Eureka weekly sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1887-1902, 1900-03-03
A MODERN BATTLEFIELD
Scenes and Incidents as Wit
messed by a Newspaper
Correspondent.
WIEN soEss MEET THE sslTlsH
Vivid Description of the War
in South Africa and Its
Resultant Horrors.

ouHoh Asoiph, VIC Whi COficepouu-
ent of the London Mail, sends an in
teresting article to his paper describ-
ing the methods Of modern warfare
from which we take the following
extracts:
Really, the field of operations is SC
extensive, and the range of modern
guns is so great that battle conditions
have altered until there is no longer
any general "clash of battle" or
even any possibility of grasping or
viewing an engagement from any
single point.
There is no great resounding noise
in war nowadays. You hear one OF
our big guns loosed three miles over
on the right. and another two miles
on the left. If you are near one il
makes tremendous noise, yet I have
not heard one explosion as loud as a
good strong clap Of thunder.
You hear the guns of the enemy
cough far in front of you, and their
shells burst within your lines with a
nearer, louder sound-but not q
really great or deafening noise, by
any means.
Our guns create almost no smoke,
though our lyddite shells throw up
clouds of dust and smoke where they
fall, miles away. Because the Beers
are using old-fashioned powder in
their cannon there is a small white
cloud whenever one is fred, and a
spurt of red sand where their shells
dig into the veldt.
The rifle firing has been the prin-
cipal feature of our battles. 1t sounds
like the frying of fat, or like the
cracking and swapping of green
wood in bonfire. If you are with
in two miles OF the front you are apt
to be under fire. and then you hear
the music OF the individual bullets.
Their song is like the magnified
note Of mosquito "z-z-z." This
is q sound only to be heard when
the bullets are very close. You pick
up your heels and run distance OF
one hundred or even fifty yards, and
you hear nothing but the general
crackle Of rifle fire in and before the
trenches.
The scene OF battle-the general
view-is exceedingly orderly. There
may be q dreadful scrimmage when
company or two are storming a
kopje-but level your glass on such
a bill 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 khaki rising and reclining
and occasionally firing as they make
their way upward.
1t is Just without the range OF fire
that you see and realize the horrors
Of war. 1t is there the wounded
crawl and stagger by you; it is there
that they spend their final output OF
energy and fall down to lie until
assistance comes; it is there that
you see the stretchers, laden with
their maugled freight, and the sound
ones bearing the wounded on their
backs and in their arms.
Better yet-if SO cheerful a phrase
be permissible in such case-to
know the brutality and woe of war,
happen upon kopje that has just
been stormed, or q trench that has
been carried. Go to. such a place
today, twenty centuries after Christ
came with bis message of peace on
earth and good will to men, and be-
hold what you shall see!
You read in the writings OF those
who know nothing of war, about the
writings of the wounded and the
groaning on the battlefield. There
is no writhing, and the groans are
few and faint. There was one mar
who was simply chewed up by shell
at Magersfontein. and bis suffering'
must have been awful. He kept cry
ing, Doctor. can't you do any
thing?"
Another begged to be killed. ant
the first wounded man / saw in THU
! war kept saying in ever so low