Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1901-07-06
CONVEYED BY A SPARK.
Messages of Peaceful Beers to Their
Brothers in the Field.

Brothers In the Field.
From the London Chronicle.
The big fighting Is over, with its Lady
smiths Modder rivers and Stormbergs, and
IN it's place a new warfare has sprung up,
a warfare on the run. The British are in
Pretoria; they hold the towns and the rail-
ways. and the lively, waspish commanders
are active in their endeavors to make the
outside country uniphabitable.
There are in the Transvaal Tranquil
whitewashed. iron-roofed dorps, through
which the trains run twice daily with a
hcmely punctuality, where shopkeepers
grow fat in trade with the big garrisons
and officers fill comfortable billets as pro-
vOst m4rshals, district commissioners and
what not, which are none the less in a state
Of actual siege, far as their surround
inSs go. In the streets and market places
IT. the shops and pretty houses, there Is
nothing-saye the everlasting topic of con-
Yersation-to indicate the presence of war
and the proximity of an armed foe. Good
natured soldiers lounge through the place
and guards change with a clasp and rat
tie at the corners of the streets. 1t looks
rather like Germany in khaki. and the good
relations which prevail between the towns
folk and the soldiery heIghten the resem-
blance- Surrendered burghers who have
buried their Sunday-best Mausers and tenn
porarily suspended active operations smoke
on their stoops with outward air of
patriarchial benevolence that discredits
caution and invites good faith. To them
the Britisher with his belts and bayonets
ranks and files, stars and grades, is an
ever-interesting anomaly; a pushing crea-
ture to be tolerated to a certain point but
to be SHIPPED at and rushed on proper oc-
casion- They come and they 60 these
burghers, regarding oaths of neutrality
like the laws of the old constitution framed
for the advantage, and not for the oppres-
sion. of the wise men.
This is view of the inside Beyond the
pickets 1t is otherwise. From the hills
which rise abruptly like Islands standing
out of the water the gray. comfortless
veldt rolls markedly to the very skirts of
the town. The skyline Is bare and clean
as the edge of a knife. and, looking straight
before one, one seems to see the rim of
the earth. An OK stalks solemnly across
his grazing ground; he is the only moving
thing visible between here and the sky
An innocent outlook: a most innocent out
look So innocent and open that the cos
sack post striding slowly from one boulder
to another and back again-it Is Well to
have cover at hand-almost permits him
self to think of homeland that girl In
the Transvaal the night drops quickly; "at
one stride comes the dark The twilight
for the few brief minutes that 1t lasts is
exquisite. 1t smooths out the creases of
the day, healing where the sun has touch
cd, easing where the dust has stung, cool
ing the brain and comforting the body The
cossack post does think of home he re-
members just such another evening. Then
talk was not of war
But-a light, a mere spark winks across
the miles. 1t might have been a star re-
connoitering over the edge of a cloud be-
fore making its debut at the dance of the
zodiac On the other hand, 1t might have
been signal lamp affair of lenses and
pivots, the tongue of fate. The cossack
posts home whisks aloft to bide a better
while, and his eyes nail themselves on the
point where that light appeared and went
out
He waits perhaps five minutes. Then 1t
lodges up again. Dot-dash dash-dash dot
1t says, blinking brazenly to his very face
The code is very strange one; nothing
is to be gathered from watching the mes
sage He shoulders his rifle, and steps
briskly over the parched grass toward his
hOme-side man They are signaling to the
town, where some of the patriarchal sur
rendered ones are making the most of their
time among the soldiers who do not prac-
tice keeping secrets or having secrets to
keep.
The light Is announced from post to post,
and a clever young lieutenant is dragged
from a card table to observe what he Is too
clever to hope to understand. They are
men of arms. these soldiers. and do not
recognize the brain fighting unit-yet,
That will come. but only after the next big
licking.
Meanwhile dear old boy with most
benevolent beard. and owning to sixty
years. despite his straight back and keen