The Grit-advocate., 1900-07-27
GIRLS AT HOME ARE WELL RE-
MEMBERED.
what Man Docs for Love-Tesrs Sting
the Eyelids When Ono Pictures
Circumstances Under Which Some
Messages Were Indited.

every turn, all his thoughts might well
be expected to be of himself; but at
such crisis he generally thinks less
Of his own peril than of the wife or
sweetheart whom he has left behind
him. A graphic illustration OF what
. man will do for love was given dur
ing the Kafir wars of half a century
ago. A small advance party of white
men were cut off from the main body
by horde Of natives, who seemed to
grow magically out of the adjacent
bushes. Realizing that they were in
death-trap, the six men fired steadily
into the thick of the advancing kaffirs,
but one by one they dropped dead, and
finally young fellow named Dixon
was the only man left standing. While
the air around him sang with the flight
Of assegais, he scribbled something in
his pocketbook, thrust the point of
spear through the leaves and threw
his message far out over the heads Of
the Kaffirs. When, five minutes later,
the other white men rode up and scat
tered the natives right and left, they
found that pocketbook on a rock and
marveled that their comrade could
have written such message. 1t was
prettily worded letter to his sweet
heart, in which, after telling her how
much he loved her, he said that she
was on no account to stop away from
the ball for his sake. Leave one dance
blank and l shall be- there in spirit
to take it," he concluded. Then came
q few quiet words of farewell to his
comrades, and request that they
would deliver the letter to the girl of
his heart. Every year pathetic letters
telling OF disasters at sea are washed
up In dozens on our coasts, but the
stone bottle found by a Yorkshire fish
erman last autumn contained lines of
more than average interest. Cheer
up. sweetheart Hannah was never
good enough for you," said this curl
GUS billet-doux. and it would appear
that the mariner had barely had time
to finish it and cram it into the bot
tie before the ship went down, for
his signature was broken off in the
middle, and Hannah's address was not
given at all. Tears sting the eyelds
when one pictures the circumstances
under which that touching message
must have been written. One can al
most see the rough seaman laboriously
printing the words which were to con-
vey the sad news to his sweetheart
and patiently wetting his thick pencil
80 that the marks it made might not
be easily washed away. Not good
enough for her! Why, queen might
take the hand Of such a fellow and
consider herself ennobled by the
match. Proud Britons are wont to
wriggle in their chairs when Majuba is
mentioned; but they should bear in
mind that, even in the midst of their
humiliation, many soldiers bore them
selves gallantly. A Pretoria man tells
how one young fellow. when disabled
by wounds in the thigh and the arm,
sat down in full view of the trium-
phant Beers and scribbled a letter.
While his comrades were pelting past
him to safety, he wrote endearing
phrases to his sweetheart in England
and carefully prevented the blood
which was oozing from his arm from
falling on the paper. That letter was
picked up after the engagement, and
would have been dispatched to this
country long ago had the finder
known where to send it; but the gall
liant young soldier was shot dead ere
he had finished writing, and his mes
sage was so trampled on by ruthless
feet that it was scarcely readable One
sentence, though, stood out plainly
from the mud that smeared the paper.