The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1900-01-11
HAD HOT TINES
Men Crowded Around The Engines
CIamoring For Water.
BRITISH SUFFER WITH THIST.
Descriptions Showing The Fearful
Suffering The British Are Undergo.
ing in the TransvaaI.

London, by Cable.-"The men were
crowding around the engines in line,
offering the drivers fabulous prices for
a cup of water" writes the Globe cor
respondent, describing the close of the
battle at Enslain, but it was useless
The drivers had been threatened with
court-martial if they supplied any. as
there was great difficulty in keeping
a sufficient supply for the engines. /
saw one soldier lying fiat on the line
under an engine, catching few drops
in his mouth from steam pipe"
Such extracts as this from the mail
ed descriptions of the fighting in South
Africa give some faint idea of the con-
ditions under which it is being carried
on. Belated as these letters are, by the
time they appear in English papers
they throw much-needed light upon
the campaign SO barrenly reported
over the censored cables. The heat
that drove British soldiers to drink
gratefully from the exhaust pipe Of an
engine after seven hours fighting at
Enslain, where they lost 179 killed
and wounded has proved a serious fac
tor in the care of the wounded. Sur
geOn Makins, formerly of ST. Thomas
Hospital, writes from the field hospital
at Orange river:
During an eight days stay some coo
wounded men have PASSED through the
hands of the Royal Army Medical
corps here. In one night alone 800 pa
tents arrived from the fight at Modder
river. Yesterday the thermometer reg
istered 125 degrees Fahrenheit in some
Of the tents. The journey from here to
the base hospital takes % hours and
emphasizes the difficulty due to the i'm
mense length of line of communica-
tion. The doings of the beseiged at
Ladysmith nave been fully described
by recent letters. If the Beers con-
tinue to so closely hem in and contin-
uously lombard Whites force, the be-
seiged promise to become full-fledged
cave dwellers, for according to the
Daily News correspondent at Lady
smith, the prevalent tendency there is
to burrow.
Some people, writes the authority,
having spent much time and patient
labor in making burrows for them
selves, find life there so intolerabiy
monotonous that they prefer to take
the chances above ground. Others
! pass whole days with wives and fam
| lilies, or in solitary misery where there
is not light enough to read or work,
! scarcely Showing a head outside from
sunrise to sunset. They may be seen
trooping away from fragile tin-rcofed
houses half an hour before daybreak,
| carrying children in their arms, or 4
cat, or monkey, or mongoose, Or cage
| of pet birds, and they come back sim
| ifarly laden when the night gets too
| dim for gunners to go on shooting.
! There would be touch of humOr in all
this, if it were not so deeply pathetic
/ in it's close association with possible
! tragedies. One never knows where or
at what hour stray shot or splinter
will fall and it is pitiful sometimes to
! hear cries for dolly" from prattling
mite who may herself be fatherless CIR
motherless tomorrow. We think as
/ little as possible of such things, put
, ting them from us with the Light CON-
ment that they happen daily elsewhere
than in beseiged towns, making the
best we can of melancholy situa-
! ton