[Illustration:  PRESIDENT KRUGER ADDRESSING AMERICAN VOLUNTEERS]

When the multitudinous executive duties to which he attended in peaceful times were suddenly ended by the declaration, the President busied himself with matters pertaining to the conduct of the war.  He worked as hard as any man in the country, despite his age, and on many occasions he displayed the energy of a man many years younger.  The war caused his daily routine of work and rest to be changed completely.  He continued to rise at four o’clock in the morning, a habit which he contracted in early youth and followed ever after.  After his morning devotions he listened to the reading of the despatches from the generals at the front, and dictated replies in the shape of suggestions, censure, or praise.  He slept for an hour after breakfast, and then went to the Government Buildings, arriving there punctually every morning as the clock on the dome struck nine.  He remained in consultation with the other members of the Executive Council and the few Government officials, who had remained in the city, for an hour or more.  After luncheon he again worked over despatches, received burghers on leave of absence from the front and foreigners who sympathised with his people’s cause.  He never allowed himself to be idle, and, in fact, there was no opportunity for him to be unemployed, inasmuch as almost all the leading Government officials were at the front, while many of their duties remained behind to be attended to by some one.  Kruger himself supervised the work of all the departments whose heads were absent, and the labour was great.  His capacity for hard labour was never better demonstrated than during the war, when he bore the weight of his own duties and those of other Government officials, as well as the work of guiding the Boer emissaries in foreign countries.  Added to all these grave responsibilities, when the reverses of the army grew more serious, was the great worry and the constant dread of new disasters which beset a man who occupies a position such as he occupied.

No man had greater influence over the Boers than Kruger, and his counsel was always sought and his advice generally followed.  When the first commandos went to the front it was considered almost absolutely necessary for them to stop at Pretoria and see “Oom Paul” before going to battle, and it seemed to affect the old man strangely when he addressed them and bade them God-speed in the accomplishment of their task.  It was in the midst of one of these addresses that the President, while standing in the centre of a group of burghers, broke down and wept as he referred to the many men who would lose their lives in the war.  When the Boer army was having its greatest successes Kruger constantly sent messages to his burghers, thanking them for their good work, and reminding them not to neglect thanking their God for His favours.  One of the most characteristic messages of this nature was sent to the generals, commandants, officers, and burghers on January 8th, and was a most unique ebullition to come from a President of a Republic.  The message was composed by himself, and, as literally translated, read:—­