The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, April 21, 1900, Page 3

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1900 £ e B+ 900000000000 g TS S S S MDD A S PPV IDI 000200000800 0000 0800000000060 00000000 000 P e ae RUDYARD KIPLING, B R B R O S S S “WITH NUMBER THREL” -9 ® . . ® . @ M ; . ® : ¢ ! ® : t { : L4 : $ ® 4 . . * . * > b £ ® L 4 ® + B e e e e S 3l L R A B S E S BY BUXTATEIASEDASAIED FSASES RS DI EIRT O @ KT AR TR TR (Copyright, 190, by Rudyard Kipling.) All the world over, nursing their scars, » Sit the poor fighting men broke in our wars, Sit the poor fighting men, surly and grim, Mocking the lilt of the conqueror's hymn. Dust of the battle o'erwhelmed them and hid— i Fame never found them for aught that they did. | Wounded and spent, to the lazar they drew, Lining the road where the legions went through. Sons of the Laurel, that press to your meed— Worthy God’s pity most ye that succeed— Ye that tread triumphing crowned toward the stars, Pity poor fighting men broke In our wars! HE sun had faded the red cross on her panels almost to brick color, had warped her woodwork and blistered her paint. For three months she H had jackaled behind the army, now at Belmont, now at Magersfontein now at Rensburg, and in that time had carried over 1300 sick and wounded. In her appointments, her doctors, her two nursing sisters and her nineteen ‘orderlies there was neither veneer nor pretense, coquetry of uniform nor the | suspicion of official side. She was starkly set for the work in hand, her gear worn smooth by use and habit, detailed for certain business only, and to that business most strictly at- | tending. | As she started from no known platform I came aboard early, and while we | lay silent as a ship in port, the big stock-pot purring in the kitchen, the bottles | clicking in the pharmacy as the doctor counted them over, I felt that peace had never been in our generation—that number scented, washed, scrubbed and scoured, had plied since the beginning of time. since their crews feed aboard them need only stop to water and change engines. ‘We slipped out of Cape Town into the twilight at a steady twenty-five mile | an hour on our 600-mile journey north. | Some day you in England will realize what it means to handle armies and | their supplies over this distance on a single three-foot-six line. | The war has been a war of shunting and sidetracking, of telegraphs and | timetables; so we may hope that the railway men, who have worked like devils, | will not be overlooked when the decorations come ripe. +Because the line runs through Cape Colony, and because Cape Colony is— we have the highest authority for it—loyally trying to be ‘“neutral,” every | was guarded by a little detachment of armed men. Own Volunteer Rifles. They do not like the work; they love still less the “loy- | alty” which has made the fatigue necessary. | Said a dust-spotten, begrimed sergeant of the “Duke’s” as Number Three, ‘»double-headed. panted up the Hex River Pass into the karroo: ‘“We've been | nere since November. I don’t mind telling you we're pretty sick of it. We | sit here and patrol the line. Lovely work!"” | The setting of the picture hardly varied a hair’'s breadth. } The single track, lifting and dancing in the heat; the brown, hairless hills 1dusterl with split stones; the sleek mirage, the knot of khaki figures, the dingy | tents, repeated themselves as though we were running In circles. Here was a water tank. Number Three drank of it, sucking thirstily; here truck watchers, there was no escape. Suddenly we overhauled a trainload of horses, Bhownagar's and Jamna- gar's gifts to the war; stolid saices and a sowar or two in charge. ‘“WHence dost thou come?"” | “From Bombay, with a Sahib.” taken off most of his clothes. “Dost thou know the name of this land?"” 'No.” “Dost thou know whither thou goest?” “I do not know.” “What, then, dost thou do?” “I1 go with my Sahib.” Great is the East, serene and immutable. We left them feeding and water- ing as the order was. A few miles farther on—forty or fifty are of no account in this huge place— were guns, infantry and buck wagons, rumbling toward De Aar, and, I think. | New South Wales Lancers. Then a Victorian contingent camped by the way- | side, happier than the “Duke’s,” because they were nearer the front, but wrath- | ful in that certain Canadians still farther up the line had the audacity to make | a camp called Maple Leaf. They wanted news of the Burmah Military Police—long men on little clock- { work ponies, recently landed and vanlshed.l Corps have a knack of disappear- ing bodily in this country. | Of the Burmans I knew nothing, but could furnish information gore or less He looked like a Hyderabadi, but he had | | | | Beau IS BlooD e not skin deep, as some peo- agine. Ifjs woman has ear, healthy - looking complexion it s owing to ss of Her blood. If e has a muddy complex- fon and blemishés it is due to poor circulation and impure X Every Woman Can Improve Her Complexion mporarily with eosmet- t permanently with Electrozone CTROZONE 1s known as the most effectual of impurities blood. Hundreds of Thousands of Women » world Indorse ZONE as the best purifiers. Purify Your Blcod With ELECTROZONE u can defy disease. | Druggists sel ZONE. $lat Pumph VE JAFG, Co., S8an Fran- Special cable to The Call and New York Her- d. Copyright, 150, by the Herald Pub- lisking Company. ONDON, April 2L.—Two important statements, pointing strongly to the probability that Lord Roberts’ ad- vance to Pretorla has already be- gun, come frem the fleld of war. According to a dispatch from Ladysmith it is authoritatively reported that the Boers are retiring from the Biggarsberg | range with their heavy ordnance. Prob- ably they have heard of Roberts’ ad- vance,and are naturally anxious to make sure of thelr line of retreat; or they may purpose to take up a more easily de- fended position, allowing part of their force to be transferred to the army in the Free State. “From the movement of the Boers,” ands the correspondent, “it would ap- pear that General Buller will go forward simultaneously with Lord Roberts, and that the forced inaction of the vast army | at Bloemfonteln is now at an end.” The other fact tending to the same de- | duction is that telegrams from the Or- ange Free State are severely censored, not & word being allowed to reach the | press tr 8. Fighting is reported at Karee Siding, north of Glen, which is twenty miles or from Bloemfontein. The fighting does not, however, appear to have been serfous, and was probably little more than the outposts skirmishing. There would seem to be at least one division near Karee Siding. which is the most northerly point occupied by Roberts' forces so far as known. General Chermside and General Rundle respecting the movements of are moving over the sodden roads. Raln | was s P falling when they went into wursday afternoon elghteen miles of Dewetdorp. They hold the rall- r and the southern frontier of the Free State with 20,00 men. How many are going with the generals | who will engage the Boers at Wepener {is not mentioned in the latest dispatch from Oorlogsport, where the British bivouacked Wednesday night. The fleld telegraph ends there. On Thursday the Boers still Colonel Dalgetty closely penned up. The Government’s reason for publish- ing Lord Roberts' Spion Kop dispatch | was explained last evenlng at Hull by Walter Hume Long, president of the | cas had Board of Agriculture, who said that the | | country was entitled to recefve all the information the Government could give. “The Government is told,” continued | Mr. Long, “that, having published the dispatches, it s bound to deal immedi- ately with the generals affected: but, |in following such a course, the Govern- | ment might have to dismiss every general | the moment he made a mistake. Had such a policy been pursued in the past many glorfous deeds would not have been performed. The Government uses {its diseretion in publishing the dis- | patches. From the beginning of the cam- | paign her Majesty’s Ministers have not | swerved from the rule of leaving the conduct of operations to the discretion and judgment of the commander-in- chief.” FIGHTING RENEWED IN THE FREE STATE. ‘Boers Line Up in Battle Array to Prevent the Further Ad- vance of Lord Roberts’ Forces. General White, {f not required In South Africa, will go as Governor of Gibraltar toward the end of May. INCESSANT RAINS } IMPEDING TRAFFIC | LONDON, April 21.—The Bloemfontein correspondent of the Morning Post, tele- | graphing April 19, says: “There is already | & thirty-foot flood of the Caledon River, which is reported to be still rising. All }u:e drifts on the Modder River are im- | | | | | passable. Traffic is temporarily inter- rupted southward, the water having | washed the ballast from the line of the rallway. The country about Bloemfon- | tein is so deep in mud that the farmers’ carts are unable to reach the town. We had a heavy rain last night. To-day the weather is improving, but progress will be impossible until the roads are better. Strenuous efforts are being made to re- arrange the transport to meet the re- quirements of the large army. The task | is one of considerable aifficulty, necessi- tating the transfer of transport animals and causing consequent sadness to those | who have spent the last five weeks in get- | ting their own beasts Into condition. | However, there-is no other solution of | the problem possible. “In view of the Iimpending advance anxiety increases among the troops con- cerning the future of the garrison at | Bloemfontein, every one hating the thought of being left there. There has been no increase of sickness.’” BOER STRENGTH ALONG | THE BIGGARSBERG RANGE | ELANDS LAAGTE, Thursday, April 19, Yesterday the British patrols discovered another party of Boers on the British left | my recently fired on the South African | Horse. | was no firing. | Natives confirm recent statements with | respect to the fortifications and strength of the Boers along the Biggarsberg range. The enemy have recently established a large hospital, which is already filled, and simlar hospitals are being established by them at various rallway towns. The Boers are losing many horses. The | rank and file are not allowed to forage for | supplies. | only bush tea is available. The Boers are reported to wish to leave | the Biggarsberg and take up a position at Majuba, but the commandants refuse. e DESULTORY CANNON FIRE AND SNIPING MASERU, Basutoland, April 19.—The Boers continue to move freely around ‘Wepener, going.in all directions from which rellef columns are expected. De- sultory cannon fire and sniping have been going on all day, with scarcely any reply from Colonel Dalgety's force. RUDYARD KIPLING = The famous author describes his observations while traveling on Num- ber Three, a hospital train, in Cape Colony, picking up the sick and wounded Tommy Atkinses, who are gathered from all sections of Britain’s vast empire, fighting against the burghers for their mother country. TR HSETSESE AT ESED PSS FS A S RO RS RS R T QTR TR TR RN R R, Fr R B L o R N N @ three, hospital train, iodoform | | | Know now that hospital trains have the right of way over all traffie, and | | bridge, every culvert, every point at which the line may be cut or blown up | | These are drawn chiefly .from local corps, such as the Duke of Edinburgh's | | was a speckle of ten houses and a refreshment room, which we had no need | | to enter; here was a new laid siding, and Number Three flung them all behind | | her; but from the men with rifles, the red eyed, bristle bearded, disgusted | PTATATETET R TR AT R TR IR TR TR B * ) accurate of some Malay Light Horse lately seen in Cape Town, and of some Yeomanry details. “Ah!" said Australia, with a rifle, by the water ta Queensland bushmen. My word! They Then he expressed a private and unprintable opinion about those arrogant | Canucks up the line, which opinion twisted the other v I got back again | from a Canadian, an Eastern Province man, a | Strictly in confidence, I may tell you the colonial corps least little bit in the world jealous. They have each the honor o | try to uphold, and it is neck and neck between them. | So I sat joyously on the rear platform while Nu of empire through my hands. | English of the Midlands, Cockney, Scotch, Irish, W | Queenslander (he had been in the Sunnysid: “daur” and | Victorian and Canadian—one after another, we picked them | them with a flying word. | 7 There was nothing wrong with that chain, and by the same token it seemed to have got hold of something at last, for a truckload of Boer prisoners slid by | in charge of a few disreputable bearded cornets. | “Ho?” said an orderly, critically. “And where did you pick them up?" “wait till you see our ber Three ran the links riously), opped | “Round Paardeberg. There’'s more to follow. Most of these is Transvaal- | ers.” . ‘““That's all right,” said the orderly. | The army, you see, is collecting Transvaalers and has come a long way for | samples. “An’ which might be prisoner and which is guard?” Said the head cornet, with a battered helmet, “I'm a sergeant | amptons in charge.” “Oh, you are, are you? Then what are you doin’ with Labby’s friends? | Take 'em along. Mr. Labouchere won't be pleased at you.” | But the sergeant was mightily pleased, save that his prisoners had not | washed for some time. He said it. | Then we drew to the home of lles, which is De Aar—a junction, the pivot of many of our maneuvers and a telegraph center. It smelled like Umbala platform in the hot weather, and they kept a hell | there of fifty naked telegraph operators, sweating undergthe blazing k lamps, each man with two pairs of hands and some extra ears. | Outside was thick darkness, and the shunting of trucks—thousands of | trucks—but the steady boom of the racing instruments beat through all other | noises like the noise of hiving bees. | There was some need to work, and at least one ve good reason shape of a big saloon that glided past us in the night, a lit wind just a chair and a neat empty table. The Sirdar was on the move; going down to Naauwpoort to | prises, and it is not at all healthy to be idle when Kitch T pa Therefore, and before this war is over, you will hear all sort tales from a certain type of officer who has been made not believe them. After De Aar time-tables ceased. We were cut adrift on the Sargasso sea of accumt tween that place,and Orange River. Here the rumors begin. There has been a killing—a big killing—the first >f the North- sene in the w revealing arrange sur- by @@ baseless to work; an »u must 1lated rolling stock be- satisfactory killing—at Paardeberg, up the Modder. Roberts held Cronje in a ring of fir g day | and night. That was none of our céncern. We had some news that many wounded waited for us at Modder—thirty | officers, at least, and twice as many men Il m T less bad c |~ Here and there one could catch the name of a dead man, and the sister's { lips tightened. | Was So-and-so alive? Well, he was a week ago—some one had seen him. And Such-another? Oh, Such-another had been buried a week back. Could Number Three go ahead? Oh, yes: but there was a block -at the Modder, and Kimberley was sending down a trainful. | Number Three whistled madly. Her business was to get up, load and get | away again. Belmont, with the bullet holes through the station name board, | interested her not, nor Graspan either. She had been that road too often—hot n the heels of the very fight itself. She checked despairingly, fifth in a line of long trains on the red smear of Modder Plain. The old bridge, wrecked by the Boers, was now all but repaired. At present Numbér Three would go over the trestle, but as to when Number Three would get across authority could not say, and whistling was just waste of steam. Merciful rain had laid the dust, which normally lies ten inches thick, and | one conld look all across the brick red land. By this time you probably know more about Modder than I; will have seen a hundred photographs of the naked, coverless plain that tilts to the thin line of trees and the dirty little river; lifting again northward, as a slow wave of the Atlantic lifts, toward Shooters Hill, where the naval gun played Nerth of this again, a bluish lump in the morning light, rises Magersfon- tein. At that precise moment, but the camp fills and empties as swiftly as the river, most of our men were out with Roberts nearly thirty miles to the west- 1 ward. Vast empty acreages showed where their accommodat had stood. Men. horses and wheels had wiped out ev y trace of herbage, and the 4 ishing perspective of their patient single files attested how far af > camp oxen must go to graze. Horsemen by twos and thr wandered forth attack- ing interminable distances in which they were swallowed § with trucks spurred left and right across the plain, and the trucks on t ADVERTISEMENTS. e A, in the same position from which the ene- | In this instance, however, there | Thelr sugar Is exhausted and | The Caledon River rose considerably during the night. This made the Boers uneasy, as they fear separation. Some re-enforcements have arrived for them, coming apparently from Thaba Nchu, or in that direction. Our casualties up to date are belleved to have been twenty-five killed and 110 wounded. hellographing has been impossible for the last two days. The Boers who lately surrendered In the Wepener district have been forced again with violence to fight. Ten of thelr leaders have been arrested. President Steyn has issued orders to the Boer forces to hold tight to the grain districts of Wepener, Ladybrand ami food supplies, and also to prevent the British forces from getting the rich sup- plies now in those districts. HEAVY BOER LOSS SUSTAINED AT WEPENER ALIWAL NORTH, April 20.—Captain Little of Brabant's Horse. Lieutenant Hol- beck and Mr. Milne, a Reuter correspond- | ent, fell Into the hands of the enemy while they were trying to reach Wepener a week ago. Everything was taken from the pris- oners, who were sent to Pretoria. Thelr native servants, who escaped from the | Boer laager, near Wepener, say that there | were four guns disabled and that the Boers had lost 100 in killed alone. | It is also ascertalned that the Boers made a night attack on April 11, but were discovered while creeping along a deep ditch by Cape Mounted Rifles with Max- ims, who fired into them at a distance of 200 yards, with the result that the Boers lost five wagonloads of killed and wound- ed. A simultaneous attack in other quarters | was repulsed by the British, who used | their bayonets. The Boers still surround Wepener, but there has been little firing lately. TROUBLE ON WEST COAST. LAGOS, British West Africa, April 20.— Three hundred Nigerian troops have been dispatched overland to the Gaman coun- | try northwest of Ashant!, where the Bri- | tish residents report a recrudescence of | trouble which necessitated the expedition of last year. One hundred and fifty other troops are proceeding from the gold coast. There are unconfirmed rumors here of trouble with the French at Meko in the Yeruba country, in the neighborhood of the Dahomey frontifer. Owing to the dls- tance, however, this can hardly be con- nected with the troubles in Ashanti and Gaman. FOR BRAVERY IN BATTLE. LONDON, April 20.—The Gazette an- nounces that the Queen has conferred the Victoria cross on Major Willilam Babtie of the army medical corps, for bravery at the battle of Colenso. Major Babtie went to the assistance of wounded gun- i | Owing to the heavy rains and clouds Ficksburg, from which they draw their | ners in the face of a heavy rifle fire dur- ing the fighting December 15, and later assisted in- bringing in Major Roberts, son of General Roberts, who lost his life while attempting to rescue the guns. The latter feat of Major Babtie was also ac- complished under a severe fusillade. - GUERRILLA WARFARE. | LONDON, April 2L—The Ladysmith correspondent of the Dafly News says:| “The Boers In Natal are commencing a | guerrilla warfare. Both the Transvaal- ers and the Free Staters are compelling | the natives to bear arms. General Bul- | | ler has ordered all the farmers between | Ladysmith and the Drakensberg range to | | retire to Estcourt.” ! smE e T | HOPE LIES IN INTERVENTION. CAPE TOWN, April 20.—At a meeting of the Volksraad of the Orange Free State at Kroonstad to-day President Steyn de- nounced Lord Roberts’ proclamation as | “treachery,” and declared that as Great Britain's object ‘“‘was their destruction, their last hope was to appeal to the cly- lized powers to intervene.” e WILL INTERVIEW LEYDS. PARIS, April 20.—James Francis Smith, the American District Telegraph boy, who is bearing to President Kruger a message of sympathy from Philadelphia and New York schoolboys, has arrived here. He will sall from Marseilles April 26, but be- | fore leaving he will have an interview with Dr. Leyds at The Hague. I RS BOER GENERALS PROMOTED. PRETORIA, April 20.—Major General Schalkberger has been gazetted Vice | President (in succession to the late Gen- eral Joubert), and General Louis Botha has been gazetted acting commandant general (succeeding General Joubert in command of the Transvaal forces). | 1 el otis b 1 WITHDRAWAL FROM NATAL. | | | LONDO! April 21.—The Ladysmith correspondent of the Startdard says: “There is good reason to believe that the Boer raids are intended to cover the enemy's withdrawal from Natal In order to help the Boers in opposing the advance of Lord Rober! il BT | SAW BRITISH FORTIFICATIONS. BRANDFORT, Orange Free State, April 19.—General Delarey has returned | from a reconnoissance in force east of | the raiiroad to the Modder River. He re- ports that he met only a few scouts, but that he saw British fortifications all along the hills. ; Injured by a Saw. Spectal Dispatch to The Cail. | ROSEBURG, Or., April 20.—George Cu- tack had part of his hand cut off to-day | by a circular saw at a place near Com- | stocks. He was sawing shingles and while | bruswhing away a splinter his hand was caught by the saw. Women Suffering with Backache are Requested to Read These Letters From Women Who Have Been Cured of it by Lydia E. Pink- ham’s Vegetable Compound. Gould Not Sleep “DEAR MRs. PiNgnay :—I though that I wounld let you know how much good Lydia E. Pink- ham’s Vegetable Compound hasdone me. Before taking it I suffered very much with backache, could not sleep nights. Now, thanks to your medicine, I rest very well every night and am better than I have been for years. 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