The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1900-06-08

khafii, of course, at his small tablet
you were highly honored-or you may
dine with his staff and be presented Il
him after the meal for a long or brief IN
| terview as he pleases That is precisely
| the amount and extent of state about his
surroundings. But all state vanishes
when you touch the hand of 1.-THE little
man." and talk with him about the two
subjects which engross him-the war
around him and politics at home. II
you wonder what politics find such spa
cious Judgement as they do in his mind,
you have not remembered how politics
have affected him in his career as a gen
eral. here in South Africa-when he
could have prevented this war by n vast
ly smaller one-in kandahar; in many
fields. Lord Roberts never smokes to-
bacco, and with drink he has little to do.
A glass of wine with two or three meals
suffice for him. He breaches temperance
to his soldiers, and they know that he
shows no patience with thoss who drink
to excess. He presides at meetings of the
Army Temperance Association, and ex-
tolls sobriety, but like all broad-minded
men, he refrains from advocating the i'm
possible-one form of which Is total abb
stinence, He has never been known to
use an oath, and indeed, there must be
comparatively few men whose religion in
fiuences them so deeply as does his in
every affair of life.
it upon those around him. Yet ON every
Sunday since he joined thearmy he has at
tended divine service. Not word has he
ever spoken to his staff suggesting or
ordering their presence; yet he is certain
to attend the weekly service; an example
to the army so modestly and so persis-
tently presented that it cannot help but
be powerful. when he took the sacra-
ment at Driefontein, the other day, in
the face, one might say, OF the whole
army, ii was without a hint OF the parad-
ing OF religion. All saw 1t was an act
of simple faith 1t is almost as hard to
reconcile his gentleness and sympathy
with the firm-sometimes stern-course
which "A general 50 supreme in command,
and at the head of SO large an army, must
often have to follow. l have asked many
of his friends how he can be both sorts of
which We imagine must war with one
another.
He does possess them, that's all, " is
the best answer l got; Il don't know
how, but he does.
HE is all things to all men, in the
best sense of the phrase, " said one who
knows him we'll. He has the royal
gift of remembering everybody, the
humane quality of ilawless tact, the SUI
perior, almost superhuman gift of justice.
Good men like him because he is good I;
kindly men find "a responsive chord in his
nature anu JnOSe VINO are stern Leel LnaG
he, too, is stern upon occasion" He has
complimented a Tommy on his soldier
illness in such way as to win the man
loyalty to the end and surrender his life,
and ON the very same day he has ordered
home a general, knowing that the order
carried with it the disgrace of a man
who meant as well as himself, but had
not the capacity to realize his ambition.
His army will do anything for him;
march longer, staTve harder, go without
tents, blankets, and rum more days and
weeks, and die in greater numbers for
him than for any other man alive. And
they will do all these things willingly
and gladly where other armies might
protest and grumble and go ahead with
sullenness. He can get more out of an
army, from the guards down TO the
toughest scouting (foTce as he did be-
tween Modder River and Bloemfontein)
than any Russian or German general
could have extorted with iron and disci-
pline and adamantine aut hority. 1t was
the so-called London pets the guards
who broke all European records in
three days march into the Free State.
Instead of grumbling, they made it a
matter of boasting. Whenever other
privates would damn another leGder,