New-York tribune., 1899-12-08
THE PASSING THRONn

ieVAVli
r. Fl. Smith Of Cheyenne. formerly an ,s
the United States Army. and now a m,,,''fh
gneer. In the pursuit n, h,' IT,
THE BOERS fession has spent some ,i,,a po
AS Transvaal When seen v..,m' no
SOLDIERS. al the Fifth Avenue Ho,s ssssy
Smith said. ar
Il have frequently been asked OF late vb.,
Of soldiers the Beers meke and whore ana UT
they got any military training, and have IVY wv
many articles in the press to the effect ,b., =.
trained English troops would cut them up VIA Is.s
ana cavalry against them. IL IL difficult nsU
tion TO answer as TO what constitutes a solder -
as to what constitutes the proper training ~ ~
From European or an American point OF vIa Iya
perhaps, the Beers are not trained soIdiery ~
yet from their own point Of view they asns T..
they have all their lives been training And ~
pairing for this very war, In which they arc ~
engaged Ihey are tne in hnsst % shos have s,s
on the British forces IN every fight 80 far s, a
petely expOdes the theory that they had ~
OF game from the Transyaai country, and tina 49,
sequent necessary giving over or their fsyor,
sport Of hunting. Game In abundance sun h.
near TO hand in that part OF South Africa, and n
Beers Independently OF hunting. are asslduogs =
their rife practice. which they carry on ali ,sa
time II Is begun with them as soon as they a.
walk and | have seen innumerable little gass
shooting at marks the veldt there, soms :.
whom could not have been over hye years Of a..
endure ali kinds OF weather to subsist on \.
smallest possible amount Of food when necesssr'
CON cnnse9uence' they can live and thrive W.. H.
Tommy Atkins would starye and parch. and a,
get along with a commssariat Of such small a
mensIons as would give the average European so
ders pangs Of hunger only TO think how ltts
must contain
Then. too. they have horses as hardy and %.
during as themselves. capable OF doing hundrs
mile march a day for several DAYS In successos
and this gives them great advantage. both for a,
tack and retreat. They know the country they A.,
fghtIng In, every pass through the mountains sri
where the fewest men can be used 70 the grezts
possible advantage. And in their cavalry Won
they are unexcelled, They understand open esv
work-that is. each individual relying TO hrn
extent on hmsef-and you will notice that ate
each fight they manage to retreat with but tT
losses due 10 capture. and with their arms an
should say that, with the geographical and st
matte conditions under which they are nghtht
taken into consideration. they are NO. sody.i
Transport them 10 another country end contra;
them with different conditions and the story n
their fighting would probably read dire,rently, ~
they were fully az good soldiers as II not bst-
than, were the Indians IN the old days on oT
Western plains"
A. r. Carron, friend Of Colonel Smith s,t
an old plalnsman. who present. said: ne
Indians OF the West were as g,H
FIGHTING soldiers any have seen AZ.
QUALITIES as cavalry the best have eve
OF INDIANS. known. Smiths speaking Of Il,
Beers and the advantage t.y
possess on account Of the superior knowledge th1
have OF the country wherein they are fighting n
minds me OF certain OF the Indians wars whia
will serve to bring out the point which ne msc
tons From the Mississippi to the Rockies b.
roughly speaking some six hundred miles, and ths
space is divided into three great shelves each abou
two hundred miles wide and the last ending
abruptly at the sheer wall Of the Rocky Mountains
These are the famous Western plains Of song an!
fafn IrAfa Tpa flhl lNr In fus
hest lighting tribes In olden days the Chez
ennes and Sioux The first OF the tribes OF noun
Rockies were the I'tes The Utes would often q
out upon the plains TO kill buffalo, and frequently
come into collision with the plains Indians u
every recorded instance Of a fight between Uta
and plains Indians upon the plains the ties y
variably received an awful walloplng. Frequenu
the plains Indians would invade the mountains
and there come into collision with the Utes u
every such case the plains Indians gof mos
thor9ugh thrashing. You see from this what Al
advantage men have when ighung on thelr oH,
70 bn a soldier for not only his individual life BIZ
the life of the tribe itself depended upon Il u
the earlier life of the plains II was Ease Of N ~
survival OF the fittest and on one Indian tnati
ability 10 meet and overcome another troe e1s,
ence itself hung. ! have frequently seen III.
Apache BOYS little devils Of three Years Old ar.
upward. as naked az when they were ooIn; ~. ~.
ming about in the grass, with bows made Oh rea
with rank grass as arrows, sho0Dlns & O, a. 0ssss @
time, too That's the first step In their training
and II is kept up all their lives, ana natnay ny
become as perfect soldiers as possible soeorfay
to their lights You've heard Of the Apsetes
running ability? Well, an Apache runns y.
queer a sight you ever saw. Their egs Gs
thin that they look like pipestems, and as Isy
run with a bended knee you expect them to ~?
from exhaustion with every step Yet kneva
an Apache runner who was sent out with u
patch from frontier post 10 a field command. !.
command was about one hundred miles from y
post II was supposed but when the runner g.
there he found that the command had gone On
DAYS march twenty-five miles further; yet
picked them up and delivered the message aloG
thirty hours after ne had left the post ha'ns
covered the entire distance on foot
"The successful Indian chief was not alone = :
who won the fight but also he who oroughi o.
his men with the least loss. for an Indian hle
was an Indian gone. and the tribe was by 80 nla
the weaker, as there was no one TO take his 2ss
In the case Of United States and other uoopan
filled Arguing by analogy. think the Boes VII
lose. for in this they are like the lndians-a 1s
killed or captured is a Boer gone. and ther any
IS by that much the weaker England, % Is
other hand. can replace the men she loses sm. sm.
she can win I'm no other way win she muS v. ~
end by first weakening and then overcoming ~
Transvaal and Orange Free state armies W Wv"
force OF numbers"