The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-02-28

join forces, can threaten the Rand and
the capital from the rear.
4 take it for granted that General
French and the greater part of his cav
airy are on their way to Bloemfontein.
/ cannot imagine anything so suicidal
as that the Beers would mass at the
capital of the Free State.
''Ladysmith has not yet been relieved
and the very latest news last night is
far from meeting what we would wish.
Are the Beers presumably retiring
being reinforced?
Are they actually to outfank US?
The very brevity of the news com
pels us to believe its truth and makes
us very uneasy.
1T is likely enough that, if the enemy
has got away his big guns, he has also
sent back to the next front the men
who were engaged in removing the
guns.
If Gen. Joubert, too, can deliver
what an American general might call a
mules kick Joubert will not only get
away easily, but viii give US some trou-
BILE before he clears the passes"
The military expert OF the Morning
Post says:
The surrender of Cronje is the first
complete victory the British have won
in this campaign.
We do not yet know the size of the
force that has been destroyed
Lord Roberts announces he has 200
prisoners and has taken SIX guns.
After the battle of Magersfontein.
CfOnje'S force was estimated a not less
than u 600 men
so at least half his force and most of
his Suns-including the larger ones
disappeared before his retreat
A. MINIATURE SEDAN
London, Feb. 2S.-Spencer Wilkerson
reviewing the military situation in the
light of Gen. Cronje's capitulation says
this morning:
ION a moderate estimate one-tenth Of
the BOer army has been taken on ac-
count of capture of Cronje The battle
of Paardeberg is a miniature Sedan.
Tomorrow the whole of Lord Rob-
erts' army, say 900 men will be ready
for a fresh advance, if indeed the start
be not made today. The objective must
be the next BOer army of Importance,
which is in Natal The next move there
fore. with a view of drawing the Boer
army from Natal, implies an advance
on BloemfOntein or some point on the
railway between Bloemfontein and
Wineberg which would sever the con-
nection between the Beers in Natal and
those south of the Orange river
II the Beers make a stand west of
BlOemfontein, so much the better. With
$4,000 men Lord Roberts may we'll be
bic to enveiop and destroy a respect
able force there
The effect of the Paardeberg victory
viii probably be movement northward
of the Boer forces south of Orange
river. In Natal the effect will be moral
rather than strategical The effect of
elation on one side and of depression on
the other will be equal for the moment
to the addition of brigade to General
Buffers forces
The Beers in Natal have to face a
crisis If they sent troops to the Free
State they will sacrifice the whole result
of the long campaign before Ladysmith.
MOI 10 send them Will be to render pro-
bable a second and still more important
victory by Lord Roberts a few days
hence"
THE FIGHT AT RAILWAY HILL
New York. Feb. 2S.-But for the sur
render of Gen. Cronje. which over
shadOWed the news from Natal Eng
land would be shuddering over the
British reverses at Railway Hill where
the Inniskilling fusiiers were caught in
a Boer trap and slaughtered. The
London Nails CORES spOndent under
date of Pieters, February "a, describes
the engagement:
Last night the Innisklling fusliers
mixed with some of the Dublin fusiliers
and the Connaught rangers, attempted
to carry Railway Hill from Pieters.
They were under a continuous fire.
heavy broken ground to the first Boer
trench. Half way up the hill the Beers
retreated to the crest and then came
back on either flank of the Irish troops
enfilading the captured trench with a
savage cross as well as a direct fire.
''All night and until o'clock in the
morning our men held the position un-
der ceaseless fire and at terrible cost.
At roll call only five officers and 100
men answered to their names.
Colonel Thackery and Major San
ders. of the Inniskillings, Colonel Sit
well, of the Dublin fusiliers, Captain
Maitland. of the Second GOrdons and
Colonel Thorold, of the Welsh fusiliers,
We're killed. Two hundred and fifty-two
of the rank and file were killed or
wounded.
Gen Lyttleton's brigade relieved
them at 10 o'clock this morning, when
the BOer artillery pounded the troops
holding the center kOpjes without pause
but With little effect"
BULLER'S TROUBLES.
London. Feb. 2S.-A dispatch to the
Daily Mail from Pietermaritzburg
dated Monday, describes at consider
able length the enormous difficulties of
General Buffers task" and says:
The real advance began last We'd
nesday. The stupend0us nature of the
task was only understood when, being
on the spOt.One was able to realize what
it means to hurl infantry at positions
aligned in every direction with care
fully prepared trenches and with breast
works defended by practically invisible
rihemen. armed with the most deadly
rapid firing weapons and aided by
quick firing guns which put all but our
cannon of the largest calibre into the
shade"
Commenting upon Fridays fighting
the Daily Nails correspondent says:
AS it would have been madness to
seek an outlet from the amphftheater
of hills by way of Groblers Kloof. on
the left route had to be found on the
right, and at ? p. m. on Friday amid
the incessant cracking of rifle fire and
the roar of cannon, the Irish brigade
was distributed along the river to take
Railway hill on the other side of Pie
ters station.
This hill is commanding enough to
insure our final advance, providing we
could hold it securely and could mount
cannon on it. From Ondorbrook Spruit
railway bridge the track runs along the
Tugela and it was perilously open to
the BOer marksmen disposed on the
kopjes back from the river, and, after
passing Pieters station many men
would be bound to be hit.
Beyond the station the line passes
over another small bridge crossing a