Paul Kruger.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXXXI, Issue 12480, 17 September 1904, Page 3 (Supplement)

Paul Kruger.

IMPRESSIONS AND RECOLLECTIONS. (By S. in " Daily Mail.") Paul Kruger, the only great man born on South African soil, is no exception to the rule that South Africa is the grave of reputations. He began as a farmer's son, with no prospect of fame; he made Rustenburg the dominant district of the Transvaal; he made ihe Transvaal a nation; he ruled Afrikanderdom as he chose; he died iaaving outlived his reputation as a shrewd statesman, but- not having lost the love of the people he led so long. AVhat was his secret ? •

He had the gift of success. He was always first among his fellows in everything that a Boer counts as worth doing.. His speed was extraordinary : lie once raced against-, a horse a whole day and won. None was so brave or so crafty as he in Kaffir warfare, and he never used more than a single cartridge to kill a buck with. He was great in debate; no orator. b - it a shrewd speaker, who used many homely parables. Despite the tradition of reverence for the village greybeard which obtains throughout South Africa, he was the first man in Rustenburg before he was of age, and the first man in the Transvaal before he was President.. But for his exertions there would have been no rebellion in 'Bl. ;

He was a mighty expounder of the Worrl. Mr Bosman, his favourite preacher, is something of a Boanerges, but compared to Paul Kruger nothing more than a Charles Honeyman. I once heard him preach in Delogoa Bay at Consul Pott's store. That was. when tlie railway was | opened in '95. A large audience, many of them members of the Yolksraads, lis 'ened with deep interest to a discourse o;i the mystery of the Trinity, which tnrlel with the quaint words, " And if you don't ■mderstand it now you can come and see tne outside."( Much has been written about Kruger's religion. He was no hypocrite. Indeed, his faith in God was thoroughly sincere u:d nearly as profound as iliis belief in •imself. It never occurred to him thr.t e could do wrong. But'the cramped cirumstnnces of his younger days prevented 'he full development of an agile intellect, ird he became cunning. At the height of the crisis before tl'.c war he told the First Raad that he hid received an important despatch from'" Kimmerlin." but had not read it because he had been searching the Scriptures to see if ho ought to give the franchise to tbf. •Tews. During that crisis he spent night after night at his bedside on his knees with an open Bible before him. When lie lived in the railway carriage at Machadodorp he hung out "of the window and ead Psalms to his assembled burghers. It is said that some of them stoned him. fndeed, his influence had gone, but not :«be love he, inspired. The. man. had magnetism, even something of charm. In his last years the gloom that oppressed him was often broken by outbursts of jocundity. He told a yarn excellently, and his deep, low laugh resembled n ftwr in the character "oTltsTiumour. Either. vo\i liked liim t« rlevotion or you toundTt. almost impossible to be fair to him. I once asked a Boer what was the secret of !his success. /The answer was, " His luck; he has never once guided us astray." Thnt was before the war. When vou look at his career you see the truth if the answer. He himself believed it' his star. Sometimes he would attribute his success to the hand of the Lord, sometimes he told Show his wife was a mas<otte. It is a curious and pathetic fact :liat his luck deserted'him when, he left her —which he did, by the way, with her 'nil approval. The* poor old lady had heart disease badly. She hated the English more bitterly than he did. They v. ere devotedly attached to one another, and she had reason to be proud of liim. for she won him against the competition of half the girls in Rusteuburgh. Stragely enough, they both died of the same cause —pneumonia acting on a weak heart. If all tales be true and some of them are. he caused many a heart ache in,liis young days. Till his last'years he was always careless'in dress, but last winter at- Nice he was quite smartly attired. He had a terrible temper. After Lady-' smith, General Joubert knew its strength. After Bergendal, when Kruger *as living >n a railway carriage, General Botha often had to ride miles to see him, and with his quiet, convincing manner usually got his own way after a vigorous argument. He twice met his match. Once a British. Agent who was having an angry in terview with the Executive Council, said. " Mr Kruger, you can bang the table all day, but you can't alter facts." Anot: eir time, in 1893 or 1894, Mr Rhodes wished to see him on a Saturday over some railway matters. . He replied that Saturday was always devoted to his burghers and Sunday was the Lord's Day, s-n Mr Rhodes must be satisfied with seeing Mr Middlcburg. • Boiling with anger, Mr Rhodes invaded the Presidency and stamped round the room; the old man crumpled into his chair as if -afraid of being struck. "If you ever do anything lil--e this again,*' said Mr Rhodes, "I'll deal with you through my black boy Tory." That is the insult- which was never ,forgiven : never could be forgiven by a Boer. His dislike of Mr Rhodes was personal. At Poplar Grove, where the Boers were in full retreat, he said to one of them. " Give me your rifle and see how your President shoots," and emptied the magazine into our troops. He turned round to hand back the rifle, but the burgher had fled. , „ Tn matters of bargaining and hnaue? he was "as near as they make 'em," ana a match for the wiliest Jews in Johannesburg. If ever the history of the Geduld Company and the Coolie Location should be written it will be found that he acted with quite unjustifiable sharpness. The strry of the proposed Rustenburg railway is a tale of calm, unassuming ennninp. and when it was revealed Mr Kruger's version differed in some respects from the truth. He was once threatened with legal proceedings over a bargain which he notcarried out according to contract. . " All right," he replied, "you know my judges." He was an adept at what the Boers call " verneukerie " and the French finesse. His wealth was very great, and was not put into national coffers during tlie war. Indeed, he had two villas at Nice, and the smartest pair of horses in the Riviera—a characteristic trait. He never dealt in goldmining shares, but invested his money in European "gilt-edges" and some of it was on fixed deposit in. Ger- • irtan banks. When our troops reached Pretoria it was found that all-his land had been transferred to members of his family. Before the -war it was generally supposed in Johannesburg that he was worth about four millions. He owned some farms. _ . Despite his' wealth, he lived with the utmost simplicity. ~ ,He never spent his salary of £BOOO a year, but lived on the £3OO of coffee money, which was allowed him for entertainment. Uncommonly bad coffee it was, too. - He never drank any stronger liquor at meals, but was fond of an occasional glass of " sqnareface." There was nothing Presidential about the cookery at his table, but the etiquette was most risrid. He had the essentials of the sreat man. without, training. In all his dealings he was crafty, partly because he thoucrht the other party was crafty too. Tn his old acre he became narrow, obsessed by the idea of independence.\nml testy. The last time I saw him I was on my way to Bulawayo. "I pray God's blessing on your work," he said; adding as an afterthought. "if it isn't being done for Rhodes."