AN AUSTRALIAN HEROINE'S EXPERIENCE.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXI, Issue 105, 4 May 1900, Page 5

AN AUSTRALIAN HEROINE'S EXPERIENCE.

A BOMB PROOF BOUDOIii.

The journalistic honours oil the Transvaal war will undoubtedly be carried oft' by our semi-Australian heroine. Lady Sarah Wilson, and her nephew, the sprightly Winston Churchill. Lady Kuraii's letters from Mafeking in the "Daily Mail" are delightfully brisk and plucky. Being copyright, on^ must not annex much of them, but here is a capital description of Lady Sarah's quiet morning in her bomb-proof boudoir. She says: "A feature of the town at present is its bomb-proofs, or shelters, i'toiri shell fire. Kroni rough holes, hastily dug and covered over with deal boards and earth, which were at first constructed at the arrival of the monster Creusot Boer gun, which fires a projectile of 04lb, these refuges have been improved upon till they are now luxurious chambers, roofed over with best steel rails and sand-bags, ventilate!! and lighted by round windows and large drain pipes. I Mine, for instance, measures 18ft by loft, and is Bft high, boarded floor, j covered with matting and panelled I wood walls painted white. three large port-holes for windows, it much resembles the cabin of a yacht, mid its efficacy has been thoroughly tested, as it is, I think, the only shelter in the town on the top of which a 941b shell actually exploded—without even making the glasses jingle, or disturbing various war trophies hung on the walls inside. As an example of the curious effects of these sfulls and the marvellous escapes recorded. 1 may mention that a fragment of this one went through a room of Mr Well's adjacent house, taking a canary- and cage with it through the window, and leaving them at some distance; while another piece went into a house across the street, making j mince-meat of a sewing machine and a new dress a young lady was making, and which she had left but three minutes" before, Except this misforj tune and the death of the canary, no j harm was done —but, alas! the sume tale cannot always be told. Scarcely a day passes without some white man ior native being added to the already ■ sadly long list of those in this tiny j community who have been martyrs to ! this one-sided bombardment. Women and children have not escaped scot free; only this morning a shell exploded in the women's laager—the locality of which the Boers know perfectly well —killing, curiously enough, a little Dutch girl of twelve years of age. holding a baby (the latter was uninjured), besides fatally injuringl a Kaffir girl. And thus it is most days. Apart- from our losses among the soldiers—B.S.A.P. and Cape Police, in the various and gallant sorties, which have been all duly recorded in the papers —civilians and innocent individuals are struck down anil terribly mutilated, suddenly and almost without warning. I say al,most, for when the big gun is loaded the look-out at headquarters, from whence all her movements can be accurately watched, gives the alarm by sounding1 a deep-toned bell, and when the gunners go to fire her this is supplemented by the shrill tinkle of a smaller bell—not. much louder than an ordinary muffin bell—but which can be distinctly heard in this clear atmosphere. After this second warning about three seconds elapse before the. explosion."