CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIII, Issue 12159, 24 March 1900, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS.

A cable message which we publish this morning gives some account of Colonel PI timer's efforts t o reach the beleaguered garrison at

THE SIEGE OF MAFEKXNG.

Mafeking. The Bcchuuna chief Bathoen, we learn, is guarding Plumer’s right, taking up the perfectly legal position that- he may repel a Boer invasion of his own territory. It is difficult to know how much Colonel Baden-Powcll owes to the quiet friendship of the Bcciutanas, but when the siege is over it will probably bo found that

'fthey have been of considerable assistance ‘io this British. Early in the war a portion of Baden-Powell’s Protective Regihienf which had been sent into British Hechuanaland was cut off from its base, iand forced to entrench at Mahalapye. A hotter from Trooper Longbottoln, a member of the force, is published in the Cage Times.” “We are having anything but a pleasant time of it,” he says. There -are now some 800 Boers around us, Jiritb 4 big guns, making things very hot ifor us. We are cut off from our base, )andi I think Colonel Powell, our chief, thinks w© are all cut up, for he sends us Ino despatches.” Of course Baden-Powell Was in much the same case himself. The Boers reached) Mahalapye on Nov. 8, and attempted! 'to seize the kopje, but they were taken by surprise and driven hack. Trooper Longbottom has something to say of the attitude of the Bechuana chiefs towards the British. “ Khama, the chief whose country : ,*we are in,” he writes, “ is sending about 800 men to help us, if necessary. Bathoen, another chief, came to meet us dressed in ian officer’s suit of the Life Guards. I told him, through his interpreter, that I saw him in Sheffield with Khama. He said he Eked Sheffield better than London, because in Sheffield he could), go where he liked, but in London he had' to follow the (stream of people.” At that time Khama’s »on and a few of his men were acting as Scouts for the British. Apparently the little force was about to abandon its position, for the letter proceeds: “We are {going to try at all costs to break through the Boers and reach Mafeking. We fear jour corps—Colonel Baden-Powell’s Protectorate Regiment, known as Colonel Hore’s Horse—is having a terribly hard time of it, .and cannot hold out much longer.”* Whether these men are now part of ; plumeria force or not it is impossible to .iSay, but it is more than probable that .©very available man between Bulawayo and :£lafeking has been pressed into the service for this urgent undertaking.

trNDBRGEOTJND ; ft JAGGERS.”

Women and girls are no longer allowed to work in the mines of Great Britain, but there is no restriction

■against boys doing so, and the terrible hardships some of these little fellows have jto undergo, and .the dangers they have to 'encounter, are vividly described in a series :Of special articles in the London “Daily ■News.” Down in the sunless depths, the york is divided up into many classes, and 'among them are the “jaggers.” They are a kind of Lilliputian railway staff, always working in 'tunnels. The trains of trucks that run between the stationary engine and the bottom of the shaft are called “jags,” and the lads who attend to them) ore consequently called “jaggers.” In the dense blackness of the blackest lighted only by the paltry jrays of their tiny lamps, and in flow narrow passages where a Tom Thumb 'could not swing the smallest cat, little ifellows of tender years have to couple and 'uncouple the tracks. The representative of !tho “ Daily News ”• had many conversations with these premature railway men. 'He spoke to them where he found them. Sometimes they trotted along a yard in front of him, and turned their head's to answer his questions. Sometimes they sat down, glad of the respite from toil for a ’few moments which a talk with a stranger legitimately gave them. They all looked more like imps of darkness, than English -boys wfio ought to have been dividing their time between play arid lessons. They were all withoutTcoats and waistcoats, stockings and shoes. Most of them had even divested .themselves of their shirts. A pair of trousers or knickers were their solitary garment. Their faces, necks, chests, arms, and backs presented varying degrees of blackness, with irregular streaks made by the little streams of perspiration, showing that, after all, they really were members of the white races. In the darkness, their •eyes shone with exaggerated brilliance; in the light of the hut above, however, they 'generally appeared lustreless. Their teeth gleamed with snowy whiteness, and gave a merry vigour to smiles that might, after all, have looked very sickly and insipid if made in the midst of a country school. As the journalist peered into the gloom, he ;caught shadowy glimpses, of the half naked Urchins nimbly dodging about the ugly trucks, and heard them whistling and shouting their mutual signals, and he confesses that, though he is no mere sentimentalist, tears welled irresistibly to his eyes out of sheer pity for them.

. DANGERS ENCOUNTERED.

The trucks and' waggons worked by these lads are ■ continually jumping off the

rude lines. On flat roads this is troublesome, on others it is terribly dangerous. When the mine is working, there are constantly going up the steep blank passage of the engine brow a large ‘number of loaded waggons on one set of Tails, and coming down the other side there 'is a stream of empty trucks. Between the two sets of rails there is a space of two feet; but the trucks project a good way over the Tails, and where they pass each other there is a space of only about five inches. Between the outer rails on each side and the walls of the terrible tunnel there is a space of about seven or eight inches, but every ■eight yards or so there is a manhole. It ."is. quite clear that there is not sufficient space between the trucks and the walls for ■a person to stand without being crushed to death. It is equally clear that if anyone 'got caught between the up and the down iVaggons he would be horribly crushed, even 'if he escaped with his life. A man walking up on the down track is compelled to istoop in such a way that he cannot see in front of him. Suddenly he hears a little extra noise, locks’ up, and there, rushing from darkness into the range of his lamp, 'comes a train of empties. He at once steps 'ion to the up track, and, coming at a 'rapid rate, is a set of loaded waggons. ‘.What is be to do? He cannot stand still 'or go forward or backward, cr step to either 'side, without being killed. He has to reach 'one of the manholes at once; it is a question of inches and seconds. But what is still more dangerous is when one of the little 'trains- jumps the rails and breaks loose. Then there is a general scramble to escape ;the flying waggons, and if the boys all ‘reach a place of refuge in time they may count themselves extremely lucky.

HUSKIN' AS A PUBLISHER..

It is generally conceded that geniuses are lacking in business capacity, and John

. Ruskin was a notable example of the incompatibility existing between the artistic and the money-making temperaments. Nearly a quarter of a century ago the author of “ Modern Painters determined to publish his books as well as write them, the reason being his dissatisfaction with what he regarded as the unfair competition in the book-selling trade. fVith the intense hatred of shams and the I cheap and nasty” in any form, so characteristic of the man, he held very firmly to

the opinion - that a good book should be bound in a manner that should be worthy of its contents. Paper, printing and cover should be beautiful and enduring, and the price required for the gem, with its artistic and costly setting, should, he thought, be gladly and even cheerfully paid. Acting on these principles, Ruskin determined to set forth in practice how book-selling should be carried on. For his business manager he chose Mr George Allen, an engraver by trade and an artist, who was as ignorant as his employer of the ways of the world. Ruskin soon found that his political science was at fault. He expected that people who wanted his books would order them from the book-sellers, paying them a reasonable profit for the trouble of procuring them. But people did nothing of the kind ; they sent direct to the publisher, because they could buy as cheaply as the book-seller could, a contingency that apparently had not occurred to Ruskin. Nor would the great author allow a book to be sold unless its get-up ■was perfectly unimpeachable. On one occasion he discovered that a whole edition of “ Modem Painters ” was not printed as clearly as he liked. There was but one remedy open to a man of his noble enthusiasm for nothing less than perfection. “Be prepared,” he wrote to Mr Allen, - “to burn five thousand copies in your back garden.” Fortunately for him, Ruskin had private means of his own, otherwise he would have been speedily ruined. During the last few years the modified and more business-like system adopted by Mr Allen has led to a cheapening of Ruskin’s works, with the result that they are beginning to be as widely read and appreciated as the utterances of the great art critic deserve to be.