An African Adventure

ficult to connect anecdote with him. I heard one at Capetown, however, th

t of the struggle they took another tack. After the Botha campaign in German South-West Africa was well under way, a member of the Opposition asked the Minister of Defense the following question in Parliament:

figures. He was told that it would take twenty

be Question Day in the House. As soon as the query about the r

ty-nine thousand pounds, ten shillings and sixpen

-Photograph Copyri

s asked him where he got

lists a month to figure it out and by that time they w

y rally in his district not many years after the Boer War he was continually interrupted by a

ranteed the men fighti

flash Smu

e guaranteed you

There is a big difference between his methods of work and those of Lloyd George. The British Prime Minister only goes to the House of Commons when he has to ma

ying with it disastrous results for the Government. The crisis demanded that he remain literally on the job all the time. He left litt

ng a muscle. He has cultivated that rarest of arts which is to be a good listener. He is one of the great concentrators. In this genius, for it is little less, lies one of the secrets of his success. During a lull in legislative proc

oiling. With a cup of coffee and a piece of "biltong" inside him a Boer could fight or trek all day. Coffee bears the same relation to the South African that tea does to the Englishman, sa

about the place until it was time for him to go to school. His father and his grandfather were farmers. Inbred in him, as in most Boers, is an ardent love of c

, a little way station about ten miles from Pretoria. Here, in a rambling one-story house surrounded by orchards, pastures, and gardens, he lives the simple life. In the western part of t

he fortunes of politics. At Irene is planted his hearthstone and around it is mobilized his considerable family. There are six little Smutses. Smuts married the sweethear

toria, the ancient Kruger stronghold, with its magnificent new Union buildings atop a commanding eminence, is the fountain-head of administration. With I

nose arched, his mouth large. You know that his blonde beard veils a strong jaw. The eyes are reminiscent of those marvelous orbs

t a particularly demonstrative person and Smuts has some of the racial reserve. His personality betokens potential strength,-a suggestion of the unplumbed reserve that keeps people guessing. This applies to his mental as well as his physical

religious convictions on his coat-sleeve, he has nevertheless a fine spiritual strain in his make-up. H