The times., 1901-03-24
Another Book On South Africa.


AN American With Lord Roberts" by
Julian Ralph. is not exactly an attempt 10
say something new about the war in South
Africa. but il is certainly an individual
and original account Of it, and Mr. Ralph
does not tresrass on any ether writer $
ground. To be brief. he has written Of
the war in the style Of the special cOrre-
sponGent. and has produced "a book which
IS exceedingly good newspaper stuff,
though not in any sense a comprehensive
history, or intended to be one. To many
people it viii be more entertaining and
thus more valuable than more pretentious
work
The author is clearly prejudiced i'm favor
of the British side Of the question.
though his prejudice appears To have been
acquired through personal observation Of
the conditions on the scene Of warfare,
and not brought to the Cape with him.
in this he resembles many other Ameri-
cans and English not personally interested
in military operations or in the fortunes
Of the Transvaal
The style of the book is, as has been
said, that Of the newspaper, and it is
graphic vivid. and fun Of detail, which
makes it interesting. A specimen of the
picturesque language which Mr. Ralph
uses in describing things not in themselves
particularly fascinating is to be found in
the first chapter In regard to Lord
Methuen. introducing the general subject
Of the country OF the Boer; he says:
Lord Methuen seemed for
time TO be conducting military waltz
rather than 4 mere promenade from
the Orange River to Kimberley. We
shall see that il was the country OF
the Beers that he was lighting, quite
as much. if not more, than the Beers
of the country.
Then he describes the aforesaid country
thus:
The South American veldt is the
most easily defended country in the
world-the best defensive country Is
how military man might put it. On
every mile or two there Is natural
fort-or half q dozen of them. These
are the so-called kopjes. short, thick,
volcanic looking hills, often with
squareC-on summit or a crater-ilke
bowl on the top, such as MaluDa mas
They are rocky hills, but not rocky
as the reader is likely TO understand
the term, for they are nothing but
rOcks-hills made Of rocks, so that the
surface is 4 fretwork of the outer
most powders. Between and around
these kopjes lies the veldt, which al
ways looks lovel, but is never so.
1t looks level because ii is a dead
and duh mOnOtony of baked earth,
sage tufts and stones, any single acre
being precisely like the next hundred
ten fhOuSa No. instead OF being
smooth il rises and falls in earth bill
lows. and often in the depression be-
hind the ridge of such a billow an
army can move. I have seen a long
railway train lost on an apparently
level veldt when it turned into one Of
these deDressions. But there is far
better cover for the Beers than these
afford There are the sO-called null
lahs and spruits. which seam the
veldt in millions of places. No one
can see them until he is almost upon
them, yet there troops can move un-
seen on horseback. In hundreds of
them the whole Boer army could ride
Invisible for miles"
OF the situation in the battle Of Modder
River he says:
"As a rule the adjacent land slopes
toward a river but South African
topography violates all rules, and at
this place the land inclined downward
and away from the stream, so that
every object as large IS Jack-rab-
bit could be seen by the entrenChed
Beers at q distance Of three miles.
There appears, now. to have been
nothing but luck in our winning that
battle. II was the former belief that
there were over seven or eight thou
sand Beers IN the trenches, but there
We're nothing like so many, in all prob
ability. Yet they held the British fat
upon their stomachs all day, while
they pumped lead over their heads as
! verify believe bullets were never
shot before. They dld no other fight
Ing than to stay in gutter and shoot.
1t was their country that perpleXed
and hindered the British most, for
many Of them did not even know the
Beers whereabouts. They never saw
them. AT last a handful of ever
valorous. recklessly brave men got
across the river and cheered with an
Anglo-Saxon Hip, nip. hurrahI in or
der to warn British battery and
some of their own men not TO con-
tinue shooting in that direction. At
he
ten thousand men were about 10 flank
them, took alarm and fed.
But South African land formation
has not cOntented herself with assist
ing her lords and masters merely with
hollows ridges. sluits, spruits and
kopjes. In order to provide q fortin-
cation 10 every square mile Of the
land, she has devised stone breast
works These are oftenest found At the
foot Of a kopje, but the rule has such
plentiful exceptions that no one can
know where he Will come across
collection Of great bowlders behind |
which men may hide and attack wild
game or human foe. These collections
of great black rocks may comprise
few in an irregular line or two, or
they may cumber square half mile OF
the veldt, thrown over il thickly and
IN confusion"
He gives a very bad picture Of the
Boer. This is part Of it:
There is never an excess of poetry
IN war but one phase Of il that was
sentimental, II not poetic, has always /
been the tendency Of opposing pickets
10 establish show Of camaraderie.
In the fight between the North and
the South in America the pickets ex-
changed cigars and tobacco. and In
that between America and Spain last
year they conversed together, and eX-
changed gifts In the war waged bv
the Boer against the BritOn the BOer
has crept up like q snake in the grass
to XIII the outposts on every field since
the war began
when the British entered JacobsdaI
IL looked like city Of doctors. Every
man in the streets wore a Red Cross
badge on his arm. These were the
men who had Just been shooting at
the British from behind the garden
walls. There was nothing novel or
original about their seeking the cow
ardly shelter Of doctors badge The
British were quite accustomed to H.
They once entered Boer laager after
q victory and found twenty-seven Of
these bogus doctors in it-and seven or
eight wounded men for their patients"
Mr. Ralph treats Cronje with scant re-
pect. saying that this bushwhacking
hieftain has been treated as II he were
mother Napoleon Whether that is IN /
my measure true or not, there seems. to
'e no doubt that the author regards Lord
Roberts IN somewhat that light. and the :
icture which he gives Of the little British | ;
'eneral is not only a very pleasant one. /
'ut probably correct. There is a spfr-
ted defence of him about halfway
through the book, which is worth Quot
ng:
$50 mercuriaI is humanity and so
hckle is a people entrusted with self
government, that since / came home |
! have read IN the pages Of a daily
journal q jubilant leader calling gen
eral attention to the wonders ner-