SIC TRANSIT GLORIA.

Evening Star, Issue 11451, 19 January 1901, Page 2

SIC TRANSIT GLORIA.

Mr Frederick Treves, the famous London surgeon, in hi* hook On bis experiences in South Africa, has the following affecting sketOh I remember at Cbieveley one morning before breakkat watching a solitary mSn approach the hospital lines. He Was as melancholy an object as ever War has tiro- ’ duced. -He was a soldier who’had fought at Colenso, at Vaal' Krantz, and before S® t 5 ra ’ he waa now staggering towards the hospital—a ragged, broken-down kbakicotored spectre of a man. Ho dragged bis rifle along with him ; his belt was gone ; his hfifr™ a^ P *°‘ Bed at c the back M hi* head; ' his frowsy turn was thrown over his shoul' i-V hterally black with flies. His clothes had not been off for many davs. He had missed the ambulance, he said, and had walked to the hospital. How far he had come he could not tell, nor could anyone gather how ho had fared or where he had slept; all that whs evident Was that he Was wet with dew attd had Spent the night inthe open. He knew that for vaglie hoar* he had been making his way. With ever- i faltering Steps and failing eyes, towarde the ted cross flag on the crefit of the hill. And how he bad reached It. As to why he had Come—“well, be had had a touch of the dysentery,” ha eald, “and Was fcbCUtplayed out.” Boot lad ! Thie was a sorry homecoming at tho last—a .squalid eliding of a march; staggering in alone, a shuffling wreck, without a single comrade, with no fifes and drums. Bo cheering crowd, and no prottd adoration of mother or wife. He Was helped to' a bell tent and put to bed on a stretcher, and on the stretcher he died. And this Was the end-of Ills soldiering. Sio transit gloria mnndl!