The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1900-01-19
THE BOERS

IL 10 liz dCoDI y" NANS
Butler, who commands 10000 men, has
succeeded in his turning movement to
the westward of C~olenso, and that the
British relief column for Ladysmith is
on the south bank of the Tugela river.
The Beers are strongly ~intrenched far
Their north. They know all about Bull
Ier's movement, and were the first TO
make it known. London is again hope
full. The Earl of Ava died from his
wounds So we m a expect stirring
news very soon. In the mean time the
British report Beers disheartened and
even demoralized. Will they fight any
more? Just wait and see. They are re-
ported as fleeing with their wagons
northward into the Wilderness, another
stampede from British tyranny and
robbery. We expect to hear of more
hard fighting and when the end comes,
as it must, and the Beers should light
their last fight, then they may begin
their third flight to get away into a new
far away from their enemies
from WHOM they have tried to eScape
twice before. But gold and diamonds
proved too strong and drew their enc
mics after them.
The accounts of the war written by
participants on either side are full OF
sad and most narrowing details They
show what horrors attend war and how
~inexcusable it is for any nation pre-
tending even to be Christian" in name
to wage a war I'VE only in self DEFENSE
Man is the only animal that Delights
in killing his fellows. No field yet seen
was ever filled with wild animals strlv-
ing to tear and reno each other all the
day long and then repeat the horrors
and cruelties when the second day had
come. 1t remains for boaStful, vain,
brutal man to perpetrate such devlltry
and make sad tens of thousands or
hearts and darken with the black shad-
,ow of death thousands of hearthstones.
Man is indeed a cruel, vengeful, savage
animal. The letters tell of the wonder
full bravery of the writer's and their
comrades. Here is what one surgeon
writes of what he experienced at Mod
der river:
"A lot of The North Lancashire men
were horribly ounde l turned over
a sergeant, black in the face, dead.
One man was brought to me who had
been struck by a shell fragment-face
mutilated, throat cut and chest lacerat-
ed. o, God! the sight was sickening;
blood everywhere.
Very few of our men being wounded,
L went out near sunset to aid the High
LADDERS. They had been lying all day
under that frightful sun and their
wounded were still there. No stretch
er bearers could advance, as they were
all shot at. They shouted to me to
crawl on the ground as, though most
of the firing was owe there We're still
three Or four Beers with express rifles
and explosive bullets who were under
cover and who kept picking off u
men. Some men utterly collapsed,
all / could do was to put a pad to their
wounds and my whiskey flask to their
lips. / then crawled back to my horse
and made my way to some ambulances
two miles distant to get their aid. l
was under fire all the time, bullets
dancing around me. l felt a kind of
solemn disregard as L had been exposed
TO greater dangers before"
The Beers fled when wanted and re-
turned when unexpected. A Boer boy
aged but seventeen, gives an account
of how he prayed while he shot, n
how when nearly all of his command
a been killed, but eight remaining,
and the British almost upon him,he fed
One sergeant nthe famous Coldstream
Guards tell how very narrow his es-
cape. He says:
During the afternoon some on
seemed to nave spotted me from the
ITenCHSS. lIol q S4AO 81 I'm lAC SAOS
of nay boot and struck my rifle just in
front of my face, filling my eyes with
dirt and splinters. 1 rose a little, when
another bullet struck the middle finger
of my-left hand. 1 had got ON my knees
when a bullet struck me fair in the
chest ON the buckle of haverSack,
breaking through it and causing a
slight puncture of the ski and bruising
my chest. 1 have been congratulated
as being the luckiest beggar in my bat
TALON"
We must give an extract from b
that pious Boer lad did and relates:
.sThe general and Commandant Vii
ioen rallied us and brought us back to
the top of the hill n advised us TO get
shelter there as much as possible. l
followed the general with a dozen 9TH
ers to the right and Viljoen led the rest
to the left. The English were still ad-