The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-02-20
FROM AN AMERICAN VIEW
Letter From Johannesburg ON the
Bocr Wnr


| Boer Wnr.
| CANANDA1GuA. n. V, Feb. 1s.-Ar-
thur Ellis. now an electrician Of mine
lie, has written to his father. Albert ).
Ellis. of this village. as follows:
Eve send our mail out through Delagos
Bay, whence 1t is sent homeward by
French steamers. We receive no mail of
any kind. / have not received letter
from hcme in over four months. I AM
comfortably situated and as safe as though
at home in Canandaigua. We run the dy
namos for lights and pumps only. All
other work stopped before the war. and We
have but ten men in the mine. four Amer
leans. three Irish, and three Colonial
| Dutch. Our mine flies the French flag.
being worked mostly on French capital
The next mine. the Van Kyn. f.es the Ger
man flag. There are no flags On the Eng
lish mines, and the Government allows no
one to stay there. We get the news from
the front every day.
| Fifteen hundred prisoners captured
/ early in the war were taken to Pretoria
and they are the happiest men in Africa
| to think they will not have to meet the
Beers in battle again. No sooner had the
| prisoners arrived in Pretoria than the Boer
officials secured the town for cricket bats
and balls. footballs. pipes. and tobacco.
jams. etc. for them. They are stationed
on beautiful farm outside the town, where
they have everything to make them CON-
Portable. They had been tod that the
Beers were white savages, AID imagine the
surprise of an English soldier taken
prisoner. trembling with fear OF the brutal
savage Boer when he heard the Boer say
in English: Come along. old chap. we'll
take care of you. You are not to blame
but those who sent you here
They had been told they would be in
Pretoria in fortnight after landing In
Africa, and SO they were, but not in the
way they expected. The people of Lady
smith are penned in and garrisoned by 5000
English. Outside on the hills. right over
the town are 5000 burghers, but they can't
afford to lose thousand men by storming
the town. The people live In caves and
come out only at night. The dead horses
are left unburied and thousands of vul-
lures hover about Fever is rampant, six
teen hundred having died of 1t within the
last month. They are waiting for Butler
and his 40e0e troops to relieve them. So
are the Beers waiting. One thing that
bothers the Beers is the captive balloons
used by the English. Two men will go up
in the balloon. one will spy with the glass
and the other. by the wire in the cable
which holds the balloon. will signal the To-
cation Of the Beers. The Beers are then
fired upon. but they take shelter and are
generally unframed.
Il visited a communicating Office where !
the burghers use men of all ages. from |
fifteen to eighty. The burghers, unless |
fight under cover behind bowid- |
ers. ofwhich the country Is full. The English |
come out In solid ranks and are moved /
down by dozens. while the Beers spread
wide. and every man fighting for himself, !
lose very few. There is no red tape in the
Boer Army. Everything is simplicity and
almost perfect order is kept in camp. They
have but few officers no colonies. captains,
lieutenants. etc. First the commanding
general. Joubert. then eight or ten fight
ing generals who lead the men, and under
them the district veldt comets. who COM
nand the men of their own district. Each
man takes his own gun, his own ammuni-
lion. and his own horse. They carry very
little forage, but turn the horses out in the
seldt. The mines are dead. aud so is
| was in Pretoria the other
lay, and that little place is lively enough
quite different from johannesburg where
he business places and dwellings are bar
headed. and their owners gone. All bad
haracters have been sent out of the coun-
ry. and the city is peaceful