The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-06-02

quoted the evidence of presumably imDar-
tial and honest men as to the noble dual
tiles of the Beers Much. of course bas
peen reported with regard to another side
OF their character. Here, for instance
are some notes written by the Rev. M. F.
Crewdson, Wesleyan chaplain with the
BRUSH forces in South Africa who has
not shrunk from saying things both good
ana bad of the hard-fghting burghers.
70 sner mas, ne says. been my privilege
heroes OF Slingersfontein and Hobkirk S
farm, and on the testimony of at least
dozen OF these men who had never
seen one another since the fight, who had
occupied different positions on the hin
sides. it has to be recorded that the Beers
ilrst drove up the hill hundreds of armed
ran, uhey themselves creeping up on
tntlr hands and knees under cover of
TINS lV1ng moving wall. l measure nv
responsibility in making this statement
l warned the men who gave it me of the
terrible. charge they We're bringing but
all, without exception, asserted it, said
they saw the Kaffirs, spoke to them, and
shot them dead in scores and hundreds.
rms organized piece of savagery is one
for which the Boer army must take the
responsibility. 1t was not the barbarous
action of an Individual but a piece of
devilish strategy used a considerable
scale IN an action of even historic inn
portance.
In my rounds l came across an Aus
tralian whose leg had been broken by an
explosive bullet. He related an incident
which shows how some Beers are hu-
name. and even chivalrous. He was ly-
ing between the rocks unable to move,
when a young. well-dressed Boer came
up and, addressing him in faultless Eng
ilsn, said: Are you much hurt, old
man? The Australian trembled and
bianched. for he expected treachery, and
prepared to receive pistol shot. oh.
don't be afraid of me, / won't hurt you,
you are hurt enough already Shall /
get you a drink of water? If you please
No sooner was it said than done. Now
4 in
you have those" Thank you very much
and further benson was bestowed
YOU will be very faint there with this
sun pouring down on you, and the young
Boer sat on the rock for an hour and a
half so that the shadow of his body might
1ail on his wounded foe. Meanwhile the
two discussed politics, the Boer declaring
that in the long run the English would
overwhelm the Beers, but that the price
they would pay for victory would be ap-
palling.
individual instances of this kind re-
Duke a general condemnation of the Boer
race; but against them we have to re
cord instances like that of another poor
fellow who declared that he was lying
on the veldt sixteen hours before an
ambulance came across him. during
which time he was visited by Beers who
pltled him with compiacent words while
they rified his pockets. Nor can we for
get the explosive bullets, while the whole
sale placing of kaffirS between two fires,
and their use against a people who, by
one word, which they refrain from ut
tering, would set loose thousands of war
dogs, Basutos and Zulus, against the
Beers, can only be described as diaboli-
cal. The necessary horrors of the
battlefield were ruthlessly increased by
the Beers on three successive occasions
turning their Vickers-NOrdenfeldt on our
ambulance wagons when they essayed to
venture out on their errand of mercy. 1
saw this with my own eyes and as it
was done three times at intervals no ex-
n tra ficti rnt 20
the action of the Beers was the conduct
of our side toward the Boer ambulances
Two crossed the plains close to our guns
in perfect security. Let it be so. We
had better lose a hundred men, and our
pains be doubled. than that we stain our
national honor, and forego our national
chivalry by firing on the servants of the
fallen. A boy of fourteen, frankie
Maine by name, was sitting on a veran-
da looking at a Boer position through a
held glass. He was arrested, confined in
a prisoner to Bloemfontein, where he
was kept on prison diet for a week, and
on the earnest representation of the Rev
Mr.. Franklin, Wesleyan minister. sent
back home"
Two dukedoms have been we'll in the
eye of the public during the present
week. And in each case the present
with the royal family. OF the Duke of
Argyll many anecdotes, new and old,
have been printed the last few days. The
one that perhaps throws most light on
the way in which the late Duke and his
people regarded his position in Scotland
is that of the old woman, who on hear
ing that the present Duke, then the Mar
quis of Lorne, was to marry the Queens
daughter, Princess Louise, remarked:
Eth! It's mighty prood woman the
Queen will be today" AS matter Of
fact it is curious to find that the Mar
quis of Lorne and the Princess had a
common ancestry nearly S00 in
the person of James /. of Scotland. The
Queens descent from James l. Q394-143O is
through James IL, Ill, ", V. and VI.
Elizabeth, the daughter of James VI,
married the King of Bohemia and be-
came the grandmother of George l. The
Argyll descent from James l. is even
more tortuous, but perfectly clear. Prin..
cess Annabella Stuart, daughter of
James l., married the second Earl of
Huntly. The daughter of their son,
Lady Janet Gordon, married the third
in direct male line, the late Duke was
descended.
The other dukedom, that of Fife, which
has been topic of conversation, can
boast no such pedigree as the Argylls,
Campbell, knighted in 1886. The present
Duke of Fife, as is well known, married
Princess Louise, daughter of the Prince
of Wales. More fortunate than the pres
ent Duke of Argyll, Who is childless, the
Duke Of Fife has daughters but no son
to carry on the title. This week it was
announced in the Gazette that the duke
dom of Fife will now follow in the fe-
male line. provided, of course, that no
son is born subsequent to the announce
ment. This is regarded as another proof
of the luck of the Duffs. The rise of the
Duffs is one of the most worG-"1l stor-
les in the peerage, despite til i.-I that
the genealogists have made r---v over
their origin. The latest editiC Burke
strictly follows the discover. cf the
experts by beginning with 7 Adam
Duff, who was a small farmer CIuGy-
beg, Morayshire. Adams gra On was
created Earl of Fife in 1875 "a Baron
Macduff in 1859, q title which G. f.
Cokayne, the accomplished CiaEenceuX
King of Arms, in his wonderful peerage,
sarcastically suggests was assumed to
suggest that Duff was descended from
the old Macduffs, the Thames of Fife. AS
a matter of fact, the Duke of Flies FAM
lily never owned a rood of land IN the
county of Fife. The pretensions to a
longer pedigree which some of his pre-
decessors concocted in the most unblush-
ing way were mercilessly exposed by
DR. William Cramond, the accomplished
antiquarian. DR.. Cramond showed that
one of the earls had lifted two old tomb
stones erected to the memory of an Innes
and a genuine old Duff of Mildavit placed
them together, and altered an inscrip-
ton so as to make them seem one and the
same!