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Mrs. Hammond had with her in Johannesburg Mr. Hammond's sister and her little boy Jackie* (her second son) aged eight. The preliminary trial of the Reform Committee soon began "for high treason" but about that time Mr. Hammond fell ill with dysentery. Mrs. Hammond got him out of jail under guard, nursed him herself. Finally under $100,000 bail he was allowed to leave the country and go to Cape Town.
When the second trial was called late in April, Mr. Hammond was still on his back and the doctors feared that his heart could not stand the trip back to Pretoria. His friends urged him not to go saying it was certain death if not in one way then another. But he insisted. Mrs. Hammond went with him although ill herself.
The trial was held. The judge, who had been brought in from the Orange Free State and was not even a citizen of the republic, sentenced the four leaders to be hanged. There was an uproar of protest even from the Boers. Next morning President Kruger commuted the sentence, but meantime a gallows had been erected. For several weeks the prisoners lay in jail, this time in galvanized iron shacks, 22 men in a shed 30 ft. by 10 ft. One man lost his mind, cut his throat.
Mrs. Hammond, indefatigable, courageous, nearly died. Mr. Hammond who had begun to recover was allowed to go to her side, without guard, without bail, not even under parole. After a time it was announced that the leaders would only have to spend 15 years in prison, the others lesser terms. Mark Twain appeared in the Rand and visited the prisoners and told them that after all there was no place where one was so safe from interruption as in jail. At the end of May all but six were allowed to pay $10,000 fine and go free. In mid-June President Kruger released the six, fining Mr. Hammond $125,000. A few weeks later in England Mrs. Hammond gave birth to her third son.**
The Post-Revolutionary. The episode established Mr. Hammond's international reputation, although in mining circles it was already secure. About 1900 he returned to the U.S. He was employed by the Guggenheims at a fabulous salary, reputed to be as much as a $1,000,000 a year. He was sent as special U. S. Ambassador to the coronation of George V. The Czar of Russia twice called him to consult on irrigation and other engineering problems. President Taft (his very good friend) offered him the post of Minister to China (which he refused). He became interested in irrigation, electric power, electric railway developments on a large scale and on several continents. His most recent post of note was the chairmanship of the U.S. Coal Commission. He is still going on, although no longer fighting revolutions.
*Now John Hays Hammond Jr., who occupies as much space in Who's Who as his father; an inventor of electrical devices, especially in connection with radio and such companies as the American Telephone and Telegraph Co., which operate under some of his 224 patents.
**This was Richard Pindle Hammond (named after his paternal grandfather) who has developed into a young man of intellectual brilliance and versatility, with a special gift for music which may yet prove to be genius.