Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-09-29

: land, and had, moreover, taken his de-
greesat Cambridge university. In con-
nection with the famous Boer leader
such a report was. however. erroneous to
the point of ahsurGity. The Boer gem
r eral is. not only himself totally devoid Of
4 culture, but he loathes learning as the
badge of British servitude. ~
There is a Christian De Wet who took
This B. A. at Cambridge, but he is a much
younger man and a member of a totally
different family.
20 The real Christian De Wet was born
son a farm near the township of Dewets-
dorp, in the Orange River Colony-then
the Orange Free State-someWhat over
forty years ago. The family of De Wet
Is well known throughout that district,
} and the township of Dewetsdorp took it's
name from the generals father.
The boy, Christian De Wet received but
a few months schooling, and then went
to work at once. AS he grew up he
proved himself a good and eminently
practical farmer and a shreWd man OF
business. Under his efforts the farm
prospered. well and yielded a comfortable
: income. Though he always maintained
his Unborn hatred of the Uitlanders and
Uitlander ways, he did not carry this
feeling SO far as to refuse British gold,
and in his efforts to acquire it he has
been known to aid in driving 400 pigs
. from B1eemfontein to the market place
in johannesburg.
- IIIlS pGtlASlu l. ol lItN Ia "''
continued until the outbreak of war be-
tween Great Britain and the Transvaal
in 1880. Then the chance of striking IL
blow at the "verdomde Engelseman' led
him to temporarily abandon his farm
life. He formed one of the many Free
Staters who denied their presidents dec
~laration of neutrality, and went Off to
light side by side with the Transvaalers
in their struggle. lie served under Jou-
oert throughout that conflict, and took
part in all the battles in Natal.
HIS FIRST FIGHTING.
He was at Laing's Mex, the Ingogo
river and Majuba. At Majuba he was
-, one OF the h~alf-hundred burgners from
The Free State Who volunteered to storm
The hill; and the uniform of a High
lander, who was shot by him on that oc-
casion, is to this day among the Boer
generals trophies of the battle.
At the. conclusion of the war after
peace was proclaimed De Wet returned
to his farm and settled down afresh to
mis- old humdrum life. Shortly after
wards he married, and hough himself a
member of the Dutch Reformed church,
ne chose his wife from a Dopper family,
one of those stern, hard, uncompromis-
ing adherents Of the old Dutch faith,
opposed to every and any change or re-
form. He has had several children, the
oldest being a son, now about Is years
Of age, who has been with his father in
several tof the raids and expect lions
for Which he has become famous dur
Ing the present campaign. In the bring
ing up of his children General De Vets
hatred of all things English has been
further evidenced. Not one of them has
received any education to speak of, and
although one or two of the elder ones
have picked up a smattering of English,
1t would be as much as their lives are
worth to display their knowledge before
their stern, taciturn father. Not a word
of English is ever spoken in his house
. hold; if the general himself knows any,
which is not unlikely, he is most careful
to conceal the fact.
Some years back De Wet became a
member of the Free State Volksraad,
the parliament which used to meet in
the Radical ait Bloemfontein. And here
again his utter detestation of England
came to the FORE. This feeling, indeed,
appeared to be De Vets moving spirit.
Rarely taking part in discussions con-
corning only matters of Free State gov
m the mere mention of any Eng
lish question was sufficient to rouse him
into fernent.. He is 10 orator, but on
such occasions he would pour forth q
torrent of coarse and bitter invective-
the natural expression of the deep-rooted
hatred of the uneducated man. To such
an extent, indeed, was De Wet in1u-