Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1905-03-06
RIDER HAGGARD-FARMER.
The English Authors Important Err
rand to This Country.

The good ship Teutcnic. is bringing
to our shores an English novelist
bound on a sociological errand. The
estate of Cecil Rhodes is financing an
inquiry into the agricultural and in
Gustrial land settlements organized in
America by the Salvation Army, hav-
ing III view the application of similar
methods in South Africa. Now it is
plain that such u mission as this makes
peculiar demands upon a man. He
must begin with a knowledge Of con-
!itons in South Africa: he must be an
experienced sociolOSIst. that he may
look beneath the surface Of things; ne
should be a Travelled man. that he may
not be led astray by peculiarities due
To race and country: and lastly he
must be practical farmer. or his
Judgment of results VIII go for little.
To fill this exacdins post the trustees
of the Rhodes cstat" lave selected,
whom: The author of "She."
To those OF us who abandoned Rider
Haggard in the days of King
Solonon's Mines" and ALLAN Quarter
MAN, putting him down once for all
az a writer of hair-lifting romances.
As well send Alfred Austin to investi-
gate lynching. or Walter Pater to
study pork parking, OF, course, Rider
Hagcard knows Africa frCm the view
point of the novelist. But what mas
the spinner of mystic tales to do with
farming?
Let me tell You. if you are disposed
to indulge in such questions as these
that You do not knON your Haggard
that is. not all your HaSgard. There
is probably no man IN England today
50 ideally fitted as he for the peculiar
task H.. comes to do. So far as Africa
: concerned Mr.. Hagaard has done
r"ore than to scour the country for
weird material for fiction. He went
ont as lad of seventeen. and at nine
teen was secretary to Sir Henry Bull
YER. then governor Of Natal. Two
years later he was on the staff of Sir
rheophilus Sh"pstona. special commits
siOnor to the Transvaal: and by thai
time young HagSard lad acquired n
fund Of general information about the
Beers which inspired him to write A
picturesque. if somewhat too frank.
letter to the hone papers. or course
that rash article got itself reprinted in
the Afrikander press. with its imputa-
lions of fairness to Boer fraus, and of
dirt and disorder to Boer homes: and
the result came perilollsly near to be-
ing-War. A turbulent meeting was
held in Pretoria and the young mis-
chiefmaker had some lad hours of
suspense before the trouble blew over
Since then. it is doubtful whether he
has ever committed to writing quite all
he knows about the Transvaal.
This little faux pas dill not drive him
out of South Africa He was with
Colonel Brook hen he raised the Brit
is,h flag over the new South African
Republic in 1877. and in 20 he was lieu
tenant Of the Pretoria Horse. His
History of the Transvaar' and the
sympathetic Boer novel, Swallow"
are enough to establish his right to
speak upon the conditions of South
African life. He has Travelled, too.
enough to rid himself of narrow views
and insuar preju1ices.
Rut how about the farming? Here
100. Rider Hagglrd more than fills re-
ouirements. Is ne not the author Of
"A Farmers Yesr?" If you cannot
picture to yourself the author Of "She"
in pastoral light, hear the mans own