The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-02-25
BOER REPORTS.
CONCLUDED FROM FIRST PAGE

CONCLUDED FROM FIRST PAGE)
ton 1t is almost with cheerfulness that
the people of Great Britain are taking their
punishment, for there is something to show
for it, in pleasing contrast to the weeks of
waiting and suspense that scarcely ever
passed over without largely adding to the
ceath roll and never seemed to bring Great
Britain's forces nearer to the goal. Hand
in hand with the relief of Kimberley and
the daily expected relief of Ladysmth has
come the relief of London. With the fate
of those beleaguered places off their minds,
with the national honor free once more to
take its chances on a fair fighting field,
London has evolved itself from the depress-
ing gloom that for months overhuhg it.
There is now talk of balls, dinners and
tertaining; there are brighter looks in the
faces of the crowds that throng the streets.
and even the women seem to have brought
out gayer gowns. There is to be something
of a season after all.
Little Bobs'' is the hero of the hour,
even at this stage of the war. which can
scarcely be considered much more than
initial from the British point of view. He
would be granted every honor in the peo-
pies power to give, If only public opinion
and gratitude became operative. Above
every other man and every other circum-
stance he stands out from those grim hap
penings in South Africa clothed in the halo
of victory. Loudly he is hailed as giving
the living lie to those who said that the
pluck and brains that made Great Britain
NlClOilOuS tic Siilutd, III anu III
Afghanistan had passed away from her.
The circumstances OF his hurried depar-
ture, when he subordinated the greatest
personal sorrow to the needs of the coun-
try, his feats on the battlefields of old, his
tremendous personal magnetism and his
surprising kindness and simplicity are all
brought into rapid review by means of con-
versation or the newspapers before the
average Englishman, until 1t is small won
der that the hero of Kandahar has reached
that pinnacle where his country would deny
him nothing. General Kitchener's auto
matte way of doing things and his hard
ness of heart have been so much paraded
before the public since he first achieved
greatness that he has lost much of his
popularity, and while he possesses the ma
tional confidence 10 an almost unequaled
extent, IL is patent that the nation a
whole would rather that the opportunities
fell to "Bobs'' than to his iron-willed chief
of staff
curious instance of the utter lack of
system that prevails in the British War
Office occurred this week. Immediately
after the Queens proclamation appealing
10 the patriotism of her old soldiers, and
asking them to re-enlist under the gov
ernment's new plan TO strengthen the
army. was published there fiocked to head
quarters large numbers of men anxious to
answer the Queens request. They were
all turned away because the War Office
has not yet issued any detailed instructions
regarding the acceptance of such offers
nor formulated any specific plan for put
ting in action the general proposals adopt
is that either the Queens letter was pre-
The latter is generally accepted as correct,
and NOT without hitter comment