The Irish standard., 1900-12-29
GEN. CHRISTIAN DE WET.
A Lying British Correspondent De-
ScribeS Him.

correspondent of the London Daily
Mail, who accused Webster Davis and
Consul Macrum Of taking Boer money,
has the following description of Gen.
De Wet, which can be taken with a
grain of salt:
OF all the Boer leaders the personal
| ity of General Christian De Wet has
seized most potcntly upon the British
imagination.
His daring coups, his sudden appear
ances and rapid disappearance, his
ubquity, and his unfailing success
have appealed to the British love of
sport, so that to-day De Wet occupies
Il place in the popular mind not far re-
moved from that of Robin Hood and
the more modern buccaneers.
What is sport to the fox-hunting
British is, however, deadly earnest to
the Free State Commandant General.
De Wet from the outset has been Il
rabid anti-Britisher. In the final days
of negotiation, before the ultimatum
was sent, he was omnipresent in Pre-
toria.
Time after time the advocates of
peace sought to waylay the President,
seeking to prevail with him against
war. Always, De Wet was present
silent, unbending, stern opponent of
Cancellation.
In the executive chamber, in the
presidency, De Wet was ever on guard,
stiffening Paul Kruger's back, coun-
selling young SHUTS, appealing to
Reitz's patriotism, combating the ar
guments Of the peace party. He was
in these days as sleepless in his advo-
cacy of war as he has since been ener-
getic in his prosecution Of hostilities.
The war came, and De Wet speedily
attested the courage Of his convictions
In the early Natal campaign he was
the most dashing of Boer leaders, the
most reliable in battle. In the great
attack of Jan. 6 upon Ladysmith he
and his burghers put up one of the
most remarkable fights of the war;
But it is in the Free State that De
Vets most startling contributions to
the history of the war have been
waged
The ideal Boer leader, De Wet, was
born on a farm and bred OH a farm;
he was brought up on the vast dis
tanccs of the veldt, learning every in
tricacy of veldt lore, reading the signs
of the plain as a European would read
a military text book and inscribing in
his memory every fold Of the ground
he passed over.
To-day the Free State to him is an
open book. He knows every road, ev
cry drift, every watering place. More
than once he has led his men on the
darkest night to within 300 yards of
the British encampment without one
false step. and has posted them there
in the position most suitable for an
livcred his enemy into his hands.
For the purpose of his warfare De
Wet needs no heavy battalions. He
dslilles a force exceeding 800; and the
men he has with him are picked men
--men of the SOIL hunters every one Of
them, Beers who possess in Il lesser
Il do
their leader.
He speaks taal and nothing but taal,
and he dislikcs all obstacles that inter-
fere with his personal converse with
his men. The foreigners who have so
grievously retarded Louis Botha's
movements have had no place in tho
flying columns of De Wet.
a man of middle age, middle height,
and middle weight, De Wet is not
man either in bearing or appearance
to attract attention. He wears a scrub
by, short beard and Il thick mustache.
His dress used to be Il scedy black coat
and Il pair of striped trousers. Moth
ing anywhere to denote the general.
the man who for months has defied the
clevercst generals. the swiftest troops
of the British army.
But in his face is the stamp of in
vinciblc determinations; the mouth,
slightly dropped at the corners, is car
ricd tightly closed, and the strong
square jaw is firmly set beneath the
stlaggly beard. The high square fore
head rises steeply from pair of bushy
eyebrows, beneath which the restless,
all-sreing eyes gaze out to the distance.
There is seldom a smile in those eyes,
but there is the CLEAN of Il steady pur-
pose, the cold resourcefulness Of man
hunted by his fellows.
1t is out of those eyes and others
such as they that De Wet kept touch
with his opponents movements. De
Wet from his kopje top looks down ut
the wide rolling plain in one Of the
folds Of which the railway lies. All Of
the farm folk there are his friends.
Suddenly from 4 Kaffir hut, whose
uncertain outline can just be discerned
through the heat haze, thin column
of smoke rises. 1t is the signal of
game in the neighborhood, Il train has
failed to breast the steep incline be-
hind the second row of knobs. an in
Sa;, 4