New-York tribune., 1900-08-24
STEYN AND DE WET.

We might apply to the Boer leaders in the
South African war the saying "The last shall
be first" That would be no more than simple
Justice to the two men who above all others
have been at the fore in these last weeks and
months. Ex-President Steyn of the former
Orange River Free State is one. When he nego-
tiated the union between the Orange State and
the Transvaal it looked though the little
State was to lose its individuality In the big
one and President Steyn would be quite over
shadowed by President Krtger. But Mr.. Steyn
has managed to keep at the fore. While Mr..
Krtger remained in Pretoria he went to the
front and fought. When Mr.. Krtiger fed from
Pretoria with his gold in a private car, Mr..
Steyn was marching and raiding and fighting
in the field. (No discredt to Mr.. Kruger need
be implied in this comparison. for there is
great difference in the ages of the two men
and in their fitness for active work In the feld)
And for weeks past, when no one has known
or greatly cared upon what particular siding
Mr.. Kruger's car was shunted, the chief inter
est In the whole campaign has been centred
upon Mr. Steyn's resourceful endeavors to stave
off the inevitable.
Upon Mr.. Steyn and General De Wet. Let
that latter name be spoken with respect, even
by Tommy Atkins, for II is Of the few
names on either side that have risen in this
war to fine eminence, with promise of last
ing distinction. Joubert was a brave and
knightly warrior. Cronje, at bay, was some
one to be remembered long in the annals of
desperate valor But Christian De Wet is, after
all, the Boer hero Of the war. A year ago the
world had never heard of him. He was an
obscure farmer, living near ROodeval, smoking
his pipe and probably "walloping his niggers"
in patriarchal Afrlkander fashion. When the
carried at Majuba Hill and went to the front
a private. Step by step he rose until now
he is the general commanding the only BOer
army OF serious Importance remaining in the
field. And with only two or three regiments
at his heels he has for weeks been baff1ing Lord
Roberts and Lord Kitchener and all their lieu
tenants, with their tens Of thousands Of men;
raiding their lines one day and the next leading
them on a wild goose chase across the veldt to
catch him where he is not.
The end must come at last, and probably Will
come soon But when ali is done the men
whom Great Britain win remember as her most
stubborn and troublesome foes VIII be not those
who led their armies into Natal and the Cape
to drive the Rooineks into the sea" and besieged
Ladysmith and Kimberley, but rather those
who took up the running when the race seemed
lost, and by their skill and daring and endur
ance held an overwhelming foe long at bay and
maintained their independence after the cause
elsewhere seemed hopelessly lost We may not
love Steyn, the cold, unsmiling Machiavellian
schemer, but at least we must admire his self
sacrifice and his unfnching courage. We may
not on aesthetic grounds. admire the uncouth
and unkempt De Wet but no countryman OF
Francis Marion and Philip Sheridan can with
hold tribute of praise to his skill in strategy
his celerity in operation and his indomitable
valor in all things. His name will be the bright
est in the last chapter Of Boer military history.