The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-05-12

ing never led him to waste powder and
! ball. He kept his head and his finger
stayed on the trigger until the sights
of the rifle had perfect alignment on
a redceat.
But while the colonial idea of war
has ever been persistent influence
upon the tactics of the army of the
United States. the troops of King
George sailed back to England without
an idea that their methods needed
mending. Their success against Ma
poleon was not due to reformed tao
tics, but because in fighting quality,
] man for man. they were better than
the French. and because they had
| plenty of allies. Barring the Crimea,
the wars of Great Britain since Wa
| terloo have not been against white
men until they attacked the Beers.
Whatever adaptations of method We're
made in fighting Asiatic tribesmen,
| the general tactics of the army in the
field seemed to experience no radical
| change until the world was Mortified
| to see General Butler charging up
| kopjes against magazine rifles and ma
chine guns in not far from the same
| formation in which Howe had led his
| men to slaughter on Bunker Hill.
| There was vast difference be-
| tween those South African frontal at
| lacks at the beginning of the war and
| the charge up the hill of FL Caney
| and San Juan in Cuba. The American
| assault was sanguinary enough. and
| the resistance was more desperate than
| that offered by the Beers. But had
| the blue shirts marched up in columns
| of fours. or swept up in the old-fash-
| Toned line of battle of the civil war.
| the carnage would have been turned
| to humiliation. They scattered, they
| abandoned all formation, they crawled,
| they sprinted from one poor shelter
| to another: they knew what the Maui
| ser rifle would do, and they adapted
| their offensive tactics to IL.
'On the other hand. the traditions of
| Waterloo and Balaklava prevailed at
| Spion Kop, Colenso. and along the
| Tugela and Modder Rivers. To get in
| with cold steel seemed to be the rul-
| ing thought among the officers during
| the terrible first months of the cam
paign."
| In short, while the barge of the Light
Brigade was glorious affair, even though
blunder. the glory ceases to be SO evil
| dent when the blunder of charging into
certain death is many times repeated by
regiments of the same army.
| There are numerous interesting things
| in this book, which it would be impossi-
bic to quote in any review for lack of
space; for the author treats of many
subjects, all of them more or less vital
| to military success. Some of the mistakes
! which have been made by English officers
are almost too bad for belief, although
after all, they consisted only in adopting
success, in a country not suited to them
For example, he points out the fact that
the armored train, which has been very
effective in the Soudanese wars, has re-
| suited in the Transvaal only in the death
or capture of mary brave men. The Beers
employed the very simple device of wait
ing till the invading train went by and
| then disjointing a rail before and one be-
hind, so that the occupants, train and all.
were caught in a mouse trap fashion by
a much larger force of the enemy
On the other hand, the Boer has not
been as quick as he might have been to
take advantage of his opportunities Mr.
Archibald notes that the Boer army was
/ extremely reluctant to destroy railroad
bridges and rolling stock even when 1t
was quite obvious that they would be
useful to the enemy If abandoned. Here
was 2 case in which the use of ordinary
military tactics instead of civilian meth
DDS would have been good thing for the
Bocr. His reluctance was due to the wish
not to injure the property of his own peo-
pie, but in the end it injured them con-
siderably more to have their goods fall
into the hands of the enemy.
OF the Tommy the author has only
high praise, except that he believes the
as compared with the American. He
points out the fact that the American pri-
vate soldier enlists for only three years.
with the chance of becoming an officer,
while the Tommy enlists for-twelve,
with practically no chance of rising from
the ranks; a fact which naturally makes
the class from which recruits are drawn
much lower than in the United States. AS
for the Boer soldier, he is purely the vol
unteer, and the author says that he has
often found children of twelve or thirteen
years serving N the ranks as men. One
little incident which is part of his eXpe-
rience on the Boer side Of the conflict is
worth reproducing:
"One day | was in General Bothas
headquarters, just before he was leav-
Ing Pretoria for good, when an old,
grey-haired burgher came in TO see
him. He waited some minutes, as the
general was busy, but finally stepped
up to his desk. He did not give the
regulation military salute, but merely
shook hands with General Botha and
wished him health in the Dutch fash
ion.
What can do for you? asked the
Boer leader, still looking over some
papers before him.
q I would like to get an order for
carbine from you, answered the
burgher.
are very scarce just now, and every
one seems to want them; but l will
give you an order on the commandant
of the arsenal for a rifle said the
general, and began to write the order
at once.
"Well. I'm sorry. but a rife won't
do, hesitated the man.
General Botha looked up quickly,
and said with some sharpness:
a. I'd like to know why a rife won't
do you will use rife or nothing
THE old burgher still hesitated; then
finally said, I'd just as soon have n
rifle, but I'm afraid my boy isn't big
enough to carry one He turned and
motioned to a little smooth-faced lad
to come forward.
He was not vet ten years old-a
bashful yet manly little fellow, ready
to follow his grandfather and to fight
for the cause for which his father had
died. Not big enough to carry a rifle,
he must needs fight with carbine He
got his carbine.'
Altogether, small as this book is, it is
perhaps the best thing on the Boer war
which has been published since Conan
Doyle's work on the subject 1t is worth
the reading of anyone at all interested
in military matters. (New York: Silver,
Burdett & Coz
journalism I'm South Africa.
Wars Brighter Side" is a collection of
the experiences of Mr. Julian RaIph as