The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1900-02-06
SCENES OF
BOER WAR
The Burial ofWauchope
Described.
THE TRAGEDY OF WAR
How the British HighIanders Were
Trapped by the Burghers
at Magersfontein.

LONDON, Jan. 20.-Some of the most
brilliant work in the way of descrip-
tive writing ever done by British
respondents has been appearing in the
British papers in the last few days.
Bennett Burleigh's splendid description
of the battle of Colenso, which was
cabled in part by the Associated Press,
is not one bit finer than the account
of Magersfontein by the correspondent
of the Daily News" After tracing the
terrible loss suffered by the Highlander
brigade at Magersfontein, the Daily
News correspondent thus writes of
the burial of General Wauchope.
The Burial of General Wauchope.
Three hundred yards to the rear of
the little township of Modder River,
just as the sun was sinking in blaze
of African splendor, on the evening
of Tuesday, the 18th of December, a
long, shallow grave lay exposed in the
| breast of the veldt. In the west the
broad river, fringed with trees, ran
| murmuringly; to the eastward the
| heights, still held by the enemy, scowl-
| ed menacingly; north and south the
veldt undulated peacefully. a few
| PAGES to the northward Of that grave
| fifty dead Highlanders lay. dressed as
| they had fallen on the field of battle.
! They had followed their chief to the
| field, and they were to follow him to
the grave. How grim and stern those
men looked as they lay face upward TO
1 ho cIx I. oIo -,
the last death agony and brows still
knitted with stern lust of the strife
in which they had fallen The plaids
dear to every Highland clan were rep
i resented there and as | looked out of
the distance came the sound of the
piper; it was the General coming to
join his men. There, right under the
eyes of the enemy, moved with slow
and solemn tread all that remained OF
the Highland brigade. In front of them
walked the chaplain, with barred head
dressed in his robes Of Office; then
came the pipers with their pipes, six
Iteen in all, and behind them, with arms
reversed. moved the Highlanders
dressed in all the regalia of their regi-
ments, and in their midst the dead
} General, borne by four of his com
} rades.
Out swelled the pipes to the strain
of the Flowers of the Forest" unit
the soldiers heads went back il
naughty defiance, and eyes flashed
!; through tears like sunlight on steel;
now singing to a moaning wall, like {
woman wailing her first-born. until the
proud heads dropped forward till they
rested on heaving chests and tears roll
ed down the wan and SCARED faces
and the choking sobs broke through
the solemn rhythm of the march o
: death. Right up to the grave the!
2 marched, then broke away in com
2 panies, until the General lay in th
g shallow grave, with a Scottish squar,
of armed men around him. Only TIL
4 dead mans son and small remnan
, of his officers stood with the chaplain
and the pipers while the solemn ser
:, vices of the church were spoken.
Then once again the pipes pealed out
and 'Ilochabar No More cut througl
| the stiffness like a cry of pain, unit
= one could almost hear the widow in he
5 Highland home moaning for the soldie
she would welcome back no more
e Then, as if touched by the magic of on
: Thought, the soldiers turned their tear
d damp eyes from the still form in tn
| shallow grave toward the height
| where Cronje, the lion of Africa, an
his soldiers stood. Then every chee
d flushed crimson, and the strong jaw
= set like steel, and the veins on tn
| hands that clasped the rife handle
: swelled almost to bursting with th
, fervor of the grip, and that look frol
i those silent, armed men spoke MOI
e eloquently than ever spoke the tongue
d of orators. For on each frowning fac
e the spirit of vengeance sat, and eac
K sparkling eye asked silently for bloc
: God help the Beers when the ne1
e Highlander pibroch soun0si God re
e the Beers souls when the Highlan
s bayonets charge! For neither deaf
n nor hell nor things above nor thint
n below will hold the Scots back tro
their blood feud,
q At the head OF the grave, at Il
point nearest the enemy, the c Ner
was laid to sleep, his officers grcdpe
:, around him. while in line behind hi
u his soldiers We're laid in double ro7
! wrapped in their blankets. No sho
o were fred over the dead men restir
n so peacefully. Only the salute ";
- given and then the man marchE