There is also the fact that the generality of the people exhibit little or no interest in the leaders of their Government.  It is said that the perusal of biography ennobles and develops the mind.  This is also the case when a man follows with interest and profit the mature reasoning and diplomatical tact of some of our present-day politicians.  I say some of them, because not all of them exhibit that intellectual refinement which characterized the great Plato.  Still, a great many people might acquire a tolerable education if they applied themselves to the perusal of newspapers in this way, and it is my firm belief that the Boers would benefit by such a course.

The average Boer does not know exactly the meaning of the word ‘politics,’ except that in most things he prefers to be conservative.  He likes to move along very quietly, without any outside interference.  He knows full well that he has sent his representative to Parliament, and he leaves that member severely alone.  Sometimes the member calls a public meeting of his own accord, and the Boer attends that meeting, not because he is anxious to bring forward any matter affecting the welfare of his country or district, nor because the member has failed to satisfy him, but merely because he is desirous of meeting his fellow-men and discussing crops and Kaffirs and oxen and sheep and wool—­in short, anything outside of politics, in which he professes no interest whatever.  He is not interested in general measures for the benefit of the whole country; his attention is fully occupied with the affairs of his own particular piece of land, and so long as he himself prospers, he does not trouble about the prosperity or otherwise of his neighbours.

Oom Paul is the leading light, and should he elect to do this or that, he need exercise no discretion concerning the probable feeling of the country.  He is the man at the wheel, and the crew have such implicit faith in him that he can practically steer where he wills.  He may sometimes experience a little opposition in the House, but he is long-headed as well as hard-headed, and he invariably holds the trump card.  He is not a Boer in the ordinary sense of the word; he is only a Boer in the sense that he smokes hard and prefers coffee.  He lives in a very ordinary dwelling-house, and it is even stated that his vrouw starches and irons his dress-shirts, but this may only be surmise.  At all events he does not allow these trifles to worry him, his renowned diplomacy being directed chiefly to the management of his cosmopolitan children, who are apt occasionally to wax troublesome and exceed the bounds of caution.

[Illustration:  President KRUGER’S house.]