The Bellefontaine Republican. [volume] (Bellefontaine, Logan County, Ohio) 1855-1905, 1900-06-15
LORD ROBERTS
Julian Ralph Describes The Famous
British Commander.

erts assumed control of the British des-
tiny in South Afr ca there have been
many attempts to delineate, for the
benefit of the public, his personal char
acteristics and his doings at the front.
None has so pleased the British people
as the brilliant sketch of the Field Mar
shall which Julian Ralph contributes to
the ''The Daily Mail" Mr.. Ralph
writes as follows:
The first time the correspondents saw
him was at a railway Car window at
Modder River. He sent for them, and
addressed them as one who speaks to
friends. It seems to them that he lifted
every disability and brushed away ev-
cry limitation which had hampered and
almost crippled them in their work up
to that time. They were to write what
they pleased, he said, and this was not
to be censored. Only their kilograms
would be scrutinized. They were to go
wherever he went, wherever they will
ed to go.
Tome his face suggests the front of
a granite mountain, scanned, lined,
battered by storm, strain and racking
change. 1t records acquaintance with
every trial to which mortals are put, all
suffered in the solitude of undivided
responsibility. Care, worry, sickness,
danger, unceasing reflection, all had
left their marks there, yet all were
written across a gentle, sympathetic
countenance, never gay or merry, yet
seldom stern, and wholly ignorant of
passion. 1 have known many great
faces, but that of Lord Roberts is face
apart. 1 fancy that, in the minds of
their worshippers, some of the soberer
gods of the old mythologies had faces
like his.
He dresses in serge khaki, which,
plain as that always must be, he renders
the more plain by ridding it of all orders
and decorations. There are men on his
staff-there was even an American
newspaper reporter with one of the
armies-who wear a line and half of
ribbons. But the chief, who is en-
titled to perhaps four lines, appears ev-
cry day, for every duty and function,
with tuni as bare of decorations as
that of any civilian. He is so neat and
precise in this dress that I suspect he
must have been dandy in earlier life.
He is quick and nervous in his move
ment, and his contant habit is to thrust
either one or both hands under his belt
Ia practice which makes it easy fol-
iartists to familiarize his figure with the
Ipublic. He is instantaneous and direct
in conversation, and goes as straight tt
the point in view as well aimed bullet
to target.
i have noticed that when he meets
new people he advances toward then
eagerly, listens intently, and in three
minutes either engages the new &C
quaintance in earnest conversation OF
has done with him with decisive not
of parting. With the army in Soutl
Africa his headquarters forms court
almost as if he were part of the royal
ty he represents. You do not call upol
him. You sign your name in q book
and he sends for you later If he want
to see you. 1t may be Duke whom
you find in the sale of the Residency-
as it was in my case-and who offer
the register for you to sign. The Fiel'
Marshal works, continuously, and to d.
so has to be free from interruption
therefore, visitors meet him at luncheon
or dinner. In Bloemfontain, where h
was living between walls, from the hea'
of the head of the large, round table a
which sat his staff-his ponderous, i'm
pressive staff of distinguished men o
t the aristocracy. You dined witt
"BObs' in khaki, of course, at his smal
table-if you were highly honored: o
you may dine with his staff, and be pre-
sented to him after the meal for loni
: or brief interview, as he pleases. Tha
: is precisely the amount and extent {
3 state about his surroundings. But a.
e state vanishes when you touch the han
2 of ''the little man" and talk with hir
f about the two subjects which engros
? lhim-the war around him and polite
e at home. If you wonder that polite
d find such spacious lodgment as they d
D in the mind, you have not remembers
i how politics affected him in his caree
e as general, here in South Africa
8 when he could have prevented'this ws
Y by a vastly smaller one, in Kandaha
l. in many fields. Lord Roberts neve
e smokes tobacco, and with drink he b,
s little to do. He breaches temperant
d to his soldiers, and they all know th'
% he shows no patience with those WI
l. drink to excess. He presides at tt
; meetings of the Temperance Associ
ID ton and extols sobriety.
e He hrs never been known to use 8
is oath, and indeed, there must be col
r. paratively few men whose religion i
e fluences them so deeply as his in eve
" affair in life. He never parades h
of piety, never forces it upon those aroul
n him. Yet on every Sunday since
D. Joined the army he has attended divi
rs :ervices.
n Not word has he ever spoken to l
as staff suggesting or ordering their pr
es ence, yethe is certain to attend t
n. weekly service-an example to t
m. army so modestly and so persisten
IS