Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1901-07-26
SPIRIT OF THE PRESS
FACTS AND OPINIONS GATHERED
FROM CONTEMPORARIES
ENGLISH YEoMEN IN AFRICA.

Several Warwickshire Yeomanry have
been interviewed on their return home
by the Warwickshire Advertiser. There
is a candor about these warriors which
is refreshing, and it is pretty clear that
they do not quite agree with one w. d.
Gansford of Spilsby, who urges, in a
letter addressed to the st. James Ca
zette, that, as we have the good taste to
keep the disgusting details of the execu-
ton of a murderer out of the public
prints, so we ought to keep out of them
the "vile and loathsome necessities of
war" when the details will not bear tell
ing.
One Yeoman recounts that after Christ
mas he was attached to Paget's column.
and that "some days we would start oft
early in the morning and try during the
whole day to burn as many farms as we
could. We used to ride up to the farm
door-half-a-dozeD Of us dismount and
rap with our rifles on the wood. We did
not wait for an invitation. In we went,
and said to the woman, Pack up, mis- sus,
there's cart waiting for US And we
gave her 10 minutes, and then, with her
Youngsters, she was packed into an open
wagon and driven to the nearest camp.
We used to have plenty of fun. All
the rooms were ransacled. You can't
imagine what beautiful things there were
there. I've smashed dozens of pianos.
Some would commence playing on the
KEYS with the butts of their rifles.
Others would smash oil the legs and
panels. Pictures would be turned into
- - hn
building on fire. We would do the same
with the next farm we came across.
We had to shut our ewes to great many
sights. The mothers would impore US
to leave them in peace, and when we
could not listen to them we were the
verdommte roonek. 1t was not always
pleasant. but we had to do our duty. |
have often seen mother with a two
months-old baby at the breast. and little
ones around her, with number of kaflir
women bowling in sympathy"
Another Yeoman thus recounts his ex-
periences
"All you have to do Is to imagine
yourself, with a number of chums, walk
ing casually into respectable gentle
mans house in Warwick and pocketing
what you thought you wanted. Its Just
the same out there. I've got Boer
watch which | would not sell for 81"
Now let it be noted that these Women
are not TRAITORS" who accuse soldiers of
cruelty, but are soldiers themselves.
They recount what they did. By their
own account they burned all the farms
they came across, they smashed the
hov nOrtahla artiolac Of
value, and after an interval of 10 min
utes they placed the wife of the owner Of
any farm that they burnt with her chill
dren in an open wagon and drove her of
to one of those pens termed camps
Again and again Wellington shot men
convicted of robbery during the penlnsu,
lar campaign, and had his soldiers burnt
buildings they would have Jared badly
with him. Well may our government
papers urge that such atrocities should
be concealed like the judicial slaughter
ing of murderers London Truth.
1000
FARMERS TELEPHONES.
The isolation of the farmers life has
been invaded in many ways. The far.
mers' Institutes and, of recent years, the
Grange, have increased the social con-
facts of his family, and enlarged his
mental horizon. Publishers have
heightened the list of his reading matter
and have broadened his view. Treatises
on scientific cookery and the other arts
of housekeeping have improved his table,
multiplied his comforts and frightened
his home. 1t is asserted that the per-
centage of cases of insanity among the
wives of farmers, largely caused by the
combined loneliness and severity of their
lives, has perceptibly decreased within
the last decade.
But now the home of the farmer is to
be placed upon yet more intimate terms
with centers of population. The tele-
phone is the new agent that is TO con-
meet his business and the activities of
hi, household with the bustling outer
world. That useful instrument is to
supplement the service of the rural mail
delivery, which has extended so success
This new field of telephone communca-
ton has found its chief development
thus far in the southwest, especially in
Missouri and Kansas. The farmers
house is connected with local exchange
and long.dstance telephone is rented
to him at rate that he can easily afford.
Tolls to cities with which he can be
connected through the local exchange
are adjusted so as to be within his
means, while profitable to the telephone
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