WAR JOTTINGS.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 719, 3 April 1900, Page 4

WAR JOTTINGS.

FRAGMENTS. OF INTEREST. . - An amusing incident is connected with the British occupation of. Arundel. The Boer adjutant at Arundel had gone out. for a couple of-days' hunting, and, returning highly elated with .a finelbuck slung across his saddle, rode straight into the town,' only to find our troops there and himself a prisoner. Part of a copy of the paper published in Ladysmith has' been reprinted by a London contemporary. It- is called ' The Ladysmith Lyre,' and is published to supply a long-felt want. " What you want in a besieged town," says the prospectus, "is news that you can absolutely rely on as false." Only one quarter column is reserved for true news if any should " unavoidably creep in." In the edition under notice this column is blank.- ■ . There are degrees of military pride and patriotism. Amoug the cheering Antipodean crowd giving the Australian contingents a send-off there was a stout matron wedged next to a ' mild little man. As the soldiers passed she suddenly cried : " There's my man," and nudged her neighbor violently in tho ribs. " Indeed, madam," oried the 'gasping old man, " I'm sorry to hear " " Don't you worry," she interrupted ; " 'E's orrite. 'E's a corpser. - Harniy Med'cal Corpse. 'E Don't fight. 'E's got more sense, you bet 1" Near.the railway station at Ladysmith on New Year's Day s-ime of the officials having neither wool, grain, or potato season to look after, were playing oricket. Cedric Valentine Todd was bowling, when a Boer shell came and raised a stone which struck poor Todd on the head, and he died with the cricket ball still held firmly in his hand. A Boer shell fell into Ladysmith alongside a bungalow, in which a dozen Kaffirs were sleeping, and though it tore out the side of the dvv. lling, none of the niggers awoke. — •The Lyre.' The flashlight signals from Bailer's army to Ladysmith we o more than once interfered with by, Boer searchlights, but the latter were always weak in illurninatit g power. A shell or. two thrown on the Boer tight at last put it but completely. An officer at the front writes that the fire of one or two of the big guns was checked by, sharpshooters, and at a range of 200 yards Lee-Metfords were able to silence the guns by picking ofi the gunners. When matches began to be scarce in Ladysmith the army contractor refused to selltbem at any price, but distributed them free to the soldiers. The Mayor and Council of Ladysmith presented General Buller with an address, with a representation of St. George slaying the dragon, a picture of the ruin d tower of the Town Hall with a woman and child scanning tha far off horizo-i for help, also a British soldier in khaki, with rifle, on watch. At the base was a water-color sketch, showing Umbulwana, Lombard's Kop, Gun Hill, and the hills beyond. The address expressed the great joy of the beleagured burgesses on the arrival of the reli ving troops. Thedocument was prepa-ed in the brightest style of engrossing and illuminating. Commandant Olvier, of the Free State, announced he would arrest ell newspaper correspondents. Tlie latter are daily expecting to have to report that same Olivier taken prisoner. What might happen to some of our City Fathers in war time betel a member of the Pretoria Town Council. After a hearty supper on tripi and onions, with a free discussion on war topics, he dreamt that England had reached the capital of the Transvaal. Seizing his Mauser, which lay beside him, he fired a bullet clean through his foot, which wag standing like a small mountain at the end of the bed, between the line of sight and the window aud the moon. He woke with a request for the Ambulance Corps to come quick. A lady of Durban writes : "In seeing the troops off down here we do all we can to give them a happy send-off— throw them flowers, cigarettes, fruit, and cakes. Tbe other week a girl gave one of the Scottish men a dainty bouquet of flowers. Finding- she lived close to the station, he said : ' I shall keep this all through the war, and if I am wounded, and can do it, I will wave these flowers as we pass here '—for the wounded are brought down here to the Spartan, the hospital ship. Well, she watched every Red Cross train which came down, and one day, after tbe battle of Elandslaagte, when the train came down, she saw a bunch of very withered flowers feebly waved from one of the carriage windows. Ho had been badly wounded in his first engagement." The Natal ' Witness ' tells a story of how the Captain in a regiment in Natal, when paying his company the other week, chanced to give a man a Transvnal half-crown, which, as one would naturally expect, bears the image and superscription of President Kruger. The man brought the coin back to tbe pay table, and the officer remarked: " It sounds all right, Atkins. What's wrong with it ?" " You look at it, sir," was the leply. The Captain glanced at lhe coin, Saying : " It's all right, man ; it will pass iv the canteen." This apparently satisfied Atkins, who walked oil, making tho remark: "If you say it's a' right, sir, it's a' right ; bnt it's the first time I've seed the Queen wi' whiskers on." The Gordon Highlanders now wear khaki tunic and helmets. On service they have removed the sporrans, and the front of the kilt is covered with khaki. Why they should not wear trousers is not known, but the men aie not fond of trousers of any kind. There is nothing to equal the kilt for charging in, so they say. The Boers say ditto. In Ladysmith, in the later days of the siege, nurses were wanted for one of the hospitals. And though there were many men in the town doing nothing except drawing rations, no desire whs shown by them to attend the sick and wounded. Then the order was given that no more rations bo issued to the civilian population till twnty had volunteered to assist at the hospital. That settled it. It waß nurse or starve. The thanksgiving service on the relief at Ladysmith was attended by all the military and civil population, in All Saints' Church. The service was characterised by a tone of pious and lofty hope mingled with humility and gratitude. It commenced with '• All people that on earth do dwell, sing to the Lord with cheerful voice," afterwards the hymn "O, God, our help in ages past, onr hope in years to come," Many of. the officers and men, Archdeacon Barker said, desired to render thanks for their preseivation in the midst of great dangers. General White and staff and officers gathered within the sanctuary, while all joined in the "Te Deum," the grand old chant of praise and victory. The Archdeacon made an eloquent address. He said the Boers, in their indomitable" piide, had pitted themselves against our Empire, When viewed from a political point it was like hurling a pebble against a mighty overpowering rock. The British forces- were as brave and full of couiage as their armies bad ever been, and what was more, there had been more self-sacrifice and more unsclfishnsss than our nation could boast of in the ages that were past. A writer in a Cape paper says :- A good sto.y reaches me anent the arrival of General Hector Macdonald. It seems that in July last the P>aud Caledonian Society, believing thai the famous fighting Scot would come round by the Cape on his way to India, sent a telegram to Capetown, inviting him to visit Johannesburg. The telegram lay undelivered until General Macdonald's arrival in Capetown a few weeks ago, when it was duly delivered by a Highlander, wbo in days gone by had seen service under the h- ro of Ouidurman. The General read tbe telegram, inviting him to come up to Johannesburg " as the guest of the Caledonian, Society." When he grasped the joke, a grim smile o'erspread his features. " It's kind of them, I'm snre," he remarked. " I accept the invitation, and hope to get to Johannesburg as soon as may be." General Hector Macdonald may not arrive at the Rand in a first-class railway compartment, but that he'll get (here— and; if possible, among the first — admits of no possible doubt whatever.