SOUSA 



5447 



SOUTH AFRICAN WAR 



in that city, making a specialty of the violin, 

 and at the age of seventeen was conductor of 

 an orchestra. In 1880 he became leader of the 

 United States Marine Corps Band and for 

 twelve years maintained it among the greater 

 musical organiza- 

 tions of the world. 

 While in this 

 work he began to 

 compose marches, 

 whi ch were 

 among the first 

 to contain a large 

 amount of synco- 

 pation, or "rag- 

 time" rhythm. 

 This form of 

 music rapidly 

 attained national 

 popularity, and 

 the Marine Band JOHN PHILIP SOUSA 

 was probably in greater demand than any other 

 organization of the kind in America. 



In 1892 he founded Sousa 's Band, and during 

 the next eight years directed it in practically 

 every state and territory of the American na- 

 tion, and in Canada. Between 1900 and 1905 

 he made four tours of Europe, and in 1910 and 

 1911 a tour of the world. Many honors were 

 bestowed upon him abroad, among them the 

 palms of the French Academy, the rank of 

 Officer of Public Instruction by the French 

 government and the Grand Diploma of Honor 

 by the Academy of Hainaut, Belgium. 



Sousa is one of the most prolific composers 

 in musical history, and his marches are better 

 known than the compositions of any other 

 American musician. His band is by far the 

 best in the United States. For these reasons 

 it was especially fitting that he should be se- 

 lected to organize bands at the Great Lakes 

 Training Station, in Illinois, on Lake Michi- 

 gan, after the entrance of the United States 

 into the War of the Nations, in 1917. He was 

 also made an officer in the United States navy, 

 with the provisional rank of lieutenant. The 

 Navy Department has officially adopted his col- 

 lection, entitled National, Patriotic and Typical 

 Airs oj All Countries. Among his most popu- 

 lar marches are The Washington Post, Under 

 the Double Eagle, El Capitan, Liberty Bell, 

 King Cotton and The Stars and Stripes For- 

 ever; the last-named undoubtedly has been 

 more popular than any other band or orchestra 

 music of the twentieth century. His descriptive 

 composition, or suites, such as Last Days of 



Pompeii and The Chariot Race, and his comic 

 operas, such as El Capitan and The Charlatan, 

 have also won unusual public favor. Sousa has 

 done some interesting work in his novels, The 

 Fifth String and Pipetown Sandy, and in his 

 descriptive book, Dwellers in the Western 

 World. R.D.M. 



SOUTH AF'RICA, UNION OF. See UNION 

 OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



SOUTH AF'RICAN WAR (1899-1902), a 

 struggle for supremacy in South Africa between 

 the British government and two Boer repub- 

 lics the South African (now the Transvaal) 

 and Orange Free State. This war grew out 

 of the jealousy and ill-will existing between the 

 Boers, or Dutch settlers, and the foreigners, or 

 Uitlanders, most of whom were British sub- 

 jects. In 1884 gold was discovered in the 

 Transvaal, and the large influx of Uitlanders 

 to the district served greatly to disturb the 

 placid Boers. The latter, who believed that 

 the Uitlanders hated them and would seek to 

 gain political control of the government, put 

 forth every effort to check such a plan. Under 

 the leadership of their president, Paul Kruger, 

 they so modified the naturalization laws that 

 in 1887 the term of residence necessary for se- 

 curing citizenship was fixed at fifteen years. 

 The foreigners protested against this and other 

 restrictions as unjust, and in 1896 the opposi- ' 

 tion took concrete form in an armed uprising 

 known as Jameson's Raid. 



Negotiations between the British govern- 

 ment and that of the South African Republic 

 failed to secure a peaceful solution of the diffi- 

 culty, and in October, 1899, war was declared, 

 the Orange Free State joining with its sister 

 republic against the British. At the outbreak 

 of hostilities an army of 12,000 British troops 

 was stationed in Natal and small detachments 

 were posted at Kimberley, on the western fron- 

 tier of Orange Free State, and on the Bechu- 

 analand and Rhodesian borders. The Boers 

 swarmed into Natal and shut up the British 

 force at Ladysmith. The English troops under 

 generals French and Gatacre checked the Boer 

 advance into Cape Colony and Lord Methuen 

 opened the way to Kimberley. The British 

 then met with a series of discouraging re- 

 verses, but in January, 1900, reinforcements 

 arrived under Lord Roberts, Lord Kitchener 

 acting as his ch:ef-of-staff. 



A new campaign was immediately begun. On 

 February 27, the Boer general, Cronje, sur- 

 rendered to Lord Roberts at Paardeberg in 

 Orange Free State, and the following day a 



