his apartment he was chewing away vigorously on a mouthful of
"biltong" and having the time of his life.

The contrast between Smuts and his predecessor Botha is striking. These
two men, with the possible exception of Kruger, stand out in the annals
of the Boer. Kruger was the dour, stolid, canny, provincial trader. The
only time that his interest ever left the confines of the Transvaal was
when he sought an alliance with William Hohenzollern, and that person, I
might add, failed him at the critical moment.

Botha was the George Washington of South Africa,--the farmer who became
Premier. He was big of body and of soul,--big enough to know when he was
beaten and to rebuild out of the ruins. Even the Nationalists trusted
him and they do not trust Smuts. It is the old story of the prophet in
his own country. There are many people in South Africa today who believe
that if Botha were alive there would be no secession movement.

The Boers who oppose him politically call Smuts "Slim Jannie." The
Dutch word "slim" means tricky and evasive. Not so very long ago Smuts
was in a conference with some of his countrymen who were not altogether
friendly to him. He had just remarked on the long drought that was
prevailing. One of the men present went to the window and looked out.
When asked the reason for this action he replied:

"Smuts says that there's a drought. I looked out to see if it was
raining."

When you come to Smuts in this analogy you behold the Alexander Hamilton
of his nation, the brilliant student, soldier, and advocate. Of all his
Boer contemporaries he is the most cosmopolitan. Nor is this due
entirely to the fact that he went to Cambridge where he left a record
for scholarship, and speaks English with a decided accent. It is because
he has what might be called world sense. His career, and more especially
his part at the Peace Conference and since, is a dramatization of it.

To the student of human interest Smuts is a fertile subject. His life
has been a cinema romance shot through with sharp contrasts. Here is one
of them. When leaders of the shattered Boer forces gathered in
_Vereeniging_ to discuss the Peace Terms with Kitchener in 1902, Smuts,
who commanded a flying guerilla column, was besieging the little mining
town of O'okiep. He received a summons from Botha to attend. It was
accompanied by a safe-conduct pass signed "D. Haig, Colonel." Later Haig
and Smuts stood shoulder to shoulder in a common cause an