New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1899-12-03
CRONJE, BRITON HATER.
AN UNCOMPLIMENTARY PICTURE of
THE BOER COMMANDANT


A rough exterior is often supposed to conceal a
warm hefrt. 1t Is not, however, always mte' ""u
Cqmm bds snebSf the air Of the direst kind
of stage rufan modified by me noisoIH me ma55er
and tone are offensive. conceited, impudeht anu
bombastic. 81, ,,,. .ht.LI,
bearded his hair inclined TO be grizzly. He mas
very strongly marked features, an unpleasant leer
ABSOLUTELY Incapable OF looking any one straight
in the face and there is a stiffness about MN
It is only for to add that he has his good points.
He is Intensely even bndy Parouc a f6 he
had one grave LAPSE from MS Which, however
he has since amply redeemed -, go
Although CronJe is farmer as all Beers s 5a are
a man Of war and prefers fighting to any other
form Of dissipation. lie has distinguished himself Ell
Magatos caves in zoutpansbers, in northern
Transvaal. he displayed c9nsplc1o1s san t ne
Commandant was none the less eager IN the Iray.
The origin Of the Mag5o rebellion 7bSs a sod 70 not
known. or, II known not tuy appreiGi4bteu en- NJ
these far off districts Of the ths G0e
eminent is represented by naive coiII tV b
"a Boar, of course-who Is not always al that ne
case in point the particular native commissioner
collected the hut tax twice over and never , he re
little piece of iniquy, he fined the natives one or
two three head Of cattle Tor the most rTiV in
expensive manner a splendid herd OF oxen LOT
AT last when he tried to collect the hut tax FOR
the third time in year the natives T TS go
Hence the war. Cronje quite admitted that ne ne
native commissioner was in the wrong, put ne
advanced the extraordinary opinion that me or0saS
of the white man must be obeyed by natives unuer
any circumstances whatsoever, or else the Whlte
mans superiority and authority would siacken ana
eventually disappear. ,...-.,..,
fight, few burghers were killed. Cron)e ana MS
valiant brothers-in-arms blew up with dynamite the
caves containing The native womtn ana cnliurel,
and eventually Maasoch was caught and the a T%r
on tho whole, Il Is a far better specimen or agri-
cultural effort than is the average Boer farm IL IS
about twelve thousand acres, OF course, tor the
by no means poor MANN fact he !; rather wen
off-he lives on little better lines than the poor Boer
farmer OF the Boschveldt. His house IS stone
building Of one story, with the lneVitaois s'o1p III
are half a dozen rooms. but the contents OF the
whole of them could be replaced for ElOJ lie llVes
very much in the patriarchal style, SURROUNDED by
his children. his native servants ana dependents
ruling them all with rod OF IRON $500, .
When he comes over to johannesburg (which IS
seldom or TO Pretoria (Which Is frequenO ne ~
not above indulging In little high living Al IRE
toria he puts UP at the TransVaal Hotel. orders
dinner OF the best. entertains few Nolksraad
members and makes the whole building resound
with his noisy laughter and anti-Outander pom
bast. - 49, IT,, !, ,
q pOor man and wanted TO sell a farm on which he
declared that gold had been found, he was not
above going to the hated Outlander and ayoWlng
eternal friendship support ana pro n D ybicS
the "roonek" did and found that there was not an
ounce of gold in the whole place -,..,
Ii was to Cronje that DR.. Jameson surrendered
on the fateful battlefield Of Doornkop. Cronje
wanted to shoot all the English officers on sight
but was persuaded not to do so on the represents
tion that they would be worth much more TO the
Transvaal alive than dead