The Red Cloud chief., 1900-06-29
HARDSHIP OF WAR.
ENDURANCE OF SOLDIERS IN
THE FIELD.
War Correspondent Describes Them as
Human Fighting Machines Who Are
rs Happy IN Quarter Rations as On

A graphic description OF the riso"s
Of camp tife and the hardships endured
by the British soldiers In the war In
South Africa is given in the current
issue of the London Daily Mail by
Julian Ralph. He prefaccs his corrc-
s%pondcnce by a humorous account of
his own mishaps. He says; Battered
externally. disordered inside, unable
to digest food FOR weeks. nursing
bruises and ailments II half 'loarn at
once. ! look upon this war "a having
ill-rcpaid me for the kindly and trbi-
liant tone in which | have dealt witch
II.
And oh. how sick of It | am how
deadly, unuttcrably sick | am of II!
THE long months OF sand diet and
hard faring 'nher Methuen took from
me a stomach which an ostrich would
have envied and exchanged for 1t a
second hand, worn-out apparatus
which turns upside down Mt the APP
proach of any food except diluted milk.
A piece OF Boer shell which hit me
on the chest made me faint and weary
s"' '''fS 'hF u 'ii' Ni'h u ii''il-
cd OF ~alighting from a Cape cart into
n trench, with the cart on top of HE.
left me one-legged for five weeks, after
which | found myself with a low class,
n"o-account limb In which | mad no
confidence. Upon my recovering this
inferior and make-shift other leg. my
horse shot me into n wire fence, which
tore both arms into shrcds. painted
one thigh like an omelct and the othe;
like a South African sunset and left
ne an internal fracture which , mast
Keep as a perpetual souvenir of what
W. ere all beginning to speak OF as
the bore war
TRY to imagine the feelings OF a
man fashioned in the image OF his
Creator who finds himself gradually
changing into an exhibit for a medical
museum and you begin 10 obtain a
glimpse Of the fatigue with which l
now view this war"
But though battered and bruised,
Mr.. Ralph is still In the ring" for hc
adds to the diagnosis OF his own case
one Of the most interesting studies of
the tributes to Tommy Atkins" In the
field that was ever penned by Amer
lean or other correspondent. Describ-
ing his trip from Blocmfontein to
healthier Naauwpoort, he writes:
What did we see? Nothing but an
illimitable, spongy, stodgey bog. with
a driving cold rain beating upon 1t.
And living upon II without tents were
soldiers-soldlers everywhere. Mental
ly asked forgiveness for having, ever
during one moment. thought OF my
own discomforts and worries. Some of
those men had been guarding the
railway a whole month. They had be-
gun the task Immediately at the end
of the awful strain Of the field mar
shal's progress from Graspan to
Bloemfontetn, when they marched as
no Europeans ever marched before.
and were starved as none ever should
be again.
Now the bitterly cold, driving rains
had come and turned the veldt into a
marsh. And here | found them like
sc many half-drowned rats, wet as
the veldt beneath them, wet as the air
around them, shivering, playing drum
tunes with their teeth, coughing. walk
ing and stamping to keep warm-do-
ing everything except complaining.
And these were Guards, mind you-
the first few thousands spread over
Coldstreams! London pets you have
often called them: tin soldiers and
you have laughed at them in your
London homes and newspapers. Well.
they did not complain at that, and
they are not complaining at this. The
officers were glad to take anything we
could give them to read, and the men
did not spurn small offerings of to-
bacco. but 1t is only Just to say that
none of them asked for anything.
Tommy is the queerest human ]
ever saw-the most ineyplicable.
When his rations are down to two bis
cults In three days you may hear the
fact mentioned In an incidental way
by a man here and there, but no one
growls about 1t, as sailors would do
, When Tommy Is marched in s%uffocat-
ing heat until his mates begin to droI
out Of the ranks or fall on their faces
, from the ranks a play of repartee will
, spring up among them and comical
ideas and phrases will fly from line to
{ line.
Tommy Is seldom witty-at least
have heard little genuine wit in the
ranks-but he Is droll and comical in
q high degree"