The Saint Paul globe., 1900-06-24
DO DeQV Women m Cramgv66L.

There are no new women in the Trans
Vaal, and there are no old maids.
Not in all the length and breadth of It
is there to be found a woman's club Dis
contented husbands are equally rare.
There is total dearth of professional
women and self supporting bachelor girls.
The first case of nervous prostration is
yet to go on the health report, and the
state of single blessedness remains un-
marked on the social territory Even
in its most alluring disguise as womanly
up-to-dateness, feminine aggresstveness
does not flourish.
Neither do divorce courts Happy homes
do. Such is the account of the woman
question in South Africa given by the
first Boer woman to visit the United
States. says the Philadelphia Press.
She is Mrs. Abraham Fischer. wife Of
the chairman of the Boer ENJOYS, and
the only woman member of the commits
sion sent here to grasp floating straws
of individual sympathy, in the hope of
transforming them into guns for the
national aid of a sinking cause.
Mrs Fischer is a representative of her
countryWomens best type She is a
social leader in Bloemfontein's 400, one
whose guest Cecil Rhodes has been
again and again, and who, as the wife
of man of prominence in the Orange
Free State, has entertained either at
her town or country house, every foreign
notable pc assing through that section.
She Is an intellectual woman. She has
read law and studied political economy,
that she might not fail to be a COM
panion to her husband and an intelli-
gent mother to her children
She has two children, both of them
boys. The first born, a strapptng fel-
low of five and twenty. is wearing
shoulder straps close to the front of the
Boer fighting lines. The other, her
baby, d Cambridge man, about to be
graduated, is held practically a prisoner
of war, and cut off from all communi-
cation with his parents.
There is nothing dramatic or imposing
in the appearance of this dump little
woman who is one of the few important
feminine figures on the Boer side of the
T"ansvaal war. And there is nothing
commonplace in her personality.
She is Scotch by birth and extraction.
and South African by adoption and sym
pathy. Cosmopolitan culture and pro-
Vineial sincerity are combined in her
manner. In stature she is understood
and plump. In dress she is Partisan. and
! in the wearing Of it she is Dutch.
The tragic sorrows which have crowd
ed into her last few months have lined
the rudy, sunburned face with anxiety
and saddened the dark blue eyes But
the face she turns to her husband, when
! he returns to her from his interviews
with American diplomats, statesmen and
representative citizens, is as cheerful as
she can make 1t, though the smiling lips
are not always steady
They quiYered the other day when dur
ing an interview rather diffdently grant
ed newspaper woman, the bearded
chairman came into the room, and tower
ing head and shoulders above the blond
head on which his hand rested. said:
Il want you to say fer the Boer men
that we are proud of our women. We
always have been and are douby so now
when they are bearing more than half
of the real work of the struggle Not
in the AmaZonian way of grasping a
weapon and marching to the front, as
some of you Americans have been led
to believe, but in the better way of car
ing for the farms and the homes while
the men of the family are away fighting
to save them
'fThe accounts published in your news
papers," continued Mr.. Fischer, "of Boer
women being found fighting in the
trenches, or organizing military COM
panies. seem to me altogether improb-
able. 1t is so entirely foreign to their
character. Everything within wonanly
bounds to help the cause they have done
and will do, but as our women have nev-
er yet been known to usurp one mas
cuIine prerogative, if women were found
in the trenches, I do not believe they
We're Boer women"
So far as the business of the mission is
concerned, Mrs Fischer has evidently
been relegated to the place of silent part
ner, for not until he had warned his wife
that all reference on her part 10 political
subjects must be strictly avoided did Mr.
| Fischer leave her alone with her caller.
Not even the conjugal admOnition was
able to prevent several tentative con-
| lectures, wistfully ventured, as to the
probable political Significance of this.
that or the other card OF invitation On
her table.
Are they only personal courtesies? ?
! Dc they mean nothing whatever to my
| ccIntry?" she asked, and repeated the
question in tone pathetically express
sive of forlorn hope.
Mrs. Fischer did not want to talk about
! her couatryWomen. She wanted to cha t
| about ours, and about America, Whica
And my expectations were not mea-
has both surprised ana delighted her
| gre, either" she began, for Transya al
womankind has long been unirersel in its
| intense admiration Of the works and