The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1902-04-19

u u the Boer war. yet with a diff
ference. Miss Nightingale's
efforts were chiefly directed toward
lessening the sufferings OF sick and
wounded British soldiers. Miss Hob
house has striven TO alleviate the
miseries OF the captives from the
Boer ranks. the starving. suffering
and dying ones in the reconcentrado
camps And 60 her honor as well as the
honor OF the great British people them
selves she and they have succeeded.
This slender. gently bred woman with
the British public behind her after she
had won them TO her side, forced the IRON
Kitchener and the obstinate Enghsh
government 10 change altogether their
policy in the matter OF the Boer recon
centrado camps.
Who is Miss Hobhouse?
She is the daughter of an English
archdeacon and the niece OF a noble
lord. Her family includes a judge,
bishop, a member of parliament ana
noted literary man. but not all these
rolled together have done as much as
this pretty little female Hobhouse who
makes no pretensions TO being anybody
at all.
We are told she began by doing
parish work" among the poor of her
fathers district. That is apparently
the refuge Of wen educated and well 10
do English women who have no hus-
band and children 10 take up their
time. What the refined British single
woman would do without this parish
work" to keep her from dying OF dull
ness II is hard to say. Al any rate MISS
Hobhouse began that way. and. hav-
s.. ,.lN In ~ Ia N.
deayor. her heart became greater and
warmer and her intellectual horizon
widened year by year. In 1895 her fa-
ther died. Then Emily Hobhouse sail
ed away from England'to the new world.
During her parish ministrations at
home she had become acquainted with
some mighty Cornish miners who with
their families lived within the circle OF
her benevolent enterprises. They mi
grated to America.
After a time Miss Hobhouse followed
them TO Minnesota to see how they
were getting on. for they had interested
her deeply i'm the old country The first
thing she found necessary was TO go to
preaching temperance TO them with all
her might. Whether she would have
made them teetotalers cannot be
known. for presently the Minnesota
mines were closed down, and the elo-
ouent Young woman preacher returned
to England.
The tourney to the United States
broadened her heart and her horizon
vet more. At length in October, 1899,
the great war drum doomed out over
England and woke all the land from a
sleep. Nobody had thought there
would be actual war: nobody was ready
for II, least of all the British govern
ment. AS II progressed stories of the
<sufferings of soldier and Boer captive
alike penetrated the country. SorT
how-vho knows how?-Miss Hob
house was moved TO go to South Af-
rica and minister 10 the spirits In
prison" in the Boer reconcentrado
camps. A charitable society was moved
also to send her money and supplies TO
do what she could for the captives.
A large proportion of the prisoners in
the concentration camps were women
and helpless children. Their homes
had been burned to keep these from
becoming nests for hostile Boer SOL
diers. In droves the noncombatants
were driven into tented camps and
there corralled and fed after a fashion,
IL is true. but whether they lived or
died Kitchener cared not much. 1t is
only giving the devil his due to say
that. Kitchener had a war on his
hands. and big one. and had no time
to bother over pulling women and sick
children. lie let Miss Hobhouse visit
the reconcentrados and do what she
could. 1t amused her apparently and
did not disturb him so long as she did
not ask anything Of him.
At length however. she did ask
something OF him and Of the British