The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1900-01-25

love ana SOOQ WlSueS-sd'l Will oAi0ii
Christmas be, sadder the new year. 1
Yet. enshrined in every womanly
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. to.cottage
girl-let their memory lie, the mem {
orv of the men of the Highland Bri- |
gade who died at Magersfontein.
The same writer thus depicts the
way in which the disaster overlook
the Highlanders
During the night it was consid7F I.
cred expedient that the Highlar
u. - ZOO --sA--s.-sg+s 81 s.,v~zzt'
Gen. Wauchope, should get close
enough to the lines of the foe to make
it possible to charge.the heights. At
midnight the gallant general moved
cautiously through the darkness
towards the kopje where the Beers
were most strongly entrenched. They
were led by guide, who was sup
posed to know every inch of the
country, out into the darkness OF an
African night. The brigade marched
in line of quarter column, each man
stepping slowly and cautiously, for
they knew that any sound meant
death. Every order was given in
hoarse whisper, and in whispers 1t
was passed along the ranks from
man to man. Nothing was heard as
thew moved toward the gloomy, steel
fronted heights but the brushing OF
their feet in the veldt grass and the
deey drawn breaths of the marching
men.
$50. onward until three of the
clock on the morning OF Monday.
Then oui of the darkness a rifle rang,
sharp and clear, herald of disaster
a soldier had tripped in the dark over
the hidden wires laid down by the
enemy. In a second-in the twink
ling of an eye-the searchlights OF
the Beers fell broad and clear as the
monday sun on the ranks OF the
doomed Highlandeas, though it left
the enemy in the shadows OF the
frowning mass of hills behind them.
For one brief moment the Scots seem
l ed paralyzed by the suddenness OF
tne1r oisco0ery, 1tsr U1Itey Ano" oiitiG
they were huddled together like
sheen within fifty yards of the trench
es of the foe. Then, clear aboYe the
confusion. rolled the voice of the gen
eral; Steady, men, steady" and ike
an echo to the veterans, out came the
crash of nearly thousand rifles not
fifty PAGES from them. The High
landers reeled before the shock like
trees before the tempest. The best,
their bravest fell in that wild hail of
lead. Gen. Wauchope was down,
riddled with bullets, yet gasping, dy-
ing. bleeding from every vein, the
, Highland chieftain raised himself on
| his hands and knees and cheered his
| men forward. Men and officers fell
, in heaps together.
/ ssThe Black Watch charged, and
f the Gordons and the Seaforths, with
Y a veil that stirred the British camp
: below, rushed onward-onward tt
e death or disaster. The accursed wires
e caught them round the legs, unit
e they foundered like trapped wolves
It and all the time the rifles of the fo
n sang the song of death in their ears
n Then they fell back, broken AM
beaten, leaving nearly 1900 dead an
ID wounded Just where the broad breas
1t of the grassy veldt melts into the Ell
Of brace of the rugged African hills; an
le an hour later the dawning came
n the dreariest day that Scotland ha
le known for a generation past. Of he
I'd officers, the flower of her chivalr.
ne the pride of her breeding, but fe
es remained to tell the tale-a sad tai
DIV truly, but one untainted with [
of honor or smirched with disgrace, f
en- up those heights under similar C
he cumstances even a brigade of dev
he could scarce have hoped to pass. /
he that mortal men could do the ScC
st did; they tried, they failed, they ft
nd and there in nothing left us now b
led to mourn for them and aYenge the
zen "All that fateful day our wound
For men lay close to the Boer lines unt
of a blazing sun. Over their heads
ing shots of friends and foes passed wi
iod out ceasing. All day long the bat
gh- ragged. Scarcely could we see the f
the all that met our eyes was the roc
'ay- heights that spoke with tongue
nth, flames whenever our troops dl
ngs near. Once our Guards made /
rom liant dash at the trenches, and,
a torrent, their resistless valor b
the all before them, and for few b
eral moments they got within hitting
ped tance of the foe. Well did t
lind avenge the slaughter of the Sc
nble The bayonets, like tongues of fla