The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-06-24
news FLASHED 70 FRIENDS
WITH THOSE IN THE
FIELD
HELIos AND LAMPS USED
Kaffir Servants Who Can Be Trusted
Garry communications Across
Miles of Stony VeIdt to
Fighting Men

! sprung up, warfare on the run. Ih
British are in Pretoria; they hold th'
towns and the railways, and the lively
/ waSpish commanders are active on thei
endeavors to make the outside countr.
uninhabitable.
There are in the TranSVaal tranquil
white washed, iron-roofed dorps, tHlroug!
which the trains run twice daily with {
| homely punctuality; where shopkeeper:
grow fat in trade with the big garrisons
and officers fill comfortable biIIets a:
! provost marShals, district connnlissi oners
! and what not, which are none the less
! in a state of actual SIEGE so far as THEN
surroundings go In the streets and mar.
ket places, in the shops and pretty
houses. there is nothing-save the ever
lasting topic of conversation-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 rattle at the
corners of the streets. 1t looks rather
| like Germany in khaki and the good
relations which prevail between the
townsfolk and the sold1ery heighten the
resemblance. Surrendered burghers, who
have buried their Sunday-best Mausers
and temporarily suspended active opera
tons, smoke on their sltoops with an out
ward air of pa.triarchal 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 creature to be tolerated to a
certain point, but to be SHIPPED at and
rushed on proper occasion. They come
and they go, these burghers regarding
oaths of neutrality like the laws OIL the
old constitution, framed for the advan-
tage, and not for the oppression, OF the
wise men,
This is view of the inside Beyond the
pickets it 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 stands solemnly
across his grazing ground; he is the
only moving thing visible between mere
ard the sky. An innocent outlook; a
most innocent outlook. So innocent and
open that the cossack post striding slow
~ from one bouFder to another and back
again-it is we'll to have cover at hand
almost permits himself to think of home
and that girl In the TranSvaal the
night drops quickly; lat one stride comes
the dark" T. twilight for the few
brief minutes that 1t lasts, is exquisite.
1t smooths out lie creases of the day,
healing where the sun has touched, cas-
ing where the dust has stung, cooling
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 o
star, accommodating over the edge of a
cloud before making its debut at the
dance of the zodiac On the other hand,
it might have been a signal lamp, an
affair OF lenses and pivots. the tongue Of
g fate. The cossack posts nome whisks
aloft to hide a better While, and his eyes
nail themselves on the point where that
light appeared and went out.
CODE IS A STRANGE ONE.
He waits perhaps five minutes. Then
It lodges up again. Dot-dash, dash
dash-dot, it says, blinking brazenly to
his very face. The code is very strange
one; nothing is to be gathered from
watching the message. He shoulders his
rife, and steps briskly over the parched
grass toward his homeside man. They
are signalling to the town, where some
of the patriarchal surrendered ones are
making the most of their time among the
soldiers who do not practice 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 ne is too clever to hope to under
stand. They are men Of arms, these
soldiers, and do not recognize the brain
as a fighting unit-yet! That will come
but only after the next big licking.
Meanwhile a dear old boy with a most
benevolent heard, and owning to sixty
years. despite his straight back and
keen eye and fresh cheek is leaning out
of window watching a lamp flashing
through the darkness. His name is
Petrus Johannes Coetzee and he has
four sons on commando and three more
buried down by the Tugela. His wife
and married daughters are out Wonder
on the farm, protected from plumber and
insult by the fiat of Great Britain. and
their eggs and poultry are very comfort
ing to the poor fellows out in the hills
with their rifles. His cattle, it is true,
were Communicated by an irresponsible
briEadier racing ncrthward with his COL
umn to join French. but who, nevertne.
less, found time to leave receipt in
full insuring generous payment Ana
Petrus Johannes Coetzee finds the Brit
ish officer very affable and sympathetic,
and takes great interest in the army
news that he hears
His friends outside carry on an affec-
uonate correspondence with him. On
their side there is the hello and signal
lamp; on the other, that marvellous me-
chine, the Kafffr telegraph Kaffirs are
Vermin, as we know, and much lower in
the scale of creation than the oxen they
tend. This we have on the authority
of the Beers, who ought to know, for they
have hunted them, fought them killed
them, used them and learned them long
since. But the Boer has taught us little
of the inwardness of the Kaffir or of the
source of his armament. We work the
Kaftir bodily; the Boer knows how tc
enslave his soul.
Kafflr walks out of the town iowa RI
dusk in the direction of the r1ocatlon. >
More than likely he is a very fine KAT.
fir, with the limbs and trunk of an An.
tinous and face Of human intelligence
He Saunters, with the peculiar Kaffil
swing of the body, along the edge of the
gutter, for he has no place by the
adopted law of the land on the sidewalk
| and passes unobserved everywhere by the
man with the gun. Perhaps policeman
in khaki and spurs stops him to inspect
his pass, or unless he be labeled human
he is mere stray cattle. But that docu.
| ment is in exemplary order. He is in the
employ of - Brothers. as laborer
and lives IN the location whittier he goes
But before morning that Kaffir is eat.
ing freshly killed beef and mealieS in the
laager on the hills, while Commandant
Van der Weshuizen eagerly peruses 2
certain letter extending over severa
sheets of paper. And Petrus Johannes
Coetzee, IN his bedroom in the town looks
over his pipe bow and lifts up his ewes
TO the hills whence cometh a certain
message in dots and dashes from a lamp
advising receipt of his communication
of even date.
Nevertheless, the intelligence depart
ment offers to hammer you in two rounds
Z ...e...,.......