Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1900-06-07

the brilliant sketch of the field marshal
which Julian Ralph contributes to the
Daily Mail For a picturesque description
of the man whose actions daily rivet the
worlds attention. ii is unequalled. And
while the American correspondent frankly
admits that he has fallen under the mag
nctic spell of the little man who controls
the greatest army England ever had in
the field, he also manages to explain and
partially disscct that magnetism in such
a manner that he almost effaCes traces Of
the glamour under which the sketch was
written.
Everyone knows that looking at Lord
Roberts the only Impossible thing to real
ize is that this muscular, dapper little
figure, up to your shoulder, and no more,
has passed through almost seventy years,
spent in the hardest climates of the world,
constantly facing and dealing death.
Julian Ralph says:
The first time the correspondents saw
Roberts was at a railway car window at
Moddcr River lie sent for them and adj
dressed them as one who speaks to
friends. 1t seemed to them that he lifted
every disability and brushed away every
limitation which had hampered and al
most crippled them in their work up to
that time They were to write what they
pleased. he said. ana it was not to be
censored, their kilograms only would he
scrutiuized. They we're 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 retiec-
ton, all had left their marks there, yet
all were written across gentle sympa-
thetic countcnance never gay or merry,
yet seldom stern. and wholly ignorant Of
but that of Lord Roberts is a face apart.
l fancy that in the minds Of their wor-
shippers some of the soberer gods of the
old mythologies had faces like his.
lie dresses in serge khaki, which, plain
as that always must be. he renders plain
cr by Kidding il Of all orders and decora-
tons. There are men on his statf-there
was even an American newspaper report
er with one of the armics-who wear d
line and half of ribbons. But the chief,
who is entitled to perhaps four lines, APP
pears every day, for every duty and iunc-
ton with 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 movements. and
his constant habit is to thrust either one
or both hands under his beta practice
which makes it easy for artists to fami-
iarize his figure with the public. He Is
,
and goes as straight to the point in veiw
as Well-aimed bullet to q target
l nave noticed that when he meets n
new acquaintance he advances toward
! him eagerly, listens intently and in three
minutes either engages him in earnest
conversation or has done with him with
ii decisive nod of parting
With the army in South Africa his head
quarters form Court-almost as If he
were part Of the royalty he represents.
You do not call on him. You sign your
name in book, and he sends for YOU lat
et If he wants to see YOU. 1t NAV be a
duke whom you find in the sale of he
residency-as II was in my case-and who
offerS the register for you to sign. The
field marshal works continuously, and 10
do so has to be free from interruption;
therefore visitors meet him only at lunch
con or dinner.
In Bloemfontein, where he was living
/ between walls his table was small one
standing few feet from the head Of the
large long table at which sat his staff
his ponderous, impressive staff of dis
tinsuished men of the aristocracy. You
dlned with "Bobs" in khaki, of course. at
his small table-if YOU were highly hon
ored; or YOU may dine with his staff and
he presented to him after the meal for A
long or brief interview as he pleases
mat Is precisely the amount and extent
of state about his surroundings
! hut an state NamSheS when you touch
the hand of the little man. and talk with
MN about the two subjects which engross
him-the war around him and politics at
/ nome. If YOU wonder that politics find
such spacious Judgment as they do in his
mind you have not remembered how poll
tics have affected him in his career as a
general, here in South Africa-When he
could have prevented 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. one glass
of wine with two of the three meals suf.
Ices him. He breaches temperance TO his
soldiers and they all know that he shows
no patience with those VINO drink to en-
cess. He presides at meetings of the
Army Temperance association and eXtuls
sobriety. but he refrains from advocating
total abstinence
Ne has never been known to use AT
oath. and, indeed, there must be com
tparatiVcly few men whose religion in.
huences them so deeply as does his IN
every affair of life. He never parades hi.
plety, never forces it on those arount
him, Yet, on every Sunday since he jonet
his army he has attended divine service
Not word has he ever spoken to his
staff suggesting or ordering their presenc,
yet nc is certain to attend the weekly
serVlco-an example to the army So mod
cst!Y and so presistentlY presented that
1t cannot help but be powerful. When h,
took the sacrament at Driefontein, tn,
other day, in the face, one might say, Oh
the whole army, IL was without a hint OF
the parading of religion. All saw in il
an act of simple faith.
1t is almost as hard TO reconcile his gen
tleness and sympathy with the firm
sometimes stern-coursc which a genera
so supreme in command. and at the hcat
of 60 large an army must often follow.
have asked many of his friends how II,
can be both sorts Of men al onCe-how h,
can possess traits which we imagin,
must war with one another.
"lle does possess them, that's ALL" /.
the best answer that ! got 81 don't know
how, but he does"
"tIe is all things to all men, in the hes
sense Of the phrase" said one who know;
him well. "iIe has the royal gift of re
mcmbcring everybody, the humane quality
Of tlawless tact, the superior almos
supcrhuman-gift of Justice. Good mel
like him because he is good kindly mer
find a responsive chord in his nature, anC
those who are stern feel that he, too, /,
stern upon occasions"
Lord Roberts has complimented a Tom
my on his solderlness in such "A way a.
to win the mans loyalty to the end an,
surrender Of his life, and on the Yer,
same day he has ordered home a general
knowing that the order carried with 1t III,
disgrace of man who meant as well al
himself, but had not the capacity to real
ze his ambition His army will do any
thing for him; march longer, starve hard
cr, go without tents blankets and run