Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1900-03-04

regiment, The blooming door-knock-l
er." It's bullets or shells are as big
as the bowl of a large briar root pipe.
and they tear and slit the air with
terrible sound, exploding when they
strike The firing of the gun was
heard all over the largest OF our bat
tlefields, and the explosions of the
shells sound long way because they
are apt to take place on the quiet edge
of the field. The whizz that even
these missiles make in flying. however,
is like the whispered answer of maid
in love. only to be heard by the favored
individual who is especially addressed
In a word, there is not much noise
in modern battles. These individual
sounds of which l speak are not loud
enough to blend. The browning, all
pervading. noises are those of the guns
and the rifle fire, and on the vast veldt
spread over a double line of five or
seven miles in length, only those that
di Z near are very touu
The scene of battle-the general view
lis exceedingly orderly. There may be
devil OF scrimmage where COM
pany or two are storming kopje. but
level your glass on such hill. and
what do you see? A fringe of tiny
jets of fire from the top where the
Beers are, and lot Of our men in
kharki rising and reclining and occa-
sionally firing as they make their way
upward The great general view is of
an arrangement as methodical as
chess board. There are several battal-
ions fat on their faces in two or three
long lines. Over here is battery in
perfect order, with its timber of
horses at rest near by. Another bat
terry, equally well arranged, as if to
have it's photograph taken, is to be
seen in the middle field; a third Is on
the further side. The cavalry is
sweeping across the veldt in perfect
rank and alignment. There is no con-
fusion anywhere-nothing is helter-
SHELTER | remember only two mo-
mentary disturbances of the discipline
of which | speak. One was in the af
ternoon during the Modder river fight,
when large band of mounted Beers
made a flank movement on our ex
IRENE right and fired a volley at our
immense mass of transport and am
bulapce wagons, water carts and am
munition wagons. The drivers were
taken by surprise, and fell to flashing
their mule teams and horses, the ma
jority to the accompaniment of high
keyed Kaffer yells. The rout only
lasted five minutes or less, and was
funny beyond description, because the
leading mules limped over the wheel
ers," and the faster the bullets fell the
louder the Kaffirs yelled, and the
more they piled their enormous whips.
The bravery of our stretcher bear
ers is as much beyond question as it
is beyond praise. When all of us less
er and immediate historians OF the
moment have told of the valor OF all
the generals, colonies, majors, captains
and TONNES" of the army, we shah
still have, in common justice, to de-
scribe how the chaplains, doctors and
stretcher bearers go in and out of the
most hellish fire, not once or twice, but
all through every battle.
1t is just without the range of fire
that you see and realize the horrors of
war. 1t is there that the wounded
crawl and stagger by you; it Is there
that they spend their final output of
energy and fall down to lie until as
slstance comes; it is there that you
see the stretchers laden with their
mangled freight, and the sound ones
bearing the wounded on their backs
and in their arms. To know the bru-
tality and woe of war, happen upon a
kopje that has just been stormed or a
trench that has been carried. Go to
such place to-day, twenty centuries
after Christ came with His message of
peace on earth and good will to men,
and behold what you shall see
Here said I to photographer in
such a place, snap this scene. Look