Jasper County Democrat, Volume 3, Number 34, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 December 1900 — FROM FOR EIGN LANDS. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FROM FOR EIGN LANDS.

The one central figure in European politics last week is Paul Kruger, president of the Transvaal republic. He is nn uncouth, almost unlettered, Boer, bent with age. lie is the president of a republic that has been beaten into the earth by the iron heel of a British army 200,000 strong and commanded by the greatest military leader of the old world. The Boer army is scattered. Sixteen thousand Boer soldiers are prisoners at St. Helena, in Ceylon, or in Cape Town. The rest, broken up into guerrilla hands, are being driven from shelter to shelter in the Transvaal or the Orange Free State. The Boer women and children have been driven from their farms to the smaller towns and from the smaller towns to the larger cities. There is nothing left of the Boer republic but the name and President Kruger. Whut will Europe do with Kruger? Is he an element of danger to England? These are questions being asked by thinking men in England as well as on the continent. Apparently Kruger’s only hope for assistance lies in the French people, nnd President Loubet nnd his premier, Waideek-Roussenu, are evidently determined that even the volatilism of the French people shall not sway the government n hnir’s breadth from an attitude absolutely correct toward Great Britain. But if the French excess of enthusiasm for Kruger can be turned into a political channel and the WnldeckRousseau ministry he overturned, the situation might take on nn altogether different aspect. It is fuirer to assume that Kruger is making a final effort to secure, through diplomacy, that pressure on England that may compel the British government, from motives of self-interest alone, to grant ut least autonomy to the Boer races. Tlie Chinese situation Is far from reassuring. Negotiations for a peaceful settlement are in a deadlock, nnd the crisis which is likely to reopen hostilities nnd bring about the partition of the Chinese empire is evidently near at hand. Htntcd briefly, a majority of the powers, led by Germany, is demanding more than China can pay. The minority, made up of the United States, Russia and France, favors a demand for only what Chinn is able to pay nnd no more. As a result, the press of London and Berlin, especially of Berlin, is filled with indignant criticism for the policy of the United States. In the course of a cross-country drag hunt on I.ong Island Mrs. James L. Kernoeban of New Y’ork was thrown from her saddle after taking' n double jump. Her foot caught in the stirrup and she was dragged a Bhort distance, but slie stopped the horse, remounted and regained two miles on the lenders, having to take ten jumps over rail fences on the way. Er.ports of manufactures amounted ta more than a million dollars a day during the nine months ending with September, 1900.