The Philipsburg mail., 1900-05-11
THE BOER WOMEN.
SHARE PERILS OF HUSBANDS,
BROTHERS AND SONS
And Spur Them to Resistance
Death - Their Heroic Work in the
Ambulance and Hospital Service-The
Great Trek of 1886, A

None but the elderly women among
the Transvaal Beers can remember the
great trek Of 1886, when their fathers
and grandfathers abandoned the
homes they had made in Natal and
toiled up the passes to the lofty pla-
teau where they founded their repub-
lie. Those days were more trying than
any the Transvaal women ever saw
until the present war began. They
were still living in their tent wagons
when the terrible wars with the Mata-
belle branch of the Zulu tribe began,
and no women could show more Won
derful spirit and constancy than those
wives and mothers of the Boer pion-
GERS in the midst of appalling dangers
and hardships which did not end until
the Mataheles had been driven north
of the Crocodile River Not few Of
these women and their children with
them, perished by the assegais of saw
ages, but not one of them would have
dreamed of returning to the peaceful
homes and gardens in Natal which
they had left behind. The British had
proclaimed that country their own,
their colonists were pouring in and
the Beers would die before they would
come again under British rule.
The wives and mothers Of the sol
diers who now confront the British are
the descendants Of those stout hearted
who 1noIoH ba pf ,ai
husbands and boys, while savages
rushed upon the brush heaps that were
the sole protection around their laag-
ers. Perhaps no women in the
world have changed so little in two
generations. The women OF the Boer
farmsteads are now just what their
grandmothers were when the Mata-
beles sought their lives. The Bible is
still their only book they still prefer
a quiet, sodentary life and the simple
duties of their modest homes, and
| they have scarcely risen in any respect
above the plane of intellectual cul-
tivation which their grandmothers oc-
cupied; and they are Like their grand
mothers, too, in the courage, constan-
ey and sublime devotion in which they
are facing the awful trials of another
crucial period in the history Of their
people. The women are doing every
thing they can to aid the soldiers in
the field. Hundreds of them are in the
field, and form the majority of the
working force in the ambulance and
| hospital service In their denuncia-
tion of the British they are far more
bitter and outspoken than the men
themselves, but in their mission of
mercy they know no enemies. All the
wounded British soldiers who have
fallen into their hands have been
| treated as brothers and friends. The
Boer nurses extend to them the same
care that they give to their own strick-
en- soldiers. The women throughout
the two republics exerted a powerful
influence in kindling enthusiastic sup
port for the war when it became GER
tain that the conflict could not be
averted. They sent many of their sond
into the cOmmandos or militia organi-
cations, even though the striplings had
not quite reached the age of sixteen,
when they are liable to military duty.
One day a crowd at the railroad sta
ton in Pretoria was cheering a COM
mando that was going to join Joubert's
army around Ladysmith. A mother in
/ the throng saw her young son with a
/ gun over his shoulder and wearing a
cartridge belt, just as he was entering g
a car She followed him to his seat.
| and, laying her hand on his shoulder,
said:
my boy, why did you not tell me
of this?"
Mother" he answered, perhaps l
was wrong, but l could not bear to bid
you goodby. You were to be told
| just as soon as we left. You see,
mother, it was my duty to go sooner
or later, and l thought the sooner the
better. Forgive me if I have done
wrong"
"You are right, my son." the moth
er replied. at is your duty to go, and
I am willing you should go, though l
thought it might be better to wait a
few months. Go, you have my bles-
sing but you should have told me. "
She kissed him farewell, and there
was smile on her face as she left tt g
car, though tears stood in her eyes.