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Show 'I the Sioif of 1 j (Semral joubert .T77TT7TT T-r--t--t'-t--t'--t--t--t--t---r-r-r-Y-T--T-T'T--r-rT-TT-r-r-rT'T-T : . t 00?0 : : . . ' GENERAL JOUBERT. "Have not you English always followed follow-ed or our heela not on us. here only, but all over the world, always conquering, always getting more land? We were Independent when you' came here. We are independent, now, and you . shall never take our independence from us. The whole people will fight. You may shed blood over a U South -Africa, but it will be over our dead bodies that yon will seize our Independence. Every uuicnman in jpoutr Atnca win ngnt against you. Even the women will fight. You may take away our lives, but our independence never.". That is what Pietrus: Jaccbus Joubert said to an English correspondent in Pretoria two years ago. It was printed in a London newspaper Ncv. 30, 1S97. Joubert is showing the world today something of the fine old Dutch spirit he talked of in 1897. He is doing some of that fighting he predicted then. It was very much like Joubert to talk like that to the ' English correspondent corres-pondent and very much like him. too, to cable condolence to Lady Symons over the dead body of her fallen, husband. hus-band. He is frankness and honesty personified. He is a man and a soldier of the type Englishmen and Americans like. Nothing could be more courteous than- his treatment of his English prhs-onsrs prhs-onsrs from Ladysmith. Nothing could be kinder than his care for the wounded wound-ed enemy.,' If one can judge anything from the many paragraphs of praise that creep into the British war . correspondence from the front during these times, General Joubert, commander in. chief of the Transvaal army, is . likely to be Dersonallv tlODUlar In Rne-lnnrt ihefr.T-e this war is over. Here te what Bennett Burleigh, correspondent cor-respondent of the London Daily Tele-! Tele-! graph, said of him in the Republic and New York Herald, , writing from Lady-smith Lady-smith recently: "At daybreak I got back to the station, sta-tion, just as Joubert'9 train was steaming steam-ing away to Sandsprit. By dint of au dacity the station master was persuaded persuad-ed to stop it. I boarded the general's own special saloon carriage. ( "We chatted for hours on the journey-to journey-to the big Boer camps 'at Sands river, or spruit. ' "I noted that the general was generally gener-ally popular, the Baera clustering about the stations to shake hands with him. He would descend when the train stepped step-ped long enough to say a few words by way of encouragement. There weTe some feeble attempts at cheering, but your Tranavaai burgher has no lunga for that form of popular approval. "I asked and rectived permission to snapshoot Joubert and his more immediate imme-diate friends. He stepped out of the train and took a position for that pur- pose. In appearance he bears strong traces of his French origin. His quick, dark eyes beam, with shrewdness and kindness. "He has a belief-that the future and the present are for the Boer, and declares, de-clares, he would cut his throat sooner than give way pn the points of Transvaal's Trans-vaal's claims cr doubt God's personal support of their cause." . J Joubert is 6S years old, and, with the 1 addition of sr.me polish, is a typical j Boer.. He com.es of an old French Hu guenot family, long settled in South Africa, with a strong infusicn of Dutch blood. Like Pres'ick-nt Kruger, he was born in Cape Colony. He was bred on a farm and began 'life a farmer. But his innate ability soon lifted him into public life. He became state attorney to the South African republic and afterwards af-terwards vice presid.-nt. He has long been ambitious, to be president, and in 1S93 came within S31 votes of winning this hof;or from the great Kruger himself. him-self. Joubert is very pojular. In the late' '70s. during the troubles with England that culminated in the war under the memory of which England Eng-land has smarted ever since. Joubert became a very prominent figure in Transvaal' affairs.: He accompanied Kruger on his memorable visit to England, Eng-land, when the demand for the independence inde-pendence of the republic was fcrraul;"--ed. The demand was finally refused, ar.'d on Dec- 20, 1SS0, Kruger, Joubert and Preterius formed themselves into the triumvirate that declared the republic re-public independent. Then came the memorable war. with Laings Nek, Ingoga Rion and Majuba hill following in. rapid and- fatal sequence. se-quence. Joubert was the hero of Majuba Maju-ba hilL He personally led the force that dealt England the blow she has neither forgotten nor forgiven. Joubert remarked the next day that he always had supposed the English flag was red. but now he knew it was white: he had seen.it at Majuba hill. That remark completed his conquest of the Boers. Nothing is written about Joubert that j does not comment on his. fairness. The Boers, in their insatiate ambition to possess outlying lands- that England seized before them, raided Bechuana- .land in 1SS4:' 'The movement was a popular pop-ular one. The Boers were flushed with ' victory. They believed- that the land r was more theirs than England's, for they had broken the ground before England possessed it. But Joubert stopped it. "I positively refuse." he declared, "to hold office under a government that deliberately de-liberately breaks its covenants, and we have made covenants with England." Pie meant it. He would have resigned -and gone back to his farm, and the Boers knew it. ' Joubert organized the army of the Transvaal. He divided the country into seventeen military departments, and each department again and again into , smaller divisions, with commanders, field comets and lieutenants of various ranks in charge. Every man in the Transvaal became a trained soldier without leaving his farm. Every man had his complete equipment ready at home. Every man was pledged to appear ap-pear at an appointed spot at the summons. sum-mons. To mobilize the entire force of the republic Joubert had to send only sev- en teen telegrams. The word passed down the line, and in an incredibly i short time hundreds of post riders car- I ried the summons from farm to farm. Within fortv-eizht hrairithA rnMri.ni. I tion would be in arms, fully equipped and provisioned for a month, awaiting only the command to assemble. This story is told of Joubert and Kruger Kru-ger in Paris: The general was asked how he trained the Boers to such splen- I did marksmanship. J "We are hereditary marksmen," he r . said. "We had to send our children to. school, and the country was full of i wild beasts and Kaffirs. So every boy ! j had to carry a rifle and know how to L I defend himself and his sisters. He was ' expected to prove his skill by bringing 1 home bags of game. That's how we teach our boys. Isn't th.t so, Kruger?" Kru-ger?" The burly president, thu.5 appealed to, puffed his pipe contently for a few mo- i' ments and then said: "Yes. we make our boys understand that the meek inherit in-herit the earth." Joubert and Kruger, it is well known, are not the warm personal friends they once were. Not that there is enmity, or ; even coldness, between them, but they have drifted apart. This was unavoid- I able between two such men. when J'ou- bert grew big enough to become a serious se-rious rival to the great Boer president. Twice they have run against "each other oth-er for the presidency, but in last year's election Kruger. because of his fiercer anti-British attitude, far outstripped his rival. Like Kruger, General Joubert his a popuur nickname in the Transvaal, but net ore nearly so affectionate as "Oom Paul," although a compliment to his abi-ities. He is known far and wide as "Slim Piet." But "slim" has no refer- 1: ence to his physical being. It is Boer for shrewd or crafty, and how "siim" Joubert really is. the Eriiish have discovered dis-covered at Ladysmith. Born at Congo, in Cape Colony, in 1SS4. he early endured the hardship of battling alone with the world and, doubtler-s. profited thereby. After making mak-ing a little money by trading, he became be-came a stock farmer in the Wakker-stroom Wakker-stroom district of the Transvaal. Before long ne was a member of the volksraad and before he had reached middle age he had become passing rich by practicing practic-ing as a law agent. When Sir Thecphi-lus Thecphi-lus Shepstone annexed the Transvaal. Mr. Joubert .was President Kruger'a companion on the mission to London to seek retrocession. The failure of that mission convinced the Boers that to re- gain their independence they must fight I for it. On the war breaking out. or. , rather, in anticipation of that event, Joubert was put in chief command of the Trar.'rvaal forces. To him. was, no doubt, due the skillful and tactical use of the Boers' guerilla methods which. novel then to Europeans.- proved so ef- feetive against the old world mode of I fighting employed by Sir George Colley f and his brave soldiers. Since then Jou- j bert's power in the state has been sec- j end only to that of Mr. Kruger him- self. He is a far broader-minded man - than the president. ? I i : - j |