The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1900-01-26
BOERS GCtNG TO WAR.
Affecting Scenes Were Enacted When
the Men Left Pretoria for
the Front.

Last Sunday night L found myself
slowly crawling toward the front from
Pretoria in commandeered train
crammed full of armed Beers and
their horses, says correspondent of
the Chronicle. I had rushed from the
Cape to quiet little Bloemfontein, the
center of one of the best administered
states in the world, where the heads of
the nation, in the intervals of discuss
ing war, proudly showed me their pi-
amos, their little gardens, little IL
braries of English books, little mu-
seums of African beasts and Greek
coins, and all their other evidences of
advancing culture. Then, on to Pre-
toria, the same kind of town, on
larger and richer scale-trim bungalow
houses, for the most part, spread out
among gardens full of roses, honey
suckles and syringa.
But at the station all day and night
the scene was not idyllic. Every hour
train after train moved away-stores
and frewood in front, horses next, and
luggage vans for the men behind. The
parting from lovers and wives and chill
dren must be imagined. They are bad
enough to witness when our own sol
diers go to the front. But these men
are not soldiers at all. Each of them
came direct from his home in the town
or on some isolated farm. They rode
up, dressed just in their ordinary
clothes, but for the slung mauser and
the full cartridge belt over the shout
der or round the waist. Except for
few gunners, there is no uniform in the
Boer army.
Even the officers can hardly be dis
tinguished from ordinary farmers. The
only thing that could be called uni
form is the broad-rimmed hat of gray
and brown. But all Beers wear it. It
is generally very stained and dirty and
invariably a rusty Grape band is wound
about the crown. For the Beers, like the
English poorer classes, has large guam
titles of relations and one of them is
always dying.
9 By the courtesy of the Pretorian gov
eminent I had secured room in the
guards van for myself and companion,
who was equally anxious to cross the
Natal frontier before the firing began,
and that was expected at every mo-
ment. In the van with us were about
a score of farmers from Middleburg
way, their contingent occupying four
trains with about 500 men and horses.
For the most part they were fine tall
men, with shaggy light boards, remind
ing one of Yorkshire farmers, but
rougher and not so well dressed. Most
of them could speak English and many
had Scotch or English relatives. They
lay on the floor or sat on the edge of
the van, talking quietly and smoking
enormous pipes.
All deeply regretted the war, re-
GREETED the farm left behind just when
spring and rain are coming and were
full of foreboding for the women and
children left at the mercy of the KAT
frs. There was no excitement or
shouting or bravado of any kind. So
we travelled into the night, the monot-
ony only broken by one violent COLI
sion which shook us all fiat on the
floor, while arms and stores fell crash
ing upon us. In the silent pause which
followed, while we wondered if we were
dead, 1 could hear the Kaffirs chatter
ing in their mud huts close by and in
the distance a cornet was playing
"Home, Sweet Home" with variations.
london Chronicle