The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1900-04-22

neen lying. II went through the bed and
the floor and into the foundations Of the
house without exploding, but II would have
cut ner to pieces had she been dressed as
men are clad and been able to put her hand
down at her side and take her purse out
of pocket there.
Plenty of women who stood the smaller
Smelling very well, found their nerves at
the breaking point when the Beers brought
the hundred-pounder to play on their
homes. That was when, as IL by common
consent, the servant girls used TO dive
under the beds whenever the alarum was
sounded TO announce the coming OF "a big
one"
When first the town was put on rations.
the tenderly reared women had a sorry
time. The business was so badly bungled,
that Indians. negroes, servants, and hood
iums all struggled together in the line. and
the ladies were shouldered out of it. Their
husbands were away, their servants were
not Wei served, and they had to go them
serves or go without meat and SOUP Very
many tried to content themselves with that
great staple of the siege, bread made of
wheat and corn flour, and fried in lubri-
eating ola pure sweet oil made from
lard. AFTER time the system of ration
distribution was rearranged: the ladies
found their sex and quality respected; and
then, as DR.. Ashe says, IL became "a
wonderful sight to see all the great swells
ters, professors. wealthy merchants, De
Beers directors, and the resO patiently
taking their places in line to get their daily
meat.
IN THE DIAMOND MINES.
Then came a few days toward the end
of the siege when Mr.. Rhodes invited all
the women and children to seek perfect
safety in the diamond mines. Imagination
ran riot at the mere idea of these treasure
caverns becoming the familiar haunt and
rendezvous of a populace. Their only
thoughts on finding themselves walled
about with rocks whose contents could
purchase principalities and stir the long
ing of queens-these and the emotions of a
thousand fair women of modester mold,
who are of common clay, and yet love
diamonds full as fondly, are too comrlex.
too intense, too tremendous for handling
here. But, apart from these suggestions,
the actual scenes in those subterranean
chambers are said by DR.. Ashe to have
been too strange ever to be forgotten by
him.
To one of these gem-incrusted caverns,
followed deep in the earth's interior, came
1.5OO women and children: to another came
l,OOO. Small as were these companies, Ii
seemed impossible to move without tread
ing on sleeping child. Rugs, sheets, blan-
ketS and mattresses had been brought to the
mouths or these treasure wombs and low
cred into the depths, and those who lived
in these strange refugees were fed were
no people on the earth's surface overhead,
for the great diamond monopolists pro-
duced milk and timed soups and many
delicacies for their guests. A few wretched
men, shaming the honor of their mothers
and the sex of their fathers, crept into the
mines to share the safety of the babes and
women. but such was the silent contempt
they inspired that they presently fed to
the upper air, and none Of their kind took
their detestable places.
Many women worked in all the ways that
charity, humanity, and benevolence sug-
gested, and those who formed an organized
corps distributed the few delicacies OBJ
tainable, and especially the timed milk
which was most precious, taking care that
1t went only to the nursing mothers, the
babies, and the wounded.
One thinks of all the fair and gentle sis
terhood as lamenting the carnage and
cruelty Of war. One is apt to forget the
makeup of every warrior.
1 had forgotten this when said to gentle
Sister -, yesterday, ''Does it not amaze
you that men should butcher and mangle
each other as these poor chaps in this hos
pital have been butchered?"
She hesitated, bit her lip, and then, be-
tween set teeth, she said: "Only make it
possible for me to put on mems clothes and
carry rifle, and 1 would shoot the cruel
and cowardly Beers long as I had life
and strength to pull a trigger"