The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-11-01
A STAGGERING BLOW.
Loss to British Reaches Most Appalling
Total.

London. Oct. 31.-While minor re-
verses were not wholly unexpected,
nothing like the staggering blow Gen
eral Joubert delivered to General
Whites forces yesterday was antici-
pated. The full extent of the disaster
is not yet acknowledged, if it is known,
at the war Office. The loss in effective
men must be appalling to the general.
who is practically surrounded.
Two of the finest British regiments
and the mule battery deducted from
the Ladysn1tth garrison weakens 1t
about a fifth OF its total strength and
alters the whole situSHon very mate
rally in favor of the 'Boers, who have
again showed themselves strong fight
ers and military strategists of no mean
order.
This disaster cost the British from
1500 to 2,ooo men and six 7-pound screw
suns and as the Boer artillery lis al
ready stronger than imagined, the cap
ture Of these guns will be great help
to the Beers.
Further news must be awaited be-
fore it is attempted to fix the blame
where it belongs White manfully Ac-
cepts all responsibility for the disaster,
which apparently was at least partly
due ito the stampeding of the mules
with guns
Interest in the news was universal,
pervading all classes and conditions of
London's population. Newspaper ex-
tras We're read in business houses. on
streets and by women in their car
riages. Then there was a rush to the
war Office, which by noon was sur
rounded with private carriages and
hansoms. while many Of the hum bier
class of people came on foot. all wait
ing and watching for names they held
dear. Never was the old saying bad
news travels quickly" better exempli-
fed than to-day. BY noon sorrow pre-
vailed throughout the British metrop-
oils.
At the government offices no effort
was made to conceal the feeling of dis
may prevailing. One official said to a
representative of the associated press:
''It is inexplicable and ! am sorry to
say that its moral effect is inestimable
We have lost heavily in many ways
and had regiments almost wiped out.
but to have regiments captured, and
by the Beers, it is terrible"
An official of the war office said to a
representative of the associated press:
The disaster is more likely due to
the craze OF our younger officers to dis
tinguish themselves, obtain mention in
the dispatches and earn the Victoria
cross than to the fault of that splendid
Indian veteran, General White, in spite
of his aVoWal.'
AS the day wore on the crowd around
the war office swelled to enormous pro-
portions and at Gloucester. the home
of many of those engaged the widest
excitement prevailed.
Special editions of local newspapers
were speedily exhausted and the same
thing occurred at Bristol and other
towns in that county. Coming SO soon
after the engagement at Rietzfontein,
where the Gloucestershires suffered
heavily, this fresh disaster brought
keenest sorrow to the households all
over the county whose name the regi-
ment bears. The disaster had an i'm
mediate effect on the stock exchange,
where consols fell y; South African
securities dropped heavily.
The tone of the editorials OF the af-
ternoon papers can be summed up in
the following statement of the St
James Gazette:
1T is evident patriotism and forti-
tude are to be tested in earnest by
these operations of ours in Natal
against great odds. General White
had difficult task set him and we
must take the disaster with dogged
GOODNESS, which the Britons know how
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