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| Christiaan De Wit. |
Cortland Evening Standard, Monday, December 1, 1902.
GREAT LEADER'S BOOK.
General De Wet's History of South African War.
DEFEAT DUE TO TREACHERY.
Has Little Praise For Roberts or Kitchener—Praises Knox and Thinks Buller Misjudged—Attributes His Own Narrow Escapes to Providence. Loyalty to New Government.
London, Dec. 1.—"Had not so many of our burghers proved false to their own colors, England, as the great Bismarck foretold, would have found her grave in South Africa."
That is the keynote of the Boer General DeWet's book entitled "Three Years' War," published by Archibald Constable & Co. in London and dedicated by the Boer general to "My fellow subjects of the British empire."
It was perhaps the most remarkable book by the most remarkable leader that any recent war has produced. The concise, simply told tale of the extraordinary campaign is marked throughout with the stamp of truth.
The baldness of the narrative only serves to bring into striking relief the fiery passages where a strong man literally blurts out his soul in pathetic regret or bitter denunciation. In thus taking the public into confidence De Wet loses nothing of the glamour with which his exploits in the field surrounded him.
In criticizing he spares no one. Boer and Briton come usually under the lash. De Wet declares that whatever the English people may have to say in discredit of General Buller, he had to operate against stronger positions than any other British general.
Throughout the work the Boer general has but slight praise for Lord Roberts and little more for Lord Kitchener. General Knox is almost the only British general who seems to have struck De Wet as a commander with real military genius.
Of "Tommy Atkins" he has many kindly words to say and declares "the British were far from being bad shots." The comparative immunity of the Boers from harm De Wet constantly and most fervently attributes to the interposition of God.
"If any reader," he says, "is eager to know how it was I kept out of the enemy's hands I can only answer, although I may not be understood, that I ascribed it to nothing else than this—it was not God's will that I should fall into their hands. Let those who rejoice at my miraculous escapes give all the praise to God."
Nevertheless the book teems with accounts of military and other strategies by which De Wet outwitted his pursuers. Frequently he recounts cases of desertion and panic among his own men when his entreaties and sjamboking [sic] were all of no avail. De Wet pays a tribute to General Cronje for his bravery, but declares he lost at Paardeberg only on account of his fatal obstinacy in not leaving the laager as he was advised to do by General Botha and by the writer himself.
Regarding his own forces, De Wet writes: "It was far easier to fight against the great English army than against treachery among my own people, and an iron will was required to fight against both. Once, if only our orders had been carried out a little more strictly and if only the most elementary rules of strategy had been observed in our efforts to break the English lines of communication, Lord Roberts and his thousands of troops would have found themselves shut up in Pretoria where they would have perished of hunger. It was not the skill of their commander in chief that saved them."
Of the blockhouses, De Wet is frankly contemptuous. "The blockhouse policy," he says, "might equally well have been called the policy of the blockhead."
The writer emphatically defends the right to blow up railroad lines and trains as the usage of war, and he declares he never missed an opportunity to do so.
The so-called war against women and the misuse of the white flag by the British is sternly denounced by the Boer general, who says: "That such direct and indirect murder should have been committed against defenseless women and children is a thing I should have staked my head could never have happened in a war waged by the civilized English nation, and yet it happened."
His last word is an injunction to his fellow countrymen to be loyal to the new government. "Loyalty," he says, "pays best in the end, and loyalty alone is worthy of a nation which has shed its blood for freedom."
The book contains a magnificent portrait of the author by the American painter John S. Sargent.
LOOKING FOR GOLD BARS.
Large Amount of Boer Money Believed to Be on the Way to Germany.
Berlin, Dec. 1.—The British government is telegraphing to all German ports making inquiries concerning a number of Boer gold bars worth $650,000, which it is supposed have been brought to this country from South Africa within the past fortnight.
The bars are destined for former President Kruger and Dr. Łeyds, and are presumed to have been concealed in the Northern Transvaal.
Great Britain will endeavor to legally attach the gold. If it can be located on the ground she is entitled to all the assets of the Transvaal because she has assumed responsibility for the debts of that country, including the bonds issued prior to the war.
General Botha's reply to Colonial Secretary Chamberlain that the late Boer government had no assets was strictly true as far as he knew, but since receiving Mr. Chamberlain's letter General Botha learned, according to seemingly trustworthy information here, that Mr. Kruger and Dr. Leyds have in their possession $2,500,000.
General Botha requested them to turn over this gold for the benefit of the Boer people, but Dr. Leyds refused, averring that the money was to be used in upholding the Boer nationality in the future. General Botha has notified Dr. Leyds that unless the gold is given up legal proceedings will be brought against him.
PAGE FOUR—EDITORIAL.
The Isle of Pines.
The status of the Isle of Pines, which it was understood at the time of the negotiation of the treaty of Paris was to become a part of the United States, is brought again to notice by the presence in Washington of a delegation from the island to protest against the further continuance of Cuban sovereignty over it. This delegation insists that there is now practically no government on the island, which is nominally a part of the province of Pinar del Rio, forty miles across the sea separating it from Cuba. Of the taxes collected in the island not a dollar, says the delegation, is spent on it. There are no schools, no courts, no police on the island.
Under the Platt amendment to the United States senate resolution recognizing the independence of the Cuban republic the title to the Isle of Pines was made subject to future adjustment by treaty. This was understood to mean that this country should have the island. But no treaty has been negotiated regarding the matter, and the island still remains under Cuban sovereignty, at least nominally. Its importance to the United States is out of all proportion to its size, it being only twenty-five miles square. Under certain conditions, however, it might be of much strategic value to the United States. It lies due south of Havana, about forty miles from the southern coast of Cuba, overlooking the steamship route to the isthmus. One does not have to be a naval strategist to see that the value of Porto Rico to the United States will be doubled by the possession of the Isle of Pines.
At all events it is high time that sovereignty and political status of the Island were definitely settled by treaty with the Cuban government, whose interest in it appears to be purely sentimental, although Cuban pride may suffer from the alienation of nominally Cuban soil.
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| Cortland Hospital, North Main Street. |
GIFTS FOR THE HOSPITAL.
Many Articles from Various Givers—Letter to Unacknowledged.
Within the last few weeks the Cortland hospital has received a number of gifts, some at least of which have not so far been acknowledged. Among them are the following: Thanksgiving collection at the Universalist church, $10.56, at the First M. E. church $12.00.
The following donations were in cash:
Mr. Benham, $1; Mrs. Geo. H. Smith, $1.50; Mrs. Delos Beauder, $1; Mrs. Calvin P. Walrad, $1; Mrs. Judson C. Nelson, $1; Mrs. Chauncey Keator, $2; Mr. L. F. Rice, Homer, $5; Mrs. E. R. Wright, $3; Mrs. Julia E. Hyatt, $5; Mrs. G. J. Mager, $2.
Other donations were as follows: Mrs. Walker, 5 cakes laundry soap; Mrs. Beverly, 2 pillows, underwear; Mrs. W. R. Cole, oatflakes; Charles Daily, corn starch, sugar, soda; Mrs. F. D. Smith, 2 jars fruit; Mrs. G. J. Mager, sugar; Mrs. C. P. Thompson, coffee; Mr. G. J. Mager, couch and apples; Mrs. Helen Waters, grapes, pickles and nuts; Mrs. Willet, can fruit; Mrs. Gallop, canned vegetables; Mrs. Meacham, dried beef; Mr. Duffey, flowers; Normal school faculty, six towels and six napkins; Mrs. Stillson, old linen, jelly, flowers; Dr. Lucid, $5 for rubber matting; Mrs. Townsend, canned fruit, apples; Mr. Lewis Bouton, apples, canned fruit, jelly; Rev. F. J. McLoghlin, turkey; Mrs. Eugene Sprague, 1 bu. apples, 1 bu. potatoes, muslin; Mrs. Henry Heath, 3 jars fruit; Mrs. Cyrus Heath, 3 jars fruit; Mrs. Levi Johnson, 2 jars fruit; Mrs. Dr. Strowbridge, 2 jars fruit; Mr. Allen, one pumpkin; Mrs. Nelson V. Story, Homer, 7 bars soap; Dr. Geo. Smith, apples and squash; Mr. Nottingham, 2 cans fruit; Mrs. Stockwell, 1 can fruit and 1 glass jelly; Mrs. David Beverly, cookies, jelly and three cans fruit; Mrs. Barnes, 1 box force; Mrs. N. Jay Peck, pickles; Mrs. Whitmore, 2 jars fruit, beets, and squash; Mrs. Frank Schellinger, soap, seeded raisins, crackers and sugar; Mrs. James D. Sherwood, 1 jar fruit; Mrs. Frank Watson, 1 jar fruit; Mrs. H. H. Pomeroy, 2 jars fruit; Mrs. Edward Stilson, 1 turkey; Mrs. Alice Dann, muslin; Mrs. Marcus McGraw, muslin; Mrs. H. L. Smith, 2 glasses jelly; Mrs. B. T. Wright, 1 bu. apples; Mrs. L. Hopkins, 1 can fruit; Mrs. J. Dean, 1 cup jelly; Mrs. I. E. Nichols, muslin; Mrs. John Kenfield, can fruit; Mrs. Fred Gifford, muslin; L. N. Hopkins, bouquet of roses; Mrs. Brong, 1 lb. coffee; Miss Hazel Brong, 1 pumpkin; Mr. E. R. Wright, 2 cans fruit; Grace Brong, 2 lbs. soda; Ina Allen, can corn; Ina Brong, baking powder; Mr. L. P. Smith, three chickens.
Brought by the superintendent of the Foreign Missionary and Relief work for the ladies of the W. C. T. U.: $2 in money, 9 cans fruit, 7 jars jelly, 1 bottle catsup, 1 jar pickles, 2 packages bonquet wafers, old muslin, 2 boxes peppers, 4 cakes laundry soap,2 qts. Cranberries 1 lb. tapioca, 1 lb. sugar, 1 lb. corn starch, 1 pk. sweet potatoes, 1 sack flour, 1 jar cold cream, apples, carrots, china.
Unsolicited the Owego-st. school gave the following: 15 cents, potatoes, apples, beets, turnips, cabbages, parsnips, carrots, rice, oranges, starch, raisins, canned fruit, jelly, grapes, pumpkins.
These boys drew the Owego donations to the hospital in carts: Masters Arthur Wright, Carl Shattock, Fred Snyder, Frank Bell, William Dillon, Roger Bell, Andrew Vormwald, Arnold Bunney, Harry O'Hearn, Reese Weyant, Chas. Albert Wool, Chas. Schuyler, John Wright, William Finn.
AT THE ALMS HOUSE.
Thanksgiving Services Arranged by Homer-ave. Junior League.
Thanksgiving day was observed by the Junior league of the Homer-ave. M. E. church at the Cortland county alms house. An interesting program was arranged by the superintendent and assistant superintendent of the league, Mrs. A. D. Randall and Miss Fannie Andrews and rendered by twenty children of the league. The exercises were as follows:
Song Service.
Prayer, Mr. A. D. Randall.
Scripture Reading, Mrs. Randall.
Solo, Telephoning to Heaven, Florence Stafford.
Recitation, Months of the Year, Jessie Higgins.
Selection—Thanksgiving, Edna Kelley.
Motion Song, John Chinaman, Florence Stafford.
Recitation, Three Little Graves, by a Blind Woman. She also read a chapter from her Bible of raised letters.
Singing, God be With You, Until we Meet Again.
The day will be long remembered as a pleasant occasion.
Cemetery Election.
The trustees of the Cortland Rural Cemetery association met at the parlors of the Cortland Savings bank Saturday afternoon and re-elected the following officers for next year:
President—Judge J. E. Eggleston.
Vice-President—R. Bruce Smith.
Secretary—G. J. Mager.
Treasurer—C. P. Walrad.
The executive committee is composed of J. E. Eggleston, C. P. Walrad and G. J. Mager.
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| Glen Haven, N. Y., hotel and water cure. |
GLEN HAVEN, N. Y.
Glen Haven, Nov. 25.—Another account of the dedication of the new church has been received and these particulars were omitted in the other letter: The church was beautifully decorated and the platform was filled with potted plants and purple and white chrysanthemums and the wall at the back of the platform was draped with the American flag. After the sermon Rev. L. Heinmiller made a call for help to pay the debt yet unpaid on the church. The people responded generously to his appeal and about $250 was raised in all. Mr. Watson Black promised a pulpit costing about $25 with a plate engraved with the name of the giver. The Skaneateles Baptist church gave the people here a fine organ for their church and Mrs. Darby of Philadelphia a beautiful Bible. The people have had many trials and discouragements but they have succeeded in building a church of which they have every reason to feel proud-
A little son was born to Mr. and Mrs. John Sweeney, Thursday morning, Nov. 20.
Mr. and Mrs. Jas. Clark and daughter Fannie and Mr. and Mrs. Geo. Daniels of Homer were the guests of Mr. and Mrs. G. N. Westcott two or three days last week.
Dame Durden.
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| William H. Clark. |
CORTLAND SCIENCE CLUB.
Mr. W. H. Clark Presents a Paper on "Hypnotism." Discussion Follows.
The versatility of the members of the Cortland Science club was shown again by the topic chosen for the last meeting.
Every member with the exception of one who sent regrets from out of town, was present to discuss the subject of "Hypnotism." Mr. W. H. Clark held their closest attention for an hour by a paper on "Hypnotism," after which he was called upon to answer very many questions upon the details of its practice and any dangers or objections arising.
Mr. Clark had evidently prepared himself upon the subject as thoroughly as reading and interviews could do. He said that the history of hypnotism dated back to the times of the Persian magi and the occultism of Egypt. Religion and medicine had under various names practiced it. Some of the cults of today were based largely upon the conscious or ignorant induction of hypnosis.
Recently, however, for the first time, had the subject been approached in a scientific spirit. We now can explain the black art of the past ages by knowing the phases of the hypnotic state produced by extraneous physical or mental causes or self induced. The mind is double. The sub-conscious or subliminal is that part that responds to suggestion when the mind is hypnotized. The suggestions are carried out to the letter, even a long time after the subject has been awaked.
The ability to bring a person into this state was not confined to a few, characterized by some peculiarity of will power or animal magnetism, but was present with every person who had made a study of the subject and was at all self-confident. It had many stages. The subject might not be able to open his eyes, but voluntary motions of his hands might be retained, or the control might be so complete that every motion and thought of the subject was entirely that of the one who had him spellbound.
The speaker then referred to the very many beneficent ways in which this recently understood phenomenon had been employed. Surgical operations had been done without pain, bad habits had been reformed, latent powers had been energized, even confirmed kleptomaniacs, cigarette fiends and difromaniacs [sic] had been reclaimed by those who had studied this subject with that end in view.
It was even possible that the complete separation of the subjective mind in this state might enable us to understand how the mind might live apart from the gross body and the study of this subject make the hope of immortality stronger.
BREVITIES.
—Albright Grange of East Homer observe its anniversary Dec. 4 at 12 o'clock at the hall in East Homer.
—The Primary and Junior union will meet in the parlors of the First Baptist church Tuesday evening at 7 o'clock.
—A regular meeting of the National Protective union will be held tomorrow evening in Good Templars' hall.
—A regular meeting of the W. R. C. will be held Tuesday at 2:30 sharp at which time the annual election of officers will occur,
—The Loyal circle of King's Daughters will meet with Mrs. A. A. Sprague, 144 Port Watson-st., Tuesday, Dec. 2, at 3 p. m.
—The Normal school re-opened this morning after the Thanksgiving recess. The morning trains were crowded with returning students.
—The regular meeting of the C. P. U. which was to have been held Tuesday evening, Dec. 2, has been postponed until farther notice.
—A regular meeting of the Knights of Columbus will be held Tuesday evening at 8 o'clock. Election of officers will take place at this meeting.
—The entertainment to be given by the Ladies' Literary club will be held in the Central school building on Wednesday evening, Dec. 3, at 8 o'clock. Each member is privileged to invite one other person.
—By a change in the game laws the partridge season this year closes Nov. 30 instead of on Dec 15 as formerly. It is, therefore, already closed. Sportsmen should be careful and should not make a mistake and come to grief as a result of violation of the new law.
—The new display advertisements today are—G. H. Wiltsie, furs, page 4; Warren, Tanner & Co., Ladies' cloaks, suits, etc., page 4; Perkins & Quick, Holiday goods, page 4; C. P. Brown, Chest protectors, page 7; S. Simmons, Clothing, page 8; McKinney & Doubleday, Holiday opening, page 6; A. S. Burgess, Clothing, page 8; Opera House "New York by Day." page 5.
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