The Washburn times. [volume] (Washburn, Wis.) 1896-1976, 1902-08-14
ON AN ARMCRED TRAIN
Young Americans Experiences
In the South African War.
THRILLING ENCOUNTERS AT NIGHT

Interesting Account OF Two Engage
zneEts--Pluclxy Fight of Some Desc
perate Boers Caught Like Rats In
Trap Value of SeRrch1ights.
Equipment OF the Train.
An interesting letter descriptive Of
the armored trains utilized by the Brit.
| ish in South Africa and the work OF
! the men detailed for duty upon them
has been received from Percy w. I'll
| nan, who, so far as known enjoys the
distinction of being the only South Da-
kotan who is serving in the British ar
my In the land Of the Beers, writes the
Sioux Falls IS. d. correspondent Of
| the st. Louis Globe-Democrat- Young
Tinan, after putting in couple of
years at an eastern university, left
with college chum in search Of adj
venture in South Africa. He has beer
with several branches of the British
seryice-frst with the mounted coast
! patrol, then with bicycle corps doing
scout duty ard lastly with the armored
train. His letter is in part as follows:
"Our captain Of the armored train is
a brick, and he doesn't seem to care
whether we do any work or not. We
are at the time write this over on the
east coast and only ninety miles from
East London. First in the train is a
truck, or car, containing a searchlight
and Maxim gun; second, captains
truck; third, gun carriage truck, con-
| tanning two IL pounders; fourth,
troops; fifth. engine; sixth, water
! truck; seventh, cookhouse truck; eighth,
dynamo truck; ninth, construction
truck; tenth, telegraph truck; eleventh,
l.searchlight and Maxim gun.
There are fifty-eight men with the
train, scattered through the different
trucks. The entire train is sheeted with
five-eighth inch armor, with loopholes
and so on. The train guards She from
tier and is used for general purposes
Of that nature. Most men with armor-,
ed trains have hard time Of it. They
have to do both night and day patrol
duty. With the train we have cycle
machine for patrol and scout duty. It
is a four wheeled machine used on the
track and constructed on the same
principle as bicycle. Great speed can
be made with it. do most Of the work
with 1t.
Eve were called out one night by
report that the Beers had rushed a
farmhouse about twelve miles out and
about a mile from the railway line.
Away we went, with our ammunition
beside us, ready to stick a muzzle Of
Krag- Jorgensen through loophole at
the first sight of Boer. As we drew
near the house the train slowed down,
and accommodating squad was sent
out In few minutes they were greet
ed with hail Of bullets, many Of
which fattened on our train. Our
scouting party stayed where they were
and by skillful maneuvering gradually
drew back toward the train and with
them the Beers.
Like a fash the searchlight was
turned on the Beers and the house.
Bang! went one Of the II Founders,
and such scampering you never saw.
The shell from the II FOUNDER knocked
out four men and two horses. The rest
Of them got away. AS the ranch be
lOnged to rank rebel who was sup
posed to be aiding the Beers on the
quiet the major In command. who hap
pened to be on the train, gave orders to
destroy the house. The searchlight
made it a beautiful target, and the gun
ners with the II FOUNDER soon knocked
1t to kindling wood. Then we steamed
back to town, rolled up in our blankets
and slept.
"a few days after the bombardment
of the farmhouse we were called out
one night by the report that the Boer
leader in the vicinity was making
north for the frontier. He had been
having hard time in the colony and
decided to try and get out. Away we
went once more, and after passing
about fifteen blockhouses with no news
we at last came to the hunting ground
I'm a cloudy, moonlight night we
could see the whiskers Of the advance
guard coming over the veldt mile
away. We/were lying with our armor-
ed train in a cut out Of sight. When
the Beers were little less than mile
of the line, each man dropped and be-
gan to make a sneak. Orders we're
sent by phone to the blockhouses in the
vicinity to hold fire until we opened.
FINALLY four Beers started on run
for the fences. They knew that the line
was protected by barb wire networks.
but guess they did not know the
strength Of the fences. They began
slashing and cutting with their wire
clippers and after five minutes work
signaled the command in the rear to
come on and make dash for it. They
came-and SO did we. Our cut was half
mile from the attempted pace of
crossing.
Twenty men were sent out from our
train and the nearest blockhouses to
hold the pass. Imagine twenty men at
tempting to hold pass against 275
desperate Beers caught like rats in a
trap. as that is the number we after.