The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-05-22


women in and around Pretoria, who dog
ms steps and exhort him to remember
the sacred cause the people have sworn
TO defend. Their influence ennobles pa
triotism, but it makes policy vastly more
difficult"
Something of the spirit in which the
Beers are lighting can be seen too i'm the
ioloWlng story told by the Australian
journalist, MIR. Hales The conversation
took place when he was prisoner in
the hands of the Beers:
What do you fellows think of Aus
tralians as lighters?
Il asked the question carelessly but
the answer that / got brought me to my
bearings quickly, for then i learned that
more than one gallant Australian officer
dear to me had fallen never to rise again
since l had been taken prisoner The
man who spoke was little more than a
lad, a pale-faced, slenderly built son of
the veldt. He had tangled curly hair
ana big, pathetic blue eyes, soft as a
girrs, and limbs that lacked the rugged
strength of the old Boer stock; but there
was that nameless something, that inde-
Unable expression in his face which war
ranted him a brave man. He carried one
an m in a sling, and the bandage round his
neck hid a bullet wound
me Australians can fight he said
Sinply. They wounded me, and-they
Killed my father Perhaps it was the
that made the Boer lads voice grow
strangely husky; possibly the same cause
hlled the blue eyes with unshed tears.
1t was in fair fight, lad / said gent
~; ~ was the fortune of war
Yes, he murmured, lit was i'm fair
hght, an awful fight-I hope I'll never
look upon another like it. Damn the
lighting, he broke out fiercely Damn
the hghting. | didn't hate your Austria
lians. didn't want to Kill any of them
My father had no ill-will to them, nor
they to him, yet he is out there-out
there between two great kopJes-where
the wind always blows cold ana dreary
at nighttime The laddie shuddered.
1t makes "a man doubt the love of the
Christ, he said. My father was good
man, Kind man who never turned the
stranger empty-handed from his door;
even the kattirs on the farm loved him,
and now he is lying where no one can
weep over his grave. We piled great
rocks on his grave. My cousin and i
buried him. We had no shovels: we
scooped a hole in the hard earth as well
az We could, long shallow hole and
we laid him in it. / took his head ana
Cousin Gustave carried his feet. We
folded his hands on his breast, laid his
old rifle by his side, because he had al
ways loved that gun and never used any
other when out hunting. Then we push
ed the earth in on him gently with our
hands, breaking the hard humps up ana
crumbling them in our palms so that they
should not bruise his poor flesh. He
had always been so kind, we could not
hurt him, even though we knew he was
uead tor he mad been gentle to all of us
IN HE; even the cows and the oxen at
home loved him-and now who will go
back and tell mother and little Yacoba
that he is dead, that he will come Il
them no more? oh, damn the war, tn.
lad called again in his pain. i don't
knOw-only God knows-which side Is
right or wrong, but l do know that the
curse of the Christ will rsst on the heads
Of those who have made this war for
ambItions sake or the greed of gold, and
the good God will not let the widow and
the orphan child go unavenged; blood
rest either on the heads of Kruger and
Steyn or Chamberlain and Rhodes. "
After these glimpses of Boer character
as it appears TO men who are opposed TO
them, IT may be interesting to see what
a Boer thinks of the Englishman as he
finds him in the field. The following are
extracts from letter written by a burg
her who fought at Colesburg and Paar-
deburg:
AT the commencement of the war,
when there were but few British troops
in South Africa, there was not much
lighting to do with the exception of the
cCmmandos who went to Natal and bot
tied up Sir George White and his army
IN Dadysmith. With the other Boer
armies il was just one huge picnic. ]
was with one of the contingents JnaI lay
around Kimberley, and with the eNcep-
tioH of few small sklrmishes, when
fade into lnslgnihcance compared win
recent battles, we had not much fghting
to do. There was hardly any danger
then, but still we were always very care
ful and hid ourselves as much as posi-
BILE. IL is in our nature TO take cover.
We cannot understand how men can
charge across a tiat and try TO get into
the trenches so that they can use the
bayonet. We all own that 1T is plucky,
but then il is not war our idea OF nght-
ing is to Kill many of the enemy as
you can and lose as few of your own men
as possible. The British oftiCer-that Is,
as far as / know him, and ! have only
m OnDOngnt
field-seems TO me to be a sort of care
less daredevil who aims but at one thing,
and that is the Victoria Cross. lie does
things on the battlefield that no sane
man would think of doing, and places
himself in danger when there is not the
slightest reason why he should do so.
With the Boer 1t is quite different. There
are no distinguished Service orders for
him, and ne prefers to lie safe in his
rinepit, or comfortably ensconced behind
"A huge ironstone boulder, to endeavoring
10 save the guns. or foolishly attempting
to pick up "A wounded man under ter
rfbIy raking fire. The ordinary sports
man will consider that in this case the
Britisher is the best, but is II best, is II
common sense? The Boer loses hardly
any men, the roll call of the British regt-
ment shows fearful gaps.
After describing how the British would
lombard a kopje with lyddite and shrap-
mel having their fire drawn by a line of
Beers firing Martins from the summit
while the men with Mausers and smoke
less powder lay quietly IN trencheS at
the foot. ne proceeds:
''The British General officer command
ing would then think all the Beers on
that kopje were killed, and would send
some poor unfortunate regiment to take
the position. The order to charge would
be given. and the wretched Tommies
we're sent into the mouth of hell, for our
men with their deadly Mausers. We're
waiting for them below the kopje, and
when they came within about 4vJ yards
would rain lead on them. No living
mortal could have stood the terrible, rak-
ing fire we used to give them, and l can
not understand how the 'Tommies' used
70 reform and charge again with cheer
Those khaki-clothed beggars were veri-
table demons. / know that If We Beers
had been in their places ve 81 yuld have
taken to our heels and run. had often
road about British pluck, but had never
seen IT, 1t wants to be seen before II
can be believed. But, after all, is 1t
war; Just look at the many positions OF
ours that could have been taken with the
greatest ease II common sense had only
been used by the British officers, and
when regiment after regiment was re-
pulsed and sent by the officers right into
our rifles mouths to be shot down. l
was fighting for some weeks at Coles
burr and had the honor to draw my
sword against General French's forces
there French knew how to fight us
Eoers. He did not rush his men into
ta ont