Show WITH THE BOERS IN SOUTH AFRICA an american newspaper man gives his impressions country from cape town to pretoria very similar to wyoming utah and nevada character of boers how they went to war statements of presidents kraier and steyn new york jan 1 edward easton an american newspaper in south africa cables aiom as follows 1 I stopped at the cepl tal of the orange free state while on vay heie and there secured for tho sar francisco examiner from president M steyn the following abac statement might cannot always be right president steyn began there Is an old saying that false statements will sooner or later disprove themselves they may in this case but the truth may be learned too late to avail us anything we did not think that the fabrications which appeared in mr rhodes paper in this country got to england and poisoned the public mind there thia an unjust war and we do not believe that the respecting people of england will permit it to continue when they discover by what class of men they have been led the exact reason tor alie orange free state joining alth the republic of the transvaal was this As men ot one blood and men believing in right there was nothing else tor us to do I 1 think that you will find that in this state we have given a welcome to every man who dashes to become a citizen our brothers aud cousins to the north have done the same so far as they could when the jameson raid took place e all discovered to what desperate ends tho greed of gain had driven the capitalists then as a means of mutual protection from a similar raid in the future we made an alliance with the transvaal government for joint detente of course you know this gov has long been recognized by england as a sovereign state of late mr chamberlain has claimed that En glands suzerainty over the transvaal was tacitly understood it you spend tomorrow reading the diplomatic correspondence at the government building yon may see as a disinterested person the false issues the eng lih government has championed NOTHING TO GAIN AND ALL TO LOSE As a stae we have nothing to gain and all to lose As men of this state there was only one course to pursue the boers trekked into these parts early in 1837 they went an to natal with alia zulus were tc jhc re the wars tierce and blocky that some ot them the territory which camo back to howling wilderness and was then A full of wild beasts the doers had scarcely settled in their new home before governor sir harry smith ot the colony proclaimed english sovereignty over us again he sant a command ot soldiers to enforce the proclamation they were met by a handful of bleis at Booro plaats where an place it fe under the conditions dit ions in avor loathe lot the engish and sovereignty was declared ward sir harry smith sent men under general cathcart to that part west of our present boundary which was occupied by the Basu tos the were as they are now a magnificent race of fight army at that time was enormous the were sa thoroughly defeated by the natives that they retreated back to the colony and informed the english government that the country north of tho biange river was fit only tor wild beasts and savages and that it would cost ens land an enormous sum to rule it you see they had starrel up the and since the natives had defeated such an army of englishmen the concluded that their tor a handful of boer hunters and was not well founded the began raiding the settle cats and stealing the cattle ENGLAND DEAP TO we pleaded with england to protect us they had stirred up the natives and claimed us as subjects but they refused and bald we must return to the colony or shift tor ourselves the rev dr murry who is still in this country went to england and protested against the abandonment ot the boers after we were being attached by countless thousands ot blacks that the english soldiers biad stirred up sir ruseell dark said and his declaration is a part of the english records that the country north of the colony was not for white men it we were determined ter mined not to return to tho colony we were hotd to malte our own government and to protect it ourselves so the free state was organized organised sed england signed the convention 0 granting absolute and total indo pend enco to us tho convention provided that england would never interfere with the natives on the north of the orange river that wo acro to receive a fair share ot the customs duties on imported goods consumed in hiir state and also that all our ammunition would always be delivered to us treo of duties from to 1864 the basilos made periodical raids on our farms driving away the cattle and killing nil the inhabitants they could president brant saw blut no iio greas could be made in state until alie were conquered and from to 1869 the boers fifteen hundred men capable of fighting waged war on the blacks we drove them from kopie kopje to kopie kopje from stronghold to stronghold until finally we had thim thi m on their knees now comes one of those despicable traits of the english character just as soon as the english saw that we were arranging a treaty with tha Basu tos sir philip Wod eliouse stepped in and proclaimed the under british protection they took the territory you see at once after thi eo years desperate fighting wo acre as a government BRITAIN SEIZES LAND the farmers had returned to original desolation juat when we thought we were going to secure the fruits ot our war england took the territory which is the in africa wo could not kielp ourselves in violation to the convell oa giving us our independence england hal stopped our ammunition during the last part of the desperate struggle with the savages we had always received just such trea ment we simple had to submit from that time the have great tor boer bullets but they have remained as a menace on our border today they are probably the finest bo yot native soldiers in the has armed them for what purpose dut J am getting ahead of my story at the end of uie it thit england robbed us of he most fertile part of africa an old buchman was alting near his kraal one day when he noticed a brilliant stone lying near him lie picked it up and took it to an old boer in the vicinity ii afi pretty and the old boer gave it to his children to play with A wandering jew peddler came across it and immediately realized Us value the news spread over the world diamonds had been discovered THE ROBBERY IN HISTORY now comes the greatest rub aery lii history were farsi discovered north ot the river near Us continence with the river at england ahe we in the papers the convention giving us wore titles to farm rights where the diamonds di I 1 ahn x produced this ekuni hanged tho foundation 01 ol hr and stated that the territory was hers by right of sovereignty over a lac of natives near that section v pointed out the explicit article in the convention in which she agreed not 10 in any way meddle with the natlis north of the orange river but in the meantime english ot made outa definition of our western border this made the diamond fields just west 6 ba tho boundary was defined as running due north from a certain kopjo on the orange river over davids grave the burial gound of an old chief to the vaal river then more diamonds were discovered farther east the british then claimed these as being on british territory one night some miners moved davids grave farther east we were protesting that even this fictitious boundary did not include the new diamond field they surveyed it and sure enough the miners had tailed to move the grave tar enough cast by about two appropriating THE MINKS then they put the british flag up over the mines any way and asked us what we were going to do about it we were a handful of poverty stricken farmers in desperation president brant went to england in 1876 and urged the justice of ats cause finally when they had exhausted every pretext they offered him pounds for the country they had stolen and told him he could accept that or nothing it was not a farthing in proportion to its value but english soldiers were moving up toward the diamond field ho took the money they already had the richest part of the world since that time my boy we have lived in peace we are a poor country as the world goes but we have no debt wo have been good little boys and england has pointed us out as the model little republic 1 I think wa said we had no debt to be accurate we s all 1 owe pounds on our railways tacy produce a net revenue to the government of 20 per cent per annum on cost the baulo of the orange free state railroad today even with war on our hands is five times that of our indebtedness in our little republic here you will not find many what nowadays would be termed wealthy men but wo all have a farm and most of them are comfortable but you should visit them yourself and sea how they live and what they have read gray college which you probably passed this afternoon Is our main school for boys I 1 studied there myself before going to england and graduating in law we have an institute tor girls and a school where poor boys can learn the higher branches these boys work a certain num her of hours each day in the railway shops their wages cover all their personal expenses when they graduate they go into the service of the government in any branch of the railways they have elected to follow they are under civil service and when they reach CO aie retired on a government pension SCHOOL IN EVERY TOWNSHIP we have schools in every township in the slate and a law compelling the fathers to send their children to school our state revenue aside from the railways Is pounds per annum of sum we expend pounds per annum on education I 1 may be wrong in my statement but I 1 think we expend a larger percentage of our revenue for public education than any government in the world in 1874 we had children in the schools today wo in regular attendance the official language of the state Is dutch but our education la bilingual those of the burghers who could afford it have been sending their children to england to take tho higher degree the degree of U A Is taken hero but seeing that england represents imperialism and the events of the past few years being particularly atrocious as regards the transvaal wo decided lasty car to further foster the pride in republican ism by building an interstate college some of our burghers have almost been forced to the conclusion that it be better tor their boys to remain without the honors of a high degree than to receive them in an english atmosphere what I 1 have briefly told to you is the least part of what we have suffered as a people they arc the historical things the untold petty humiliations liati ons that have been heaped upon us have driven us into war where we can scarcely hope to do more than show the world at large or impress upon the minds of our growing children that wo are self respecting men biow england robbed the transvaal of atal and how she has now attempted to take the whole government itself you will learn when you reach pretoria the president had scarcely finished reciting his story when his secretary told him that some burghers had just ar from the western border with some important military information As ve went out of the library I 1 noticed a large revolver on a holster that hung on hat rack the president noted that it attracted my attention TO fon FREE DOM no man in tho government is exempt from military service he said an english officer occupies this capital I 1 shall use that and my ride like the humblest burgher now in a lavarger la arger P n health inspector of chicago bays kodol dyspepsia curi cannot by recommended too highly it cuica me of severe dyspepsia it digests you cat and cures indigestion heartburn and all forms of ds sp epsia |