tice that much reading about them is apt to make one think that moral virtue holds no place in public men. The more important for us is it, therefore, to gather together what is authentic in the life of a President who has come to this honor with a record calculated to stimulate rather than discourage our trust in human goodness.

For instance, when Steyn had been but three years a judge there appeared serious danger of losing the Chief Justice because of a disagreement between him and certain members of the legislature (Volksraad). If this Chief Justice had resigned, Steyn would have been his successor, as being the next in rank. Here was a great temptation for a young man, then only about thirty-five years old. Not merely was the great honor in prospect, but a substantial increase in his salary, and Steyn was not a rich man. The great Lord Chancellor Bacon grovelled in the dust and did unutterable acts of meanness to compass ends less important than this promotion.

Judge Steyn in this crisis took into consideration first the good of his country. He reflected that both of his associate judges were his seniors, and that if he became Chief Justice he would be enjoying a triumph hardly justified by his years. He therefore unhesitatingly waived his well-recognized claim to the higher post, and begged the President to appoint for that place an older man. Meantime he worked with real interest to

It

In 1887, before Steyn had been made judge, the late President, Sir John Brand, had also a disagreement with the Volksraad, or House of Representatives, but it was in secret session, and no one outside knew what the cause of quarrel was. resulted, however, in the resignation of President Brand. It is worth noting that to this day the people of Bloemfontein do not know the exact subject of this quarrel.

When "Advocate" Steyn heard of President Brand's resignation, he at once waited upon the Mayor of Bloemfontein and begged him to call a public meeting. The Mayor did so, and on this occasion young Steyn, then thirty years old, made his first public appearance, other than at the bar. He here offered a resolution begging the President to withdraw his resignation. Amongst other things he said: "Though we do not know what the cause of disagreement is, we have such confidence in the father of our state that we have no hesitation in asking him to withdraw his resignation, and we consider that it would be nothing short of a calamity to the state should he refuse to do so."

might, picked his way amidst the gullies and wallows that abound over the fields as they do in our Western country, made his fires at meal-time from cattle dung, broiled his beef or mutton-chops like any ranchman, and let his ponies browse about under no more restraint than hobbling.

At night he knocked at the door of a ranchman; the host would shake him by the hand, bid him welcome, present him to the wife, and give him what cheer the hut or house afforded. Perhaps he spent the night in a bed, perhaps on the floorat any rate, it was the best which the farmer could afford. Steyn never left such a house without having made of its inmates friends for life. His calm, strong, dignified, and yet sympathetic manner appealed strongly to people whose lives are secluded, reflective, and free from shams.

His opponent for the Presidency was his wife's uncle, Mr. J. G. Fraser, who was chairman of the Volksraad, and as such enjoyed an almost prescriptive right to the suffrages of the people. Steyn, however, beat him six to one. There was a whisper that even here the "Jameson business" had an influence; that Steyn, as an Afrikander of Dutch Boer ancestry, and a member of the Dutch Reformed

Church besides, was a safer man in such a crisis than even so loyal a citizen as Mr. Fraser; for Fraser is not a Boer name, and Fraser represents the blood of the Jameson tribe rather than that of the great "Trekkers"-the Dutch "Pilgrim Fathers." However, I prefer to think that had the election been held in 189 rather than on February 19 of 1896, Stey would still have been elected by a grat fying majority.

President Steyn is essentially a dom tic man, most happy in his home, with 1 wife, his boy, and his three little gi He married in 1887 a lady distinguis for her accomplishments as well as her beauty, the eldest daughter of Rev. Colin Fraser, the Dutch Refor minister of Philippolis, a town i Orange Free State. The father an ther of Mrs. Steyn are both Scote therefore if race hatred played an tant part in the Presidential camp Mr. Steyn, it must have played as for one side as the other.

The careers of kings, great ni successful money-makers, and su ers after power are for the most filled with acts of selfishness a

The occasion was a triumph for Steyn as well as for Sir John Brand, for the motion was carried unanimously. Steyn's popularity in that year was so great in Bloemfontein that he was strongly pressed to become Mayor, but that honor he de clined, though at the time he was a member of the town council.

Mr. Steyn, in the midst of his new Presidential honors, and housed in the official mansion, often speaks of his circuit-riding days as the pleasantest of his life. On his return from England his health was somewhat impaired by too close confinement to study, and on joining the bar he followed the circuit largely on account of the benefit to his health, and with complete success, as we have seen, in more ways than one. A friend of the President's, who shared the circuit-riding with him, told me this to illustrate the variety in the life of an 66 Afrikander" judge:

In one small town Mr. Steyn was treated badly by the keeper of the only inn. He was a selfish man, and thought that he could maintain a monopoly. He put five of Mr. Steyn's party in one room, which was a very small one, with a mud floor and no window. In the language of my informant, the food and tea and coffee were such that we could not eat or drink them; and his insolence such as we found equally difficult to swallow."

Steyn remonstrated with the man, and told him that if he did not give them better things for their money he and his party would not come to his inn when, six months hence, they should hold court in that town. But the rude host became still more offensive. His answer was, "You can't help yourselves; this is the only hotel in town."

In due time the same circuit - riders once more came around to the same place, and all bore in mind the discomforts they had endured at the hands of the rude host. So they made a camp outside of the village, and staid there happily for four days and four nights. This made the innkeeper very angry, and he sought to compel the party to once more come to his wretched hotel. He happened to be the only butcher in the village as well as the only innkeeper, and he refused to sell them any meat so long as they remained in camp. He was so powerful in town that he even succeeded in persuading the baker to boycott the encampment.

But this boycott was a lamentable failure. There were six in the camping party, all supplied with sporting pieces. they had been surfeited elsewhere with partridge and antelope, and wanted mutton. So they bought a sheep from a neighboring farmer, and drove it to camp, where it was neatly slaughtered by expert hands. It was Mr. Advocate Steyn and another member of the circuit who drove this sheep through the main street of the village and past the door of the surly innkeeper. The burghers in geueral were very much amused, but not so the would-be boycotter. Of course when the people in town learned the circumstances of the case, the camping party were overwhelmed with offers of every article of food which skilful cooks could prepare, and they did very well without the baker-thanks to a certain lady. to this surly innkeeper, his behavior was advertised so effectually throughout the country that when Mr. Steyn again visited this village the man had already been forced to go away, so completely had his house been shunned by travellers. Mr. Steyn and his friends little dreamed how completely that innkeeper could be punished for his behavior-and without appeal to a court of law.

As

Steyn's mother was a noble specimen of womanhood, and his maternal grandmother equally so. The President to-day speaks with great feeling of the much that he owes to their teaching, and still more to their example. His mother was a daughter of the famous Boer leader Wessels-a name spoken in the two republics of South Africa as we of New England mention the pioneers of the Mayflower. Wessels was a "vortrekker "one of the emigrants who went forth into the wilderness in 1836, and spent most of his time in shooting Kaffirs and lions. The mother of our hero led this savage life during her infancy, and came into the Orange Free State before Bloemfontein or Wynburg or any other settlement had been founded. She is described to me, by one who knew her, as a "Godfearing, pious, patriotic, gentle, and loving woman, who lived and died devoted to her children.” She was splendidly hospitable, and to those near her she was the embodiment of nobility and goodness. No one who conversed with her failed to be impressed by her strong char