Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 30 January 1904 — OOM PAUL’S LAST DAYS. [ARTICLE]

OOM PAUL’S LAST DAYS.

Cincinnati Enquirer: Paul Kruger, formerly President of the Transvaal, is rapidly failing at The Hague, and his death may be announced even as soon as this Paragraph reaches print. His old ays have been saddened by reflection on the downfall of the South African Bepnblic, over which he presided. No greater struggle for freedom and independence was ever made than that by the Boer patriots; and though the fight was not successful in the ultimate, no greater humiliation was ever put upon Great Britain than that which she secured at the hands of the people of the Transvaal and Orange Free State. There had finally to be a yielding, though, to force vastly a superior in numbers and resources. In the eyes of the world there was mnch glory, even in defeat, for Kroger and those who struggled with him; bat the poor old man thought not of that. He was embittered as to the outcome of the war in Sonth Africa. He unceasingly mourned the impossibility of the South African Republic’s ever again assuming important

places in the affairs of the world. Death comes to him as a gracious relief from a sorrow. The passing of Oom Paul is pathetic, and it is suggestive of remorse and repentance. Even the people of the United States — this greatest of all the republics — cannot be content with the attitude of their Government toward the struggle for popular government by the sturdy Boers. There was not a helping hand nor one encouraging word from us. The only grace left us in this connection is the bowing of our heads in humiliation.