act proved to be the A B C of my
study of the man of destiny of South Africa. It was clear that neither
Kruger nor his friends knew anything of art, for the picture was an
exaggerated reproduction of every defect in the President's homely
features, the low, narrow, unintellectual brow, over-small eyes, and
heavy, massive expanse of face beneath. The man himself was almost
beautiful in comparison with the monster on the canvas, and I really
could not help pitying him for his innocent admiration of a thing that
ought to be cast into the fire. But presently the President spoke--a
mouthful of strange guttural words--in a voice that was like a loud
gurgle, and as the great jaws and checks and mouth heaved and opened, I
stole a glance at the picture, and it did not seem to me then as if the
painter had libelled the man. At any rate, the explosive dialect so
expanded the cheeks and widened the mouth that I perceived some
resemblance to the brutal picture.

THE TRANSVAAL "SIR ORACLE."

I was told by my introducer, after the interview was over, that the
President had already read a chapter in the Bible, and that it is his
custom to do so every morning before appearing in public. I then
understood the meaning and tone of his last words to me. Said he: "What
I have said, shall be done." He was alluding to the fact that the
Dynamite Monopoly and Railway Rates were the children of the State, but
they should be put into the hands of the Attorney-General, and if it
were discovered that the terms of the concessions were in any way
contravened, reparation should be made. The manner of his last words
reminded me of the Jovic way--"and what I will, is fate"--but when I
learned how he had been engaged, I knew he had been infected with the
style of the Pentateuch.

THE "HUMBUG POSE."

This humour of Mr Kruger's is becoming more pronounced as he ages. He
has fully arrived at that stage of life which made Mr Gladstone so
impossible in the Cabinet. There is abundance of life and vitality in
the President, but he is so choleric that he is unable to brook any
opposition. Any expression suggesting him to be mistaken in his views
or policy rouses his temper, the thunderous gurgle is emitted, and the
right arm swings powerfully about, while the eyes become considerably
buried under the upper eyelids. I suppose, from the photograph of him
now on sale at Pretoria, which represents his eyes looking upward, he
fancies this to be the im