Kru′ger, Stephanus Johannes Paulus,
a Boer statesman and former president of the
S. J. P. KRUGER
South African
Republic, was
born in Cape
Colony in 1825.
When a child he
went with his
parents and
others on the
famous trek or
march across
the country
beyond the Vaal
River, to form
a new settlement
beyond
English
jurisdiction. Kruger
grew to manhood amid the scenes of the
African frontier. He took part in all
disturbances for years, at one time holding office
under the British government until
dismissed under charges, after which he became
an agitator for independence. In 1883 he
was elected president of the South African
Republic, and was re-elected in 1888, 1893
and 1898. He was active meantime in
efforts to obtain an outlet upon the coast.
Kruger was illiterate, but possessed much
native ability. He ably conducted the
diplomatic negotiations which preceded the Boer
War, and on Oct. 9, 1899, issued the
ultimatum which led to the opening of hostilities.
Under the leadership of Kruger and
his generals the war was prosecuted with
energy and aggressiveness, the English forces
were defeated in several serious engagements,
and not until Lord Roberts was sent
with reinforcements which augmented the
English army to 200,000 men were the Boers
forced to give way in the unequal contest.
After the loss of Bloemfontein, Johannesburg
and Pretoria, President Kruger
embarked for Holland, whence he appealed
ineffectually to the European powers to intervene
in behalf of the Boers. He died on
July 14, 1904.
Krupp (krŏŏp), Alfred, the head of the large iron and steel works at Essen, Prussia, was born at that place in 1812. His father had founded a small forge there in 1810, and at his death in 1848 Alfred took control, finding “more debts than fortune.” Krupp established the first Bessemer steelworks in Germany and the first forging hammer. The first steel gun manufactured at Essen was a three-pounder muzzleloader. To Krupp belongs the credit of introducing steel as a material in the construction of guns. In 1862 he exhibited a cast-steel block weighing 20 tons, which showed what the Essen works were capable of doing in the manufacture of heavy ordnance. He showed a similar block of 50 tons at Paris in 1867 and one of 52 tons at Vienna in 1873. At the Düsseldorf exhibition of 1880 he exhibited a steel gun of 100 tons. Krupp also acquired large mines and collieries, and his works have continued to increase in extent until they cover over 1,000 acres. The total number of men employed at the works and in the mines is about 20,000. Krupp died on July 14, 1887, and his funeral was attended by 60,000 people. His son Alfred succeeded him, and under him was manufactured, in 1888-90, the 135-ton gun for the fortifications at Cronstadt. He died on Nov. 22, 1902. See Alfred Krupp by Bädeker.
Kryp′ton. See Argon.
Kubelik, Jan, a renowned violinist, was born at Miehle, Bohemia, in 1880. His father was a market-gardener, but gave a good musical education to his son, who graduated at Prague Conservatory. He appeared in Berlin and London in 1900, and subsequently made successful tours of the Continent and the United States. He has received decorations from the pope and from Servia, and is an honorary member of the philharmonic societies of London and Prague.
Kublai-Khan (ko͞o′blī-kän), the grand khan of the Mongols and the founder of the Mongol dynasty in China, was born in Tartary in the early part of the 13th century and died at Peking in 1294. He was an able and energetic prince, and, after overthrowing the Sung dynasty of southern China, compelled Korea, Cochin-China, Burma, Java and some Malabar states in India to acknowledge his supremacy. He encouraged men of letters, made Buddhism the religion of the state, and manifested great interest in the welfare of his people. He established himself at Kaanbaligh or City of the Khan, modern Peking, and there founded the new dynasty of Yuen, the first foreign race of kings that ever ruled over China. Kublai's dominions extended from the Arctic Ocean to the Strait of Malacca and from Korea to Asia Minor and the confines of Turkey, a territory the extent of which had never before and has never since been governed by any monarch in Asia. The splendor and magnificence of his court inspired the graphic pages of Marco Polo, who spent considerable time in Peking during his reign, and at a later date the imagination of Coleridge. See Yule's Marco Polo; Howorth's History of the Mongols; and Curtin's.
Ku Klux Klan was a secret organization which terrorized the freed negroes and not seldom the “carpet-baggers” and northerners during the five or six years subsequent to the Civil War. Its origin may have been directly out of the old patrol kept in slave-holding days; but it was excused chiefly by the violence of some negroes, unused as they were to their newfound freedom. But the Klan did not limit itself to the original attempt at playing upon the superstitious fears of the negroes. The white sheets, masks and cardboard hats were a safe dis-
