The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1899-12-31
ID .TNE NEW YEARs aAIHEklNG Oh .IHE eQER3.

courage to quote me are too biased to adj
NIT my opinions to their cosumns. can't
go far into details. because 1 don't pre-
tend to be a politician, and If made spe-
cifc charges 1 should wish to be able
to indicate chapter and verse. and 1
cannot do that. What I say is the re-
suit of my personal observation, and
must be taken as such. But am shock
ed at the intriguing and underhand course
OF the British government and at the
statements of the British press alike.
Were l among those VINO condemn the
Boer / should point to our government
and our press as his justification. Toyeth-
err they have blinded the British public
deceived is not the woodland made that
public ready for an unjustifiable war by
a course of double-dealing and mlsstatc-
ment.
what do they allege against the
Boer? They tell us that he is a liar, that
he is crafty and a cheat, that lie is
demon in the treatment of the black man,
that he Expresses the stranger in his
country, that his government is unclean,
that he withholds the franchise from
those who rightly ought to have it.
II have known him we'll, and / have not
found him to be untruthful. 1t is fact
that in money matters he is what Scotch
men cali a little near. but 1t is not due to
meanness at all. but merely to his affec-
ton for all that is plain--to his distaste
for the gaudy or the simply pretty. Time
and time again I have been guest In
Boer houses. My host was frequently
man of vast wealth, vet his house was
the acme of LONELINESS. His kitchen,
where he eats, Is a great barn of a place.
with no pictures on it's walls, no orna-
ments visible anywhere The family sits
down to meals around a rough-hewn table
without cloth. and, instead of chairs,
are seated on plain forms like those that
children use in school. Yet that was not
through misery motives. not through a
desire to hoard up money, but was simply
a trace of characteristic plainness-a feel
ing that ornaments would be only in the
way and of no practical use"
/ asked IL the conquering of the Trans
vaal would mean loss to Kruger of Boer
loyalty, and, If so, what leader probably
would succeed him.
HE will be their leader--and their only
leader--tc the end" he said. "Ie will have
no successor. Their sole hope is in him,
and they know it. He is disliked by the
younger Beers, II Is true, but they do not
constitute the backbone Of the republic
that is furnished by the veterans. and
they are for Kruger to a man. When he
dies the Boer opposition to England will
be at an end. He is the Cromwell of the
Transvaal-a set, calm, stubborn man, the
man for the present emergency. There is
no one like him in the Transvaal councils.
At every election he has been made presi-
dent by sweeping and tremendous majori-
ties. Their confidence is with him up to
the hilt. Joubert, of course. comes next,
but Joubert is vacillating and would be
outreached too easily. In the recent Boer
council, had Joubert had his wish. every
thing might have been surrendered. but
Kruger stood In the way, iron willed and
resolute.
personally, the pictures drawn Of him
are fairly accurate He Is stfngy. and he
is no fonder of 'dress-up' than most Beers.
remember when small army of 300 men
went out to fight the Kaffirs once. There
was a general contribution of supplies, and
much anticipation was aroused over the
presidents gift This gift, when finally 1t
made its bow, was two little bags Of to-
bacco. / recall another time when one of
the municipal buildings in Pretoria was
begun. The president laid the cornerstone
His contribution on that occasion was S.
Moderate View.
Rather at loss how to reconcile these
varying statements, had talk with an
English architect OF prominence. who was
until last June a resident of Johannesburg
and asked for his opinion as to the rights
OF the casa.