Kruger

“ Then hearing the noise of the moving bolt in Erma's door, Kruger says to the men with him: "Just step back a leetle into the smoking-room, while I talk to the girl."
"All right, bishop!" answers the sheriff, who seems entirely under Lot's domination.
The men withdraw as Erma comes out and stands before Bishop Kruger, her beauty perhaps at this moment appealing to him more than it ever did—for excitement has added a lustre to her eye, and she seems so helpless, and so much in his power. ”

“ Kruger was his pal. If he wants to revenge the fall of Kruger he may shoot from behind a tree. If not, he'll shoot from the open, and it will be an even fight."
The terror of it all, the whole realization, sprang up in the girl. In a moment she was crying: "Stop him, John—for Heaven's sake, find a way to stop him."
"There is only one power that can turn the trick, I'm afraid," answered
John Mark. "That power is Lefty."
"If he shoots Lefty he'll come straight toward us on his way to the house, and if he sees you—"
"If he sees me he'll shoot me, of course," declared Mark. ”

“ Kruger climbed down! It did not worry him, nor did he take shame that he had failed. He climbed down, as he had done before in the Stellaland affair, the Banjailand trek, the commandeering incident, and as he no doubt will do in others; for he may bluff hard, but it will take a great deal to make him fight. There is one matter upon which Mr. Kruger's judgment is perfect: he can judge the 'breaking strain' to a nicety. He climbs down, but he is not beaten; for as surely as the dammed stream will seek its outlet, so surely will the old Dutchman pursue his settled aim.
War is war, and always bad ”

“ Remember, Kruger is not omnipotent, and Van Zwieten is powerful. The President may not care to offend him. Besides, you can see for yourself, from this letter, that the man is still in love with you. Once he got you into his power he would stick at nothing that would make you a free woman."
"In that case I would die with Harold. But I don't believe the Boers are so uncivilized. Kruger will help me--I feel sure of it. You say he is a good man."
"He is," Mr. Scarse said. He was one of the few people who had fallen into this error. "Yes, if anything can be done, Kruger is the man who will do it." ”

“ Stephanus Johannes Paulus Kruger, President of the Transvaal—the other side of the Vaal River, is the name of the country—was born in the Cape Colony, October 10th, 1825. It is the commendation of the naturalist Mr. Distant, that Mr. Kruger has a "very large amount of natural wisdom," which is the softer way of saying that he is not an educated man, but one of the statesmen of Nature. ”

“ In this troublesome state were our camels, and poor Breaden, being a stranger to them, was treated with neither politeness nor respect; Kruger, especially, being so exceedingly ill-behaved as not only to knock Breaden down, but to attempt to kneel on his chest and crush him. This disaster was narrowly averted by the prompt action of Warri, who first dragged his master out of danger, and then chastised Kruger with a heavy stick, across the head and neck. Kruger was equally rough to his fellows, for as in a pioneering party, so in a mob of bull camels, there must be only one boss. ”

“ The Boers have endowed Kruger with almost absolute power, and if up to seventy-two years of age Kruger has been the incarnation of hostility to England, it would be a miracle indeed if in his extreme old age he should be converted. ”

“ Nevertheless, the upspringing as by magic of the great city of Johannesberg in the midst of the dreary veldt filled Kruger's soul with loathing. When once asked to permit prospecting for minerals around Pretoria, he replied, "Look at Johannesberg! We have enough gold and gold seekers in the country already!" The presence of this ever-growing multitude was felt to be a perpetual menace to Dutch, and more especially to Dopper supremacy. ”

“ Kruger a species of Western border ruffian or bandit.
However, as she sits and meditates, the thought that she is drawing nearer and nearer to her loved father, drives all else out of Erma Travenion's head, and she watches the wave-washed banks of the beautiful Hudson, and as they pass by says, "One more tree nearer papa—one more island nearer papa—one more town nearer papa," and later in the day, they having got off the New York Central, she murmurs "One more railroad nearer papa," and grows happier and happier as the cars bear her on. ”

“ Again Kruger chuckled, while he shook his ponderous head and pointed his clumsy finger at them.
“Far too young to be mixed up in conspiracy and treason. Young gentlemen like you ought to stay in your own country, and not come here breaking the laws and making riots.”
“We have done nothing, your Excellency,” said Ned.
“Do you call it nothing to knock down four honest burghers, smash the nose of one and the jawbone of another? Do you call it nothing to threaten my police with a revolver, and use the insolent language you have done?” ”

“ Kruger, whose knowledge of French is very limited, after pondering to himself, "What did that gal mean by O-ver?" finally answer his query by "Guess ag'in, Lot," and betake himself to the smoking car, where, after perusing the girl's telegram several times, he slyly chuckles to himself, "What!—and spile my hopes for myself and my work for the Church?" and with this curious but ambiguous remark places the document coolly in his ample but well-worn pocketbook, between a list of Welsh emigrants en route for Salt Lake City and a despatch from Brigham Young ”

“ It was a fixed belief with Kruger and his countrymen that England was in the same position that the Roman Empire had been when her legions were recalled from Albion. He knew how her power was envied by the other great nations, and how isolated she stood facing the world. He had intrigued with those ill-wishers until he considered himself sure of support.
Only blind hatred moved him now. To break the power of this abhorred race, he was prepared to sacrifice the Republic and make his countrymen serfs, so that he might be allowed to have a life-post as governor, and see the Uitlanders crushed. ”

“ A few minutes after they are all at breakfast together, Kruger greeting Miss Travenion in a more familiar and off-hand manner than he has so far assumed to her, saying, "Wall, Sissy, did your dad look natural as a miner? Stoggie boots aren't quite as nice as patent-leathers, and flannel shirts ain't quite so high-falutin' as b'iled ones, but he's daddy all the same, ain't he?" ”

“ Kruger," she says shortly, "I fear the telegram I gave you did not reach my father. Have you heard anything of him? Do you know where he is?"
"Yes," replies the complaisant Lot. "I reckon he is in one of the outlying mining camps. If so, he won't be here for a day or two yit, though he has been communicated with."
"Oh!" ejaculates the girl; "then I shall be disappointed again?"
"Indeed! How?" says the man rather curiously, noting that the lovely blue eyes are teary as they look into his.
"I am going to the Episcopal Church. ”

“ He couldn't talk American at first, and Dr. Kruger had to tell the nurses what he said. But even Dr. Kruger couldn't understand what his name was, so they took to calling him Billy Bolee. He's Dutch, you know. They let him run all around the place now, and he is the dearest little fellow!"
"Where is he now?"
"O, I expect he's in the office. Miss Murch tries to keep him there as much as she can, so's they will know where he is, I guess. Sometimes he gets pretty noisy and the sick folks don't like to have him running up and down the halls." ”

“ He likes to play like a cat with his prey, and surprise him suddenly.
Ned knew that Kruger had given orders for this extra tolerance, so that the citizens might be lulled into security, and that his thunderbolt might fall the more startlingly upon their devoted heads. This was only in keeping with his malicious, torture-loving, and savage nature. These smiling, hard-faced men who looked so grimly indulgent on the unarmed citizens whom they were deluding, were inwardly thinking gloatingly on the coming massacre. ”

“ President Kruger himself is an educated man, an able man in his own sphere. If he practises the art of brotherly love to the same extent that he preaches it, why does he not make some arrangement by which it would be possible to instil a portion of the sentiment into some of his erring children? Then we should have no more racial hatred to concern ourselves with; we should have instead the inspiring spectacle of a reclaimed Dutchman falling upon the neck of his English next-door neighbour and weeping. ”

“ He is a man of quite 75 years of age now, and his big massive frame is bent, but in his youth he possessed enormous strength, and many extraordinary feats are told of him. Once seen he is not easily forgotten. He has a certain natural dignity of bearing, and I think his character is clearly to be read in his face—strength of will and cunning, with the dulness of expression one sees in peasants' faces. 'Manners none, and customs beastly,' might have been a life-like description of Kruger. The habit of constantly expectorating, which so many Boers have, he has never lost. ”

“ And she gasps: "You are not deceiving me—my father is not dead?"
"He's as safe as you are!"
"Thank God!"
"Perhaps safer!" Then he tells her of the revelation Buck Powers has made him this night.
"Ah!" Erma cries; "Kruger is coming to force me to give up that Utah Central stock."
"For more!"
"What more?"
"To force you to be his seventh wife."
But she says very quietly: "There is no fear of that. I can always die at the last."
"I know you can die; but for my sake you must live!" cries Lawrence. Then he says grimly: "If there's any dying to-night, Kruger does it!" ”

“ The well-preserved Kruger at seventy-five years bears no deep marks of the busy and eventful life he has led, nor are there any visible indications that the end of his usefulness to his people is close at hand. ”

“ I remarked, “that Kruger demands peace upon impossible conditions, in order to be able to say that England has refused to discuss peace, that she is quite intractable, and that she is, therefore, responsible for the bloodshed which will continue.”
“Most certainly Kruger’s peace proposals are part of the Continental plot. He knows well enough how to play upon human simplicity and at the same time to assist his friends,” observed the great statesman who controlled England’s destinies. “But,” he urged, “we must do one thing, Ingram. ”

“ Kruger has been a leader among his countrymen. When a boy he had pronounced ability as a deer-stalker, and it is related of him that before he had reached manhood he had killed more lions than any other man in the colony. ”

“ Kruger's political platform is based on one of the paragraphs of a manifesto which he, as Vice-President of the Triumvirate, sent to Sir Owen Lanyon, the British Resident Commissioner, on Dingaan's Day, 1880, when the Boers were engaged in their second struggle for independence. The paragraph, which was apparently written by Mr. Kruger, reads:
"We declare before God, who knows the heart, and before the world: Any one speaking of us as rebels is a slanderer! The people of the South African Republic have never been subjects of Her Majesty, and never will be." ”

“ Burton a registered address, in case she might have to communicate with her, and did her best to cheer her.
"I feel sure you will find him all right, dear," she said, as she kissed the girl. "He is not the man to be shot by a scoundrel like Van Zwieten. And you can coax Kruger into doing what you want. You are pretty enough to do what you like with him."
Brenda smiled faintly--the first smile for many day's. "I don't think that will have much influence with a man like Kruger," she said.
"Nonsense, my dear. He is a man, and men are always susceptible. ”

“ He is very pious and self-reliant, which is provocative of bigotry and hot temper; and surrounded and approached on all sides by clever and often unscrupulous financiers and speculators, his scutcheon has worn wonderfully well, and his character and reputation passed through many fiery ordeals. He is also a rough diplomatist of no mean rank."
The picture is distinctly interesting, but it does Mr. Kruger an injustice. Mr. Distant says that "he understands Englishmen little better than they understand him." Surely this remark is an insult to Mr. Kruger's great sagacity. ”

“ One must remember also, behind the homely and pious phraseology, that one is dealing with a man who has been too cunning for us again and again--a man who is as wily as the savages with whom he has treated and fought. This Paul Kruger with the simple words of peace is the same Paul Kruger who with gentle sayings insured the disarmament of Johannesburg, and then instantly arrested his enemies--the man whose name was a by-word for 'slimness' [craftiness] throughout South Africa. ”

“ His immediate task lay in South Africa, where, from the moment of his entry upon public life, he became the leader of the British cause as Kruger was the leader of the Dutch: millionaire-dreamer and shrewd, obstinate farmer, they form a strange contrast. The one stood for South African unity based upon equality of the white races: the other also for unity, but for unity based upon the ascendancy of one of the white races. ”

“ The time really has come when the friends of the Transvaal must induce President Kruger to become perfectly frank and take the newcomers into his confidence. It may be a bitter pill to have to swallow in yielding to further demands, but it is quite clear to the world that he would not have done as much as he has done if pressure had not been applied. ”