Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 February 1896 — TRANSVAAL’S PRESIDENT. [ARTICLE]

TRANSVAAL’S PRESIDENT.

Some of the Traits of President KrugerAn Autocratic Ruler. “Oom Paul.” as President Kruger of the Transvaal is affectionately called by his fellow-citizens. *vas born in the Coleburg district of Cape Colony on October 10, 1825. His full name is Stephanas Johannes Kruger. As a youth he received his training-on the veldt—rifle in hand—more than in the school room, belonging to a Hopper (or Separatist church) family that excelled in hunting and paid little heed to education. In fact. President Kruger is a man of few accomplishments, and his skill in diplomacy may be said to be instinctive. It was Cecil It bodes wdio said that of all the men he had ever dealt with President Kruger was the only statesman by nature. When the great trek, or march, from Cape Colony to a virgin country began in 1835. Paul was ten years old. For a year the Kruger family halted in the Free State, and then they crossed over into Natal, where the disastrous fighting with the Zulus at Busman's Hiver occurred, the trekkers afterwards taking up farms in the Transvaal. In his eighteenth year Paul Kruger was elected field cornet, and five years later a commandant. For distinguished services in a nine years' Kaffir war he was promoted to Commandant-General. In 1883 he became President of the Republic. As a ruler, President Kruger is autocratic, any measure advocated by him invariably passing the Legislature, such is his personal influence and the strength of his will. Whenever a serious attempt is made to thwart it, Oom Paul threatens to resign, and the opposition to his wishes immediately dissolves. The President, like all the Boers, is a devoted family man. His wife is said to be a woman of much shrewdness and force of will. They have had several children, and at least one of their children. Egolf. who rode through Johannesburg firing his revolver like a cowboy the other day, promises to be a chip off the old block.