The Delawarean., 1900-05-19
TALES FROM THE FRONT
Interesting Incidents Of the Bat
tie of Paardeberg.
HER0IsM OF A CANADIAN PRIVATE

@~s 80 Aho"ps0n or Ottawa
Dashed Through "A Cyclone of Bull
lets to Rescue a Comrade VINO FeII
Close to the Boer Trenches-Gries
at Cronje's Capture.
The Bloemfontein Friend newspaner
a copy of which after 1t had passed
into the hands of the war correspond-
ents with Lord Roberts has been re-
ceived at Ottawa, contains the fol-
lowing item regarding the heroic act
OF Private r. r. Thompson of Ottawa
In the first Canadian contingent. An
officer of the Gordons In writing to the
paper says:
I'm answer to paragraph appearing
In your paper of past date under the
heading Of Acts Of Bravery Perform
ed During the War; allow me to quote
one which l witnessed at Paardeberg
on the morning cf Cronje's surrender.
Every one knows of the gallant dis
play made by the Royal Canadians on
that never to be forgotten morning,
and how as daylight broke they had
again occupied their trenches, leaving
AS the sun came up behind the kopjes,
revealing once more to Cronje and his
men the exact position of our trenches,
they opened q heavy fire upon them,
and woe to the man who was indis-
Greet enough to show his head and
shoulders over the earthworks.
Between the trenches and Boer DO
sition lay the Canadian dead and dy-
ing. About $50 a. m. wounded man
500 yards away was seen to be trying
to make for our trenches under a
heavy fire, but was at last observed to
fall. Now and then, between the vol
leys, he was seen to wave his hands
IS If for assistance. Suddenly, from
the left of our trenches, a form was
seen to climb the earthworks in front
and, jumping down. to make straight
for the place where the wounded man
lay-about 80 yards from the Boer
trenches. Utterly regardless of the
scathing fire which hissed about him,
he ran on, and at last reached the
wounded man and tried to lift him, but
it was too late, for the poor fellow had
breathed his last.
"Seeing that i was of no avail, his
would be rescuel walked back over the
ground he had covered, and, although
bullets whistled in every direction, he
coolly regained the trenches with a
pie stuck between his teeth. l have
since learned that his name was
Thompson, of the Royal Canadians,
and, although 1 do not know whether
his case is one recommended for dis
tinction or not, still 1 have never seen
during the campaign a case of such
GOODNESS and pluck as that displayed
by Private Thompson. Considering
the CALLING fire that swept the distance
of 400 or 500 yards which he covered
in his endeavor to reach the wounded
man, also his close proximity to the
Boer trenches, it seems marvellous that
he ever lived 10 get within 400 yards
of him, not to mention getting back
without even scratch"
Mr.. A. G. Hales, whose graphic let
ters have often been quoted here,
writes recently of how the burghers
took Cronje's surrender, says the Lon
don correspondent of the New York
Sun. "On the very morning." he
writes, "that General Cronje surren-
dered 1 left Bloemfontein Il prisoner
under escort. left the capital of the
Free State at about 6 o'clock in the
morning of Majuba day, which,
strangely enough. proved to be the day
of Cronjes downfall. All along the
railway line the Beers swarmed, and
every armed man seemed strangely
confident that the day of British rule
in South Africa was over. 'Cronje will
burst through the circle of steel by
which he is surrounded like a wounded
lion,' said one young Boer to me. He
will leap through and make his way in
to country that will suit him. And
there he will turn, and God help Rob-
erts when Cronje sweeps down upon
him! l, who knew Roberts and the
men who were with him, smiled, not
that for one moment underestimated
Cronje and his stubborn courage, his
dauntless daring or his iron will.
had seen him at Magersfontein and
knew that the Beers had in that stern
browed old farmer of the veldt a lead
er capable of great things. But
knew also that with Lord Roberts on
one side of him and that mighty mill
tary genius, the man of ice and iron,
Lord Kitchener, on the other, Cronje
had task in front of him which might
have appalled, the soul of the first Ma
poleon himself.
Later on, when prisoner at Burgh-
ersdorp, when the news came through
that CronJe had surrendered in order
to avoid being cut to pieces, the folk
would not believe it. They laughed
and poked one another in the ribs with
the thumb, for they would just as soon
have believed that the sun could fall
from the heavens and leave the earth
in darkness as that Cronje, the iron
willed, tiger hearted Cronje, could
throw down his arms. Had the news
come that he had made mad rush at
our guns and perished with all his
mon around him thav mioht bava ba