The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-12-02
THE LADYsMITH OF TO-DAY.

there was naught to presage the pres
ent state of affairs save vague unrest
in the air, a subtle drawing together OF
the townsfolk and the soldiers at the
camp, and tense feeling of expecta'
ton Of something-we knew not what
Ordinarily Ladysmith is quiet, dull
little place, intensely English, in so fat
that there is absolutely no Dutch ele-
ment to disturb the solidly loyal Sc
renity of the township-fir it is little
more.
We rather pride ourselves upon the
situation of Ladysmith. 1t is over 5000
feet above the sea; the frowning crests
of the Drakensberg Mountains are about
thirty miles away to the north and
west, and help to shelter us in winter
from excessive cold. The climate goes
height of summer December and Janu-
ary) is very hot, and the depth of win
ter Dune and july corresponding cold,
AT the same time the air is extraordin-
arily dry and bracing. The open air
cure for consumption had beentried and
proved successful at Ladysmith years
before it began to be talked about at
home.
We are not only healthy, but we are
very good. Probably few towns of
four thousand inhabitants have so many
places of worship. Practically every
creed has it's church or chapel from the
Dutch Reformed, which is very small
congregation, to the Wesleyan, which is
quite considerab BILE. We even can boast
of the Salvation Army.
Folks are wont to laugh at the i'm
| - tai ,N1a 11,,t
after all, Ladysmith is the third sized
twon in Natal, Durham and Pietermar-
| itzburg being of course, good deal
| larger Our town hall, we think, is
! worthy of an English cathedral town,
and we plume ourselves considerably
on the public buildings, especially, the
courthouse, schools, public library and
the Jail.
OF course, the town. as town, is not
much to look at-a few dusty, i'll kempt
but fairly wide streets; spacious
market square, surrounded by low gal
Vanized iron, stores, many of them
bearing such curious Indian names as
Moona Sammy, Abdol Mahomet, and
the like, on the signboards, for the i'm
portant arab merchants of Durham
are all represented by branch houses.
In front of the court house, the hotels,
and the police barracks are the usual
horse lettering rails, and one bitches
up ones pony and leaves it alone for
hours, quite secure in the average in
tegrity of the passerby.
Honestly, our weak points are our
roads, our drainage and our lighting.
These are elementary and not on the
scale that they Shout be- Our oedies
promise us better things in the near
future. But moonless night, a rutty-
road and a variety of small SHUTS
(ditches) have before now made the
stranger in our midst use strong Ian
guage about our rural simplicity.
For quite long while Ladysmith
was the railway terminus from Durham,
from which it is 100 miles away. During
the gold rush to the Transvaal, coaches
Cape carts, wagons, Spiders, even "gin
cases on Wheels" set out daily by the
score for the northern Eldorado. At
that time the bonded warehouses for
goods in transit were piled up with
thousands of pounds worth Of goods for
the Transvaal. In those days the hotel
keepers did f1ourishing business in
housing intending travellers and pro-
visioning them for the journey But
this has all been altered now. We are
only roadside station on the great
through line to Pretoria and beyond.
But we have the branch line to Harri-
smith in the Orange Free State, so that
we are, after all, junction on small
scale.
There are good many trees in
Ladysmith-in fact, it is by way of be-
ing an oasis in the veldt Mimosas,
gum trees Of a dozen kinds, yucas, aloes
and planes all flourish, and some of the
flower gardens are beautifully bright
in summer.
BY the way, the name of Ladysmith
has the simplest of derivations. 1t was
christened after Lady Harry Smith,
about the year 1910. She was the Span
ish wife of General Harry Smith, who
commanded the troops in South Africa
at the time. His extraordinary ride of
nearly five hundred miles, to the relief |
Of the "City of the Saints" In the Kaffir |
war of 1886, in six days. is matter Of |
history.
But, after all, the chief interest in |
to-day lies in it's military |
position. In the old days of the first !
Transvaal war we had troops here, and |
the place was to all intents and pur- |
poses a garrison town. But the soldiers |
were eventually withdrawn, and it was
not until 1897 that we were again ia
that year the military authorities came
up from Maritzburg and laid out a
camp of considerable extent near the
miliar with the flies and drums. In |
rather less than two miles |
10 the west of the town. We were right |
glad to see them, and tried our best to
10 them we'll There We're never less
han two thousand men in camp under
;anvas and in so-called huts, and three
ield batteries of artillery helped to
swell the number.
Looking back to-day to the time when
he camp was re-esta bleshed, just over
wo years ago. 1t seems to me that there
vas some inkling Of strange happenings
wen at that time. We talked vaguely
If possibilities, but never realized the
Tread actualities that have now come to
PASS.
AT that time various real estate specu-
ators and others bought land in the
of the camp with view
# building hotel, some bungalows, a
.anteen or so and other accomoda ton
o, +l,a trpono b.1t oyuipu IN uarip1,c !