TRUE STORIES ABOUT PAUL KRUGER. Related By One Who Knows Him.

Otago Witness, Issue 2207, 18 June 1896, Page 44

TRUE STORIES ABOUT PAUL KRUGER. Related By One Who Knows Him.

If .on some points" President Kroger is obtuse, and if he -is slow to bring himslf into line with the altered and improved condition, of affairs whioh now obtains in the Trans- ' vita),* -he has also a fund of native humour .which runs loose on occasion, and helps him even to a warmer, place in the simple hearts of the Boer people. The discovery of the Main Reef at Johannesburg spelt fluanoial salvation for the Boer Government, aud the Government was not slow to: take advantage of the mining' operations which- ensued. One tax was imposed after .another with such remarkable rapidity that, the mining magnates deputed the late Mr Herman Eckstein to interview Kruger, and td.trj to obtain a reduction in the number and the weight of the imposts. " But," said the President, " the reefs will be woiked out in the course of a few years, and* the Government must make hay while the sun shines'." " You are mistaken, your Honor," replied Mr Eckstein ; " neither our obildren nor our children's children will witness the exhaustion of the gold in the Transvaal.' 1 > V You are convinoed'ofthls," rejoined the "President; 1 ' 'V ''-'*'- ! -•'''•' ".Perfectly," was'the reply. ' ' >"' " Then," came the answer, "If the Veofs are" so rich and have fio long a life as all that before them, it 'becomes a matter for consideration -whether the Government is not taxing the industry on altogether too moderate a scale." Needless to say, no lightening of the existing burden was .effected. The days } are excessively hot at Pretoria sometime*, and it Is not strange that the President should fall asleep now and then during the sittings of the Volksraad. Attention was once called in the Chamber to his condition by a speaker, and he was awakened^ The member "had already spoken for hours, and during the, whole of that space the President had slumbered calmly. Grasping the condition of affairs on awaking, " Oora Paul " rose to bis feet and blandly ' asked to be excused, adding i

" Herr is suoh an excellent speaker that I am beside myself at having missed a single word of what he had to say. Now, if he will have the goodness to start at the beginning again he will find that I am alt attention." aJEhft sntakor, who wiui alrtady hoarse, pro-

nonnoedhls peroration, and down amid general laughter 1 . Oaring a visit to Johannesburg on . th« ocoasion of an offioial gathering the Dutofr flag was pulled down at a place of publiq resort kaown as the Wanderers' Club, tba Union Jack was hoiited in its place; and Kruger himself was insulted in th« streets. A howling crowd followed his oarriage to the house of his friend Yon Brandis) where he was to be entertained at dinner; The crowd augmented during the meal, and the adjacent thoroughfares became packed. Eruger heard the shouts of the tJitlandera unmoved, lighting his pipe after dinner, aha consuming cup after oup of the coffee to which he is so partial. .< - "Hadn't % better send for police proteqtion ? " inquired Yon Brandis. •' They seem as If they mean to pull the house down." "Don't send on my account/ replied th« President. \ "Yon are not nervous,,, then ?\ „ . * v '«> . "iNot ; at ail. ' I've driven^tob'niaay span '• <of .oxpn'to'be unable to rbuh'd',up a mob of - •' donkeys." '" _;'''-' >->';V : #"*}>■',>} *And he sat through the? tumult ' iinbon'-' cornea till the streets " cletffed ' and' the "- disorderly persons outside went home to bed. ' , " i The President in his public _ speochea t which arenot frequont, makes a very free use ; of'Bymbols. ■■ "> \ . . „ ', "You are like the Apostles,'! said some-: body to him one day; "yon speak In parables." ■ • • , . , "Ah I yes," he said ; " but then you forge* I can kill a book at 600 yds, and none of them could do that." . , •- •' • ." ~. His meaning probably was that' if he ■ was poetical in his speeohes he was practical In <bis methods. . • , .