Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1900-03-20
Side Lights on.
the BOer War.

1t is said that in 1894 the Beers gave
their first order for big guns and that at
the time they expended nearly half a
million dollars with Krupp of Germany,
| and about the same amount with an Aus
trian firm for smaller arms. The Krupp
guns were delivered in 1895, and includ-
| ed two of what was then the largest pat
i tern for a gun in the world These guns
are forty-eight feet in length, weigh 100
| tons, throw shell weighing $500 pounds
| and require 904 pounds of powder for
each discharge One of these guns has
| been dragged to hill overlooking Lady
\ smith. The other is on the Notifications
defending Pretoria. In 1895 another or
! der for field guns of long range was plac-
| ed with Krupp. 1t was in 1890 that the
| Creusot guns, those that have done the
most effective fighting, were purchased.
Several large orders for guns were placed
at later dates.
| The Lee-Metford bullet is about four
times as long as it is thick, and to keep
| it straight in its fight it has to be made
to rotate at tremendous rate by the
rifiing of the gun. Obviously this long,
| narrow bullet meets with mu.h less re-
sistance from the air than the old spher
| ical ball of the smooth-bore musket But
the swift rotation has another effect.
| When the bullet strikes a man it bores
| its way in like gimlet and nothing can
stop it. As the bullet leaves the muzzle
it is twisting on its axis 133, 200 times
per minute. This is the rate with ordi-
nary powder. When cordite is used the
bullet is made to reyolve no less than
144,000 times per minute, or 2,400 times
per second.
| The important part played by carrier
| pigeons in the South African war is not
/ generally known. AT the outbreak of
hostilities one OF the first to place his
pigeons at the disposal of the British
Government was e. Lee of Pietermaritz-
burg These birds were carried through
to Ladysmith on an afmored Grain the
day before communication was shut off.
They brought the first news from Lady
smith to the British Government The
Beers realizing the advantage gained by
the enemy from the use of pigeons soon
established a loft for training the birds
in Johannesburg.
80
The Tugela river is over 200 miles long
and attains a breadth at its mouth of 400
feet. 1t rises in the Drakensberg Noun
tains, the extreme western point in Ma
tai, and at once leaps down into the
colony with fall broken by two lodges
of /, 800 feet-the highest waterfall in the
world 1t then cuts into a canyon over
two miles long, joined here and there by
many foaming stream from kloof and
hillside. The scenery throughout the
whole length of the Tugela is picturesque
and in places wild and magnificent. The
river is not navigabe for a bar of sand
stretches across its mouth.
-
Nearly sixty-fye years ago, SO the
story runs, a party of Bocr immigrants
from Cape Colony came upon little
nlain in the territory north of the Orange
river. and as it first burst upon their
eyes a woman in the party exclaimed
ITS Bloemfontein" Flower garden)
The plain was covered with wild flowers,
and presented a glorious appearance to
the first white people that had ever look
ed upon it, Thus was the capital Of the
Orange Free State founded and named.
-:-:
The question of the employment Of ma
tive Indian troops in the South African
war is being very generally discussed in
India. The Indian native cavalry is one
of the finest bodies OF horse in the world.
An argument for the employment OF
these troops is that the waste of cavalry
will be great before the war is over, and
that six months hence Great Britain will
bar nf Try
whether she wants to or not.
80
The widow Of Gen. Symons, who was
one of the first British officers 10 fall in
the war. has married again. Sir w +.
Symons. X G. B., was killed in the bat
tic of Glencoe in October last. The
lady's new husband is said to be about
half her age.
Human sympathy is always with the
..under dog in J tight. Cronje's remark
able stand against the British forces and
the valor shown by the Beers in the face
Of terrible odds have won the Trans
vaalers praise and admiration the world
over.
Butler aud his staff are actually living
the life OF private. 1heFe mas not beeh
even tent 10 cover the commanding gen
erals. They eat from their knees, with
their shoulders against rocks. They
sleep where they can, and their field work
IS carried on under a transport wagon.
-
The artillery and cavalry horses Of the
Roers have all been inoculated against
the ..tsetse fly" and riDderpest. both Of
which are apt 10 play havoc with green
horses in that district.
:-.-
Consulting surgeons who have gone TO
South Africa are paid at the rate OF S25.-
600 year. with free passage 10 the seat
OF war aud return, ard London papers
are complaining that the sum is exorbit-
ant
80
In their anxiety 10 20 70 South Africa
several Canadians declared they were I'M
married who are found now 10 have left
wives and children behind totally unpro-
vided Tor
some Of the Boer rifles taken By the
British ara double-barreled mnzzIe-load-
ers OF a pattern made oser thirty years
age.