--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - Nicholas G. Smith collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 19 number: 9 published: 1916-07 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: 'Nicholas G. Smith, "Cecil John Rhodes," *Improvement Era* 19, no. 9 (July 1916): 808–815.' source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1909unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera1909unse start_page: 808 end_page: 815 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1916-07) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera1909unse publication_year: 1916 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1916, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Cecil John Rhodes Cecil John Rhodes A Thrilling Story of Achievement BY NICHOLAS G. SMITH, PRESIDENT SOUTH AFRICAN MISSION One morning, back in 1901, when I was attending the Salt Lake High School, I came to school withont having mastered my lesson in geometry. The time for class came, and I must say it was with misgivings that I descended the stairs to appear in Mr. Gillilan's room, because he had such a way of making students ashamed of themselves when they had not done their duty. There were about thirty-five in the class, and all seemed so happy that I felt all the more out of place, as their actions convinced me that they were all prepared. As we entered the room, Mr. Gillilan looked up from a book which he was reading, with a rather serious air, and I thought —well, he will give it to us this morning, as he isn't feeling just right! Imagine my sui prise when he started out with the expression "Cecil John Rhodes is one of the great- : est men that ever lived." He then launched out into a discussion of the life and works of that great man, and was still telling us of him when the bell rang for us to leave the class room. I was very happy, and had my lesson the next day. The lesson has since passed from my mind, but Rhodes still remains with me yet, liv- ; ing as we do thirteen thousand miles away from the stage where Cecil Rhodes played his part, we are apt not to place full value on his life's works. When it was my privilege to come to South Africa and see some of the things which he had accomplished, my mind went back to that day in school when I first heard of his greatness, and I am thankful to my teacher for having prepared me for my work in Africa. A few weeks ago, while walking through the grounds of Rhodes' old home, Groote Schuur, which means great store house, I was asked by one who has not been long in Africa : "Is Cecil Rhodes still living?" This question set me to thinking, and I asked myself, Can Cecil Rhodes be dead? The only answer I can give to the query is, that he is much more alive today than he ever was. Born July 5, 1853, in England, he was one of nine sons of the Vicar of Bishop Stratford, who was an excellent character, but he had no desire to follow in his father's footsteps. He received a fair education at a grammar school and was instructed in some classical studies by his father, but in 1870, when but fourteen years of age, he was on his way to South Africa, and he settled in the Colony of Natal, living with his older brother Herbert, CECIL JOHN RHODES 809 where he engaged in the raising of cotton and was fairly success- ful. In 1871, he and his brother wound up their affairs in the garden spot of South Africa and started for the desert to the newly discovered diamond mines, which were located where Kim- berley now stands. Rhodes was strong-willed, a hard reader, and a deep thinker, and in those early days at the mines he was surrounded with all sorts of hard characters from every land who had hurried here to make their pile and had their hundreds of claims surrounding that of his and his brother's. Bedlam existed where order should be, according to his mind, and he determined to have order. I will pass over the years of struggle which he had with those around him to bring order out of chaos, and will simply state that after years of scheming and hard work, and running back and forth to England, he finally succeeded in bringing the management of all those claims under the direction of one company, known as the De Beers Company, and that company now controls the supply of diamonds for the whole world. Not only that, but it is the moving force of almost everything in Kimberley. It owns the street car company, and beautiful suburbs surrounding the town, and has miles and miles of land, under a ten-strand barb- wire fence, which will be used at some future date to supply dia- monds to the world, and it employs an army of men to carry on this work, besides owning an explosive factory, stud farm, etc. Through the genius of Rhodes, in thus organizing and be- coming the dominating factor in the diamond mines, the people were desirous that he should become a member of Parliament, and there help to work out the destinies of the whole nation. Dutch and English interests seemed to clash at all points. The Re- public of the Transvaal, under the leadership of President Kruger, was endeavoring to get on without British assist- ance from the Cape Colony, but as Cape. Town was the chief seaport, her imports had to pass that port and helped to swell the revenues of the British. The Boers, being mostly farmers, wanted to AVENUE ON THE GROOTE SCHUUR make the country self-sup- ESTATE porting in every way, to which idea the British were holding back; Rhodes, in his masterly Sin IMPROVEMENT ERA fashion, was able to draw them somewhat closer together, al- though always maintaining that England was to be the great power on earth. He claimed that "I like the Dutch, T like their homely courtesy and their tenacity of purpose. I am in favor of protecting the agricultural interests of South Africa, and of dis- couraging the rise of manufactories which would compete with England in the market for her own products." In a political ca- pacity, he became the leader of the nation and was loved and re- spected by both British and Dutch, although he had his ups and downs in Parliament. He was constantly going to and from Eng- land in the interests of his companies, and had many clashes with British statesmen over conditions in Africa. He bought a fine estate at the foot of Table Mountain, which is called Groote Schuur, and the house and grounds, which have been thrown open to the public, are magnificent. Here he lived with others of the great minds of the country whenever he was in Cape Town. This fine home has been turned over to be the home of the prime minister of the country, although it is under the direction of Rhodes' executors. Rhodes was very desirous that England should control the whole of Africa ;and especially was he desirous that there should l.e a railway built from Cape to Cairo, on British territory. With this thought uppermost in his mind, he formed what is called the Chartered Company which was recognized by the British govern- ment, and he then set about and secured great tracts of land from the natives which was just north of the Transvaal Republic. These millions of acres were and are now governed by the Chartered Company, and this vast stretch of territory has been given his name and is now known as Rhodesia. It is one of the prettiest bits of country in the world, as all kinds of vegetation thrive there. Palms ard ferns and all sorts of tropical vegetation are every- where to be seen. There are great fields of tobacco on every hand, and oranges and lemons and other fruits are in abundance. Not only does vegetation thrive here, but the country is rich in min- erals. There are many gold mines. The great ruins of Zimbabwe of which history gives us nothing, are in Rhodesia, and truly a powerful people must have lived here in ages past. Some claim that this must have been the home of the Queen of Sheba who brought such rich presents to the great King Solomon. Rhodes was about such a man as our beloved Brigham Young, and through the kind treatment of the natives, he secured the land, and then set about to build railways and telegraph lines. He was, indeed, a pioneer, and traveled hundreds of miles through the African desert pioneering and getting acquainted with every part of the country. On account of his Brigham quality of being kind, the natives loved him dearly, and called him the white father. A short story will show what power he had with them. Shortly CECIL JOHN RHODES 811 after the white man had begun to settle in Rhodesia, there was trouble with the na- tives who numbered something over a mil- lion. The Matabele tribe rose up en masse and killed several hundred white people. The country raised an army and sent it out to subdue the blacks. Like the American Red man the African natives know the for- MONUMENT ERECTED TO THE AIEMORY OF ests, and have an ex- CECIL RHODES cellent system of sig- On the slopes of Table Mountain, where said naling. Through this Rhodes used to sit. system they knew ev- ery move of the white army, and kept out of the way. When Rhodes learned of the situation he was very much upset, and started for Rhodesia at once, where he followed and caught up with the army of a thousand men with modern arms. He informed the leader of the army that with two or three volun- teers he would go on in front, unarmed, to meet the enemy, but that the soldiers should remain where they were until they heard from him, as he felt that he could settle the trouble. Every one fek that it was madness to think of going, as the natives were killing every white person they could find. Rhodes, however, had made up his mind, and was sure that he was right, and was going ahead, no matter what others thought. He succeeded in getting two or three volunteers to go with him, and his wagon pulled off out into the rough, unsettled domain, and camped among the thick vegetation where the natives could have attacked them at any minute and destroyed them all. Here Rhodes made things as comfortable as possible, and told his companions that they should wait until the native chiefs and kings should arrive. He had sent one of his colored boys ahead with a message to them. They did not wait long until the warriors began to arrive. They were fully armed and wore sullen looks. There were something over a hundred of them. Rhodes invited them to sit, and he then gave them a severe scolding, telling them that those who had been guilty of murdering women and children were to be turned over to be punished. He was surprised at them for doing such things, and wanted them to understand that if they were being ill treated he was there to see that they had fair play, and ! 812 IMPROVEMENT ERA wanted to settle the difficulties. After several hours' delibera- tion, with Rhodes scolding and joking, the meeting ended with every warrior and chief swearing allegiance to the white father and laying down their arms. Two powerful chiefs had refused to come to the indaba and would not meet Rhodes, but he waited for several days out in the woods until they decided to see him, and after a short time their grievances were settled. Thus a war was ended that .might have cost thousands of lives, and the white father still lives in the minds of the native races of South Africa. Ts Rhodes dead ? Well, I must say after a few weeks' trip through Africa that he is very much alive. Monuments erected by him to others and by others to his memory are everywhere to be seen. The great De Beers Company, with its thousands of employes, and the great extent of territory known as Rhodesia, are still governed by his will, and are performing a wonderful work, and his idea of having a railway line from Cape to Cairo is still being pushed toward completion and will ere long be an accomplished fact. All Africa resounds with the name of Rhodes. To the world at large, is Cecil John Rhodes dead ? Never His life's work insured his place in history, and the work that is being carried on under the direction of the executors of his will is destined to keep his memory ever fresh in the great nations of the earth. His will is too lengthy to copy here, but I would .just like to mention a few of the provisions with regard to his schol- arship idea. He provides approximately $1,500 per year for each scholarship, and then goes on to make the following allot- ments of the different parts of the British empire 9 to Rho- : desia, 3 each to South African College, Stellenbosch College, Diocesan College, St. Andrews College, Colony of Natal, Col- ony of New South Wales, Colony of South Australia, Colony of Queensland, Colony of Australia, Colony of Tasmania, Colony of New Zealand, Province of Ontario in the District of Columbia, Colony of Newfoundland, Colony or Islands of the Bermudas, Colony or Islands of Jamaica, 54 being the total in British ter- ritory. To the several States of the United States of America he willed two scholarships to each, and also provided that if any territory was admitted to statehood later, it should be allotted two scholarships. At the present time it is costing the estate of Mr. Rhodes something like $225,000 a year to keep up these scholarships. The twenty-fourth stipulation is that "no student shall be qualified or disqualified for election to a scholarship on account of his race or religious opinions. Later he adds the fol- lowing paragraph: "This is a further codicil to my will. I note the German emperor has made instruction in English compulsory in German schools. T leave five yearly scholarships at Oxford of CECIL JOHN RHODES 813 £250 per annum to students of German birth, the scholars to be nominated by the German emperor for the time being. Each scholarship to continue for three years so that each year after the first three years there will be fifteen scholars. The object is that an understanding between the three great powers will ren- der war impossible, and educational relations make the strong- est tie. America has already been provided for. C. J. Rhodes." Thus we see that, although Rhodes was a long ways off and that the European people are prone to think that America is not of very much importance, only in the minds of Americans, he was able to understand her greatness, and was broad-minded enough to call her one of the three great nations of the world. VICToffiA fAU.%. MAIN VICTORIA FALLS, AFRICA Rhodesia referred to here in Africa as the backbone of is the continent. It is not only an interesting country on account of the great pioneering work of Rhodes, but here .we have all the animals of the African jungle that are written so much about: elephants, lions, snakes of every description, leopards, wildcats, African hunting dogs, jackals, black and white rhinoceros, hip- popotamii, buffalo, and about' forty different kinds of antelopes differing in size from that of a jack rabbit to the powerful eland which stands six feet high. In the Zambesi river there are thou- sands of crocodiles, and in the air, birds of every conceivable shape are flying about. While in Rhodesia, it was my privilege to visit the wonder- ful Victoria Falls, the roar of which can be distinctly heard six- teen miles away, and the sprav of which can be seen from a dis- miles. There are no mountains here, and tance of twenty-eight 814 IMPROVEMENT ERA the lazy Zambesi river flows along so slowly and peacefully that one would not imagine there were such mighty falls just a few hundred feet below him, when crossing over to Livingstone Isl- and, unless he could see the spray and hear the roar of the water. We saw several crocodiles and hippos, and as we walked through the palms we saw monkeys swinging from tree to tree, and scantily dressed natives going here and there trying to sell us their beads and trinkets, and stepping along to the tune of their tiny hand pianos. What thoughts filled my mind as I stood on the edge of a precipice and looked down 400 feet, and saw the water in. such great volume as it fell on the rocks, being broken into fragments and forced back up out of the chasm some 2,000 feet into the air by the rush of wind, in drops as big as the end of my little finger, which again descend as rain on the surround- ing forest, and cause hundreds of kinds of vegetation to spring up to carpet the damp earth. Truly this is a wonderful land, and what grandeur in these falls. One must go in waterproofs if he intends going into the rain forest, as the rain comes down in tor- rents, or rather the mist as it is called. What beautiful rainbows by day and, on moonlight nights, what a peculiar effect the lunar rainbow has on you !It had a sort of a greenish-white tint, and to me seemed like a ghost of the daylight rainbow, it was really uncanny, but forty of us sat there for hours and watched it, and talked of ghosts and the ter- rible animals that were all around us, until we were all excited to some extent, and were really frightened when the native sen- CECIL RHODES GRAVE try appeared before us with drawn gun and demanded the pass word as we were on our way back to the hotel. (Even Cen- tral Africa feels the effects of the great war.) Through the efforts of Cecil Rhodes this wonderful coun- try belongs to Great Britain. In such a short article it is im- possible to show the many good points in such a character; or, for that matter, even a few of them very well. Today, in Africa', there seems to be in the verv air one breathes a sort of Rhodes' ?pirit. The story of his life and that of Brigham Young are similar in a great many respects, and in death their graves are both ailke. Fifteen miles out from Bulowayo is what Rhodes called the world-view, and on top of the hill whence this view is to be had, in the very heart of the African wilderness, Rhodes CECIL JOHN RHODES 815 requested that he should be buried. March 26, 1902, the spirit of Rhodes took its flight, and, according to his instructions, his mortal remains were laid away in a grave which was hewn out of the solid rock, in the Matoppos, and on the simple slab which covers the grave is written Here lie the remains of Cecil John : Rhodes. Can such a man die? ROSEBANK, C. C . The Land of Opportunity BY J. C. HOGENSON, OF THE UTAH STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE On glancing out of a car window, the other day, I noted a placard on which was written in letters, so that he who ran might read, "The Land of Opportunity." Just what land was referred to, in the advertisement, I did not read, but I venture that it had reference to some land far remote from our present surround- ings, away from the place we call home. The Land of Opportunity, for you and for me, lies at your very door and mine. It does not lie afar off in a strange country, nor yet in a distant state. Your opportunity lies on your own farm that you have been cultivating for years, or in your store, workshop, or home, where you have become well established by experience. It is your opportunity to build up and develop your own community, your own state. What is more pitiable than to see an old couple, as they near the grave, all alone in their home, with their sons and daughters all moved away to other states They come home only about ! once in four or five years. Their parents' sunset is indeed a sor- rowful and lonesome one. What is happier than to see an old couple, as they near the sunset of life, with their sons and daughters settled around them, and their grandchildren playing near the home to make the old folks young again ! All they have to live for is the association of their own boys and girls, and the sweet grandchildren who re- mind them of their earlier married life when their own family was being reared. There is nothing which brings so much peace, joy, and comfort, at the sunset of life, as the association of their children and children's children. That is all they now have to live for. We are living in an age of Service, a day when he who is of the greatest service to his fellowman makes the greatest success in life. The place where you and I can be of the greatest service to our fellowmen is in the town where, as barefoot boys and girls, we trod the streets and fields. There we can serve best, and there is our "Land of Opportunity." LOGAN, UTAH