The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-01-23


persistent as that of the batteries and
the effect almost as insignificant. Three
men Oh the Leicester Regiment fell wound
60. That is the total of the DAYS casual
ties on our side.
our naval men finished their Smelling of
long rom on the previous Friday I'M
uer the impression that taey had killed
the chief gunner. This mans bra very had
eNcHed our admiration as much as his
haSnihcent shooting. When a thunder
ING hanmer-and-tongs duel was in pro-
gress between our batteries and Long
Tom one could stand for hours on the
balcony of the Royal Hotel and. bv the
aid of field glasses. see this fellow stem
from the gun side after sighting it and re-
nam bolt upright whilst watching the
erect OF ITS shell. AS out guns were firing
simultaneously with Long Toms" puff.
IN hopes of catching its Inuzzle before ii
cropped behind the protecting earthworks
i Is easy to imagine the danger this
piucky fellow ran by exposing himself in
danger the way he did Our shells cover
ed the distance from the battery to Long
ION IN about four seconds less than the
twenty-one that those of the Boer gun
took to reach us.
German Gunners.
of course all of the enemy's cannon are
being worked by Germans People here
cannot understand how anybody in Eng
iand has remained in ignorance of the
preparations the Transvaal has been max
ing for this war. They say that scarce
ly a steamer of the German East African
Line arrived on the coast without landing
sometimes as many as twelve or twenty
German artillery officers. Hundreds of
foreign officers are taking part in this
campaign against us and cOntinehra1 Pow
ers will profit by their experience and OBJ
servation.
j urho haYv
effect of the present war will be a revo-
luton in our arlillery-in the ornaments,
not in the methods, because nothing could
be more perfect than the way our men
handle their pieces Their smartness in
getting into acton-and out of it, too
when necessity arises-is little short of
marvellous.
On Wednesday the enemy contented
himself with an exceedingly desultory
bombardment. He was Variously rumor-
ed to be moving away from the hills and
to be fixing up fresh guns to bear upon
the town and camp.
OF Flies and Rumors.
Now. rumors are thick as flies in Lady
smith. am sorry that language fails to
describe how plentiful are the insects; but
when l affirm that we are obliged at meals
to brush them successfully off our knives
and forks, our plate, the piece of food We
may be steering towards our mouth, and
wipe them from our lips so that they
shall not intercept the morsel at the last
moment, some faint idea may be formed
of the difficulty there is not to gulp them
down.
1t is the same with the rumors; one has
all the trouble in the world not to be swal-
lowing them continually. l think flies
ought to spare those people who do not
spread fy-papers around to attract them;
and l think, also, that rumors should not
be sprung upon us when we haven't the
lisafety-valve of the telegraph wire to en-
able us to pass them on to a confiding
public. Consequently we have learned
to whisk rumors away exactly as if they
We're flies.
The tactics of the Beers at tho present
moment are rather puzzlng. They must
know by this time that a relief column is
modifying, and may be behind them any
| fine morning. We hear ourseves-but
| this is rumor-that Gen. French has had
| go-in with>the enemy near Colenso and
has given him a hammering, and that be-
| fore Sunday a strong column will have
| assembled at Estcourt. His interest, if
| the Beers want to breakfast in Ladysmith
| as a mild recompense for being deprived
| of eating fish in Durham, is to attack us
and to do so at once. He must have seen
| by yesterdays experience that we snap
| our fingers at mere bombardment, and
! that if he continues to get one civilian
| killed and three soldiers wounded per 600
| shells he will have to heap metal yards
| high over the place before he brushes our
garrison and town.
A Restless Foe.
To-day we served him even more cruel
| ly by not deigning to reply TO one shell
| in a dozen, which he amused himself by
| dropping around. The Boer is a restless,
| shifty foe. There is not a day but that
| he seems to have a removal on hand.
| The balloon watches him trekkng away
| here and there, and if three removals are
! as bad to him as q fire he must be in a
| pretty bad way.
Turning the quiet day to advantage, the
| Beers sent in our civilian prisoners taken
| by them after the evacuation of Dundee
| They had been conveyed by train to Pre-
toria, and one of them told me that when
| he left the Transvaal capital the Beers
| had 1874 of our military prisoners, made
| up of the complement of the armored train
! captured near Mafeking early in the war
a troop of the Eighteenth Hussars, the
| GloucesterS the Royal Irish Fuseers and
mountain battery artileryman. The Off
| GERS. who numbered about forty, were
| quartered in town, and took their meals
! at the Transvaal Hotel while the rank
| and file were in camp on the race course
| The Beers in Pretoria were claiming a
| great victory at Lombard's Kop. which
| they gained; 1000 British killed and
wounded, which they did not get; 1000
prisoners, which should be reduced by
more than one-half and also to have oc-
| cupied Ladysmith. which they have not
| done up to the present. The Dundee pris-
oners were sent out to form camp by
| themselves in the neutral settlement at
Intombi Sprut. This was not altogether
a desirable refuge. Limits beyond which
no one was allowed to wander We're mark
| ed out and three Kaffirs, who went over
the line to draw water, Immediately fell
| victims to the Boer rifles.
An Attack on the Morrow.
Before we went to bed it leaked out that
| the Beers purposed trying TO take the
| town on the morrow It was Nov. 9, the
! Prince of Wales birthday and Lord
| MAYORS show day. We did not wait for
| the enemy 10 commence operations. Pune
| tually at o'clock We landed two shots on
| their distant hills. They replied at once
| from eight or ten different points. Their
earliest exploits were the pitching of a
| few more shells into the convent the
| t,fetirg Of a fimsV bungalow a few Yards