Stephanus Johannes Paulus Krüger is about the most accessible President on
record. Every morning—except Sundays and holidays, after family worship,
that is to say, from 5.30 in summer and 6 in winter to 8 o'clock—he gives
audience to Boer and Uitlander, rich or poor alike, and also on each
afternoon, from 4 to 6 and even later. His residence in the west end of
Church Street, Pretoria, is quite an ordinary modest building of the
bungalow type. The only distinction observable is two crouching lion
figures, life size, on pedestals about three feet high, at the balustrade
entrance to the front verandah. A lawn of about thirty feet across extends
to the street limit, where at a very unpretentious gate two armed burgher
guards are constantly stationed. These will receive an intending visitor's
name, an unarmed domestic guard will then come forward, who, after a short
scrutiny, if the person is a stranger, will report to the President and will
immediately return to conduct you to that dignitary, who may be sitting
under the front verandah or in the adjoining reception-room. There the
President will readily shake hands and point to a chair, rather near by
because he is slightly hard of hearing, the domestic guard standing or
sitting between, but a good way back. By his questions and final remarks one
feels assured that the topic introduced has been attentively listened to and
fully grasped. While conversing, other audience-seekers would drop in, and,
while waiting their turn, coffee would usually be served to all. The manners
observed are devoid of any stiffness of etiquette, but rather marked with a
cordial decorum approaching intimacy, most assuring to the simplest and
humblest visitor.
The only leisure the President enjoys is the interval from 12 to 2, between
his official labours at the Government buildings, which are about half a
mile distant from his house. He drives there and back in a modest carriage
attended by a guard of mounted policemen. His Honour is invariably dressed
in black cloth, with the usual tall silk hat. Six feet high, with a slight
stoop, broad shouldered, deep-chested, with well-developed limbs, arms
rather long, the President presents a stately, burly figure, portly without
obesity. When younger he was noted, as something like a Ulysses, for
personal strength and prowess as well as for sagacity. Although seventy-five
years old now, Mr. Krüger has still a remarkably hale bearing and an
intellect of undiminished quality. His eyesight, however, has been suffering
of late, rendering the attendance of an oculist necessary. His Honour is in
his fifth term of presidency, and has held the office twenty-two years. His
salary is £8,000 per annum, of which he probably does not expend £1,000, his
habits being exceedingly simple and frugal, Mrs. Krüger being equally
conservative and thrifty, preferring rather to expend money for her children
and in unostentatious benevolence than in superfluities.
President Krüger is an exemplary Christian, an earnest student of the Bible
since his youth, ever ready to employ his gifts to strengthen the faith of
his people and to maintain their religious standard. He often occupies the
pulpit, and on other occasions gives exhorting discourses. Upon the
completion of the imposing Johannesburg synagogue his Honour was requested
to preside at its dedication. It was an impressive function, and withal so
anomalous and unrabbinical a departure—the head of the State, a devout
Christian, opening the edifice for Jewish worship and addressing a discourse
to the thousands of assembled Israelites. In his zeal and concern Mr. Krüger
could not refrain from adverting to their blessed Messiah, the God-man of
Jewish stock, rejected through ignorance by their forefathers, exalted
since, but who loved His people nevertheless, as typified by Joseph's
narrative when he revealed himself to his brethren in Egypt. He adjured them
to a prayerful reading of their Old Testament, and he invoked God's mercy to
remove the veil which obscured from their eyes their own and also the
Gentiles' glorious Immanuel. The ceremony was concluded with perfect
decorum, despite the surprise that the address had drifted into an
impassioned Gospel sermon.
This grand old Boer is the very personification of noble patriotism and
devoted concern for the welfare of his nation. While admiring and loving the
man, what sorrow on the one side and indignant execration on the other do
not overwhelm one, seeing that such a pattern and leader of men should have
become the victim of that heartless Hollander coterie! One cannot but marvel
at the same time at the alert skill and wily patience which must have been
employed during the many years past to hold President Krüger with State
Secretary Keitz and President Steyn in the Afrikaner Bond leash ready to let
loose with unshaken convictions upon the supreme contest designed for them
and their people by the machinations intended for upraising Holland at the
risk of immolating the victimized Boer nation.
