Union gazette. [volume] (Corvallis, Benton County, Or.) 1899-1900, 1900-03-02
LETTERS FROM RADEN-PowELL
Commander at Mafeking Describes the
Town's Long Siege.

Towns Long Siege.
London, Feb. 26.-Extracts from
Colonel Baden-Powell's letters to his
relatives are published in an illustrated
weekly. He writes:
'tHere sit in my bomb-proof bu-
reau, writing these letters. Around
with each one of my outposts. At
each of these outposts telescope keeps
constant watch on the Boer outposts
and guns. As soon as it is seen which
way their fire is about to be directed,
the wire communications are set to
work and bell, with which each de-
fensive quarter is provided, clangs in
that part of town where the shell is
about to fall; and all in the open go to
the ground like rabbits. Generally
speaking, most of us, unless duty takes
us out, keep pretty close during the
day; but we come out and take the air
at night. The Beers usually finish
pounding us toward evening, or just
send us few shells before the sun
goes down."
One thing Colonel Baden-Powell has
not neglected. He has effectually
swept Mafeking clear of all suspected
traitors. Those who are not outside
are shut up in particularly strong
quarters. He says:
81 have AZ prisoners, including the
late station master at Mafeking, all OF
whom were rather more than suspected
of reasonable correspondence with the
enemy
The paper goes on to say: "One
dark night, few weeks ago, Kafir
stole away from the outpsts of the lit.
tie beleagured township. With the
subtitle instinct of those children of the
veldt, which has been lost to civilized
man, he made his way through the net
work of encircling trenches and laagers
and set his face to the north and Bulu-
wayo. He carried couple of assegais,
few mealies and pipe. The latter
may have seemed of little Importance,
but in the stem of that pipe lay the
message from the cheerful, confident
chief, which, after a journey to Della
goa Bay, gives to us at home those in
teresting details of the resistance offer
ed by the town to the Boer SIEGE"
He tells how, even at Mafeking, be-
fore war came to them, people were
ready to underestimate the character
of the hostilities likely to ensue, and
pooh-poohed the necessity of making
any special provision against Boer artil-
lery. But Colonel Baden Powell was
not the man to be swayed by such
ostrich-like conduct.
hor 6nro &o hold this
town." he said. Straightway, before
any enemy appeared on the horizon, he
set about marking out the line of his
exterior defense works, and, with that
common sense which is the best test of
the true soldier, at once directed the
construction of ample shell-proof cover
against the guns which at that time
seemed SO chimerical to the people OF
Mafeking.
Each one of the outworks," he
writes, 'fall around the town was at
once provided with underground she'll
proof accommodation for the whole of its
garrison. The town itself was divided
into three or four sections, each of
which had it's own arrangements for
defense. In each, big mounds of earth
have been thrown up, with good inter-
ior apartments, all constructed of the
handiest material, such as wall sup
ports and roof cross beams of railway
metals, with panelings and roofings of
corrugated iron."
He then tells us how he converted
the cellars of several houses into safe
retreats of a similar kind, and, by
means of banking huge mounds of earth
Immediately overhead. they rendered
good service to the garrison and the
inhabitants on the day when the Boer
artillery began to rain shot and shell
ON the devoted little town.
But the perfect, machine like system
which holds sway at Mafeking is per-
haps the most interesting fact about
the siege. Go into any well known
opticians store and you will find the
men hard at work turning out as many
glasses as they can make in the short
est possible time, chiefly telescopes OF
great range, now urgently needed by
our troops in South Africa. The in
adequacy of our supply at the front has
put us to serious disadvantage through
out the theater of war. Not SO at
Mafeking. Her willy chief, from the
earliest moment, saw to that, and he
tells us how he has them in constant
use. In the center of the beleagured
town is a big traverse or mound OF
earth. Inside this mound is the brain
of Mafeking, Baden Powell
In Northern Cape Colony.