Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1900-05-18
TOWN HOLDS OUT
IF NOT RELIEVED, MAFEKING
HAS NOT FALLEN.
HOW Beers FELL INTO TRAP.
England is Anxiously Waiting for
Word From Beleaguered
City.

London, May 1850 a. m.-England
still waits with suspense n almost
breathless interest for news Of the re-
lief of Mafeking. A crowd, remarkable
for the number of men in evening dress
and including many ladies, fingered
around the war office even after mid
night hoping for some announcement.
Only reluctantly did the people dispense
when the lobbies of the war Office were
finally cleared with the word that moth
ing had been received. One thing seems
clear. The town still holds out. Were
it otherwise the Boer wires laid to the
camps of the beleaguers would have
flashed the news.
Skeleton messages from Lorenzo
Marques, based on information that
leaked out at the Pretoria war office
show hat the Boer stormers Saturday
fell into a trap. Colonel Baden-Powell
permitted them to seize one fort and
he then surrounded and overbore them
before the large forces near at hand per-
Sarel Eloff. President Kruger's grand
son, and part of his commando We're
taken and so Beers killed.
The Canadian artillery contingent of
the Rhodesian force is now reported to
have reached Buluwayo on May 2. The
distance from Buluway to Mafeking is
400 miles. AS the railway is open all the
way to Pitsany. % miles from Mafeking.
where Colonel Plumer is, the Canadians
may yet take part in the relief.
General French, scouting northward,
found the Beers in strong force at
RhenoSterspruit, 80 miles from Kroon-
stad. Generals Botha, Delarey and Oil
vier. with artillery, We're holding the po-
sition.
President Steyn. according to one dis
patch, has one to Pretoria. Another
says he is a fugitive at Lindley. The
Free Staters are surrendering on all
sides. A dispatch from Capetown says
that proclamations are being printed
there, to be published on the queens
birthday, May "a, annexing the Free
State.
One of President Steyn's brothers, who
is a prisoner of General Brabant. says
the Free Staters will accept annexation.
Those who took up arms the second time,
he explains. had to do so under threats
of instant death if they refused.
Five hundred rifles have been sur
rendered at kroonstad in excess of the
number of Beers who have taken the
path OF allegiance. Lord Roberts has
directed the British commanders to re-
ceiVe all corners in good spirit and to
issue to them passes to go to their
farms.
General Butler is pushing straight
ahead without opposition. He has only
lost five wounded during the movement.
Apparently he is aiming at Laing's Mex.
which is the direct road to the Trans
Vaal. although he may diverge to Botha's
pass.
General Hunters movements in the
western Transvaal are rather puzzling.
ne mas returned to Fourteen Streams
with one brigade, leaving another, Cen
era B~arton's, at Christiana.
LORD Methuen is said to be advancing
along the south bank of the Vaal, Colo
ne! kekewich is with him. The loon
railway line across the Vaal is fast near
ing completion. ~
Inc ~bility is that General Hunter
look back a brigade to Fourteen Streams
OWING TO the scarcity of transports
Generaa Rlndle has captured 10 ooo
gags or corn. He DIS marching slnvylv
umlough a district which is described az
horses. Guilty. sneep and
Mlohael Davitt, according to a dis
patch from Lorenzo Marques. is said 70
nave advised the Beers, While he VS. -; IN
Iretoraa. that If they could hold out nm
"a the presidential election in the United
intervention" :"
Az johannesburg the women are form
ing a police corps SO as to release eyneo.v
mar TOR f1ghtdng purposes at the front
Dl. tArcher. VINO was at Dundee during
the Boer occupation, asserts that there
are several hundred Englishmen SERVING
IN the Boer forces Who would desert if
assured of pardon fromfthSe British. The
Pretoria official list ofaforeigners shows
lou Englishmen, whONare now fighting
but hold their residence i'm the Tlansvatai
oy permission. They ane bank clerks.
engineers and shopkeepers.
Durham reports the receipt of a, tele-
gram from Lorenzo Marques, saying thai
"a Boer plot to blow up the British cruis-
er Forte was discovered and that in con-
sequence the warship steams out seven
miles nightly.
President Steyn saw the fight at Zand
river. The impression he got there was
that his burghers could not face Lord
Roberts in a pitched battle. and his re-
suited. according to advices from Lon.-
EMO Marques. in his decision to eyac-
uate the Kroonstad works without a bat
tile.
The Standard says: From pro-Boer
sources we learn that the first great
stand by the federals will be on the
ridges near Johannesburg. This position
has been strongly intrenched and the
burghers believe they can hold it for
some time. If driven from that point
part of the force will be thrown into
Pretoria to withstand a siege, while the
main body will retreat to the Luxembourg
district with the intention of keeping up