Wauwatosa news. [volume] (Wauwatosa, Wis.) 1900-1948, 1900-04-21
HOW SOLDIERS SUFFER.
Dust and Heat Make Life In South
Africa Almost I'm
bearable.


members tho famous picture OF Thirst"
which portrays the gaunt, half-starved
hon in the midst of the desert, tapping
nm the few remaining drops of moisture
from an impoverished pool.
4 correspondent in the Morning Post
tells 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
Scudan-but here is something not hot
fer. not drier, not dustier. but less en-
durable 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
Rloemfontein and Natal are only now,
while campaigning, acquiring the expert
enCe. The army, with its incessant
tramping, and the ceaseless fog of dust
that hangs about its camps. suffers
beyond description. And 10 that
must be added the compulsory life
in the sun, the sun at its hottest and
triest hours. the absence of shade the
parching suction of the sand, which is
bed, chair and table.
Dream of Paradise.
1T will be quite curious to live with
out a wafer 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, continuous
and unvalued by turn of the finger.
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, wa
ter 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 England they
analyze that kind of water. Why, the
water we drink here is often too thick
even to filter; One cannot pump it
through Berkfelt candle.
AT Ramdam, there was big pond
what was left of moisture in the dam
One bathed in 1t only under the most
pressing compulsion of cleanliness The
water was very shallow, but the mud
knees if one tried TO walk, and so sat
gently half in mud and half in brown
syrup and thanked God for water. One
rose from it with the green leeches hang
A0e ahont ones body like bits of sea-
weed and with sprinkling of less-known
insects.
Horses Afraid of 1t.
Horses looked askance at that pool,
hut the men drank of it greedily. and
drank of ii, where alone they could reach
1t, where the horses hoOf had churned it
into a blackish green liquor thick as
soup"
Here is vignette from the field of
battle:
Twenty yards to the left a man is "
ing fiat pressed against the ground. He
Is very much the ground color, and the
occasional dust whirls over him aided the
disguise. There are little tufts of with
cred scrub which help to hide him,
though but a few inches high. The sun
has been blazing on his back and the
sand about him for several hours and the
veldt waivers confusedly in the glare of
the heat. A pale blue lake of mirage
has formed about the furthest kopjes
and left them like dark islands in the
sky. The man on the left feels gingerly
for the tin bottle which lies under his
left elbow, his fingers spread over its felt
covering and gives it gentle shake. The
shake is repeated and he begins to draw
the bottle slowly under him, keeping his
body rigidly stiff. The job is long one,
because the bottle strap catches in his
accOuterments and he dare not move to
free it. When he has it at last beneath
him, he begins to turn over as slowly as
he has done all else.
His Tongue Like Piece of Fur.
He lifts his foot few inches to bal
anCe himself and the next instant there
is spit of dust from the sand beside
him not much more than an arms length
away. --e keeps his eyes ON the mark
the bullet has made and remains for
some moments as if it had turned him TO
stone. Then, with more laborious
patience, he resumes his movement until
at last he is on his back and has the
bottle above him. 1t holds only a few
hot drops, but he thought he had drained
even them an hour before. and his
Tongue is like piece of fur in his mouth.
lie got with rush to the place he occu-
pies about s O'clock in the morning when
sudden crackle from the river in front
or him laid the whole line on its face
where it has remained with occasional
Wriggling forward ever since. He is on
me right of his company, and alone, for
ne man next to him, after chatting the
hoer shooting for half an hour, began
suddenly to whimper and has been still
ever since
Lost All Other Feelings.
de failed himself to take the bullets
hnmorOusly, but he grew used to them
WI one came between his face and the
ground and struck his belt buckle. Then
ne cursed them and was afraid till he
Iost all other feelings in the awful sense
OF thirst
He knows the action is still going on.
lot he can hear the steady pounding of
battery from the hill behind him and
sudden scurries of rifle fire beyond the
t tsrer to the left. He knows, too from.
most hateful splits of dust, that the Beer
sun behind the bushes in front of him.
"t5 the Boer is always behind something
t"u ne Is tired Of trying to shoot and
Tptng shot at by a man he never sees.
Llsiues If he lifts his rifle, the dust be-
-lhS to jump again and the rife barrel is
gaidlng hot, The varnish is sizzling on
ne stock as though it stood before a fire
ma % touch it seems to quicken his I'M
he tries to guess at the hour as the
7Hh goes over and he falls on his left
.ae. he writes words in the sand with
4.> myers and rubS them out, bewilders
al amt which runs with its bundle Of food
i1 'front.' Of him: does anything he can TO
ron thinking Of the maddeniug
tENata within him. What he really
iAlnks Of. God knows.
Those Blarsted Beers.
/ lay there biarstinr them Roars ca
'eAs as ! can remember said ono Who