The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-09-06

OF DR.. Jameson in diSobeying orders
and in forcing them TO show their
hand, a. most difficult one. They had,
all told, bur 1000 rifles i'm the town,
while the Boer government had under
arms and within call 5000 burgers, each
Of whom was a lighting man. When
Hammond asked Heyman, DR.. JAIME
sons military representative in johann
nesbuTg, how long he thought they
could hold out should they attempt to
defend the town with the LOCO rifles IN
their, possession, Heyman said: About
tWenny minutes"
This then, was the position in which
DR.. Jameson had placed his friends and
fellow revolutionists. They were with
out arms to make a stand, and owing
to his act the fact that they had meant
to do so was no longer g secret, their
purpose was exposed, and as Would-be
revolutionists, they would justly be at
the mercy of the Beers On Tuesday
night 400 more rifles were smuggled
hurriedly across the border, but in the
confusion which had continued from
the moment it was known that JAIME
SON he'd precipitated the revolt, many
Of these were lost and many more
were distributed to the worng people,
and at least 500 fell in the hands of the
Beers themselves.
Those men who did not know how to
handle a gun were armed with what
rifles there were, and sent out into the
streets to act as policemen to protect
the town from the Beers Without and
rioting within, the Boer police having
entirely withdrawn from Johannesburg.
ANOTHER CIRCUMSTANCE
which at the same time added greatly
co the difficulties of the reform commit
tee, was the fact that the inhabitants
of Johannesburg knew that they had
invited Jameson to come to Cheir as
sis'tance, and they were now wondering
why no preparations were being made
to meet him ON his way. But the re-
form committee knew 10 its sorrow
that if it took its guns away from its
policemen and went to Jameson, it
would take every gun there was in the
city, leaving it absolutely unprotect-
ed from the Beers, who were gather
ing at different points surrounding Jo-
hannesburg. But the people of the city
did not know this, and the reform COM
mdttee could not tell them how helpless
it was without the Beers knowing it
also, and at that time almost their only
safeguard against the Beers lay in the
fact that the TTanSvaaI government be-
lieVed that there were from TO- 900 to
20 900 rifles hidden away in the town
OF johannesburg. It was stared at the
time of the raid by many different peo-
pie that Jameson had been promised a
force of 1000 men to meet him at Kru-
gerNdorf. No such promise was ever
made to Jameso by the reform com
mittee, and even had it been made,
Jameson knew when he left Mafekang
that by coming in before his friends
were armed he could not expect any
assistance from them. Nor, to be quite
fair to both jameson and the reform
committee, did he expect such assist
ance, nor did the reform committee
think he needed it.
One of Jameson's troopers reached
Johannesburg early ON Thursday morn
ing at about the same time that Jane
SON was being surrounded at Doom
looTpf, and at once reported to Colonel
Rhodes and Hammond. The man said
that he had been sent on in advance
by the doctor to tell him that he and
his force
WE'RE COMING IN EASILY,
and would follow the messenger Fin
to send a committee Of citizens to meet
him at the outskirts of the town in
order that his act might not look like
that of a something, the name of which
the trooper could not remember.
Rhodes suggested "hhbusterer'' and
'adventurer,' but the trooper shook
his head, until some one ventured ''pi-
rate when he exclaimed: Yes, that
was the word Rhodes laughed and
said: and I'll wager the doctor said
On d-n pirate
Yes, sir, he did" the trooper an
swered, and then curIed up, completely
exhausted on the floor under the table
in the committee room and slept there
for five hours
After this message was received the
committee was so confident that JAIME
son was coming in safely that the wo-
men of the town gathered flowers to-
getheT and rode out along the highway
to Krugerdorp to meet him and his
conquering heroes. Another message
from Jameson, which shows that he
did not expect any assistance, in spite
Of what statements he may have made
to his men before starting, is a letter
sent by him to Colonel Rhodes, in re-
ply to one which had been brought him
from Rhodes by a cycler who met
Jameson on Wednesday night, some
twelve hours before the surrender of
the following morning.
In this letter Rhodes told him that
there had been no massacre or uprising
in johannesburg, and added that he
would have a drink with him that
night when he got in, and to this Jane
son replies that he is coming all right
and
NEEDS NO HELP,
but that if they can spare 200 men he
would be glad if they would send them
out to meet him, as it would cheer up
his troopers, who are tired with their
long ride.
This letter never reached Rhodes IN
til three months later, as the bicyc1er
was stopped by the Beers on his way
back and his machine was thrown into
the shaft Of one of the mines He es-
capped from the Beers and three months
after the raid f1shed his machine out of
the shaft and found the letter from
the seat of the bicycle It is now in
the possession of Col. Rhodes. This
message sent the night before the sur
render and the one brought by the
trooper who had left the column only
five hours before the surrender, shows
that even at the eleventh hour JAIME
son had no idea but that he was COM
ing straight into Johannesburg, and
was neither expecting aid or asking for
it.
On the night previous to the surren-
der, when it was proposed in johann
nesburg to go out and meet him, the
military committee, which was COM
posed of Colonel Rhodes, Heyman
Frank White ard Janeson's brother
the last three being Jameson's own rep
resentatives in johannesburg, the men
who had been sent there by him to
look after his interests refused for an
instant to entertain the idea that he
needed help. Frank White had two
brothers, the Hon. Henry White and
the notorious 'Bobbie'' White, serving