The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-04-04
WEBSTER DAVIS TRIP.
Every body Turned Out to We'll
come Him In the TransYaal.

New York. April IA special to the
Herald from Washington says. After
Secretary Of the Interior Hitchcock sent
to Webster Davis a brief note in which
he said the president had asked him TO
announce that Mr.. Davis resignation
has been accepted to take effect april
4, Mr.. Davis felt at liberty then to talk
freely upon the South African situation
and 70 friend he related the history of
his trip.
My journey was uneventfuI until we
crossed the TransVaal border and stop
ped 1t koomatipoort,' he said There
the whcIe neighborhOod turned out and
welcomed me. At station after station
the sJa11onInaster would come to the
car, touch his red cap and ask If there
was any thing he could do for my COM
fort
Yet the English told me with great
PosItiveEess that the savage Beers
would shoot me as soon as they learned
L spoke English They tell this lie 50
much At Cape Town that they even got
Colonel Stowe, our consul there, TO be
HeVe It. At Pretoria I was given cor
dial greeting. Marvellous to state. dur
ing al the time I was there not one
man asked me whether I favored the
British or the Beers.
7 viewed the defences of Pretoria and
L consider them impregnabIe. I do not
believe the English troops will ever. pass
the line Of hills surrounding the town,
br1stIlng as they are with high power
krup3 and Creusot guns.
There seems a very general impress
sion that the guns used by the Beers in
the field were taken from the fortresses
at Pretoria, but I saw every earEhW0rk
and fort surrounding the town and I
could Tot see where any guns had been
removed. They were all there and for
mIdable they looked
W hen 1 describe the city as impreg-
nable. 1 speak from the Judgment Of a
man of common sense Pretoria lies in
basin surrounded by rugged hills. af-
fordIng most admirable opportunities
for defense. While there I learned
enough to know that the city is one vast
stOrehouse of foodstuffs and ammunI-
ton
What impressed me most was the
natural DIgness of that grand old man,
Kruger. I consider him as possessed of
more OF the elements Of grea tness than
any man ever met At 70 he IS as fun
OF N1gor as the average man who owns
up to twenty years less. His versa tiIsty
impressed me deeply.
I nave it on unimpeachabIe authority
that the Battle of Colenso, where Butler
was crushed by the Beers, was planned
entirely by this old man. Joubert carried
out krugeF's instructions to the letter
and won that signal victory by the d.
rectioas of an old man away up there
in Pretoria
7 vas present at the Battle of Spion
Mp ana Sd W 4 LIlA llIlE OF EoDeIS QTINE
an army before them After the fight
walked over the field and counted the
dead bodies of 125 Englishnen in one
trench. where the Beers had placed them
for BURIAL During my stay in the
uelgho0rhoOd- visited every taaSer IN
the lines surrounding thBcity and talk
ed with scores of officers and men
Il visited the lines along the Tugela-
where Butler and his forty thousand
men were held at bay, and speak from
the most positive knowledge when say
that all OF the BOer troops in that region
numbered but 1000. With this force
JCubert and Botha held Butler back and
kept White and his 5000 men corralled
in the town
When Cronje was threatened three
thousand men were sent to him from
Iadysmith. leaving about 4,000 TO face
the IS 900 men of the enemy.
AT the battle of the Little TugeIa,
when Butler was again driven back
upon ChIeveley, I saw General Louis
BOtha IN action. and I consider him the
greatest Of the Dutch commanders.
When the fighting began Botha was
SaunterIug along behind the line of
trenches watching his men taking care
full shots at the advance OF the Brit
ish force
For half an hour after we could first
detect the movement there was not
much excitement, but all at once there
was a rush of cavalry and artillery and
the double-quick of infantry in open
order. The bullets began TO patter
around Us, and two burghers were hit
I close beside BOtha- He seemed to
awake instantly and sprang down into
/ the trench. eXclaimiug Shoot. shoot IN
| Dutch. As the word was carried along
7 the lines he caught UP the rife from
/ the hands of a dead burgher and began
/ making quick but careful shots at the
\ foe
give minutes and it was over. as
/ quickly as the rush had begun From
! the Boer side it was like the kiplIng
descriptI0ns-a fight with the Fuzzy
/ wuzzies in the desert.
AT Pretoria 7 met President Steyn
7 also learned that there is no truth II
the report coming from English sources
concerning disseusiOns between tbs
two presidents. They are in perfect &C
/ cord.
sAs I said before. do not believe
| the British will ever enter Pretoria
I Even the women of the town are sup
/ piled with rifles and are daily prac-
/ tfcing Workmanship. Some Of then
are very expert. and their average
/ shooting is good The strength OF
kruger and his burghers lies in the be
lief that God is with them