Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 December 1899 — A GREAT BOER LEADER. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A GREAT BOER LEADER.

Gen. Cronje* Who Opposed the British at Modder River. WMle Gen. Joubert, commander-in-chief of the Boer forces, is the tactician, Gen. Cronje, who commanded the Boers at the Modder River, is the burly fighter of the Transvaal army. Of the. two Cronje is the more representative Boer. Joubert, possibly from Ms French ancestry, is a man of a certain polish, and can be indirect when policy requires. Cronje is blunt and always to the point. His craft is that of the hunt-

er, and thinly disguises the force that awaits only the opportunity. Gen. Cronje is greatly admired by the Boers. They tMnk Jonbert is a wonderful tactician and organizer, but they love Cronje, the silent man, of sudden and violent action. He is no man’s Sim d unS? He then in the fewest words. He never

r. • Cronje is a soldier and nothing rise. He hates form. He hates politics, though a born leader of men. He was strongly urged to oppose Kruger for the Presidency In 1808, but he would not He will have none of any rule but that of the rifle. He despises cities. He is a man of the velt. \ , It was Cronje who rounded up the Jameson raiders and, says a writer, “his maneuvering on that occasion was that of a Cromwell. So far as my memory carries, Cronje was not even specifically thanked by the Volksraad for Ms great service to the state. He was a burgher; it was his duty to repel the invader; he repelled him—and there the matter rested. “They would have censured Mm had he failed; they refrained from comment when he succeeded. “Cronje, riding back to Pretoria, bad no guard of honqr to receive him, no great civic function to fete him, no sword of honor to adorn him. He was plain Peasant Cronje, returning, heavyhearted, from his wounded son’s pallet In Krugersdorp Hospital, somewhat weary in the bones from those long hours in the steaming saddle, nowise elated, nowise altered from Ms everyday demeanor. “Since then Cronje has received a seat in the Executive Council, and is now a personage with a substantial state salary; but the man is in no way changed. He is as individual as Kruger, strong in the faith of his own generalship as Joubert."

GEN. CRONJE.