The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1900-06-04
PRETORIA
POPULACE
DISMAYED.
Passengers Direct from the Capital
Say the Beers Are Preparing TO
Surrender the City at Once
STATE OF CONFUSION EXISTS.
Great Effort to ParalyEs the Advance
Of Lord RObsrtS-Burghera Not
Yet Completely Crushed


no direct news from Pretoria Of later
dato than Thursday evening. General
French's cavalry were then at Irene,
eight miles south OF Pretoria, and ar.
ing was heard there, Lord Roberts
messages about secondary operations
elsewhere and the situatton at johann
nesburg, dated at Orange Grove, farm
four miles northeast of Johannesburg,
show that on Saturday at 0:l0 p. m.
he was twenty-five miles from Pre-
toria.
The correspondents with Lord Rob-
erts have not got through a line about
the operations at Johannesburg. on
clul messages continue TO come through,
but press kilograms are held up. prob-
ably to avoid their giving even hint
as to what may be pending operations.
From the other side there fliters
through Lorenzo Marques a mass OF
statements, some contradictory, otheTs
obviously Improbable, but purportlng
to be facts.
Passengers arriving at Lorenzo Mar
Ques Saturday direct from Pretoria say
that the capital was preparing to SUR
render when they left Thursday. The
forts were dismantled. The Boer guard
at Komatl Poort searched all trains
and turned back most OF the fugitives,
among them deserting foreigners who
were striving to reach neutral soil.
Immense Boer conveys OF provisions
are between Pretoria and Middleburg.
Fifteen trains are sent daily to Macha-
dasubran with supplies for Lydenburg.
Pretoria is pictured by the refugees as
In a state Of lndescribable confusion
and chaos. The populace is dismayed
and the British are expected to arrive
hourly.
Organized warfare at an End.
Some foreign attaches have arrived
at Lorenzo Marques to communicate
with their governments for orders to
leave. us they consider that organized
war on the Transvaal side ls at an end.
Flying among the Beers are reports
that the British have been beaten back
ut LIndley, with heavy loss, that the
main attack at Elandsfontein failed and
that Lord Roberts was forced to retire
to Rllpsrlverberg; that the railway has
been cut behind him south OF Vereen-
| inging, and that provision train has
been captured.
without credlting any Of these Boer
| bttiiptInF everything from the field Of
war behind Lord Roberts points to a
great effort last week to paralyse his
advance by bold stroke from the east
ward at the railway north OF Rloem-
fonteln. Unless four Boer columns
were in a movement seemingly with
this objective there was u commando
in front Of General Brabant, near Flick
burg, another faced General Rundle.
near senekai, third occupied Llndiey
and pressed toward the railway, and q
fourth seized Heilbron and pushed to-
ward Kroonstad These operations, a..
sumlng them to have been independent
all appear to have failed.
Beers Not Yet Crushed.
The revival of the Roer AghtinE
power east Of Lord Roberts advance
although fruitless, is a symptom that
the Beers arc not yet crushed. In Gem
oral Rundle's attack on the entrenched
Beers seven miles east Of senekal, May
20, the British did not see Boer all
day, so completely were they screened.
The British infantry did not get within
1000 yards of their rihemen. Tho lss
losses wired by Lord Roberts were SUE
fered by grenadlers and Scot guards.
while advancing over u level from
which the grass :,ra bsen burned. ThS
Britishers in kha'h were a consricuutu
target against the black background.
General Rumble Withdrew HIS whoio
force at sundown to senekAl. having
succeeded In drawing the euerH frciN
Ltndley, allowing the 9sssatAned forsv
to get awny safely. The BoerV sent -
the British for medical help, sayNES
that Commandant DevIIElAEB was sort
uusly wounded. General Rumble GenS
doctor with n bottae OF champaign
and his compliments, as well as m5L-
sage that he would release all the Boar
prisoners at senekal.
Burghers DESERVING FOL, Home.
The Lorenzo Marques Correspondent
Of the Times. telegraphing Juno O. saysI
IAN Austrian who has seen seven
months active service in the Trans
vaal, declares that large proportion
Of the Burghers are deserting to their
homes, The arrangement whereby the
British prisoners at Pretoria have been
placed under an armed guard with
British officers, pending the formal oc-
cupation Of the town, fs Inscribed to the
good sense and humane disposition Of
General Louis Bothn and the TRIMS
vaai war secretary, both of whom
have cnrncd the profound respect OF
all classes.
at is interesting to note that Lord
Roberts soldlerly qualities are admired
greatly by both Beers aud foreigners,
1t seems that the Boer attack upon
Irene was intended to cover the with
drawnI from Pretoria of all the supplies
procupblc. The last consignment was
SIX hundred wagon loads"
go
Movements of Steamships.
NEW YoRK--Arrivod; statendam,
Rotterdam; Mesaba, Londoni La Bro-
tsgne, Havrc.