The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-03-22
KoLLIsTER DRUG CO.. LTD,
AGENTS.

story to illustrate the character of
the said major: We had a poor chap
suffering from chronic gaStritis; at
times he was very i'll. 1t was on one
OF these occasions that he saw the
physician on duty. He was ordered
soda water ard milk only. Hosie, that
was the name of the senior major. OBJ
jected: My dear Wright he said.
we have only a few dozen bottles On
board, and whisky is abcminable with
out il" Our invalid went without his
soda Do not think that 1 am giving
you type OF army officer; far from
It; ! am merely showing how unfor-
tunately we were situated in having a
couple like that over US.
Tie ships officers were worse, If pos
sible. One. n naval reserve man, too
(heaven help them), was our deck Off
Ger. What his name was 7 have for
gotten, but he tried his level best to
make us suffer as much as possible.
Thanks to his stopping our water sup
ply daily at 10 O'CLOCK we had men, re-
Gently incculated with typhoid serum,
raViug. No man was allowed on deck
where his cabin was lest the smoking
and talking disturb him The guard
whose sleeping quarters were under
mis- cabin window, could walk about all
night-the stencil annoyed him. "A
filthy dog always hates fresh grass
one of our fellows 1nuttered. who
was that man?" asked the gingerbread
ed youth in a passion. "A better one
than you" came distinctly from one
of the sleepers on the deck. This is
rank mutiny: I'll have the lot on dou-
BILE guard tomorrow" Mind you
don't fall overheard" laughed a great
big Irish regular, and at that the little
coward literally skunk away like a
whipped cur.
one of our fellows died on the way
out an only son of an old couple. We
buried him at sea with full military
honors, and when the sad last post"
had sounded out over the waters just
closed over the poor fellow there were
few indeed whose eyes were dry. We
did not then know that soon we should
see the day when the dead could not
be counted, and that twelve OF our
fellows would remain in dirty Bloem-
fontein; yet remained gladly, since
they died under the flag, the soldiers
last glorious honor. We reached
Cape Town on the twenty-fourth day
of a monotonOus and wretched journey
We had a great reception at st. Vim
cent where we received the news of
Paardeberg and Ladysmith. The en-
thusiasm was intense; we cheered the
jackieS on the men of war, and they
cheered US until the captain of the
Sunda gave the order ito stop that in
fernal row and was told to depart to-
the neither regions. Thereupon he
danced a cancan and threatened court
martials and every sort of punishment
Nothing came of lit. however, and we
went on cheering like mad. At Cape
Town they had no room for us, so we
were promptly bundled off to Port
Elizabeth, 400 miles down the coast
our yacht did the journey in four days
Port Elizabeth treated us royalty for
six hours, and then we entrained.
Eight big men in a tiny compartment
of a car on a narrow gauge railway
we sweated, fumed, cursed, and got off
the train a every stop to rest. The
heat was terrific the speed equally So
Gig hteen miles an hour-and we had
journey of 500 miles before US. We got
10 Springgfontein. in Free State. and
were about to have something TO eat
when Gatacre gave the order to en-
train The enemy had attacked the
line and it was essential that the sup
plies be got to Bloemfentein at once.
All lights were ordered out and smok-
ing prohibited.
Then the crawl commenced. We stood
an hour or two of it. and then our
nerves began to play. Why the devil
don't they shoot?'' This suspense is
damnable;" Let's get a. smoke"
"Neumann, pass that whisky jug or
Wen brain YOU and so on. | do not
think any one was genuinely funky-
but we had bridges TO cross, and every
one we came to had to be examined,
and the tension was horrible. Finally,
we heard a solitary shot, then a vol
ley, and then the fun commenced.
one of our men started singing and
was kicked into silence. The train was
increasing her speed faster and faster
we went on that Wretched line. sway
ing Ike a drunken man; still, ever
faster Kaffir road aeW past US like a
blot: the railway guards cheered us as
we went on. Up the hin We pvent. fifty
miles an hour, and then down the 9TH
er side The speed was terrific, but
the shots could be heard no longer,
and we felt easier. II is 50 unpleasant
TO be blown up in a train. We flew
down the Hill, down into the valley.
Just as sun was rising, tingeing with
a golden hue the first trees we had seen
for 100 miles We We're in Bloenfon-
TEN, the fountain of flowers. the one
green spot in that fearful vase known
as the Orange River Colony.
Here we were then; we had come
through a line of the enemy and were
in Bloemfontein. The enemy was at
Sanna's Post. Dewetsdorp, Springfield
and Thabanchu on the east, at Jagers-
fOntein, Bethulil, and nearer At Kaffir
River on the south; at Boshof on the
west. and at Karee and Glen on the
North Sanna's Post was on the Mod
der river, very nearly at the source,
and here the Bloemfontein waterWoEks
We're defended by companies OF ROD
erts' Horse and several thousand fegu-
lars. On April 1st De Wet made de-
termined assault on the waterWorhs,
and defeated our troops, capturing I'VE
guns.
ra,s post was fought ard won, the
s,ra .recaptured. the enemy driven out
and some 500 men taken prisoners. The
English losses were over SEQ killed,
wounded and missing. This was the