Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1902-04-19
WAR OF BACHELORS
AGAINST BENEDICTS
a Curious Phase of the Con-
fict Going on in South
Africa.
BUTCHERS ALL MARRIED
ABachelor Boer Is Unknown Almost
Nearly All the British Leaders
and Most of tn, Men Are
Bachelors.

New York sun: Another dividing line
| APART from hat of race has been
marked and persistent throughout the
South African struggle. a correspond
ent's share in the war II personal ODD
]seryation Of the Boer family
tiles and Of the leaders on the Brltlsh
| side confirm a belief whose
lies I'm the social situation that exists
before the lighting. II is that, all
through. the married have been ranged
| against the single. d,
There has been scarcely n critical
scene IN the entire drama In which the
| celibate Britisher has not been con-
fronted by the Benedick Boer, Dackeu
most helpfully by his wife and fanily.
And in the intervals the wife ana taHlly
have had the religious e~Xhortations OF
the Predikant to strengthen their aver
sion to the middle-aged bachelor.
The Bocr Is an luxurious being and
proud of st. The townsman of the race
may not always be so. but then he mas
ceased to be a typical Boer.
The Boer himself is out on the iald
on his 4,000-aCre farm-that Is n unit
in farms-and often he has owned three
or four OF them. lie could not nave
daily meetings with his n~eighbors, and
his company was his family.
Tho Nachtmeai.
Their social good time was at nacht-
maal, the periodical communion gath
ering OF the Dutch Reformed church.
1t came around usually every other
month and lasted about a week.
While il was on, the square OF the
little town that happened to be the cap
ital of the district was n laager OF out"
panne wagons. The families frater-
niZed all around and there were chris
! Jennings, be%trothais n marrying.
The hospitable n high-spirited
traits of the old Boer came out at their
best among his people. The young
| ones made their engagements known by
! strolIing about hand in hand among
their congratulations. 1t was frank, open
courtship, and she listened with proud
delight to his adventures with horse
and gun.
over il all was the blessing Of the
Predikant and his texts Tor the en-
gel Of matrimony n large
families. The celibate was not wanted,
was not there, did not exist.
Anybody so heretical as to prefer
that system of life was coerced out OF
his ideas or out Of the community. The
facts of the situation, the boundless
tracts Of land under healthful air, the
white minority of isolated families up
holding existence in a country occupied
till a couple of generations ago by
black tribes, the wanderers books of
the old testament, preached to those
who knew. were all against him. The
only possible condition was marriage.
British Leaders Bachelors.
IT is to the Beers a vastly important
thing that not one OF the men who
have been at one time or another in
their eyes an enemy OF thelr race mas
fulfilled that condition. The case for
the other side has just been put plain
ly by Mr.. Hensman In his authorized
| biography of Cecil Rhodes.
He is repudiating IN this subject a
rumor that Mr.. Rhodes dlsliked women
end recalls a saying of Mr.. Rhodes:
ION the contrary, / like n admire
them very much, and l assure you that
1 realize the value Of their help" Here
upon Mr.. Hensman puts forward the
proposition which is IN fiat ~contradic-
ton to the entire Boer idea Of life. He
writes:
Despite his denial, however, there
is no doubt that Mr.. Rhodes fights very
shy of the fair sex, n this, perhaps,
is not to be lamented, for domestic ties
would greatly hamper him in his
work"
If anv one were to suggest to a Boer
that domestic ties would greatly ham,
per him in his work" he would regard
the assertion as meaningless, as out
| side of the conditions of human exist
| ence. Even old Pet Cronje a his
work and his domestic ties so strongly
bound up together that his wife was
with him inside the Boer lines through
| the ten-day and hundred-gun siege ot
| his laager around the river bed al
| Paardeberg.
When his stubborn resistance was
worn out and at length Cease firing
was ordered at dawn n morning and
a surrender arranged, a single scene
demonstrated the naturalness from the
Beers view of life of Mrs. Cronje's be.
ing there at all.
Wanted His Wife With Him.
The brief collcquy with Lord Roberts
had passed. The old field marshal
i 49,. .ol.. nhlA.alrnlla fhrnIiQhant caf ha.