Rensselaer Journal, Volume 11, Number 22, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 November 1901 — OOM PAUL’S GOOD FRAU [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

OOM PAUL’S GOOD FRAU

• Although a Multimillionaire's * ■ Wife, She Cooks and Wash- . " es and Darns—Knows • . More About Knitting * • Thnn I'elltics. . • " a

BY MARY E. LEONARD.

The wife of “Oom Paul” Kruger is a plain, mptherly looking old woman, who is as vigorous at 65 as most women are at 40. As wife of the president of the Transvaal republic she lives as simply as any burgher’s wife In the country. Although her husband Is said to have a fortune of from $25,000,000 to $35,000,000, she lives as economically as she would if they had not a penny in the bank. What would we think of the wife of an American multimillionaire who did her own housework, cooked her own meals, made her own dresses and darned her husband’s socks? Yet Mrs. Kruger does all these things. She has none of the airs of the fine lady. 'The. wives of many a $1,500 a year clerk In Pretoria dress better than does the wife of the Boer president She Is not parsimonious or miserly, however. She has a good, kind face. She has been a good wife and a good mother for half a century, and she knows not how to be anything different In short she Is a typical good Dutch frau. For many years the Krugers lived In a modest little cottage on one of Pre- j torla’s back streets. The walls were , generally covered with morning glory vines, and there was a big tree in the front yard. Under this tree Mrs. Kruger used to sit with her knitting, while her lord and master sat near smoking. A few years ago Kruger had built a new house on Church street opposite the Dutch Reformed church, .where he sometimes preaches. The new house Is

far from being a mansion. In fact, it is muclr less pretentious than the homes of many of the well to do burghers. It Is such a house as an American millionaire might build for his coachman or head gardener. An iron railing, with stone pillars, is in front of the house, which is protected from the sun by a veranda. Between the railings and the veranda, right and left of the Entrance, couch two stone lions, the gift of the late Mr. B. J. Barnato. - Tfee president’s house is simply furnished, for he does not care for pomp. Much furniture he does not need since his favorite spot is the “stoop." Here he may be found early In the day till 8 o’clock and again from half past 5 till sunset. The visitor would probably find Mrs. Kruger sitting there with her knitting. If she was not in sight, where do you suppose she would be? At a meeting of the Browning club, at a foreign missionary meeting? Not at all. She would be in the kitchen preparing the “kaffe clatch” or baking “der brode” or scrubbing the floors. It is said that the Krugers’ household expenses are more than met by the $2,000 allowed the president as “coffee money.” The $35,000 salary is added to his ever increasing bank account. Where all the Kruger fortune will go goodness knows! There are some American Krugers and residents of Chicago and relatives of the Boer president who expect to get some of It A correspondent who recently interviewed Mr. Kruger writes: “As he closed our interview Mr. Kruger went across the hall into a low ceiUnged, whitewashed room and leaned for a moment over a placid faced, motherly little woman who was seated on a rocking chair darning stockings. This was Mrs. Kruger, who, though one never hears 'of her, interested me mightily, because she seemed so utterly oblivious to the turmoils that are besetting her husband’s nation.” Mrs. Kruger Is a second wife. She was a 'Miss Du Flessls, a name of prominence In South Africa. Kruger’s first wife was an aunt of Miss Dn Plessls and bore him one son, who died. Sixteen children were the fruit of this second marriage, and of those seven are living. The girls are comfortably married to burghers in and about Pretoria, and the boys take an •fitly* Interest la the army.

MRS. PAUL KRUGER.