Daily inter mountain., 1899-10-16
Butte Mans Opinion Of the
BOer War.
MANY BUTTE MEN THERE
But They Will Probably Leave When
KOStilities Begin-Origin of
the War.

Patsy Trigg IA we'll known mining man
of Butte. who has been in the South At
rican gold fields for the past four years
has returned to Butte. 1t was Mr..
Trgg's second visit, to the African coun-
try during the past ten years. He met
M. a. Mcmillan, c. a. Johnson, Dave
Bricker and other Butte men there dur
Ing the last year. Bricker had $4,000
in cash when he arrived there. He mas
not been very successful in his mining
operations, having only recently return
ed from Siebria, where he made an ex-
animation of some placer ground. c.
@. johnson is said to be doing fairly we'll
but it is likely that the war will cause a
general exodus from that country.
1T is going to be a long and bitter
fight" said Mr. Trigg. There Will
probably be but one result-the sub)uga-
ton of the Boers-but it will be one OF
the bloodest wars ever recorded IN ms
tory. The burghers are well armed ana
drilled; they are a sturdy people and
used to hardships. More than this they
are on their own ground are acclimated
and VIII fight to the death for their lib
critics.
1.-The first trouble occurred about 1871,
when several battles were fought and
the English were worsted. Then in 1886
when the mines at johannesburg were
discovered there was big lnfiuX OF
foreigners from all parts of the world.
The Beers assumed an aggressive attl-
tude, and followed it up by framing and
passing laws that imposed hardships on
the Uitlanders. For instance, they made
it impossible for a Ufitlander to become
a citizen of the country in the ordinary
term of a human life, and if they attained
that then they were only entitled to the
privileges of the Second Raad, which is
equivalent to our house of representa-
tives. They passed that law because
they We're fearful of being eventually out
voted by the Uitlanders, there being resi-
dent at the time three male Uitlanders
to one male Boer.
The mines that We're operated ex-
clusively by the UMlanders We're taxed
to the amount of 80 per cent of the en-
tire taxation of the country. The chill
dren f English and other descent were
compelled to study the :;oer language
which is about the most mongrel tongue
! in existence; under no conditions would
they allow English language to be taught
in the schools. The Boer government
consisted of a few individuals, who APP
propriated the millions paid IN taxes by
the mines to their own uses.
IN the fall OF 1898 there was an influx
OF people into the gold fields to develop
the mines, and they made application
for representation on the ground that
taxation without representation was an
outrage. The Boer government made a
lo- of promises which they failed to live
up to.
I'm the fall of 1895 the people OF johann
nesburg made up their minds that they
would get some satisfaction from the
government by force, since all attempts
AT arriving at conclusion by other
means had failed. The result was the
| formation of the so-caliet1 Johannesburg
reform committee. which had an under
standing with Jameson that they could
rely on his assistance in case of necessity.
Several conferences We're neld between
the committee and Paul Kruger agreed
to the plans as outlined by the Commit
tee.
I'm the meantime. end unbeknown to
the reform committee, Jameson and his
raiders had crossed the border with an
invading force, though he-Jameson-
had been informed that the conferences
between the committee and Kruger ware
pro crossing favorably. and that he
should defer action untiY ne heard fur
t.er. Jameson and his force were rour-
ed and taken prisoners and the Beers
repudated their agreements with the
reform committee"