The age-herald., 1900-06-04
COW BOY TELLS OF
 BOER SOLDIERS Says They Are the Greatest of
 Fighters. SOME INTERESTING FIGURES Beau Blake Says e,5oo Boers Kept ll,ooo British Penned Up in Lady smith for Four Months-To-
 tai Force 35,OoO
SOME INTERESTING FIGURES

Dallas Tex. June 3.-General J. Y. F.
 Blake, commander of the Irish brigade in
 the Boer army, was a Texas cowboy in
 early life, and was known as Beau Blake.
 Alexander w. Robertson of Denton coun-
 ty received the following letter from Gen
 eral Blake:
 r "Helpmaakar, Natal, April 1, 1900.
 q must thank you and all my friends for
 the interest you have shown for me and
 my welfare as an old Texan of Denton
 county.
 'Yes am no other fellow but the Beau
 Blake whom you well knew so many years
 ago. Here I am in the most advanced po- sition of the left flank of the Boer forces in Natal surrounded by mountains, and face to face with the English, and as I write these words I can see the enemys camp and he can see mine. Each is wait ing for the other, and when the crash comes I think Johnny Bull will, as usual, make a bold dash and then curl his tail over his back and run for all that is in him, but not without leaving the greater
 part of his blood behind him. In every
 battle so far his conduct has been as de-
 scribed and he has been numerically cut
 and slashed before making his escape.
 Think of it. Our total force in South Afri-
 ca so far has been 5000. Our total loss
 in killed and wounded and prisoners has
 been 667 killed, $500 prisoners and about
 1,400 wounded. Before Cronjes capture the
 English reported their losses to be 14,30O killed, 43O0O wounded and prisoners and missing; enough to bring to total to 64,900. Cronje had 39OO men and was surrounded h mn aia he two cannon and two Maxims He fought for six days and surrendered because his ammunition gave out. He lost 43 killed and about 120 wounded. The English lost in killed and wounded between 15,OO0 and 20,- 900, so that the total English loss to date is not far from SO,0OO, which he leaves us
 to still fight 134 000 I believe we will win with our little army because our forces are
 far better fighters. The English soldier
 can murder, debauch and plunder, but he
 can't fight. Until this war l believed the
 English soldier the best in the world, and
 now I place him a par with the Span iard. When I tell you that not one man more than 2,500 penned up 11,000 soldiers in Ladysmth for four months and it took 33, 900 soldiers and 160 cannon to relieve | them then you can imagine how well the Dutch fight. Five thousand Dutch tried to 1 stop the 8, 900, but failed because they had l but six cannon. It cost Butler more than l 15. 900 men to relieve ,OO0 In Ladysmith. We are now 5000 strong along a line 40 miles long, holding in check about 3S,OO0 English. If they had the nerve they could
 drive us back but their loss would be
 tremendous This war is to destroy the lib erty and independence of the Dutch and de- priye them of their gold fields to satisfy Rhodes, Chamberlain and Miner He that would serve humanity best would have hung for their perfidy the above trio of po- litical rascals. The Dutch are too liberal too humane and too strict in their observ
 ance of the rules governing in civilized war
 fare to contend with the English, who abuse
 the armistice, the red cross the white flag and murder wounded captiveS with the lance on the battlefelds.
 ''The Irish brigade which 1 have the honor to command is composed of Irish and Irish Americans and d braver and more determ- ined lot of men you will not find anywhere. l l have seen them put to the severest tests, | but never yet has man swerved. They l will prove themselves an honor and credit l to the countries they hail from. 1 was wounded in the arm by shrapne on Oc- | tober 30 at the battle of Modderspruit, in | front of Ladysmith. The bone was broken below the elbow, the artery and main nerve cut and my arm is lost forever except the thumb and first finger. l never left the battlefield, although I was laid up for six weeks. On that day we had twenty-four cannon firing at us for eight hours, yet we completely routed the English.
 Again thanking you for your kindness and wishing for you and all the boys all l the joys and happiness possible in this wide | world of woe, l am sincerely,
 "J Y. F. BLAKE"