Mexico Missouri message. (Mexico, Audrain County, Mo.) 1899-1918, 1902-05-22
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CHARACTER OF CECIL RHODES.
BY II. X. II.

uecu Iuahy CoHITuulcJOr. cSlllDdtcS
of the man, but his will clears up
some of the mysteries and reveals
his true character.
We learn thru w. T. Stead, in
the Review of Reviews, that as
early as 1877 the fixed purpose of
his life was formed. which was, by
all the wealth he could acquire and
all the influence he could bring to
bear, to bring about the unity of
the English-speaking world, and
the extension and expansion
of the influence of that
race over the whole world.
The purpose was formed when his
great fortune was only beginning,
and was tenaciously adhered to to
the day of his death when his will
revelead the fact that he beQueathed
a fortune of thirty million dollars
for the realization of his youthful
dream.
He seems to have gotten the in
spiration for this great scheme
when a student Mt Oxford he read
in Aristotle the following sentence:
"Virtue is the highest activity of
the soul, living for the highest OBJ
jcct in II perfect life." The mean
ing he got out of it was that the
great thing at the beginning of
life was to have an object suili-
GENTLY lofty to make it worth
while spending your whole life in
order to obtain it. This central
idea, the unity of the English
speaking race, was ut first very
crude and led him, as an English
man, to some very absurd specula-
tons when he came to work ont
in detail the manner of the accom-
plishment of the scheme.
For instance, his first thought
was that in order to the accom-
plishment of the reunion of the
race the United States of America
must return to the fold of the Brit
tsh Empire. He soon abandoned
This chimera and his next thought
was the federation of Empire and
Republic on equal terms. But for
several years before his death he
had ayOwed to intimate friends his
willingness that this unity should
be accomplished by applying for
the admission of the United King
dom and all its colonies as States
in the American Union.
While with ripening years his
ideas as to the means of the ne
complishment of his purpose
changed he never for moment
lost sight of the central idea, and
all of his energies were concentra-
ted in the effort to amass great
fortune in the furtherance of his
scheme of the unity of English,
speaking peoples as the best means
of blessing the whole world,
With him money was the essen
tial factor in so great n scheme;
and the genius of money making
in the diamond fields of Kimberly
is one of the marvels of the l0tl
century.
The great mistake of his life wa'
his connection with the "Jam ESQ.,
Raid" upon Johannesburg, TIT
purpose of which was to induce thu
Uitlanders, or foreigners, to throw
off the authority of the Dutch Re
Cubic and bring the Transvaa
under British control. Cecl
Rhodes never recovered from thu
effects of the failure of this at
tempted instruction which ulti
mately led to the unjust wa
against the Beers. Before tn
Jameson raid Rhodes had largel.
held the confidence of the Dutcl
element in South Africa, and wit
his influence properly directed tn
Dutch and English might ulti
mately have formed great FEEDER
alton honorable to both nations
Mr.. Stead says: eff he had bee
left to himself he would either hav
discovered his mistake or in tim
he would have carried the thin
thru" He lays the blame for tn
miscarriage of the plot upon tn
colonial policy of Mr.. Chamber
lain, whom he holds responsible
for the disasters which have TO
lowed. In the farcial investigation
of the Jameson raid Rhodes b'