The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-02-25


brought large and Interesting batch of
letters from the correspondents at the
front or elsewhere a graphic account Of
hfe in Ladysmilh, written by the late G.
w. Stevens, for the Daily Mail. has also
a pathetic interest for in the excellence
Of its style and the forcefuiness of the
iD2rossious recorded. one is keenly re-
minded Of the ross literature ana journal
ism sustained when Mr. Stevens died.
1t is dated 'Ladysm1th, Nov. TO-" and is
in part as follows:
Good mornirg' banged Four-point-
seven; have you used Long TOMB
'Crack-k-whiz-z,' came the reviving
swe e we have
'Whish-h-patter, paiter, chimed in a
cloud-high shrapnel from Bu,wan. Ii was
1870 in the morning OF Nov. T. the real
b5mbardment, the terrific symphony had
begun. During the first movement the
leading performer was Long Tom. He is
a friendly old gun and fec my part have
none bu. the kindest feelings toward him.
Il was his duty 10 shell US, and he did,
but he did it in an open, manly way.
Behind the half-country of light red
soil they had Piled up around him you
could see his ugly phiz thrust up and look
hungriy about him. A jet of flame and
spreading toadstool of thick white smoke
told us he had fired. On the flash Four
point-seven' banged his punctiiius reply.
You waited unbanged his punctilious re-
ply. You waited until you saw the black
smoke jump behind the red mound. and
then Tom was due in a second or TWO.
red hash-a jump of red brown dust
ana smoke-a rendng crash, he had ar
rived Ihen sang slowly through the air
his fragments, like wounded birds. You
could hear them coming, and they came
with digniied slowness; there was plenty
OF time to get out of the way
UntA we capture Long Tom'-when ne
%ih be treated with the utmost considera-
uoh-l am not able to tell you exactly
what brand of gun he may be. 1t is evil
rent from his conservative use of black
powder, and the Old geRtlemanly stad-
ness OF MS movements, that he is an eld-
eriy gun. His caliber appears to be six
inches From the plunging nature of his
llre some have conjectured him a sort of
howftzer, but it is next to certain he is
one OF the sixteen 15-centimeter Creusot
guns bought for the forts of Pretoria and
johannesburg. Anyhow, he conducted his
enc reed task with all possible humanity
Long Tom" and His Brothers.
ION this same 7th a brother of Long
Tom by the name of Fiddling Jimmy
opened on the Manchesters' and Caesars
camp from tiat-topped kopje three or
four miles south of them. This gun had
been there certainly since the Sd. when tt
snelled our returning reconnaissance; but,
ne too was gentle creature, and did lit
Ia IA RIM RI
brother Putting Billy made a somewhat
bashful first appearance on Bulwan. Four
rounds from the -point-seven' silenc-
ed him for the day. Later came other
brothers, of whom you viii hear in due
COURSE" In general you may say of the
Long Tom family that their favorite
habitat is among loose soil on the cops of
open hills; they are slow and unwieldly
and very open in all their actions. They
are good shooting guns; Tom on the 7th
made days lovely practice all around
our battery. They are impossible to dis
able behind their huge epaulements I'M
less you actually hit the gun, and they are
so harmless as hardly to be worth dis
aiding.
Il believe that an enterprising enemy
of the Boer streusth-it may have been
anything from 10000 to Z0,0C0; and remem-
her that their mobility made one man of
them equal TO at least two of our reduced
II, C0O-could, if not have taken Ladysmith
at least have put us TO great loss and dis
comfort. But the Beers have the great
defect of all amateur soldiers-they love
their ease and do not mean to be killed
Now. without toll and hazard they could
not take Ladysmith.
The inhabitants were mostly under
ground, so that there was nothing really
TO suffer except casual passengers, beasts,
and empty buildings. The casualties in
Ladysmith during a fortnight were one
white civilian, two natives, a horse, two
mules, a wagon, and about half a dozen
houses. And of the last only one was
actually wrecked; one-of course the most
desirable habitation in Acknowledgements
ed no less than three shells, and remained
habitable and inhabited to the end.
And now what does il feel like to be
bombarded?
AT first and especially first thing in
the morning, it is quite an uncomfortable
sensation. You know that gunners are
looking for you through telescopes thar
every spot is commanded by one big gun
and most by a dozen. You hear the squeal
Of the things all above. the crash and pop
all about, and wonder when your turn will
come. Perhaps one falls quite near you.
swooping irresistbly as if the devil had
kicked il.
''You come to watch for shells-to listen
TO the deafening rattle of the big guns.
The shrilling whistle of the small, to guess
at their pace and their direction. You see
now house smashed in; a heap of chios
and rubble; now you see a splinter kicking
up a fountain of clinking stone-shivers;
presently you meet a wounded man on
stretcher. This is your dangerous time. If
you have nothing else to do, and especially
II you listen and calculate, you are done;
You get shens on the brain, think and talk
of nothing else, and finish by going into
aole in the ground before daylight and
hiring better men than yourself 10 bring
lou down your meals. Whenever you put
Your head out of the hole, you have nose
breadth escape. If a hundredth part of the
iroYdential dellverances told in Lady
smith were true, IL was miracle that
anybody in the place was alive after the
first quarter of an hour. A day of this AMI
you are a nerveless semi-corpse, witch
ing at a hy-buzz, a misery to yourself and
scorn to your neighbors
Confidence Under Shell Fire.
IF, on the other hand. you so about
Your ordinary business. confidence revives
fol. an hat Iforto fta