e
fruit-growing district of the Paarl, almost entirely populated by
Dutch--even this great demonstration that one great man was capable of
inspiring quickly faded from my memory in view of the insight which
three weeks as his guest gave me of the many sides of his life,
occupations, and character. The extraordinary strength of will and
tenacity of purpose, points always insisted on in connection with him,
seemed on nearer acquaintance to be merely but a small part of a
marvellous whole.

It often used to occur to me, when with Mr. Rhodes, how desirable it
would be to induce our sons and young men in general to imitate some of
the characteristics which were the motive power of his life, and
therefore of his success. I noticed especially the wonderful power of
concentration of thought he possessed, and which he applied to any
subject, no matter how trivial. The variety and scope of his many
projects did not lessen his interest in any one of them. At that time he
was building four railways in Rhodesia, which country was also pinning
its faith to him for its development, its prosperity, and, indeed, its
_modus vivendi_. Apart from this, Cape politics, although he then held
no official position, were occupying a great deal of his time and
thoughts in view of future Federation. It was, therefore, marvellous to
see him putting his whole mind to such matters as his prize poultry and
beasts at the home farm, to the disposing of the same in what he termed
"my country," or to the arranging of his priceless collection of
glass--even to the question of a domicile for the baby lioness lately
presented to him. Again, one moment he might be talking of De Beers
business, involving huge sums of money, the next discussing the progress
of his thirty fruit-farms in the Drakenstein district, where he had no
fewer than 100,000 fruit-trees; another time his horse-breeding
establishment at Kimberley was engaging his attention, or, nearer home,
the road-making and improvements at Groot Schuurr, where he even knew
the wages paid to the 200 Cape boys he was then employing. Mr. Rhodes
was always in favour of doing things on a large scale, made easy,
certainly, by his millionaire's purse. Sometimes a gardener or bailiff
would ask for two or three dozen rose or fruit trees. "There is no use,"
he would exclaim impatiently, "in two dozen of anything. My good man,
you should count in hundreds and thousands, not dozens. That is the only
way to produce a