The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1900-11-09


Far away on our left flank the enemy
hold the heights and watch US moving
outward, while between them and Us,
stretching mile after mile IN a line with
our column. ripples a line OF scarlet
name, for the foe has fred the veldr
to starve the transit mules, horses and
oxen. Like a sword unsheathed in the
sunlight, the flames sparkle amid the
grass, which grows knee deep right to
the kopjes very lips. Birds rise on
the wing with harsh. resonant cries,
fiutter a while above their ravished
home, then wheel In midair and seek
more peaceful pastures. Hares spring
up before the cracking flames quite
reach their forms and, ike gray
streaks in a soldiers beard, fash sud
denly into view and as suddenly dis
appear again. Here and there a grace
full springbok dashes through the
smoke. with head thrown back and
graceful limbs extended, his glossy,
notified hide looking dOubly beautiful
backed by that red streak Of FIRE. The
wind catches the quivering crimson
streak and for while the flames race,
as have seen wild horses neck to neck
rush through the saltbush plains at the
sound OF the stockman's whip. Then,
as the wind drops. the flames curl care
lessly around the wealth Of growing
fodder, biting the grass low down and
wrapping 1t in mantle OF black and
red as fame and smoke cOmmingie.
Here and there a pool Of water, hid
den from view until the fire iend strip
ped the veldt land bare, leaps to life
ike silver shield in the grim setting
OF the bare and blackened plain Small
mobs OF cattle stand stupidity snufdns
the smoke-laden air until the breath
Of the blaze awakens them to a sense
OF peril: then with horns lowered Ike
bayonets at the charge. with tails stin
and straight behind them as leveled
lances, they leap onward, over or
through everything in front OF them.
believing frantically their brute beast
! protest against the red ruin OF war.
The flames roll on. they reach the stone
} walls OF cattle pen and leap It as 9
: hunter takes a brush fence In his stride
onward still until a Kafir kraal is
reached. The soft-tipped pillows kiss
: the uncouth mud walls and for a mo-
ment transfigure them with a nameless
! beauty that precedes ruin. Only a mo
ment or two and then the resistless de
stroyer faunts its pennons amid ths
reed-thatehed roofs. the sparks lear
up the black smoke curls toward the
sky while on the neighbOring bills
rhe negro women with their babes IN
their arms wall woefully. for thoss
rude huts. with all their barbarou'
: trappings. meant hOme-aye. home anC
: happiness TO them. The flames roll on
: ward. now IN two long lines. for the
: Kafir encampment had sundered them
and now they look. with their beau
tifully rounded curves. sweeping s.
= gracefully out into the unknown. Al
: that they leave behind Is desolatiou
= only blsckened walls. simmering car
! eases. weeping women and wailini
7 children.
Away on our right flank We can jus
/ make out the skeletons OF what a FEY
"a hours before had been a cluster o
Il eulluE AdA III H'urcS- AAc- HC ~
r, smile now; they grin horribly In tn
Is sunlight. grin as the fieshless skulls O
l dead men grin on a battlefield sfte
those sections OF the veldt-the graz
J. hooded. curved eak ed vultures-hay
ID screamed their final farewell to th
ID charnel-houses OF war. noble wa
Of splendid war, psstime OF pOteutats
in and princes. invented in he'll and pa
re ented in all the temples Of sorrow
7. London News.
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