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Show AN INTERVIEW WITH KfiUGEB BOER PRESIDENT GIVES HIS SIDE OF THE DISPUTE. Interesting History of English Aggression Ag-gression In South Africa Lifelong Life-long "War Against the British. "Oom Paul's People," by Howard C. Hillppa.". has just been published. Two of Mr. HiHeRas' chapters are devoted to President Kruger himself. We quote a part of the description given of Oom Paul's personality and lofty, Inspiring: patriotism: . - A man of absolutely no, education, as Ave understand the word, lie has, during dur-ing the long year of a notable career, t-o aii)licd his inherent abilities, his natural nat-ural astuteness, the .cunning acquired by constant battling with the vlles of native oijcrnies, as to bo able to acquit hiinscCf f his high office in a. manner to be envied by -many- wivo have enjoyed a. hundred times as many advantage. Although he is almost 73 years old. the president's mind -has- not become dimmed, but, if anything, has grown keener in perception and wider in its s. ope during the.-last.4en. years. President ICruir's personality is most unique. He impresses one as being be-ing a king in the garb '.of a. farmer, a genius in a. 'dunce's cap. At lirst sight he would be liHstaken for an awkward count rytnan, vitli "store clothes" and a silk hat intended for someone else. His frock co;it is far too small to reach rounJ his corpulent body, and his , trousers secEn to have .L natural an- j tipathy for his shoes. He wears no cuffs, and the presence of : collar and tie may be determined only by drawing aside the natural cur-lain cur-lain formed by his whiskers. He is uncouth un-couth in his manner, but he has great natural attractiveness, gained by a lung life among hunters in the wilds. He is slow to make friends, but once he trusts a person, volumitu us proof Is ri"cessary before he alters his opinion - of the man. He never f org els a good ! d"el and never pardons the man who J dots a bad one. I President Kruger is short in stature, I measuring less than u feet 7 inches. The mouth is wide and ungainly. The constant use of a heavy pipe has caused a deep depression on the left side of his lower lip. and this gives the whole mouth the appearance of being liniialaneed. His chin is large and prominent, and his ears correspond relatively rel-atively in size and symmetry with his face. When in repose his features are not pleasant to look uion. but when lighted up by a smile they become lather attractive, and generally cause his laughter to become contagious among his hearers. There in no love lost between the president and the English. The author writes: "The president's hatred of the English was bred in the bone, and it will never be eradicated. To see his country free from every English tie is the aim of his existence, and every act of his political j career lias been born with that thought." In his interview with the president, w hich took place at Pretoria. Mr. Kruger Kru-ger asked the author three leading questions, which are indicative of the man. "Have you any English blood in your veins'.'" "Are you a friend of Cecil Rhodes?" "To what church da you belong?" Mr. Hillegas' answers having hav-ing been suppofonJy satisfactory, the president "proceeded slowly and. between be-tween puffs of 'his gi eat pipe, spoke determinedly." de-terminedly." The upshot of his talk I was the upbraiding cf England. "Our p-.-.;le increased in number, and .is the vents passed, established a form of govern-i. fin such as yours in America. Amer-ica. The Bi itish thought they were better bet-ter able to govern us than we were our-. our-. selves--, and once took our country from u. Their defeats at Laing's Neck and Majuba hill taught them that we were tigliteis. and they gave us our independence inde-pendence and allowed us to live peaceably peace-ably for a number of years. They did tmt think the country valuable enough, to warrant the repetition of the fighting fight-ing for it. When it became known all over the world twelve years ago that the rnost extensive gold fields on the globe had been discovered in our apparently ap-parently worthless country, England became envious, and laid plans to annex an-nex such a valuable prize. Thousands of people were attracted hither by our wonderful gold mines at Johannesburg, and the English statesmen renewed their r attacks on us. They made all sorts of pretexts to rob us of our country, coun-try, and when they could not do it in a. way that was honest and would be commended by other cations, they planned the Jameson raid, which was merely a bold attempt to steal our country." It was evident that Cecil Phodes was Oom Paul's sipeeial bete noire, for he said: ".Mr. Phodes is the cause of all the j troubles between our country and England. Eng-land. He desires to form all the country coun-try south of the- Zambesi river into a United States of South Africa, and before be-fore he can do t'his he must have possession pos-session of the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. His aim in life is 10 be prtsident of the United States of South Africa. He initiated the Jaftieson raid, and he has stirred up the spirit of discontent which is being shown by the Englishmen in the Transvaal. Our government endeavors to treat everyone every-one with like favor, but thee Englishmen English-men are never, satisfied with anything we do. They want the English Hag to wave over the Transvaal territory, and nothing )o?s. Phodes spent millions of pounds in effort to steal our country, and wifil probably spend millions more. Put we will never leave this land, which we found, settled and. protected." pro-tected." Then rising from his chair and raising rais-ing his voice, he continued, slowly and deliberately: . "We will fight until not one Koer remains re-mains to defend our flag and our country: coun-try: our women and children will fight for their liberties; and even I, an old man. will take" the gun which I have used agadnst them twice before and use it again to defend the country I love. v "Put I hope there will be no war. I want none and the Poers want none. If war conies, we shall not be to blame. I have done all in my power for peace, and have taken many insults fmm Englishmen merely that my people might not be plunged into war. 1 want no war. 1 hope that I may spend the rest of my days in peace." . |