The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1896-10-08

"
fed several thousand of his Kaffirs at
Devils Pass, twelve miles to our north
on the Salisbury road and it would have
been madness to have attacked him on
foot, There were scarcely dozen horses
in town. with our unframed force of
250 men, old Kaffir fighters as some of
them were. 1t was really wonderful
though how this mixed croWd-almost
mob-of miners, ranchers and traders.
merchants, mining engineers and ex-
perts, ex-army officers and peaceful
nobodies became mobillsed, drilled and
settled down to the rigorous duties of a
| soldier in so short time. / shall never
forget my first nights duty on number
one picket, who were detailed to patrol
the Salisbury road two miles or more
out of town. There we're four OF us
who reported for duty at o'clock with
our roll of blankets, rife and bandolier
of cartridges each and were lined up
with the other details in the compound
to receive our orders and be sent our
several ways. Our quartette arrived at
| the post assigned us in the open veldt
just off the wagon road, proceeded to
draw lots for our turns, each to do
three hours while the others slept, if
possible, rolled in their blankets on the
bare ground, no fires of course being
allowed. | drew the IL to watch and
pacing up and down in the darkness
and thick fog a couple of hundred yards
| from where the others were sleeping,
| lit might have been as many miles for
all the sense of mpanionship they af-
forded), not a sound or sign of human
habitation, and knowing only too well
that at furthest old Makoni with his
savage hordes were but short ten
miles away, [ felt - we'll, not very
sleepy, though later, rolled comfortably
in my blankets, slept soundly until
sunrise.
On the evening of the 10Th, B troop
gave dance at the Masonic hotel, to
which, the dancing space and the nee
esary feminine element being both linn
tied, only the critic we're hidden. The
dancing-and l am a modest and len
| lent critic-was what if / were vulgar
Briton might characterize as some
thing bloody awful" and after one or
two painful ordeals | devoted the re-
mainder of the evening to claret, cigars
and edifying converse with the local
parson and an American mining expert
in the card room. This proved good
evenings work forme, however, for my
amiable compatriot offered me very
good thing on the engineering staff of
large mining syndicate which he
represents, vice one Martin, poor
fellow who was murdered by Makoni's
men a week or two since, a position
which [ accepted as a matter of course
On Saturday evening, the 18th, poor
Caplen, Sergeant Major of A troop, died
in the hospital of fever complicated
with pneumonia, contracted on picket
duty in the flats it is thought and on
| Sunday afternoon was buried with mil
| itary honOrs. 1t was the most impress
sive ceremony | think in which | ever
|
O'Clock the procession moved slowly
| from the barracks to the little corrugat-
ed iron chapel, the firing party of twen-
| ty-four men marching first with arms
reversed followed by the coffin wrap
ped in the Union Jack and borne upon
the shoulders of some of the deceased
comrades of A troop; then followed the
rlderless horse with spurred boots re-
versed in the stlrups and the three
troops at carry, with the gun squad
and carriage drawn by SIX mules
Only those of us who knew Caplen we'll
could be admitted into the little chapel,
the remainder standing uncovered out
side. The simple service was followed
/ by hymn in which the troops outside
! Joined one by one, the windows being
all opened. A male chorus at any
time is impressive ! think, and this
gathering of armed and roughly clad
frontiersmen uniting in q grand old
hymn Of praise and invocation TO God
for their comrade was promoted, stirred
mems souls from their depths and
fmany an unsteady voice and limpid
eye testified to an emotion not exper-
Eienced for long years perhaps in many
cases. From the chapel the body was
borne on the gun carriage to its lonely
resting place on the open veldt a mile
and a half from the post, and after the
usual three volleys by the firing party
and the sounding of taps by bugler
we marched at ease, smoking, chatting
and laughing back to camp, to forget
many of us that such a one as Caplen
ever lived and died amongst us. Early
the following week the imperial troop
began its arrival and on Thursday, the
23d, the burgher force was disbanded
passing on the conduct Of affairs to
trained English soldiery. On Friday,
in spite of the disturbed state Of the
whole country we decided to accept
the risks and three of US started a sur