WAR SORROWS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 6625, 17 February 1900, Page 4

WAR SORROWS.

Tha more one goes about the more the aafanese of the war is brought home to one (writes Mr T. P. O'Connor, in M.A.P.). Everywhere you hear some new story of the lifelong sorrow which it has brought to some home. You hear of some father, whose son, the pride of his life, has been killed ; of some mother, to whom all the rest of her days must be darkness through the loss of one who was the heart of her heart. One of the most tragic of i the stories is that of Lord Eoberts, with which the world is already quite familiar. What the world perhaps does not know is that in this case, as in many others the news of the loss came with a; suddenness that enormously aggravated the blow. Lord Eoberts, anxious, perhaps, to avoid the amount of questionings to which he might be subjected if he went to a Service blub, went to the Athenseum, of|which he is also a member, for his lunch. As he was sitting alone over his meal, he heard somebody who evidently did not know him, say, at the next table to him, " Sad news, this, about the death of Lord Keberiß' son !" At once the bearpr of the sad news and the gentleman to whom he was speaking observed the agitation of the gentleman at the next table, saw that he rose abruptly from the table and went out into the hall. Lord Roberta knew that his son had been wounded, but this was the first announcement that had come to him of the fatal termination. Lord Kobertß went to the tape machine in

the hall of the club ; it contained no j official confirmation. In a short time the official confirmation came — the tape contained the statement that young Roberta was dead. There is a report that the widow of the gallant Andrew Wauchope heard of her bereavement with equal suddenness The papers contained the statement that she had been at the War Office making enquiries a short time before the terrible news came, This, I hear, was a mistake. As a matter of fact, I believe, Mrs Wauchope was in a shop in Edinburgh when a newsboy going along the streets brought to her shocked ears—without a moment's warning— the news of her husband's death. General Wauchope was one of the many men who had a presentiment before going out that he would never return.