Cameron County press. [volume] (Emporium, Cameron County, Pa.) 1866-1922, 1900-04-05
BESIEGED TOWNS
Pen Pictures Of Life in Mafeking
and Kimberley.
Shopkeepers at Mafeking Raised TIL,
Prices of All Food Products
The BOmbprOofs Were Stout
Enough To Resist the EN-
piosiOn of 81 Pound
Shells.

!
completed, the a1afelling correspond.
ent of the London Times saws: .'We
have now begun to prepare for an in
definite sojourn in Mafeking and al
| most all foCdstuffs beyond a few luXu-
| ries have been taken over by the mill
tary authorities. Although we have
| enough food to last several months,
| this precaution is necessary, as when
the siege is raised many weeks must
elapse before supplies can come in
| The garrison has been put upon a
scale of reduced rations-a half pound
of bread and half a pound of meat per
day. Matches and milk are prohibited
from public sale and the latest order
| prevents the shops from opening. All
supplies of biscuits, tea and sugar
| preserves also-have been comman-
deered. 1t is perhaps difficult to de.
1ine precisely what in the present cir.
| cumstanceS are luXuries. but les.t there
should be any doubt upon the point
the price of every variety of comestible
has been Inflated to an abnormal
value. The shop keepers and the hotel
| proprietors and indeed everybody who
can find any possible excuse for doing
so have trebled the price of their
goods, pleading that the initiation Is
due TO the siege"
! Lady Sarah Wilson, also shut up in
| Mafelling, writing to the London Daily
| Mail, gives the woman's point of view
! as follows: "There is something very
cowardly in the fairly regular evening
| shell from the big gun which is usual
| ly loaded and aimed at sundowm and
| fired off between and Q p. m., or even
| later. over n p1r.tinIlv SlppDiutr town
very early hours being kept here,
When the Beers must know men and
women may be killed indiScriminately
For this last shot wearied women
and children generally waft before
leaving their shelter and seeking their
bedS III their various homes, but some
times as refinement of cruelty it is
not hfeu at all, ana these evenings the
poor thlhgS creep TO bed at last with
many to1eDodingS.
"A feature of the town at present is
its bombprCofs or shelters from the
fire. From rough holes, hastily dug
! and covered over with boards and
earth, which were at first constructed
at the arrival of the monster Crausot
Boer gun, which fires a projectile of
"a pounds, these refugees have been
improved upon till they are now luXu-
riOus chambers rooted over with best
steel rails and sandbags, ventilated
and lighted by round windows.
''Mine, for instance, measures IS feet
by Is feet, and is eight feet high. With
boarded floor, covered with mating
and panelled wood walls, painted
white, with three large portfolios for
windows, ut much resembles the cabin
OF a yacht and its efficacy has been
tested, as it is, | think. the only shell
ter in the town on the top of which a
81 pound shell actually exploded
without even making the glasses jim
gle or disturbing various war trophies
hung on the walls inside
The Standards CORRESPONDENT at
Kimberley, writing of the hardships
of the siege. saws:
For many days the novelty of eat
ing horsefesb formed an agreeable
break in the war talk. Starving oe1-
DIa however take kindly 10 apy ar+i-
Gle of food Personally. altbourb
have ALWAYS found n niece Of snccu-
lent borseaesh excellent ea+inn I did
mot +ol,a any Of il in J<imbnrIev No.
only wore tho ,vra+cha animals raduc-
ad n slim and hone but there was -,
endemic of influenza and couph
among +bem which fnrced me +o aban-
don lie usa If was however doilv
served ont IN tbe soldiers ,s we'll ~
tho n.o,,Io tbo,,ob thor. ,,-a,,a o,sas
of anthrav in the hosni+aIs and an
-, .1,,,,l of so,,,.,.,, j., ,,o,,,. of ~ ,,a-
doubts Al o.3O n m. all cnnversatiu,
na,sad for h,, ,,.,cl,,n,+ion all Iinh.,
n1.ca,+ alec+ric or ,oatvIana nos
Ia 30 -, o,..i,,o.,,;.l,a1
..rhoro ,vara T,,r,r caces of ,.+,e,,,o
suffa,.;no which ,ltbonmh d,a +o +bo
,,iaga reochad = cIin,oy from const;+n-
,ionoi observation-disclosures T>ha,a ora l,d;a.
ir Kir,l,arla,. I,,ho ona s.,.ar,>,d ~
.hoi,. had.,ta3as and ,,,a,.;,,s ,.t,,,iht
jackets, mad from sheer nervousness
anu ~
II 10 tlIc ie" ue'Pe WHICH Hlaue tile