Akron daily Democrat. [volume] (Akron, Ohio) 1892-1902, 1900-02-14
DRAWING THE ENEMY's FIRE.

Inc B0erS nred religiously at the de.
coy, and spies subsequently reported
that the sturdy marksmen were much
elated over the number Of British sup
posed to have been killed.
Notwithstanding the superior marks
manship of the Beers, it is notable
fact that the shells from their artillery
have not been startlingly effective.
This is explained by knowing ones in
peculiar way. 1t Is said that large
quantities Of shells purchased on the
European continent were filled with
charcoal instead of explosives. There
Is no positive evidence of this, but the
statement is given as one Of the curios-
tiles of the war. 1t seems to be fact,
however, that the wounds of the Brit
ish are mostly made by rifle bullets,
while the wounds of the Beers are
caused by exploding shells.
a feature of the war is the utter fail.
ure of the armored train. Aside from
the fact that the track may easily be
torn up, either before the train as 1t
advances or behind 1t when 1t endeav-
ors to return, the cars are unable to
withstand any kind of artillery FIRE.
Even shells filed with charcoal are
sufficiently forceful to shatter the frail
boxes, and it is easy to break the
wheels and cripple the motive power.
The cordial feeling of British regu-
lars toward colonials is feature Of
the situation. Perhaps the mother
country can afford to foot the bills for
the war for the sake of realizing the
feeling Of unity throughout the empire
upon which the sun never sets.
significant incident Is reported in
one of the latest Cape Town papers. 1t
occurred when the town was "clean
mad with excitement" over the advent
of the Canadian contingent.
bluejacket brushed up against two
Australian and Canadian troopers. AS
he passed he patted them gently and
lovingly on the shoulder.
Good boys" he said, with an inde-
scribably benignant smile. "Good boys!
You're all right You're the best sort.
Good luck to you"
If this feeling had existed before
1776, who knows but that American
British regulars in South Africa?
The electric balloon Is proving sue
cess In night signaling. The balloons
have II number of electric lamps and
are connected by wire with an appa-
ratus below. These lamps are flashed
at intervals corresponding to the dots
and dashes of the Morse code and on
clear night can be seen 100 miles.
The usual military ciphers may be
used, so that the enemy cannot read
the signals. The chance of balloons
being hit by sharpshooters Is small, as
they are sent up at night, usually at
some distance from the army, and are
not lighted until out of range.
Facts keep coming to light about the
superior equipment of the Beers. 1t Is
now known that they began the war
with at least 100000 rifles and ammu-
milton enough to last for years. Much
of such supplies comes through Cape
Town. The Transvaal is known TO
have had . of the very latest Maxlm-
Nordenfeldts, 10 Hotchliss guns and
80 Maxims OF the 1903 and Martini pat
tern. The Beers are also known to
possess fourteen inch Creusot guns,
five Nordenfeldts taken in the raid, ten
German inch Krupps, ten FOUNDER
English guns, eight IL FOUNDER English
guns, twenty r. m!llimeter Krupps and
six 90 FOUNDER German guns.
The British and the rest OF the world
arc also learning that they have made
a mistake in their estimate of Boer In
telligcncc and Boer character The av
erage Boer private knows as much
about England and the English as the
average British line officer knows
about the Beers. 1t seems to have
been part of the Boer programme TO
show ignorance for the past 20 years,
and they have deceived the world.
CECIL HoYT.