The free press. (Poplarville, Miss.) 1890-19??, 1900-03-29
THE BRAVE BOER WOMEN.
SHARE THE PERlLS OF HUSBANDS,
BROTHERS AND SONS.
They Are Doing Everything They Can to
Aid the Soldiers in the Field..-The Pre-.
vaiIing Feeling Among the Transsaa'
Women.

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 plateau where
they founded their republic. Those
days were more trying than any the
Transvaal women ever saw until the
present war began. They were, sun
living in their tent wagons when those
terrible wars with the Matabele branch
of the Zulu tribe began, and no women
could show more wonderful spirit ana
consistency than those wives and moth
ers of the Boer pioneers in the mldst
of appalling dangers and hardships
which did not end until the Matabeies
had been driven north of the Croco-
die River. Not a few Of those wo-
men, and their children with them,
persisted by the assegais of sayages;
but not one of them would have dream
ed Of returning to the peaceful homes
and gardens in Natal which they had
left behind. The British had proclaim
ed that country their own, their colon
ISIS 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
women who loaded the guns of their
husbands and boys while savages
rushed upon the brusrsheaps that were
the sole protection around their laager.
Perhaps no women in the world have
changed so little In two generations.
The women of the BOer farmsteads
now are just what their grandmothers
were when the Matabeles sought their
lives. The Bible is still their only book,
they still prefer a quiet sedentary life
and the simple duties of their modest
homes, and they have scarcely risen in
any respect above the plane of intel
lectual cultivation which their grand
mothers occupied; and they are like
their grandmothers too, in the courage,
constancy and sublime devotion with
which they are facing the awful trials
of another crucial period in the history
of their people.
A report sent by the French Consul
at Pretoria to his government, though
bllef, is perhaps the best statement
yet received of the part the women OF
the Beers are taking in the present
war. He says they are doing every
thing they can to aid the soldiers in
the field and form the majority of the
working force in the ambulance and
hospital service. In their denuncia-
ton of the British they are. far more
bitter and outspoken than the men
themselves but in their mission of mer-
cy they know no enemies. All the
wounded British soldiers who have fal-
len 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 stricken
soldiers. We all know that dispatches
from the British army have often re-
ferred to the kind treatment received
by their wounded who are prisoners in
the Boer camps.
The French Consul adds that the wo-
ultu lHlOuSilOul INC ivy ANpbpAANS IN
erted a powerful influence in kindling
enthusiastic support for the war when
it became certain that the conflict could
not be averted They sent many of
their sons into the commands or mill
tia organizations, even though the
striplngs had not quite reached the
age of 16, when they are liable TO mill
tary duty. One day crowd at the
railroad station in Pretoria was cheer
ing a commando that was going TO
ioin Joubert's army around Ladysmith.
A mother in the throng saw her young
son with a gun over his shoulder and
wearing cartridge belt, just as he
was entering 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 goodbye. You were to be told as
soon as we left You see, mother, it
was my duty to so sooner or later and
| thought the sooner the better. For
give me If l have done wrong"
"You are right, my son. the mother
replied, ''it is your duty to go and
| am willing you should go, though l
thought it might be better TO wait a
few months. Go, you have my bless
ing but you should have told me-"
She kissed him farewell and there was
a smile on her face as she left the car,
though tears stood in her eyes.
Everywhere the movement of troops
in the Boer States, as they have start
ed for the fighting lines, has been a
triumphal procession. In all the towns
and hamlets the women cannot do
enough for the soldiers. They have
marched with all the commands to the
railroad stations. They visit all the
camps before the start for the front,
bringing baskets of food warm from
. ovens and bits of handiwork, such
he housewives" many of our sol
CARRIED in tho Civil War -,