The times., 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 a perfect alignment on
| a redceat.
But while the colonial idea of war
has ever been a 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
| poieon was not due to reformed tao
| ties, 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 were
| made in fighting Asiatc 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
| tacks al 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 re esistance 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-
| ioned 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 rife would do. and they adapted
| their offensive tactics to it.
'On the other hand. the traditions of
| Waterloo and Balaklava prevailed at
4 SDiOn kOD. (OleuSO, 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 charge of the Light
| Brigade was glorious affair, even though
a 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
methods which have been before used with
success. in 4 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 many 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
yArav Icrlaf In 1xl,{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 it
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 a good thing for the
Boer. 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
English private to be lacking in initiative
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; 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
H. hos
often found children of twelve or thirteen
years serving in the ranks as men. One
little incident which is part of his expe-
rience on the Boer side of the conflict is
worth reproducing:
Zone day | was in General Botha's
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
What can 1 do for you? asked the
Boer leader, stil looking over some
papers before him.
e l would like 10 get an order for
carbine from you, answered the
You cannot get a carbine, for they
one seems to want them; but l viii
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 rife won't
do, hesitated the man.
General BOtha looked up quickly,
and said with some sharpness:
g Ia like to know why a rife won't
do you will use rife or nothing.
THE old burgher still hesitated; then
finally said, ia just as soon have a
rife, bat I'm afraid my boy isn't big
enough to carry ore. He turned and
motioned to little smoOth-faced lad
to come forward
He was not yet 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 rife,
he must needs fight with a carbne. He
got his carbne."
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. CNew York: Silver,
Burdett & Coz
Journalism in South Africa.
Wars Brighter Side is a collection of
the experiences of Mr.. Julian Ralph as