A MEMORY OF THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Lake County Press, Issue 1066, 28 May 1903, Page 3

A MEMORY OF THE WAR IN SOUTH AFRICA.

A small party led by the commander, enters a farm to see if any stragglers still lurk within it. What a scene ! Piles of blankets, saddles, impedimenta of all sorts, i broken windows, doors wrenched off in the wild rush for the open air ami over all the vile atmosphere caused by a hundred men sleeping in a space too small for thirty. In one room the stump of a candle is guttering on the table, and by its feeble light a bed in the corner looks puffy and large to the quick eye of the trooper. " Someone under Hie inn tress, sir," says he to the officer. " Come out of that ! " " No reply. " Come out, or I will fetch you ! " Still silence. Nothing there," says the officer and turns away. " But the trooper stays behind, still doubtful, calling loudly once more to the motionless heap upon the bed. Finally, convinced at last, he raises his rifle with a laugh, and drives his bayonet down through the swelling mattress. But something squirms and heaves beneath the blow, and a red stain bieaks out upon the quilting as the bayonet is withdrawn with difficult.;. The trooper and another tear off the coverings, and lo ! a stalward, bearded Boer, writhing with a deathwound through the heart, his strong face working horribly as he dies clutching at the Ix'd-clothing. Let us go away, even war has no right to this kind of scene.— " Blackwood's Magazine."