Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1899-11-27
STRENGTH OF THE BOER ARMY,

- AIiS ISSCll DSlCoNS IlStll.
STRENGTH Of THE BOER ARMY. :
Casper Nandewatring formerly private
secretary to kruger's cabinet in an ar
ticle on the strength of the Boer army
published in the New York Journal says:
The probabilities are mat the entire
civilized world, save only the poor, UNI
civilized Boer, is at heart surprised by
the lack of successes, to say nothing of
the positive disasters, thus far attending
the British arms in the TransVaal. l
am not unmindful that tn eEnglish press
and the English leaders announced at the
outset OF the struggle that early reVerses
might be expected.
But l doubt if either the English press
or the English leaders seriously believed
any such thing. A magnifying of the
obstacles to overcome and of the foe to
be ~Vanquished would naturally render
the expected success all the more glOri-
Gus and liable to shed lustre upon Tom
my Atkins and the British officer. The
apparently candid acknowledgement Of
the gravity of the task to be encountered
was, if l am not mistaken, made with this
purpose in view rather tnan from any
real belief in it's truth. g.,
AS a matter of fact. the campaign, in
British minds, was to be a march. Only
recently, after the first rosy reports of
apparent successes, the war dispatches
outlined the plan of action of General
Sir Henry White with the statement that
he would first march to this point, then
defeat the Boer forces at that point, next
proceed to another point, johannesburg
nracisalv arranpen nroora ~
Thus FAR Sir Henry and his hosts have
done some "marching'' and some pro-
ceedine," but not Of the sort that the pro-
ramme called for.
10 the BOer, however, it is not the UNI
I a~nAcfl1 thaf hos h oynnnna1 VNhnfhn~
ali has hannanad IN liz axact manner
axnan@aa hr MI, Ill III Lnnn.n a,l, ~
IL M stratagist IL chavez ~ iii own
,,nharaIdal 49, Il R1,+ thara ~
II IT. do,,ht that ~ ~ axnactad ana Jul
| naa,s s1anass and nathing alsa
NJ, can ~ mhn Ennms Snn,a,b;,a ~
Roo 1ifs ana of tho Roar neonla u.nnaar
- this oanHaanoa - "a, ~ 49, oa'aah
hssis for - r. nav saan , etranga ann.
n,,Iv and yat - ;s nroh. NV +r,,o tha+
,nbiia ,ha raca is as far removaa as nos
sih,a from heinz military neonle # is
n,ada m Of narhans the hest fiphters in
, Tho world And thev hecnrce 90 as the
.ne - &c he;. 1o.ons;o We ,na
nf the bahits and necmliarities which
make them different from all other peo-
nias
The one institution upon which the
ron,h,;o NAV no said tn ralv for its
strsnpth is The family That President
X r,ger should ha the father of eiphtean
children horn 70 his devoted wife has been
commented on with surprise. But FAM
lilies Of such size are not exceptional in
the Transyaal. | think it may be safely
said that families of less than a. dozen
children are the exception rather than
the rule. In fact, the Boer government
offers. or did offer up to a year or two
ago, a bounty of a certain sum of money
to all parents of over twelve children.
This feature alone of the domestic life
of a people must necessarily be an ele-
ment of strength and coherency in it's
national life, and no one has been more
convinced of this than Dom Paul. When
the army is called into the field 1t is
bound together no less strongly py lam
lily ties than by ties or patf1otlsm.
Every reglmeht uhder hfe may contain
many a fathef with a iamliv OF devoted
sons about him. ana the love OF glory is
lost $50. ;tsaif in "nu = afsort 80 te
displaying itself IN a supreme ed1oft 10
pnot'e. T. = ,monder that we raaa of
~ tha aa.a5 Standardization ~ thesa gr;n,
t coy w. n,ano $3.50
Ivory ,oan,ha, NJ these big families
100 hacnn,a. a al HE foe in himself
Nv tho limo he reaches maturity. We
snoaL of him as q farmer merely. and If
is nroha hlv supposed that his pursuits
arc only those of the farmer in the sense
in which the word is used in his country.
True the Boer is a farmer, and the
Roers are all farmers with few excep-
tions. Both in the larger cities. like Pre-
toria and Johannesburg, and in the
smaller ones. nearly all ~shopkeepers are
foreigpers-English. German and French.
Even the Roer who lives in the towns is
a farmer. and probably lives in town
only because he has acquired the means
to do So. And vet these are much fewer
thar would be supposed. But, though it