The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-05-28
WET, COLD, AND HUNGRY.
Julian Ralph's Picture of Camp Life
ON the Veldt.

Julian Raiph's Picture of Camp Life
ON the veldt.
LONDON. May 15.-Julan Ralph. VITO.
in considerably battered cordkion. is
! now on his way back to England. gives a
forcibie description of the effect Of seven
months OF South African warfare upon his
nerves:
Battered externally. disordered inside.
unable to digest food for weeks. nursing
| bruises and ailments half dozen at once.
look upon this war as having i'll repaid
me for the kindly and jubilant tone in
which I have dealt with 1t.
And oh, how sick of 1t am-how dead
ly. unutterably sick am of it,
THE long months Of sand diet and hard
faring under Methuen took from me a
stomach which an ostrich would have en-
WED and exchanged for it a second hand.
WORKOUT apparatus which turEs upside
down at the approach CT any food except
diluted milk.
"a piece of Boer shell which hit me on
the chest made me faint and weary for
many days. and then a mcdel method Of
alighting from Cape cart into trench
with the cart on top Of me left me one
legged for five weeks, after which l found
myself with low-class, no-account limb
in which l have no confidence. Upon my
recovering this inferior. and makeshift
other leg, my horse shos me into a wire
fence, which tore both arms Tito shreds,
painted one thigh like an omelet and the
other like South African sunset. and
left me an internal fracture which l must
keep as perpetual souvenir of what We
are all beginning to speak Of the the
bore war
1--WE all feel that we have seen by far
the best and liveliest Of IL. There can be
no new scenes or surroundings in what is
to come. The Boer will hide, the veldt will
reach away. the valiant Briton will en-
dure-on and on and on, SO no one knows
how far; no one knows how long There
may be one more great battle Tor there
may not bel and then We may see six
months or year OF petty. pif1ing guer-
rtila work--by little bands. all over the
veldt-and this final protracted stage will
be ended by all the discomforts OF CAM
paigning in a desert, which was intro
duced to us as a baked and dusty Sahara.
but Is now to be a wet, soggy expanse,
growing colder and colder. until. daily for
weeks, the pickets shall be found frozen
to death at their posts.
I'VE are all sick. Some are sick with
sickness. most are sick of the war, and
many are sick in both ways. 1 could forge
thousands Of signatures to that statement
and you might publish them. You would
not hear protest from anyone"
Such was the frame Of mind in which
Mr.. Ralph left Bloemfontein, with it's
$500 enteric patients, its maddening dull
routine of life"
But as the train pulled out on its way
to Norvals Pont he saw a sight which
seemed worse. In his own words 1t was:
Nothing but an illimitable. spongy.
stodgey bog with driving cold rain beat
ing upon it, and. living upon it, without
tents. were soldiers-soldiers everywhere.
Mentally 1 asked forgiveness for having.
during even one moment. thought OF my
own discomforts and worries. Some of
railway for whole month. They had
begun the task Immediately at the end of
the awful strain of the field marshafs
progress from Gras Pan to B!oemfontein,
when they marched as no Europeans ever
marched before, and were starved as none
ever should be again.
Now the bitterly cold, driving rains
had come and turned the veldt into
marsh. and here I found them like so
many half-drowned rats. wet as the veidt
beneath them, wet as the air around them,
shivering. playing glum tunes with their
teeth, coughing, walking and stamping to |
keep warm-doing everything except COM
planning.
II? My complaints? Why. beside those |
men l was duke with a palace Of COM !
forts, and IL I had their complaints to
make instead of my own. I should have |
been under and not atop OF the wicked, |
cruel veldt.
Down the line We came to s.a.ion
and camp which presented picture Of I
misery as complete as any that ever saw +
in Chinese slum, WhitechapeI Alley,
or negro barracks in New York It was |
misery pared down to the raw, though none |
Of its sufferers seemed aware of it.. The |
beastly veldt was a mosaic of little pools !!
and sodden tufts of sage. There were
three or four shelters.
"One, the largest, was made by throw |
ing a tarpaulin sheet over two piles Of !
boxes. 1t was only breast high and COW
cred sopping wet ground. but it served as
the mess room and retreat for the officers.
who came out. by the way in their wiring
ing wet clothes to ask US the usual shop |
worn questions about the latest rumor
that Mafeking was relieved. and another,
that Butler had done something.
The Tommies were walking up and
down in the rain. Their overeoats were
not only soaking wet. but, for some strange
military reason. were split behind straight
up to the small Of each mans back SO as
to expose all OF each leg to the wet. A
few had put blankets over their coats and
we're also walking, walking. walking. One |
was seated on a box with an audience of |
three others on boxes. and was singing
A music hall ditty vigorously through his |
nose. Several who walked about were |
All seemed either very happy |
Or reasonably so.
They had been soaking wet and chilled |
10 the bone for days. They could cook |
nothing, broil nothing. heat nothing, for |
not a dry thing with which to make fire |
could be found upon the soaking veldt |
they doubtless had plenty to eat. but 1t was
Ill timed stuff. and must have been taken
old. and eaten each thing by itself, with
tut a chance of making toothsome COM
,ination. Plenty were dying. plenty were
others must have felt very I'M
comfortable: yet those who were of the
nettle to survive. were whistling, singing. |
nd cracking Jokes. They are welcome to
rack one at me for speaking Of my own
roubles."
National Honor.