The daily journal. (Salem, Or.) 1899-1903, 1900-01-24
BURIAL OF GEN. WAUCHOPE.
Most Remarkable Newspaper Pen Picture Of Recent
Times
Touching Description of Funeral the Battlefield Where 1900 High
landers Fell

The Associated Press has received by
mail an account Of the burial OF General
Wauchope after General Metheun's dis
astrous defeat at Modder river. The
description is most marvellous pen
picture. The report is by the cores
pondent Of the London Daily News and
is well worthy Of preservation;
Three hundred yards to the rear Of
the little township of Modder river, just
as the sun was sinking in blaze Of
African splendor, ON the evening Of
Tuesday, the 18th OF December, long
shallow grave lay exposed in the breast
of the veldt. In the west the broad
river, fringed with trees, ran murmur-
ingly; 10 the eastward the heights, still
held by the enemy, scowled menacingly (;
north and south the yeldt undulated
peacefully.
"a few PAGES 10 the northward Of that
grave fifty dead IIighlanders lay, dressed
az they had fallen on the field OF battle
They had followed their chief 10 the
grave.
"How grim and stern those men
looked, as they lay face upward to the
sky, with great hands clenched in the
last death agony, aud brows still knitted
with the stern lust Of the strife in which
they had fallen. The plaids, dear TO
every Highland clan, were represented
there. and AZ looked, out Of the dis
tance came the sound Of the piper. It
was the general coming to join his men.
There, right under the eyes OF the
enemy, moved with slow and solemn
tread, all that remained OF the Highland
brigade. In front Of them walked the
chaplain with barred head, dressed in his
robes Of office. Then came the pipers
with their pipes, sixteen in all, and be-
hind them, with arms reversed, moved
the Highlanders, dressed in all the re-
gala OF their regiments, aud in their
m DIST the dead general, borne by four of
his comrades.
"Out swelled the pipes 10 the strain Of
the Flowers OF the Forest until the sol
ders' heads went back in naughty def
ance and eyes flashed through tears like
sunlight on steel now singing 10
wall, like woman wailing her
until the proud heads dropped
forward till they rested on heaving
chests and tears rolled down the wan
and SCARED faces and the choking sobs
broke through the solemn rythm Of the
march of death Right up 10 the grave
hey marched, then broke away in com.
oanies until the general lay In the shall
Ow grave with Scottish square OF
armed men around him. Only the dead
mans son and a small number Of his
,fticers stood with the chaplain and the
,ipers while the solemn services Of the
hurch were spoken.
"Then once again the piper pealed
mt Lochaber No More, which cut
through the stiffness like cry OF pam
ntil one could almost hear the widow in
ier highland home mourning for the
older she would welcome back no
lore. Then, as il touched by the
lagic OF one thought, the soldiers
urned their tear-damp eyes from the
till form In the shallow grave toward
he heights where Cronje, the lion of
Ifrica, and his soldiers stood, Then o
very cheek flushed crimson, and the
Irong jaws set like steel and the veins
a the hands that clasped the rifle han. <
les swelled almost To bursting with the v
'rvor OF the grip, and that look from y
lose silent, armed men spoke more y
than ever spoke the tongues ~
orators. For on each irowning face V
le spirit Of vengeance sat, and each =
,arkling eye asked silently for blood, o'
cd help the Beers when the next ~
ighlanders' pibroch sounds. God rest %
le Beers souls when the Highlanders' p"
lyonets charge, for neither death nor OF
III, nor things above nor below, will "
I'D the Scots back from their bloody al
I'D. VI