mon welfare and also indispensable for common safety.

So prevalent had the practice become of deferring to the opinions of
their leaders that it engendered an apathy among the people against
considering political and public matters which were not altogether of
engrossing importance. Public meetings would be poorly attended, and at
elections not half the votes were recorded. "Let the elected heads see
to it; they are paid for doing the controlling and thinking work"--that
used to be the general feeling. But during the past twenty years public
interest has by degrees been successfully aroused by the activities of
the Afrikaner Bond; the former apathy and distaste to the consideration
of public concerns have given place to a more lively identification even
with politics, but the tendency of being swayed by men of influence of
their own kind remains unchanged.

The Boers are great smokers--tobacco appears to have no hurtful effects
whatever upon them, but seems rather to serve as a grateful sedative.
The first thing offered on meeting a Boer is his tobacco pouch, and if
one is a guest at his house, this is followed by one or more cups of
coffee. This is drunk by men and women in large quantities, often
without sugar, but very weak. The people are justly famed for cordial
hospitality to strangers, and the pleasing tact and unostentatious
correct politeness met with from the most ordinary and uneducated Boer
are only accountable for on the theory that that particular culture of
manners has been transmitted from his noble French ancestry of a couple
of hundred years ago.

In stature the men near the average of six feet (say five feet ten
inches)--full-bearded, brawny-limbed, and of stalwart build, suggesting
a homeric capacity for aggression and resistance. They present a
standard of sturdy and active manhood, which would have delighted the
critical eye of Frederick the Great for the formation of his very best
regiments. What is really singular is the infinitesimally small
proportion of ineffective and sickly men found left behind when all the
commandoes are called out, and also the considerable number of hale old
men above sixty who voluntarily join the field. And when the hardy
training and general high efficiency are considered down to the youth of
sixteen, one may estimate the formidableness of such a foe, all well
mounted on tough and nimble horses, well provisioned and provided with
the best weapons extant, guided by