The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1902-01-25

small islands at the south Of Great
Sound. They are guarded by garri-
son of 1000 soldiers and a squadron of
warships. They are not allowed pa
role; nor are they permitted to touch
the. barbed wire fence which marks off
their pen under penalty Of being shot.
A young officer, whose name was Cron-
je, after conducting Christian en-
deavor prayer meeting, stepped back
ward and unintentionally touched the
fence; he was instantly shot and killed.
These islands lie low in the water,
none Of them rising ten feet above the
sea level. In northerly storms the
waves sometimes dash almost clean
across them. During the winter the
gales keep them covered with salty
spray like rain. The prisoners live in
small tents, very close together, eight
in tent. In high winds these tents
fall fiat.
The destitution among the captives is
pitiable. Scarcely any have shoes.
Many have cut up their blankets to
make trousers. The generosity Of the
citizens of Bermuda has been taxed to
the utmost to supply clothing to these
wards of the British government, but
the citizens are few and the captives
are many. The citizens have even had
to supply them with drinking water
from their own cisterns, because some
body in the government forgot to send
anybody who could operate the water
distilling machines.
Their rations are the same as those
OF Tommy Atkins. But he gets variety
by his contributions to the mess. The
Beers have no money to change the
monotony of the food. The result Of
the poor food and the exposure and the
lack of clothing is enteric fever, which
has carried off hundreds.
Their only means of getting any
money with which to buy clothes or
food is from the toys and souvenirs
which they cleverly make, until they
break their knives. The one trades
man who takes these trinkets for sale
is also their caterer. He sells them 30
cent shirts for 70 cents, and 9O-cent
shoes for $3.50. The government offers
them the job once week of unloading
coal ships at Il penny an hour. This
they generally decline because the five
pence which the government would
thus save from the regular price would
give to it that much more money with
which to carry on it's war in Africa.
What weighs upon them most is their
idleness of mind. They are all reading
people. But books have not been al
lowed to them. Several boxes of books
were sent from the United States, but
the censor would not permit them to be
distributed for fear they might contain
forbidden teachings. The little children
have been debarred from school-books
because there were no British text
books at hand and the American text
books which had been sent were sus-
pected. Even box of Bibles waited
a month for the censor to decide upon
their hazardousness.
Against whom are these methods
used? Against aged patriarchs and
against little children of less than 10
years, as we'll as against the prisoners
taken in battle. The British policy of
depopulating the Transvaal has scat
tered the noncombatants over the face
Of the earth. Children have been pick
ed up and sent over sea without ref
erence to their parents Families have
been torn apart and deported in differ
ent directions. OF course, there was no
intention to disrupt families thus, but,