Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1902-02-05
RAREFIED AIR.


the High Altitude Of the Ve1dt.
It was in one of Jules Verne's stories
that two men set out to climb noun
tain. AS they went higher and higher
up the air grew more rarefied and pro-
voked such irritability in both that
they fell into an angry quarrel.
They challenged each other to imme-
date duel and turned to go down the
mountain side for their weapons. But
as they descended into the lower
strata of air their normal condition
was restored and when they got to the
foot of the mountain they were fast
friends again.
the Boer war thinks that British gen.
erals and others in g,dng from the
moist air of the Thames' into the rare
fed air of the South African veldt,
5000 or 5000 feet above the sea and a
thousand miles away from it may
have passed through some such mental
transformation as the mountain climb
ers.
An instance of what is meant was
furnished by two colonels Of infantry
who rode out Of Bloemfontein one day
with a couple of junior officers and an
orderly, to shoot buck. They rode 4
dozen miles north and then to and
fro among the kopjes but found poor
sport.
It was at q time when the Beers
were looking for the next British ad-
vance and patrols Of the burgher COM
mandoes were active and watchful
These two colonels were old hands In
the service and to some Of their friends
it seemed that nothing but lighthead-
edness could explain what they did
when the buck failed them.
They rode on for good stretch out
side Of their own outposts. Suddenly
one Of them caught sight Of mounted
moving figure, score of them, among
the folds of the veldt mile away.
"Come on, they're Beers. Let's round
them up" shouted the elder and Sc
nior colonel, and off he galloped with
the three officers close on his heels and
the orderly chasing behind.
What the men Of the Boer patrol
thought is not recorded. but at once
they spread out and pushed their
horses on as hard as they could toward
the dark boulders along the base nf
the nearest foothills, the buck shoot
ers tearing after them. Once among
the boulders the Zarps-for they prov
ed to be men Of the Transvaal police
jumped off, got cover and turned e
take the measure of their amazing
pursuers.
The result came soon. They shot onn
of the junior officers dead through the
brain, shattered the arm Of another
wounded one Of the colonels In the
thigh and pierced the wrist Of the 9TH
er. besides disabling the orderly. They
laid out their men in the nearest farm-
house and sent messenger to Bloem-
fontein for further aid.
Both colonels got a severe reprimanc
But possibly a DR.. Charcot or brain
specialist could have understood their
alteration better than a field marshal
to whom it presented only a case OF
reckless breach Of discipline.
One of the divisional generals, whose
forte was not patience or balance even
in the most restful Of air. finished his
South African opportunities in the care
less rapture of a gallop very like the
race of the buck-hunting officers. He
was to link his forces with those Of an
other general in completing line OF
communications.
| But when the other met him he was
dashing along alone on the veldt, ex-
cept for handful of podyguard, sWal-
lowing the "heady" air Is though II
was the most sparkling of champagne
Asked where his division was he made
q. sweeping gesture to the horizon and
rode on. He was hours away from his
command.
Some such mental disturbance pro-
voked by breathing this air may be put
forward perhaps to explain the pro-
ceedings of the three officers Of the in
telligence department who were sent
out from the war office in London be-
fore the negotiations between the Brit
ish and Transvaal government were
broken off. They were to report what