of the comma nd
ing general peeling potatoes was an ord-
nary sight any day during the campaign.
On one occasion during the war the news
came into camp that the general had been
taken III thirty miles away in the midst of a
country full of hostile natives and deadly
with malaria. Without hesitation Mrs. Jou-
bert made preparations to go and join her
husband and there is little doubt that she
would have accomplished her purpose had
not more reassuring news come to hand
The war came to an early close, owing
to the military genius of General Joubert,
and. it is not too much to say his better
half. The plans of the campaign from the
time Mrs. Joubert arrived till the camp was
struck We're talked over at her dinner table,
her sound advice and almost unequaied
knowledge of Kaffir warfare being held in
high esteem.
Although such warrior Mrs. Joubert Is
true woman. There is nothing masculine
about either her appearance or manner.
Unlike most Dutch Afrikander women, she
is slim, especially when compared with the
robust proportions of General Piet Joubert.
Wonderfully active for her sixty years and
over, she can accomplish as much hard
work in an hour as town-bred women would
in week.