eration for the prisoner's physical condition,
and some regard for official decencies. The same cannot be said of
those in which Du Plessis himself took a prominent part. Upon one
occasion when a native had been released from the triangle, after
twenty strokes from the cat had been borne without a murmur, Du
Plessis suddenly became infuriated at the stoicism of his victim, and
stepping towards him knocked the released man down with his fist and
spurned him with his foot. Upon another occasion a boy of ten or
twelve years of age (under what circumstances is not known) was taken
by Du Plessis into the open yard, stretched in mid air by two warders
gripping his wrists and ankles, and flogged with a cane by Du Plessis
himself. The screams of the child were heart-rending and the sight
caused one lady who happened to be visiting in the gaol to faint.
When the wretched urchin was released by the two warders and stood
cowering before Du Plessis the latter repeated his former performance
of knocking his victim down with his closed fist.

Mr. Du Plessis it should be remembered is a sample of a certain class
only of the Boers--not by any means of all. He is a man with a
treacherous and vindictive temper, distinctly unpleasant in
appearance, being coarsely and powerfully built, and enjoying an
expression of countenance which varies between cunning and
insincerity on one hand and undisguised malevolence on the other.
Some idea of the general kindliness of his disposition may be
gathered from his actions. On one occasion, when special
relaxation of the rules was authorized by the Landdrost of Pretoria
in order to enable a number of the Johannesburg friends of the
prisoners to see them, and when about one hundred permits had been
issued by that official to men travelling over from Johannesburg
specially for the purpose, Du Plessis devised means to defeat this
act of consideration, and issued orders to his guards to admit only
three visitors at a time to the gaol. As a consequence, more than
half failed to gain admittance. Nor was he satisfied with this; he
informed the prisoners themselves that he wished the Landdrost had
issued two hundred passes instead of one hundred, so that he might
let those Johannesburg people know who was 'baas' there. Possibly the
fact that on the previous day he had been severely rebuffed in his
petition campaign may have provoked this act of retaliation.

Another instance of Mr. Du Plessis' system was aff