of Rhodesian police on the Transvaal border ready to come to
the assistance of the Committee if necessary. The understanding was that
Jameson should not invade the Transvaal until he was needed. His
impetuosity spoiled the scheme. Instead of waiting until the Committee
was properly armed and had seized Kruger, he suddenly crossed the border
with his forces. The Raid was a fizzle and the commander and all his men
were captured by the Boers. This abortive attempt was the real prelude
to the Boer War, which came four years later.

Most Americans who have read about this episode believe that John Hays
Hammond was the only countryman of theirs in it. This was because he had
a leading and spectacular part and was one of the four ringleaders
sentenced to death. He afterwards escaped by the payment of a fine of
$125,000. As a matter of fact, four other prominent American mining
engineers were up to their necks in the reform movement and got long
terms in prison. They were Capt. Thomas Mein, J. S. Curtis, Victor M.
Clement and Charles Butters. They obtained their freedom by the payment
of fines of $10,000 each. This whole enterprise netted Kruger something
like $2,000,000 in cash.

The Jameson Raid did more than enrich old Kruger's coffers and bring the
American engineers in the Rand to the fore. Indirectly it blocked a
German scheme that might have played havoc in Africa the moment the
inevitable Great War broke. If the Boer War had not developed in 1899 it
is altogether likely that, judging from her whole campaign of world-wide
interference, Germany would have arranged so that it should break out in
1914. In this unhappy event she could have struck a death blow at
England in South Africa because in the years between the Boer War and
1914 she created close-knit colonial organizations in South-West and
East Africa; built strategic railways; armed and drilled thousands of
natives, and could have invaded the Cape Colony and the Transvaal.

In connection with the Jameson Raid is a story not without interest.
Jameson and Rudyard Kipling happened to be together when the news of
Roosevelt's coup in Panama was published. The author read it first and
handed the paper to his friend with the question: "What do you think of
it?"

Jameson glanced at the article and then replied somewhat sadly, "This
makes the Raid look like thirty cents."

I cannot leave the Rand section of the Union of South Africa without a
word in passing about Pre