The Newtown bee., 1902-07-04
LOCAL AFFAIRS.
B. M. MITCHELL IN SOUTH AFRICA
A LETTER TO HOME FRIENDS.
New Club, Johannesburg, S. A.

New Club, Johannesburg, 5. A..
May %, 1902.
Dear Friends: This is a rather inter-
esting town to be in just at present,
as every one is talking about the peace
rumOrs which we hope will turn out to
be something more than rumOrs dur
ing the next few days. The great con-
ference AZ Veryieniging (my old camp
Is still on, though delegates have been
sent to Pretoria to confer with Kit
chener, and it is said to-day that the
treaty of peace has already been
signed. If this is so we have been
making history very fast during the
last ten days. Poor old Ex-president
Steyn has come in and surrendered, a
broken down, discouraged and, now al
most helpless man. l don't suppose any
one can realize what his feelings are as
he is man who was educated we'll in
England and then came out to be the
president Of the Orange Free State, a
small republic which was entirely in
dependent and with no grievances
against England, but which Joined in
the war simply on account of their
friendship for the Transvaal Boer. On
account Of Steyn the Free State has
been lost and Steyn himself comes in
to give himself up, broken down, dis
Outraged pauper. The British flag
flies now in every town and village
from Cape Town to the Zambezi, and
though the country has been torn to
pieces by war for nearly three years yet
it will go ahead now by leaps and
bounds, the equal of which has never
been known except perhaps in the case
of the United States. Things are just
waiting for the treaty of peace to be
signed SO that a greater part Of the
troops can be sent home, when we
shall see a development here in all
lines that will be simply marvellous.
The war has been continued months
longer than it should have on account
of England's generosity and kindness
towards the enemy. Nowhere in his
tory do we find parallel case where
one nation has taken care of, fed and
clothed the wives and children of the
enemy. In the face OF this Kruger
sends to America three Boer delegates
who to use their own words, come over
to ask for money for the poor women
and children dying of disease and star
walton in the great British concentra-
tion camps. This was a scheme SIM
ply to work on the sympathies of the
American people and there has never
been the slightest reason why money
should be raised for the cause stated.
It is q we'll known fact that Kruger
and Loyds stole from the mines here
after the commencement of war over
$15, OOO, 900 worth of gold, and if Kruger
thought the BOer women and children
were dying of starvation and disease
why didn't he send down little of
this GIG, 600, 900. The best proof Of the
falseness Of the statements made by
the Boer delegates while in America is
q little incident which has occurre d
here during the past month. The
United States have lately appointed
Colonel Bigham, American counsu]
general at Cape Town. Just before he
left the States the mayor of Chicago
gave the colonel $4,000 to be distributed
among the supposed to be sick and
starving women and children in the
British concentration camps. On Col
Bigham's arrival in South Africa the
War department gave him every ia.
cility to visit the camps and allowed
him to talk to anyof the men, women
or children and find out how they
were treated. The colonel visited the
camps at Bloomfontein, Kroonstad,
Verieniging, Pretoria and Johannes.
burg and had the pleasure of long
talk with him after he had spent two
weeks In finding out the real state OF
affairs. He said he had talked with
many Beers in each one of the camp.
and during the whole trip he hat
heard only one complaint. l asked
him what this was and he said tina
one Boer complained because the CAM
authorities when issuing the ration o
condensed milk every day, mixed tn
proper amount Of hot water with it in
stead Of giving him the can and letting
him stir the hot water in for himself
The above needs no comment and
told the .colonel he better send tn
$4,000 back to the mayor of Chicago
and advise him to use it in helping tn
poor and destitute of.the Windy City
as there is a pretty true old sayin
ha hn " horinS at homo
Americans have been misled inregar
to many things concerning This wal
partly because youare so far away fror
Africa and partly because the mean
of getting accurate information ha
been very difficult. only hope tina
:. when the whole history is finally writ
ten up we shall as liberty loving pei
pie see the whole thing in ditferen
light. have been much interested
reading Conan Doyle's work, "Th
Great Boer War;" not because /
praises my own regiment, but becaus
the story is SO finely told and becau!
the whole work is so accurate. Mar
of the incidents spoken of l can vout
for as l saw them while captain
the Railway Pioneer Regiment.
started out to write you letter al
find / have written almost a book, b
will stop now as it Is almost to-morro
ben.
Jacob Beck s. Son of Redding a
doing the mason work on the new a
dition to John b. Whecler's house.
Julius Beardsley of Benefits Bird