Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1900-03-06
llee IN lAovsAAiTH.

LIFE IN lAovSMtTH.
Recent malls from South Africa to
London have brought . large and Inter-
eating batch Of letters from the corre-
spondents ct the front and elsewhere.
Agraphic account Of life In Ladysmith,
written by the late @. w. Stevens for the
Daily Nall, has also q pathetic interest
for tho excellence Of it, style and the
forcefulness Of the impressions recorded.
It IL dated "Ladysmith, Nov. TO-" and
10 IN part:
"'Good morning. banged 4.p0int-7,
have you used Long Tomr
"Crack-k-whizz.z,' came the reviving
answer, we have
"swhish-h-patter, patter," chimed In
q cloud high shrapncl from Bulwan. II
was Z 30 A. n, on Nov. z; the real bonn
bardment, the terrific symphony, had
begun.
Ing performer was Long Tom. He 10 q
friendly old gun, and for my part have
none but the kindest feelings toward
him. 1t was his duty to shell us, and he
did, but he did It In an open, manly way.
"Behind the half-county Of light, red
soil they had piled up around him you
could see his ugly phiz thrust mp and
look hungrily around him. A jet Of fame
and spreading toadstool OF thick white
smoke told Us he had fired. On the fash
4-point-7 banged his punctilious reply.
''You waited until you saw the black
smoke Jump behind the red mound, and
then Tom was due In a second or two.
A red flssh--a jump Of red-brown dust
and smokes reuding crash; he had
arrived. Then sang slowly through the
air his fragments, like wounded birds.
You could hear them coming, and they
came with dignifed slowness; there was
plenty of time TO get out OF the way.
"Until we capture Long Tom-when
he will be treated with the utmost con.
sideration-I am not able to tell you ex-
actly what brand Of gun he may be. II
IL evident from his conservative use OF
black powder, and the oli-gentlemanly
staidness of his movements, that ne Ii
an elderly gun. His cslibre appears to
be 6 In. From the plunging nature of
his fire, some have conjectured him q
sort OF howitzer, but II IL next to certain
he IL one of the 10 15cm. creusot guns
bought for the forts OF Pretoria and
Johannesburg. Anyhow, he conducted
his enforced task with all possible hu-
mspity.
"On this same day brother Long
Tom, by the name Of 'Fiddllng Jimmy,
opened on the Msnchesters and Ca,sr's
camp from nst-topped kopje three or
four miles south of them. This gun had
been there certainly since Nov. 3, when
IL shelled our returning reconnaissance,
but he, too, was gentle creature and did
little harm to anybody.
"Next day q third brother, Putting
Billy made somewhat bashful first APP
pearance on Bulwan. -Four rounds from
the 4.point-7 silenced him for the day.
Later came other brothers, Of whom you
will hear Ia due course.
"In general you may say OF the Long
Tom family that their favorite habitat is
among loose soil on the tops Of open
hills; they are very slow and unwieldy,
and very open In all their actions. They
are good shooting guns; Tom, on Nov.
Z, made days lovely practice all around
our battery. They are impossible to
disable behind their huge epaulments,
unless you actually hit the gun, and they
are 90 harmless rs hardly TO be worth
disabling.
oThat bombardments were q hollow
terror I had always understood; but
how hollow not until experienced the
bombsrdment OF Lsdysmith. Hollow
things make the most noise 10 be sure,
and this bombardment could at times be
monstrous symphony indeed.
"The first heavy day was Nov. 3;
while the troops were moving In and out
Of Van Reenen's road, the shells traced
an arial cobweb all over us. After that
was lull till Nov. Z, which was another
Gathering day. Nov. s brought tu-
multuous morning and still afternoon.
Nov. Q brought very tumultuous morn
Ing indeed, the next day was calm, the
next patchy; the next Sunday.
at must be said that the Beers made
war like gentlemen OF leisure. They re
stricted the hours OF work with trade
unionist punctuslity. Sunday was al.
WAYS holiday. So was the day after
any particularly busy shooting. They
seldom began before breakfast; knocked
of regularly for mesls-the luncheon
interval Was ii 80 TO IL for rihemen, and
IL TO IL 80 for gunners-hsrdly ever
fired after tea time, and never when II
rained.
II believe that an enterprising enemy
OF the B0er strength III may have been
anything from 1000 to 20,000) could, II
not have taken Lsdysmith, at least have
put US to great loss ard discomfort. But
Beers have the great defect OF amateur
soldiers; they love their ease, and do
not mean TO be killed. Now, without
toll and hazard they could not take
Lsdysmith.
To do them justice, they did not At
first try to do wanton damage In town.
They fired almost exclusively on the
batteries, the camp, the balloon and
moving bodies Of troops. In a day or
two the troops were far too snugly pro-
tected behind scehsnzes (bresstworks)
and reverse slopes, and grown far too
cunning to expose themselves to much
loss.
The inhabitants were mostly under
ground, so that there WAS nothing really
TO suffer except casual passengers, beasts
and empty buildings. Few shells fell In
town, and of the few many were half
charged with coal dust and many never
burst at all. The casualties In Lady
smith during fortnight were one white
civilian, two natives, horse, two mules,
n wagon and about half dozen houses