The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1899-10-18
AN EMPIRE FOUNDER.
Career Of Cecil Rhodes to Capture
Whom the Doors Have Surrounded
Kimberley with a Large Force.


Whom the Doors Have Surrounded
Kimberley With Large Force.
NEW YORK, Oct. 17.-Perhaps Dom
Paul Kruger knows, and perhaps he
does not, iusth ow much his personal
hatred for Cecil Rhodes influenced him
when he flung his ultlmatum in Eng
lands face and practically declared for
war Just when all things were making
hopefully for peace.
THAT murderer" Is Dom Paul's gen
tlest word In speaking of Rhodes, when,
indeed, he can SO far overcome his
loathIng for the man ms to refer to him
at all. Next to religious fervor the pre-
dominating sentiment In Dom Pauls
mind Is hatred for this grand English
man, who towers as a Colossus among
his countrymen In South Africa, just as
Dom Paul towers master spirit among
the Beers there.
When In 1S7l Cecil Rhodes health
gave wny and he was obliged to leave
college. he consulted physician. who
told him he must go to milder cll-
mate. He was methodlcal old doctor,
and In his private memorandum OF the
case he wrote as foot note, Cannot
live six months"
He was thln-faced, lanky lad Of IS
years tlfen,s with dull eyes5c BIS eouns
tenance did not sugRsst Intelligence and
indicated nothing Of force. That was
only twenty-eight years ago. Now he
Is the diamond king, the gold king, the
railroad builder, the muld-millionaire
among multi-mllllonsires. In his prt-
Vate humdrum capacity, in his public
capacity he Is the founder OF vast
empire, q statesman who in Gladstone's
time was counted second only to the
Grand Old Man himself, and since Mr.
GIadstone's death counted second to
none In all the vast British dominions
for relentless force and sheer weight
Of personal power.
at Is no use for US to have big
Ideals" said Rhodes once In conVersa-
tion with his friend, Chinese Gordon,
unless we have money to carry them
out"
That sentiment was the keynote Of his
early career in South Africa. He had
big ideals and he needed q colossal for
tune to carry them out. So he went and
got the colossal fortune, just as q car
penter would go and get his tools to do
a piece Of work. His one ideal. around
which all other ideals centered. was q
vast OulIeu S9LAleb OL S'OutA SAtAa- t-A9
dream was a compact federated nation
like the United States Of America. He
stood first and above all things for the
right of the governed to n voice in the
government. No taxation without rep
resentation. No rule OF an oliBorchical
ring! are the cries With which he has
made South Africa ring until they cuI-
minated in the demands for represents
tion which made Dom Paul throw down
the gauntlet. How thoroughly he is I'M
bued with American Ideas he Is con-
stantly showing in his utterances, pri-
yatc and public. When the home rule
agitation was going on In England he
exclaimed lmpatiently: why DON'T
they 20 and read the Constitution OF
the United States Instead OF speculate
ing on this and doubling about that?
There Is no speculation or doubt about
It. Home rule Is not an experiment. 1t
has been worked out and solved In the
United States for more than n hundred
years" 49,
Another time, commenting on the Will
fication that was being poured In the
English papers on South African ambl-
tions and on him personally, he said;
"Thnt Is the sort Of talk that led to
Bunker HIN, am loyal. The Cape is
loyal. II England interferes with US
well, the United States OF South Africa
Is not nn ill-sounding name"
As to his wealth, II Ia up somewhere
among those prodigiouS figures where a
million or so does not matter either
way. Some place It at SI5,OOO.O0O and
some at Si5O,OOO,OO0. and figure be-
tween the two Il probably right. 1t ls
impossible for those who see him now
to think Of him ns ever having been q
wenklinR. sent abroad to die. He Is six
feet one inch tall In his shoes and heavy
and muscular In proportion. His appe-
lite Is n marvel. His gray eyes, some-
what sunken in their orbits. have an
almost melancholy expression In curl
ous contrast with the bold resolution
Of the other features In speech Rhodes
is simple and direct and In manner
frank. He has wAged several hercd
wars with natives and he is building
a railway and telegraph line from Cairo
to the Cape, TO say nothing Of the lines
he has built In the Cape country Itself.
He has founded an empire, and he is
a n IL =