The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-06-07
LORD ROBERTS.
An American Correspondents De-
scription of the Famous General.
Julian Ralph. in London Mail.

| The first time the correspondents saw
him was at a railway car window at Mod
/ der river. He sent for them, and adj
dressed them as one who speaks to friends.
! II seemed to them that he lifted every
| disability and brushed away every limita-
| ton which had hampered and almost
| crippled them in their work up to that
| time. They to write what they
| pleased he said. and this was not to be
| censored. Only their kilograms would be
scrutinized. They were to go wherever
he went, wherever they willed to go.
| To me his face suggests the front of a
| granite mountain, scanned, lined. battered
| by storm, strain and racking change. 1t
records acquaintance with every trial to
which mortals are put. all suffered in the
solitude of undivided responsibility. Care.
worry, sickness. danger. unceasng reiec-
ton. all had left their marks there yet all
were written across gentle, sympathetic
countenance, never gay merry. yet sell
| dom stern, and wholly ignorant of passion.
1 have known many great faces. but that
| of Lord Roberts is a face apart. 1 fancy
that. in the minds of their worshipers,
some of the soberer gods of the old myth
ologies had faces like his.
| He dresses in serge khaki. which, plain
| as that always must be, he renders the
more plain by Kidding it of all orders and
decorations. There are men on his staff
| there was even an American newspaper
reporter with one of the armies-who wear
| a line and half of ribbons. But the chief,
who is entitled. to perhaps four lines, APP
| pears every day, for every duty and func-
| tion with a tunic as bare of decorations
| as that of any civilian. He is so neat and
precise in his dress that suspect he must
| have been a dandy in earlier life. He is
| quick and nervous in his movement, and
| his constant habit is TO thrust either one
| one or both hands under his belt-a prac-
| tice which makes it easy for artists to
| familiarize his figure with the public. He
| is instantaneous and direct in conversation,
| and goes as straight to the point in view
| as well aimed bullet to target
| l have noticed that when he meets new
| people he advances toward them eagerly,
listens intently, and in three minutes either
| engages the new acquaintance in earnest
| conversation or has done with him with a
decisive nod of parting. With the army in
South Africa his headquarters forms a
court-almost as IL he were part or the
royalty he represents. You do not call upon
him. You sign your name in a book, and ne
sends for you later If he wants TO see you.
| 1t may be a duke whom you find in the
| sale of the residency-as ii was In my case
and who offers the register for you to
| sign. The field marshal works continuously,
| and to do so has to be-free from Interrupt
| ton; therefore, visitors meet him only at
luncheon or dinner. In Bloemfontein where
| he was living between walls. his table was
a small one, standing few feet from the
head of the large, long table at which sat
his staff-his ponderous, impressive STAFF of
distinguished men of the aristocracy. You
dined with "Bobs" in khaki, of course, at
his small table-if you were highly hon.
ored or you may dine with his staff, and
be presented to him after the meal for
long or a brief interview, as he pleases.
That is precisely the amount and extent
of state about his surroundings. But all
state vanishes when you touch the hand OF
''the little man. and talk with him about
the two subjects which engross him-the
war around him and the politics at home.
If you wonder that politics find such spa
cious Judgment as they do in his mind, you
have not remembered how politics affected
him i'm his career as a general, here in
South Africa-when he could have pre-
vented this war by a vastly smaller one, in
Kandahar, in many fields. Lord Roberts
never smokes tobacco. and with drink he
has little to do. A glass of wine
with two of the three meals suf-
fees for him. He breaches temperance to
shows no patience with those who drink To
excess He presdes at meetings of the
Army Temperance Association and extols
sobriety but like all broad minded men.
he refrains from advocating the impossible
-one form of which Is total abstinence.
He has never been known TO use an oath.
and. indeed. there must be comparatively
few men whose religion influences them
so deeply as does his in every affair of
life. He never parades his piety, never
forces IL upon those around him. Yet on
every Sunday since he joined his army
he has attended divine service. Not a word
has he ever spoken to his staff suggesting
or ordering their presence, yet he is certain
to attend the weekly service-an example
TO the army so modestly and persistently
presented that it cannot help but be pow
erful. When he took the sacrament at
Dreifontein the other day. in the face. one
might say. of the whole army. 1t was with
out a hint of the parading of religion. All
saw i'm it an act of simple faith. Ii is al
most as hard to reconcile his gentleness
and sympathy with the firm, sometimes
stern, course which general so supreme
in command. and at the head of so large
an army, must often have to follow. I
have asked many of his friends how he
can be both sorts of men at once-how he
can possess traits which can imagine
must war with one another.
HE does possess them. that's ALL" is
the best answer that l got; Il don't know
how. but he does.
"He is all things to all men. I'm the best
sense of the phrase" said one who knows
him well. HE has the royal gift of re-
Numbering everybody; the humane quality
perhuman, gift of justice. Good men like
him because he is good; kindly men find a
responsive chord in his nature, and those
who are stern feel that he, too. is stern
upon occasion"
He has complmented Tommy" on his
soldieriness I'm such a way as to win the
mans loyalty to the end and surrender of
his life, and the very same day he
has ordered home general, knowing that
the order carried with ii the disgrace of a
man who meant well himself. but had
not the capacity to realize his ambition.
His army will do anything for him: march
longer, starvc harder. go without tents,
blankets and rum more days and weeks
and die in greater numbers for him than
for any other man alive. And they will do
all these things willingly and gladly. where
other armies might protest and grumble
and go ahead with sullenness. He can get
more of army. from the Guards
4 down 10 the toughest scouting force (as he
did between Modder river and Bloemfon-
tein) than any Russian German general
could have extorted with iron and dis
cipline and adamantine authority 1t was
the so-called London pets'-the Guards
days march into the Free State. Instead
boasting. Whenever other privates would
damn another leader Roberts's men would
say simply: "'Bobs' knows what 'e's
about; 'Bobs' will do the job" II suffices
the majority merely TO sum up Lord Rob-
erts with this phrase: &c is a man." He
can make no mistakes that his army will
recognize. Whatever he orders or does Is
regarded as the reflection of superhuman
inspira ton.