The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1901-1903, 1902-10-19

q have had exciting experiences
during the war In talking to them
you realize that it has been quite as
much woman's war as a mems on
the side of the Beers. Perhaps, indeed,
the most permanent fact thar will sur
give in history win be the part that has
been played by the women. Take the
case OF AIRS De La Rey. She has been
! actually in the field for eighteen
| months. She does not look like it, She
Just looks a kindly middle-aged mother
of a family who has lived quiet all her
life.
1t all arose in this way II the
course of guerrilla" war General De
La Rey would occasionally come and
visit his wife in manner that per
picked and annoyed General Methuen
perhaps more than anything else hap
pening in the war 1t certainly must
have been annoying, but perhaps the
best plan would have been to have
grinned and borne it. Unhappily, this
was not the rule with the British gen
eral when he found himself crossed by
Boer women. 1t was intimatcd TO Mrs
De La Rey that she must pledge her
self not TO give lodgings to her hus-
band. Now, Mrs. De La Rey is a
! plucky womS and devoted wife
She refused AS long as l live" she
| replied. Il shall give lodgings to my
husband when he comes to me"
Very well, then" Lord Methuen init
mated, you must go into camp" But
Mrs. De La Rey refused TO go into the
camp. Give me a wagon" she said
land l will go and shift for myself. :"
SO they gave her Il wagon, and they
asked her where she was going. Into
the wide world she said. and She
went
That was at the end Of the year 1900
and from that time until the end of
the war Mrs. De la Rey wandered
about the Veldt now sleeping in one
/ place, now in another, always on the
/ eve of being captured. sometimes cS-
Gaping by the barest interval of time
from the pursuing columns She car
/ ried her children with her in the wagon
/ and cooking utensils sufficient to live a
tolerable life. The plucky lady occa-
! siOnally found a house where she could
1 spend a night or two. but for the most
| part she was perpetually on the move
/ aud perpetually keeping her weather
! eye open for the pursuing columns
/ Every now and then General De La
I Rey would visit her. and on one occa-
sion he came TO her sick, ana she
nursed him. But while he was lying
sick in the farmhouse the columns
came upon them. General De La Rey
leaped out Of bed, and, with the help OF
n small command of men with him.
/ fought off the attack and succeeded in
escaping. On another occasion Mrs.
De La Rey proved more clever than
/ her husband lie was proposing to rest
night in farmhouse, but She did not
/ like the look Of it. Her military eye
4 seemed TO see danger. SO she per-
/ suaded her husband to move. II was
4 fortunate that she did so, as the enemy
/ came 10 that farmhouse Immediately
/ when they had left Mrs. De La Rey
W 10 W hAl'tA my II! TINS IldllItI W ilfI
she heard that her husband had cap
tured Lord AIethuen At first she
would not believe it, but when she
| found it was true she made her way to
her husbands laaeer. She said she
wanted to see Lord Methucn and have
talk with him. She took with her a
fowl and some provisions as Il present
Lord Methuen consented TO see her,
and was obliged to tell her that he had
l destroyed her house. Mrs De La Rcy
I must have got some Christian consola-
ton after presenting him with the
fowl ana helping to nurse him.
Then came the question what De La
Rey should do with his prisoner The
young Beers were all against giving
him up, because he had treated Mrs.
De La Rey in a manner they did not
approve of But General De La Rey
and his wife took larger view.
What can we do with him. they
asked, IF we keep him? If he goes
with us he will probably die on one Of
our tricks, and then his blood will be
put 10 our charge. Better be generous
and hand him back" The general had
some difficulty with his men. but at last
persuaded them. And so General and
Mrs. De La Rey performed an act of
high generosity. which was probably
the strongest influence in bringing The
war TO an end. But it seems to rs that
the generosity of Mrs De La Rey was
even greater than that Of the general.
Certainly in her eighteen months cam
paign she showed quite as much STRAIT
egg as any Of the Roer generals in es-
Gaping. What pity it is that this tale
of Woman's heroism cannot be fully
told, and that we cannot place it in his
tory as n pendant to the wandcrings Of
De Wet.1London Daily News.
HGurdfetg Cn4 tIn ruo.