The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-05-22

Something was always happening, or 60
ing to happen, and we were kept on the
qui vive every waking minute.
This was especially the case when the
Beers introduced us TO "Susannah," ISL
lent Mary and Long Ton" The names
we bestowed upon the three big guns they
brought up when they found that their
smaller ordnance was having little more
effect than so many pea shooters.
The small shells they formerly fired
afforded excellent sport for the children
in the town The youngsters used to fol-
low in the wake of the shells, wait at a
safe distance until they had exploded, and
then run up and gather The pieces to pa
with! All this, however, was change
when the three six-inch guns were brough
TO bear upon us
Personally. l rather enjoyed the sieg
despite the short rations, the restrictions
Of martial law, the sleeping out at nights.
the always menacing guns and the othel
Inconvenience. 1 never experienced such
an exciting time.
But of all things 1 enjoyed that final
rush the most. And IL convinced me in
a dramatic way of something L had long
suspected-that Kimberley had been chock
full of rebels during the whole siege.
When the relief arrived and we set off
to give the Beers a parting taste of the
bayonet we burst open the door of a
bu1ldliS al the ltlleTuueuIdlt pumping Std-
ton, of which the Beers had taken pos
session. To our establishment we found
in the room a telegraph instru-
ment, and on the table file
filed with kilograms. The topmosI
one read: "Susannah has burst; the
rooineks are here" Another telegram
gave the time a which the funeral would
take place of Mr.. L. Labram, the chief
mechanical engineer of the De Beers
mine, whom the Beers disliked because
he made our big gun, Long Cecil"
Well. somebody in Kimberley had wired
to the Boer trenches the time of the flu
neral, and accordingly the mourners were
shelled. From the telegraph instrument
in the pumping station we traced an I'M
foreground wire to house in Kimberley
but the rebels had flown when we got
back.
One Shell incident is worth recording.
During the early stnges of the siege, be-
fore The bombardment had come to be re-
garded as anything but a joke, the
youngsters of the town were wont to wait
for shells 10 explode and fight for the
fragment, for which there was proflta-
BILE demand as souvenirs. One day a very
small Kimberleyite managed 10 secure an
unexploded messenger from a Boer gun.
1t was too heavy for him TO carry away,
so he sat upon il for three hours, keep
ing other urchins off with his fists and
feet. Passing by later Mr.. Rhodes gave
the parents of the plucky little Britisher
f5 for the curio. Later on, when Gen.
French rode info the town and adjourned
to the club with MIR. Rhodes for a smoke,
the shell was brought out and placed upon
the table for the relieving generals in
spection.
In conclusion, let me say-what I know
every soul in that beleaguered town
would like an opportunity of saying-that
Mr.. Cecil Rhodes was the real hero of
the siege. He worked as hard as the
humblest of us. was indefatigable in COM
forting the distressed and generous 10 a
degree toward the wounded. l do not
know how we should have Jared If It had
nor been for &C. j. r"