Omaha daily bee., 1899-10-13
FILIPINOS AND BOERS,
Their Methods of Fighting Differ in
Many Material Respects.


When the British run up against the Beers
in the Transvaal it will not be much such a
war as that we are having in the Philip
pines We are fighting a lot of negroes
VINO do not know any more about firing a
gun than woman does about throwing a
stone They see our troops moving and they
have one gun to about three or four negroes.
and first one takes the gun, points it toward
where the Yankees are, shuts his eyes and
pulls; there is an earthquake, the bullet
goes off somewhere in the country, the man
behind the gun is kicked end over end and
Knocked senseless, and after pouring water
on him the others shake dice to see which
one has the next shot, and the one who
throws double skies loads up the gun and
has his inning and gets his kick and rolls
over in the grass, while the bullet goes off
toward Australia and the Yankees keep on
coming.
Then the third fellow tries his hand, per-
haps resting the gun across the bodies of his
companions; he pulls and haS his Jaw kicked
around back OF his neck, and there they are.
Ihey act like boys going out with a gun
plugging woodpeckers and quarreling as to
whose turn it ds to shoot until the wood
pecker gets Disguised and goes in his hole
to raise family of young woodpeckers
The first fellow that was knocked silly
finally comes to and he shoots the gun, hold
ing the butt against his stomach to save his
jaw and shoulder and his stomach is knocked
| so fiat that it will not hold kernel OF rice
| unless 1t Is soaked in bilge water, but his
bullet accidentally hits a soldier and that
| raises a row. The Yankees have got near
enough to fight and they kill lot OF these
| amateur soldiers and finally give yell and
charge them, when one fellow takes his gun
and runs for tall timber, another carries the
dice box and third carries the cartridges
and the chances are the Yankees will pot
the whole lot of them and capture the gun.
But the British have got different propo-
sition when they go against Kruger. 1t will
| be like fighting German schuetzeufest
where every man can hit a bulls-eye or he
has to explain why he missed 1t. Boys 1(
years old are good shots and If any Boer can
| shoot better than another they all get mad
| at themselves and practice at a mark until
| they can tie the champion, II not beat him
| Almost every man has whiskers like a brush
| fence to hide behind and they can shoot as
well lying down and rest the gun between
| their toes as any old way. They don't bunch
| up, so the enemy can take pot shot at then
with Calling gun, but they scatter and
| hide behind something and don't hurry about
shooting, but wait until they have drawn a
| bead on the white forehead OF the enemy
ana then mold on and smoke smokeless to-
bacco until the wind gauge shows that all
signs are right when they pull, and there
| Is sure enough funeral over ON the Other
| side. Every man has his cartridges counted
| out to him and II he does not show corpse
| for every empty shell he has to have an
argument with Kruger and explain to the
old man why he can't learn to shoot straight
| and maybe he is arrested for treason. II is
| almost treason for Boer to miss when ht
shoots at anything. The crowd would ostra-
| else man quicker for missing a man in
| battle than for stealing COW, and the only
cases OF suicide are caused by man falling
| continually to hit what he shoots at.
20O-pound Boer with whiskers like a bal,
of hay can lay down behind wooden shct
and hide himself 50 completely that al
enemy Will not see him, and all the time hi
will be sending soft-nosed bullets where they
Will do the most harm. They can carry q
| piece OF dried beef or summer sausage IL
| their vest pocket, to feed them a week. and
| can climb up the side OF a mountain like q
! goat, and as for sleeping, they drop right
| down anywhere and snore at a mark, and
| never take cold and never have a doctor
They don't need any wagon to carry food OF