A STUDY OF "BOBS."

Evening Post, Volume LX, Issue 18, 21 July 1900, Page 3 (Supplement)

A STUDY OF "BOBS."

A fine 'character sketch of " Bobs," written by Mr. Julian Ralph, evidently as the result of a thorough study of the British Conimander-in-Chief, appears in the Daily Mail: — We who are in and with the army could feel (says Mr. Ralph), an instant and bone-deep change in the men around us when it became known that Field-Marshal Lord Roberts was coming out to take command of the force. Tho sentence, " Bobs is coming," was like an abracadabra, opening the way ahead, levelling the kopjes, vanquishing l<he Boers, ending the tiresome disappointing struggle — all in anticipa tion, of course, and yet in an anticipation steel-girde'red with " confidence. It is not only the men in the ranks who show--ed and exulted "in this reinvigoration ; their officers were just as certain that it was the master who was coming. From that day to this I have made it my tasl to study this unique man, who is, I believe, more beloved and admired than any living man, trusted more implicitly, followed more unquestionably, and obey ed more cheerfully (especially "when he sets his army its hardest tasks) than any living man of whom we have any knowledge. To me, his face suggests the front of a granite mountain, seamed, lined battered by storm, strain, and racking change. It records acquaintance will every trial to which mortals are put, all suffered in the solitude of xmdivided responsibility. Care, worry, sickness, danger, unceasing reflection, all had lef their marks there, ' yet all were written across a gentle, sympathetic countenance never gay or merry, yet seldom stern. and whoLy ignorant of passion. He wear; a tunic as bare of decorations as' that of any civilian. He is so neat and precise in his dress, that I suspect he must have been a dandy in earlier life. He is quick and nervous in his movements. He is instantaneous 'and direct in conversation, and goes as straight to the point in view as a well-aimed bullet at a target. I have nQticed that when he meets new people, he advances towards them eagerly, listens intently, and in three minutes either engages the new acquaintance in earnest conversation, or has done with him with a decisive nod of parting. Lord Roberts never smokes tobacco, and with drink he has little to do. A glass of wine with two of the three meals suffices for him. When he took the sacrament at Driefontein, the other day, in the face, one might say, of the whole army, it was without a hint of the parading of religion. All saw in it an act of simple faith. It is almost as hard to reconcile his gentleness and sympathy with his firm — sometimes stern — course. I have asked many of his friends how he can be both sorts of ,men at once. "He does possess them, that's all," is the bes' answer I have had ; " I don't know how but he does." He has complimented <i : Tommy on .Ms soldierliness in such a way as to win the man's loyalty to the end and surrender of his iife ; and on the very i same day he has ordered Home a general, knowing that the order carriec 1 with it the ever - enduring disgrace of a man who meant as well as himself, but had not the capacity to .realise hi? ambition. His army will do anything foi him ; march longer, starve harder, gc without tents, blankets, and run more days and weeks, and die in greater num bers for him than any other man alive. Abpvo all else, " Bobs " is a man of ac tion. His life is all activity, and hi. c mind works with his body — that is, ir> the heat of affairs and of movement his brain is coolest and works most quickly His compact, nervy litl/le body is all a reservoir of strength, and you can speal of his physique as you speak of the physique of a giant. Indeed, he lives on his nerve, and draws upon his strength as if both were inexhaustible. He wi,ll sit and write for ten days on end, dealing with a multitude of varied subjects — civil, military,, covering the enormous range of view of a soldier and an admin istrator ; and then, if the need comes he will bounce on a horse and ride 50 or 60 miles, tiring lieutenants, whose live? arc sfSenfin the saddle. He lives very piainly, asking for few comfortß and no iuxuriest ' *