The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-04-09
LION IN THE DESERT.
Graphic Description of Hard
ships Endured by British
in Africa.

Correspondence of Associated Press.1
London, March 31.-Everybody remem-
bers the famous picture Of Thirst"
which portrays the gaunt, half starved
lion in the midst of the desert tapping
mp the few remaining drops of moisture
from an impoverished pool.
A correspondent in the Morning Post
tells US that though the British soldier
has thirsted in the thirstiest corners Of
the globe, he admits the veldt to be a
fresh experience. Alden. India. Egypt,
the Soudani But here is something not
hotter, not drier. not dustier, but less
endurable, for some reason. 1t is the
army and South Africa together, no
doubt which is the cause; for men who
have lived in Kimberley, Johannesburg,
Bloemfontein and Natal are only now
while campaigning acquiring the exper-
fence. The army with its incessant
tramping and the ceaseless fog of dust
that hangs about its camps. And to
that must be added the compulsory life
in the sun, the sun at its hottest and
driest hours, the absence Of shade, the
parching suction of the sand, which is
bed, chair and table.
1T will be quite curious to live with
out water bottle slung about ones
shoulder. One can scarcely remember
the day when water was not regarded
with reverence and jealous envy when
it could be made to run clear, cOntinu-
GUS and unvalued by a turn of the finger.
Here, where one knows by tired limbs
the weight of what one drinks, the
thought of water flowing through pipes
seems a dream Of paradise. And such
water. Water through which one could
see, which left no mud at the bottom Of
the mug and did not stain what it was
split on. One remembers that in Eng
land they analyze that kind of water
drink often
too thick even to filter. One cannot
pump it through a Bekfelt candle.
AT Randam there was a big pond
what was left of moisture in the dam.
One bathed in it Only under the most
pressing compulSion of cleanliness. The
water was very shallow, but the mud
was black and deep. One sank to the
knees If one tried to walk and so sat
syrup and thanked God for water. One
rose from it with the green leecheS
hanging about ones body like bits OF
Eeawood and with a sprinkling of a less
known insect.
Horses looked askance at that pool
but the men drank of it greedily and
drank Of it, where alone they could
reach 1t, where the horses hOofs had
churned into blackish green liquor
thick as soup"
Here is a vignette from the field of
battle: Twenty yards to the left a
man is lying pressed fiat against the
HAoAAAo. nc - very AiAuCl Tic 64OuIAu
color, and the occasional dust whirls
over him have aided the disguise
There are little tufts of withered scrut
which help to hide him, though but g
few inches high. The sun has beer
blazing on his back and the sand about
him for seven hours, and the veldi
waivers confusedly in the glare of the
heat. A pale blue lake of mirage ha:
formed about the furthest kopjes anC
left them like dark islands in the sky
The man on the left feels gingerly fol
the tin bottle which lies under his lef
elbow, his fingers spread over its fel
covering and gives it a gentle shake
The shake is repeated and he begins t.
draw the bottle slowly under him. keep
ing his body rigidly stiff The job is
long one because the bottle stral
catches in his accoutrements and h
care not move to free it. When h