Plans were then made to overthrow the government, and to make a pretence of finding out who the people would prefer to have for a President, by taking a man-to-man vote of the whole population. The person chosen by this vote was to be declared President.

Dr. Jameson was to bring his soldiers to Johannesburg, to keep order while the vote of the people was being taken.

This plan, while it was fair enough in sound, was in fact an infamous scheme to trick the Boers out of their rights.

The Uitlanders, as we told you before, far outnumber the Boers.

By taking a vote of the whole population, every Uitlander would have had a vote; these foreigners would of course have voted for the person who would let them have things their own way, and as they outnumbered the natives, the poor Boers would have had their rights taken away from them by foreigners, who, according to their laws, had no right to vote at all.

The scheme was as clever as it was infamous. To the world it would have seemed fair enough, and only those familiar with South African politics would have understood what a shameful trick it was.

There is small doubt that Mr. Hammond was as deep in this fraud as Cecil Rhodes and Dr. Jameson. He may have hoped to win the presidency when Oom Paul Krueger was put out of office, and very probably did not realize that Mr. Rhodes and Jameson intended to annex the Transvaal to the English Territory, after they had stolen it from the Boers.

It is, however, sure, from Dr. Jameson's own words, that the Raid was a deliberate attempt on the part of these three men to rob the Boers of their rights, and divide the spoil when the deed was done.

Both Cecil Rhodes and Dr. Jameson have been bold enough to state this, cloaking their misdeed under a tale of gaining more lands for their beloved sovereign, and both have had the courage to say that they only made one mistake in the Transvaal matter, and that was to fail. Had they been successful, they would have been forgiven.

The angry feeling between the Boers and the English is daily growing stronger. It is feared that war cannot be prevented.

President Krueger is preparing for the worst by allying himself with the Orange Free State, his neighbor on the east.

The treaty has just been made, and is waiting to be ratified by the Congress of each country. It gives the citizens of both republics the right of citizenship in either country, and binds each to fight for the other in case of war.

Mr. Chamberlain, the English Colonial Secretary, is trying his best to upset this treaty.

He declares that, according to an understanding made between England and the Transvaal in 1884, the Boers have the right to govern their country as they please, but they must not enter into any treaties or relations with other countries, without the consent of England.

Mr. Chamberlain says that Her Majesty the Queen will insist upon the terms of this treaty being obeyed.

Though England is taking such a very decided stand in the matter, she is far from feeling at ease as to the result. It seems that Germany is taking more interest in the affairs of South Africa than is pleasant to England.

It is feared that if war does break out in the Transvaal, Germany will join with the Boers and the people of the Orange Free State in fighting England.

Germany already owns a rich province in the neighborhood, and she has for some time been sending arms and soldiers, able to teach the Boers the art of war, across the continent, from her province on the West Coast, to the Transvaal.

She has lately sent three thousand of her soldiers out to South Africa.

While we are on the subject of Africa, we must speak of the expeditions that are being sent out from France to Abyssinia, with the object of making commercial treaties with King Menelik.

England is also sending out an envoy to the same country.

The reason for this sudden interest in Abyssinia comes from the great victory won by the Abyssinians last year, a victory which brought them into importance as a nation.

In 1896 the Italians, who have colonized a portion of Eastern Africa, bordering on Abyssinia, invaded their neighbor's country, with the intention of conquering it and adding it to their own.

The Abyssinians, a race of dark-skinned people whom we have been accustomed to look upon as savages, met the Italians on the open field of battle, and, without ambush or any of the usual savage methods of warfare, defeated them, the Italians leaving twelve thousand killed on the field.

The civilized nations had hardly recovered from their surprise at this defeat, when they were astounded afresh to find that the savage king Menelik had no desire to overrun the Italian country and punish the invaders for their attack, but having put them outside his borders, he settled quietly down to enjoy the blessings of peace.

The eyes of the world were turned on Abyssinia and its wonderful king, and the result has been that the various nations interested in Eastern Africa have decided that the friendship of Menelik is well worth having, and they are all hastening to make friends with this powerful king.

The French have been especially eager to make an alliance with him, before any other nations could get ahead of them. Abyssinia is a country rich in gold and ivory, and the friendship of Menelik is also valuable, because of the trade that can be done with his country. One expedition has been sent by the government to make the treaty, and at the same time another has started under the command of Prince Henry of Orleans.

This last has no political work to do, but is going in the interest of science and commerce. The Prince intends to explore the country, and find out what its chief products are, and what part of its commerce will be of value to his country.

He is writing most interesting accounts of his journey, which are being published in the papers, and we shall probably hear much that is new and interesting of this country.

In one of his letters he gave an amusing account of the astonishment of the natives over a graphophone (a present for King Menelik).

He at first put in a cylinder on which was recorded a song, sung by a great singer.

Strange to say, the natives received this with neither interest nor astonishment; the single voice did not seem anything out of the way to them. When, however, a cylinder with orchestral music, bugle calls, and a stirring march was put in place, their delight and surprise knew no bounds.

The mention of this brings another wonderful invention to mind, the animatograph, the machine which throws pictures on a sheet; the figures in them move as though they are alive.

During the Queen's Jubilee, which will be celebrated in London this spring, it has been arranged to have a number of animatograph pictures taken of the procession and all the finest part of the ceremonies. These, it is said, are to be kept in the library of the British Museum, to show future generations what kind of people lived in the nineteenth century.

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The Great Round World And What Is Going On In It, Vol. 1, No. 24, April 22, 1897

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