New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1900-03-30
UACRTH.

He insisted upon coming home The ocean
depths were heated with the Overworking of the
cables which conveyed his perfervid appeals,
protests demands. The blind sea worms
wriggled uneasily when his reduplicated "imper
ative" went sizzling by, and at the white hot
pulsatonS of his absolutely necessary" the
kraken fed in steaming tremors. At last, in
answer to two dispatches in one day, permission
given by the arbitrary and unreasonable
Government that wanted its officers to do their
duty. You may come home" And so he came,
while nations on his eye suspended wait"
Seldom in any time has any progress royal
consular, been invested with so thrilling and
absorbing interest that of the great, silent
Consul making his long journey from lands of
to lands of snow" He came; he didn't
the President or Secretary of State; and he
was investigated
What lurid tale it was he told at his coming.
Told not to third assistant Junior deputy
clerk of the Freak Bureau of the State Depart
ment, but TO his and transparent
self, and thence TO the newspaper press agen-
cies He had been for weary weeks a Pre-
torian Casabianca. His Government had be-
trayed him, just as the Indians wgwam had
got lost. 1t had made secret and unholy ALI
without asking him to ratfy the treaty,
and that, too, with a Power his dear friends
Steyn and Kriger did not like. His private
and official letters had been delayed withheld,
felOniously opened, presumably their contents
flashed by Photograph from Simonstown to Bulu-
wayO. And thus he had stood in his official
immoation till flesh and boOd-not to mention
his proud spirt-could endure the humiliation
no longer And when that moment came he
acted with the traditional energy and valor of
his race. He packed his grip and scooted.
And behold his self-made vindication.
He m ba toll opo al
tee, for various reasons. Item, the British had
possession of the American cable cipher. He
was not certain of that but he suspected it. He
had used ordinary commercial code, which
every cable operator On earth might be expected
to know, and he suspected that it was known
by the British. because he had heard that an
item about him had been printed in Natal
newspaper. He did not see the item but he
told il had appeared. Therefore beyond all
question the United States had made itself the
vassal of Great Britain. Item, his letters We're
withheld and feloniously opened. That was GER
tain, because whole month passed without his
getting any letters. OF course that was at the
outbreak of the war; when the mail service from
Durham to Pretoria was suspended, and nobody
else getting any letters. either. But surely
for him the laws of war should have been re-
laNed and he should have got his mail even
though nobody else did. The fact that no such
exception made in his favor, but that he
had to fare just as the German and Belgian and
other COnsuls dds it not proof that special
discrimination made against him? Quod
erat -demonStrandum Item, he wanted to pre-
vail upon the Government at Washington TO
maintain strict neutrality in the war and at
the same time to do something in behalf Of the
Beers. He had reason to believe" that the
President of the United States had actually de-
clined to act in accordance with n BOpr aDnpal
OF course, he didn't know It, but he had been
told so by some else in a letter which was
on file at Pretoria Well perhaps he himself
might have copy of that letter. Yes, he might
even be able to produce it in short time-but
didn't. What stronger proof could one wish of
the absolute and imperative necessity" of his
abandonment Of an important place of trust and
of his turning it to the tender mercies of
a disreputable adventurer and fugitive from
justice?
in the name of the Prophet! FIGS!