The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-06-24
HAS PITY FOR THE BoERs
cut FEELS NO SYMPATHY FOR THE
CAUSE THEY REPRESENT.
THAT Is the Position OF Mrs John Hays
Hammond, Who Spent Three
The Outlook.

Inc O1CcSh-
A not infrequent question asked me by
strangers il whether l do not sympathize
with the Beers. To this always comes the
same response: IL most certainly do SYM
pathize with the Beers. but not with their
cause" i do not believe their cause is
the cause of civilization or real liberty.
but my heart goes out 70 them in the awful
distress the wal is bringing to them, and
especially the loss of fathers. husbands
and sons. I am writing as a woman TO
women and not as a politician. and IL is
women above all that this side Of the war
most strongly affects.
No woman who has a mothers valuation
of human life can but be shocked and
agonized by the bloody horrors of war.
And the strongest test to a Christian
mothers faith is 10 feel that out of these
wars God in his greatness can bring order
and right. To the typical American
woman. who carries through her busy days
an earnest attempt to live her life fully
who puts equal energy into her housework,
her sewing. the moral rearing of her chill
dren, and the proper furtherance of her
husbands affairs-great political questions
of the day are only an extension of the
family interests, and are almost as vividly
felt. To the deep-hearted. strong-brained
honest woman such as one meets here on
every side. and through whom Americas
future is assured, the present war between
Great Britain and the Beers IS a subject
OF keen interest, ana the most strenuous
among them patiently read through reams
of newspapers, although they realize that
the columns are tinctured with a political
animus quite foreign to the subject at issue.
Books are almost as bad. and although
more reliable IN most cases than the daily
papers, they contain such "A quantity of
crude material, and the facts are so out
of proper balance, that they perplex rather
than ~enlighten.
Women are. of all creatures, the most
personal, and our interests work outward
from home centers. We love TO speak per-
sonally with people who have lived through
some strange experience. and there Is
scarcely a civilized woman who would
not rather speak face 10 face with a living
participant or witness of great events than
read volumes of dry history. 1t is, there
fore, from this personal standpoint that
j write. L have lived three years in the
Transvaal. I have passed through the
political crisis Of 1895 and 1896, and l have
studied the history of the Beers in public
and private papers. i cannot
pretend TO be entirely unbiased, but | be-
lieve 1 can see the truth and appreciate
Justice.
So much has been said in regard to
the almost idolatrous devotion of the Boer
to the Bible, his steadfast adhernece to his
opinions, and the great sacrifices he has
made and the courage he has shown in
insisting upon leading his own life with
out interference that Ii Is quite a common
conception of him that he is a survival of
the soldier of Cromwell and the Puritan
who settled New England. This conception
IS, i think, very misleading. The Boer- has
very little in common with the Puritan. and
he lacks, above all, the capacity for orderly
government
MORAL DEGENERATION.
- 1c-9 - A.
Sand river convention. when Great Britain
granted the Beers autonomy or state SOW
ereignty in the Transvaal. there is much
to enlist ones sympathy. and perhaps adj
miration. for the Beers. From this time.
however, their moral credit begins to de-
cline. If the Beers had trekked from Cape
Colony solely because of grievances against
the British government. such as the eman-
cipation OF their slaves without just COM
pensation. and the evaporation caused by
unjust charges of illtreatment of the
natives, their secession from the Cape
would itself to the sympathy
of every self-reliant. self-respecting Ameri-
can; but there were otner elements In their
disaffection which are plainly made mani
fest by the records of the time and their
subsequent history.
The Beers had always been restless under
any form of government; they had shown
III
of the Netherland East India Company,
as we'll as that of Great Britain, and had
already, before the trek of 1886. earned for
themselves the name OF Trek Boeren, y
or wandering farmers. Their wander
Ings into the wilderness beyond the Quath-
lambra range of mountains furnish a story
of thrilling adventure, and show the BOer
in his best light. He proved himself brave,
self-reliant. and perforce, abstemious. One
of a little journeying band, his family
crowded into a canvas-covered wagon, with
ccanf fond and small SnnnlV of water
surrounded 10y hostile tribes. he evolved
into the man whom we recognize to-day
as the Transvaal Boer. In his environment
he lost all habits of thrift which he may
have inherited from his French ancestry,
all habits of cleanliness which may have
come from his Dutch forefathers. In cease
less fight against wild beast and savage.
his courage became tinctured with cruelty
and cunning. Straying through wastes OF
arid land. tented by a brazen sky at day
and a black pail pierced with strange stars
at night, the "~fore-trekkers' wandered on
into a deeper night of ignorance and super
stition. The people were mostly sprung
from common stock. They were not OF the
kind to bear well the period of isolation
which followed their secession from Cape
Colony. and during the settling Of the
countries now known as the Orange Free
State and the Transvaal their history is
an ungracious chronicle of bitter wrang-
ling among themselves. as we'll as fierce
fights with the encircling native tribes.
ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT.
The story of their final appeal to Great
Britain, the annexation, the subsequent
war OF independence in 1881. the retro
cession with suzerainty granted by Eng
land. is too we'll known TO the American
reader to require more than mere mention
by me. But all these changes left the Boer
very much as they found him. His preju-
dice had deepened and he had grown ava
ricious. but he remained. and he is to-day,
a curious example Of arrested development.
He is more than sixty-three years behind
his brother of Cape Colony in civilization.
He is still the Boer of the great trek, ret
regarded in some respects by his hard
life OF wandering and fighting against
desperate odds.
Loss Of home attachment Is one OF the
conspicuous results of this ong-continued
migratory life. A Boer rarely feels strong
attachment TO any locality, or calls il
home in our sense of the word. This has
been shown by the Beers promptness In
selling their farms in exchange for mining
claims. To-day the ~outlander actually
own more than half Of the farms OF the
Transvaal- Even Mr.. Kruger has. in COM
mon with his brethren, found IL TO his adj
a. Ill "a. 49, III ~ -