Evening star., 1900-06-23
Both the Beers and the British
Have the Collecting Fad.
QUEER THINGS KEPT As XEMENTOES
Even the Clothes of Dead Soldiers
Have Been Rifled.
l CURIOUS PROCLAMATION
Copyright, 1900. by Allen sangree.)

South Africa Is relic mad. Never was
! there such an epidemic. Dying soldiers for
| get the queen, the enemy. their wounds and
| their future existence, but they cling to
| battered bullets with the tenacity Of de-
| spair. Bodies are rfled while yet warm.
| for cigarette box or a love letter A home
made Transvaal bandolier sells In Cape
Town for so and every English merchant
south of the Zambesi Is thriving in the
curio trade. One would think the war had
, been gigantic struggle for souvenirs In
stead of a world tragedy.
! Zeal is equally intense with British and
Beers, with combatants and non-combat-
ants. and mementoes gain value In their
! gruesomeness. The Beers were the first to
go at the business in a systematic way. as
the following translation of state docu-
| n:ent, issued at Pretoria will show:
A Strange Proclamation.
Fellow Burghers-Our country is at pres
| ent plunged in the bloodiest war which
South Africa has ever seen. Many brave
| burghers have already shed their blood in
| this terrible struggle in order to regain for
US all complete independence and complete
freedom.
This war will become-if God so wills it
the war of liberation for all South Africa.
and hope soon to be able to proclaim:
The republic began the victory
Even this bloody war, however. will soon
| belong to the past. will only live in memory
of future generations. and history alone
will give the accounts of the courage
and the determination of former genera
tions
THE burghers of South Africa have often
given their blood and offered their lives in
struggles against savages and oppressors;
but there are, alas! too few tangible souve-
Mrs in existence of the laudahle deeds in
h.tt Ia Of he rfralx who for tll a
purified the land of savases and treacher-
Gus rulers.
"Our state might have been in possession
of thousands of relics in which we might
have gloried and which we might have
placed before the eyes of our youth in order
to show them the difficult and apparently
insurmountable obstacles which oar people
have surmo lnted in becoming people, and
have gained such strength that they dared
to declare war against the mighty empire
of England. whose boast it is that the sun
never sets thereon. Because of the nno-
cence of forefatherS. however, no
| thought was given to the value of such
souvenirs.
For Future Generations.
Let this not be the case In this war.
Let collect relics for our SUCCESSORS
which. in later years. will give a clear idea
Of the extent and the terrors of the strug-
gle which the Afrkanders had TO carry
to be free and in position to develop
free people. not in order to boas. of their
own prowess. but in praise and thanks to
Him whom our people trusted in the
day of trouble. and also to create and en-
| courage in our youth that love of country
| which binds together and makes great
nation Let each one contribute his little
toward that object. Many articles
| taken from the arch enemy on the battle
| field-lances, rifles. guns. clothing. stand
| ards. papers. which have no intrinsic value.
| but which, when preserved and exhibited
| in national museum. will assist to keep
| in remembrance the lion-hearted courage
of our forefat hers, to strengthen the
| tional spirit. and to cause our people to
, give ever renewed thanks to Him to whom
| We trusted.
our national museum appeals 10 all faith
| ful burghers in the field. asking them to
contribute to the forming of worthy col
lection Of obIec.s and souvenirs pertaining
to this of liberation. The manage
| ment of the state museum. well knowing
what priceless value there is for our people
in such collection. will give to it place
of honor in the new building, which will be
finished at an early date
Let no one consider any object too trf-
fling to send to Pretoria. AT the front all
commandants will without doubt, be very
willing to receive such objects and send
them to Pretoria to the state museum.
Your obenient servants,
DIR. ]. w. B. CUNNING.
Director of the State Museum.
DIR. n. MANSVELT.
"Chairman of the Cura torium''
The Struggle for Curios.
Frantic enthusiasm for stamp collecting
on the part of phila;eist may be easily
underst ood. but to nations engaged in
a mad scramble for curioS strikes an Amer
lean as humorous. Both Beers and Eng
lsh, however take the matter seriously.
and the struggle for memefftoes has been
going on at most furious pace ever since
the first shots fired
Professional dealers who have hoped to
make fortune in the trade here complain
bitterly, however To get a relic, they
say. one must be right in the conflict and
if possible. have bullet buried in his
atomy. Even then success does not always
crown ones efforts, as instanced by har-
rowing tale narrated to the writer by a
member of the Natal Imperial Light Horse
This young man. like many another, had
an ambition to be wounded. At Spion Kop
his ambition was satisfied. a Mauser bull
let struck him in the thigh, and he had a
very bad time OF it, In spite of gre "a pain
he refused to take chloroform when op-
Grated upon because he feared some one
would appropriate the bullet after it had
been extracted. For weeks he chung to the
bit of lead. trusting not even the Red Cross
nurse. who hovered about him rather con-
stantly, and almost affectionately. When
he awoke one day after the effects of
powerful opiate he found that his sus-
picions had been correct. Both nurse and
bullet We're gone. and he has seen neither
since. Now this soldier can show only a
mark the size Of a pin head an evidence
of his bravery, and he Is very sad.
RObbins the Dead.
AS suggested in the Boer document
quoted. no object connected with the actual
fighting is considered too trifing. and con-
sequently the body of every dead ''arch
enemy found has been thoroughly
searched. Sometimes even the clothes have
been taken for relics. This shown
gruesomely by a photograph of Spon Kop
after the famous fight that hill. Dead
bodies lay everywhere. the clothes of many
had been rified and the garments turned
inside out. Several boots had been re-
moved. Robbery of boots. indeed. has been
most common; boots are commodity
which the Beers lack, and English boots
have been much in evidence on Boer feet of
late Watches. rings and pocket books Of
English make have also been popular
among the Transyaalers.
The most homely objects have been con-
sidered worthy of preservation by the relic
lovers. In Pietermaritzburg, for example,
one may see the shop windows decorated
with bags of gravel taken from the famous
dam over Kip river. bulky and water
logged as they are All have now been re-