El Paso daily herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1881-1901, 1899-07-08
General in PetticOat Is.

General in PetttcOatS.
Mrs. Joubert, wife Of Gen. Joubert,
commander in chief OF the Transvaal
forces, may be truthfully styled a
general in petticoats." She has &C
companied her husband in all the wars
he has undertaken. Her CHEEKY face,
almost hidden from view under the
folds of a huge black cappie, has be-
come such a familiar sight with the
burghers that the incongruity of one
woman walking in and out among an
armed force of several thousand men
seems to be commonplace. From
the days of her earliest childhood Mrs.
Joubert has been used to wars alarms.
She can load and fire a gun with al
most as much skill as "Slim Piet"
(Anglice, Clever Piet") himself, and
on many occasions has shown the
greatest courage.
1t is not generally known that it was
to Mrs. Joubert that the great defeat of
the English at Majuba was greatly due.
The general considered the position
unassailable, but Mrs. Joubert, her
eyes afire with patriotism, urged the
attack, eventually conQuering the
scruples Of her husband and the other
commandants. The result is KNOWN
Mrs. Joubert's last appearance at
war occurred during the recent Maya
toland campaign at the extreme north
of the Transvaal. An artillery, bur-
CHER and native force Of nearly 10000
men was dispatched to the front to
subdue the rebel chief M'Pefu, en-
trenched in a series of rocky businesses
backed by the Limpopo. Notwith-
standing what was feared would be
the bloody nature of the war, the heat
over 100 degrees in the shade-and
the fever, the plucky woman joined the
general a week or two after his arrival
at the Hoofd Lager. accompanied only
by two or three little Kafir maids.
Finding Gen. Joubert in an any
thing but comfortable tent, she routed
him out, erected a tent of her own,
and installed him amid all the comforts
of home. What was more, she recon
structed the generals mess arrange
ments and cooked his meals with her
own hands The wife of the command
ing general peeling potatoes was an
ordinary sight any day during the
campaign
On one occasion during the war the
news came into camp that the gen.
eral had been taken i'll thirty miles
away in the midst of a country full
of hostile natives and deadly with ma
laria Without hesitation Mrs. Jou-
bert made preparations to go and join
her husband, and there is little doubt
that she would have accomplished her
purpose had not more reassuring news
come to hand.
The war came to an early close, ow-
ing to the military genius of Gen. Jou-
bert, and it is not too much to say, his
better half. The plans of the cam
paign from the time Mrs. Joubert ar
rived till the camp was struck were
talked over at her dinner table, her
sound advice and almost uneQualed
knowledge of Kaffir warfare being
held in high esteem.
Although such a warrior, Mrs. Jou-
bert is a true woman. There is moth
ing masculine about either her appear
ance or manner. Unlike most Dutch
Afrikander women, she is slim, espe-
cially when compared with the robus st
of Gen. Piet Joubert. Won
derfully active for her 90 years { Id
over, she can accomplish as much ha d
work in an hour as NDwn-bred women
would in a week.
Needless to say, she is immensely
popular among the burghers. To the
sick she is ever ready to lend assist
ance. and many a dying man has
blessed her ministrations.
When not on the waruath Mrs. Jou-
bert is singularly retiring. Many
Pretorians have never seen her. al
though she lives in their midst, in
the town house of the general, off
Market street. Her preference, how
ever, is for the quiet of the farm, where
she loves to remain until called forth
to the battles Of her country by wifely
a ffectiOn.