The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-10-28
SOME PROMINENT BOERS.
A BRIEF SKE7CH OF SOME OF THE
MEN
Now Active as Administrators of the
TransvaaPs Affairs.

perhaps the second most prominent hS-
ure among the Beers. LonS-heaaea'
shrewd, cold and calculating, he is also
by no means a typical Boer. He has
paid two or three visits to England,
and perhaps is one of the three or four
in the inner government circles in Pre-
toria who realizes what war with Eng
land would mean. Still, he in no way
lacks physical courage; he has shown
that time and again. He is essential
ly a time-server, a trimmer, sitter
on-the-fence. When he contested the
presidential election against Kruger
no one took his candidature very seri-
ously, he was so obviously put up as a
vote-splitter.
His religious tenete are not obtrusve
and he has never been found out IN
any very bad financial transactions.
As a general in the field he is cool and
clever, and a thoroughly expert eX-
ponent of Boer fighting tactics, which
are mainly of the "snipin@' order. lie
has now gone to the Natal border at
Voksrust; the next best Boer com
mander, Cronje, of Doornkop fame, be-
ing on the Marco frontier, toward
Mafel1ing.
A man who in a quiet, unostenta-
tious, but deadly effective way has
done as much as anybody to engender
bitter feelings between Boer and Uit-
lander is the present chief justice of
the Transvaal, Judge Gregorowsh T.
An Orange Free state man, of Rus
so-Polish extraction, he was specially
brought to Pretoria, indicted into the
rites of full burghership, and elevated
to the bench, for the purpose Of sem
fencing the sixty-odd reform prisoners
after the Jameson raid. No Transvaal
judge-Kotze, Ameshoff, MOrice, or
Jorissen-could be trusted to be suf-
ficiently severe, Draconian, Jeffreys-
like So they imported Gregorowski.
Right well he did his work. Not only
were the sentences terribly drastic, but
the method of the man in delivering
the death sentences, (afterward ocm-
mutedp and his trickery in permitting
pleading of guilty to certain counts
of the indictment, made the final scene
at the trial one of the most terribly
affecting ever witnessed in court of
justice.
The Transvaal State Secretary, Mr..
Reitz, formerly president of the Orange
Free State, where he succeeded but in
no way profited by the example of the
late lamented President Brand is
pathetic figure Old beyond his years
-senile, almost, suffering from an in
durable disease-at the beck and call
and entirely under the thumb of Kru-
ger, he signs documents put before
him without reading their contents or
If reading them, not understanding
what they are about. A shiftless poll
tician, not rich, .asare others in high
office, because he came to the Trans
vaal too late, and mCst of the pickings
were picked Besides, he is passing
honest and almost an old gentleman
to boot. His sphere is the almshouse,
and his need a pension. He lags su-
perfluous on the stage.
The Landdrost, or chief civil magis-
trate, of Pretoria is one j S. Smit,
and he is man entitled to high honor
in his own land. He recently charged
the public funds with sum of over
100000, alleged to have been spent in
streets in Pretoria A question arising
as to the legitimacy of this eXpendi
ture, a committee of the Volksraad
was appointed to inquire. Smith could
only produce vouchers for about half
the sum. The inquiry closed without
reporting. Next session it was men
toned in the Volksraad, and on the
of John Meyer Ca bosom
friend and greater supported of the
president it was resolved that the
matter should be considered as closed
has ever been heard of the
missing G4O0OO and Smith continues
in office.
Quite the most patriotic Boer and
'abid anti-Briton is a member of the
named Staffel Tosen. This
man is a renegade Englishman, and
his name was Stephen Townsend. His
father was private in line regiment
luartered at Pietermaritzburg Many
years ago he deserted to the Transvaal
and fought for the oBers in the war of
1881. His son, the present bearer of the
Boer variant of good British name,
Is an extraordinarily ignorant bigot
A few years ago, when the monster pc
.ition from the Rand, praying humbly
'or better representation, was pre-
sented to the Rad Tosen, from his
seat called out of course in the Taal:
IF they want the franchise, they've
got to fight for it," Again. he was
Known to have been heavily insulted to
promote the passing of the Dynamite |
bill The bride took the
'orm of bet of $500 to shilling that |
he bill would not pass. OF course it |
BASED, and the loser gladly paid up
he sporting odds. In supporting the
dill. Tosen gravely said that "the
word of God had come to him over |
light telling him that it would be for |
he good OF the country for the bill |
o be passed" This is textual
A really Typical Boer is Balend Vor-
ter, jr. He has been mixed up with |
most of the Pretoria financial scandals !
md he always comes out branded, but |
in position, Over the Sc |
att railway deal he received a gold |
watch and some spider" or four |
Wheeled carriages. A newspaper open |
y accused him, by name, of accepting |
,ribes, and the president himself de- |
ended Vorster's action, saying that he !
lNsl in 1,fngr