The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-05-04
-------------- THE WASTE OF WAR.

Damage Done to Noncombatants, ant
 Which Has No Military Effect,
 A correspondent of the London Dali, News forwards the following account o
 his return home after the withdrawal O. the enemy from the neighborhood O.
 Ladysmith
 We rode through the lands and huge
 red-cross flags stuck in the trees showed
 our home had been used as hospital The house has not been damaged in the
 slightest, not even Il pane of glass
 smashed-but oh! the filth! The veran-
 das have been inclosed with sails, and
 at the end next to the tennis court seven very good bedsteads are left. The other
 verandas are covered with medicines, lint, bandages lone big, case being un-
 opened), splints. filters and mass of
 all sorts of rubbish. Everything has
 gone out of the drawing room. new bedstead and mattress being left by the
 Boers there.
 The piano has been moved into the passage, and beyond being covered with grease, and very dirty. Is not much the worse for wear. In the dining room none of the pictures or photos has been touched excepting the one of myself, which l am not sorry has gone The eideboard is all right; the table l found thrown outside, while some of the chairs of the dining room suite and drawing room found at various camps all very much the worse for wear and exposure to wind and weather All the crockery has been smashed, while cutlery table and bed linen have of course all gone. The bedroom suite in our room Is left; one drawer is missing out of the ward robe and locks are broken The wash stand and chest of drawers are all right, but the full-length mirror in the dressing table has gone Our bedstead and spring mattress, which were at Dutch camp on Pepworth's Hill the day the troops went out, have been careful ly taken down and mysteriously brought back to the house and put down by the gate. All our clothesin fact, every thing that could be carried by hand al- most--have gone. and of course all the silver Several of the carpets are lying at the different camps, having been used in the tents. In the room c. B. had nothing Is left, and the bedroom suite in the spare room has been split up.
 The wardrobe (smashed) is in the dairy; the marble-top Washstand l found upside down on the vedt, with nothing broken; the chest of drawers Is missing, and the dressing table smashed, and mirrors gone. All the mirrors have gone, and the overmantel in the dining room smashed, My hand some writing desk has been smashed, but 1t is not beyond repair, and the old fashioned cabinet has disappeared. In the two other bedrooms nothing is left but beastly stench. Reid's room has been used as a telephone office in con- nection with the terminal station, near the white gates. Kitchen, pantry and are in filthy state, and all most everything is either broken or The safe is smashed of course, as was only tosbe expected, the desk, drawers, etc., were all broken into. In the dairy, churns. seperators. butter drier, worker, in fact, everything, has gone, and the storeroom has also been 
 Scattered about on the veldt I found several of your oil paintings books, etc. Guns, rifles, saddles dog cart, harness and heaps of other things have also gone. The bailing press has been chop ped up, but most of the other farming implements remain untouched.
 You would feel very sad to see our lovely home in such schaos. and every thing so terribly knocked about, but on he whole I am very agreeably surprs~ sd to find we have something left. Jou- pert has evidently tried to protect our house and furniture, and I should like 70 thank him for it. The abuse of our hings is due to the rough usage of the ! of the house. broom or brush has never apparently | been used. The piping from the spring | las mostly been pulled up, and the 1 anks have been wilfully rendered use- | ess.
 Outside, things present rather a | wrecked appearance, and everywhere | ,iles of rubbish and filth are to be seen. n front of the house most luxuriant- | y fitted up and quite new Netherlands | 4oode Cruls' ambulance wagon was | eft, which we gave up to the military | ,eople to-day. It is supposed that Jou- ,ert drove about in this comfortable | ar. Piles of ammunition are left about | he barn, and dotted about the different | 'arts of the farm are tables, tents, most | f the saddlery of the Tenth Mountain 'attery, kegs of hroseshoes and piles of | ther things left, showing that the 'oers were in a great hurry to get way. Forty-one coffins are left in the arn, which will make fine fruit boxes '