,. WitW 
 Bobs and Rrligef 
 
 servatiOiA^s 
 
 ar Corresixai" 
 
 0Reld withBoth Armies 
 
 .ftj|-..|^|4;lSJl I'wwt 
 
 Unger 
 
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1 1 
 
With -Bobs" and Kruger 
 
[n Cronje's Laager at Paardeburg. IXpiosion oi a iyddiie shell from one of 
 the naval guns, as seen through a telescope. The concussion from the 
 explosion was supposed to kill everything within a radius of thirty yards, 
 while the black, poisonous fumes were intended to suffocate as well. 
 
,. With 
 Bobs and Krlig^er 
 
 Experiences and Observations 
 of an AmericanWar Correspon- 
 dent in theFieldwithBoth Armies 
 
 Illustrated 
 
 from 
 PhotogVaphs 
 
 TaKen hy 
 
 the 
 
 Author 
 
 B^Frederic William Unger 
 
 Late Correspondent inSouthAfrica 
 for The Daily Express , London . 
 
 i9oi 
 Henrj>^T. Coates and Company 
 
 Philadelphia. 
 

 Copyright, 1901, by HENRY T. COATES & CO. 
 
NOTE. 
 
 The author wishes to state that in the following narra- 
 tive he has confined himself strictly to facts. 
 
 n,^9:{.jG 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. South African Peculiarities, . . . . i 
 
 II. From the Klondyke to Cape Town, . . 12 
 
 III. Getting a War License under Difficulties — The First 
 
 Coup, . . . . , . 21 
 
 IV. Off to the Front, . . . . -33 
 V. A " Soldier of the (2ueen " for One Day Only, , 42 
 
 VI. An Armored Train Reconnaissance, . . .46 
 
 VII. Beginning All Over Again, ... 56 
 
 VIII. The Afrikanders and their Feelings, . . .65 
 
 IX. Some Types of War Correspondents, . . 73 
 
 X. " At fhe Eiid of a Wire " at Last, . . .79 
 
 XI. " The Times " Mess and a Few Adventures, . 87 
 
 XII. Under Arrest Again, ..... 100 
 
 XIII. The Battle of Paardeburg. .... 105 
 
 XIV. Chickens and Chicanery, , . . .112 
 XV. Cronje's Laager and His Surrender, . , 123 
 
 XVI. Osfontein and Some Exasperating Experiences, . 129 
 
 XVII. The Turning-Point of the War— the Battle of Poplar 
 
 Grove, ...... 141 
 
 XVIII. The Occupation of Bloemfontein, . . . 160 
 
 XIX. Observations in the Free State, . . . 172 
 
 XX. Through the Enemy's Lines with a Message for the 
 
 Queen, . . . . . .177 
 
 XXI. A Full License at Last, .... 187 
 
 XXII. Two Bloemfonteins, ..... 193 
 
 XXIII. KipHng Again, and Some Bloemfontein Items, . 202 
 
 XXIV. The Free State Girls, . . . . .215 
 XXV. Two Other Americans — Captain Slocum, United 
 
 States Attache, and Burnham the Scout, . .221 
 
 XXVI. With General French after General De Wet, . 226 
 
 9 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 XXVII. An Echo of " The Shot Heard Round the World," 236 
 
 XXVIII. War on Women, Children and Homes, . . 251 
 XXIX. The General Advance Northward from Bloemfon- 
 
 tein, ...... 257 
 
 XXX. Farewell to the Army and the Free State, , . 268 
 
 XXXI. Conversion of " Loot" into Literary Capital, . 272 
 XXXII. The Land of Delay, the City of To-morrow, and the 
 
 House of Next Month, .... 280 
 
 XXXIII. The Land of the Milreis,. ... 287 
 
 XXXIV. By Train to Pretoria, . . . . .293 
 XXXV. In the Shadow of Surrender, . . . 300 
 
 XXXVI. The Last Day at Pretoria, . . . .313 
 
 XXXVII. A Chapter of Coincidences, . . . 321 
 XXXVIII. The Travelling Railway Carriage Capital at Macha- 
 
 dodorp, ..... 325 
 
 XXXIX. " At the End of a Wire " Once More, . . 335 
 
 XL. Stealing a "Scoop" in Order to Benefit its Owner, 343 
 
 XLI. Life at Machadodorp, . . . . 350 
 
 XLII. Begg, the Spy, Gets Back at Me, . . 358 
 XLIII. With the Burghers on the Veldt, . . 365 
 XLIV. Generals Botha, Delarey, and the Dynamite Brigade, 373 
 XLV. A Commandeering Expedition of No Account, . 384 
 XLVI. The Last Day with Kriiger— a Tight Place, . 392 
 XLVII. Secretary Reitz Gives Me a Lesson in American His- 
 tory, ...... 398 
 
 XLVIII. The Brains of the Transvaal Gang, . . .403 
 
 XLVIX. Conclusion, ..... 406 
 
 10 
 

 With '^Bobs" and Kruger, 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SOUTH AFRICAN PECULIARITIES. 
 
 A MORE perfect understanding of the war in South 
 Africa will be the result when attention is given 
 to some of the striking characteristics of that country, so 
 strangely different from anything that the dwellers in towns 
 and cities on this the extreme opposite side of the earth 
 may imagine. 
 
 South Africa, which in spite of its immensity is only the 
 lower point or tip of the great " dark continent," is a suc- 
 cession of vast plateaus ascending from the sea in a series 
 of immense terraces, for the main part flat and level as the 
 sea itself, but with occasional wrinkles of its surface form- 
 ing irregular mountain systems ; or, sprinkled about in a 
 careless way, the more or less perfectly cone-shaped kopjes, 
 resting on the smooth veldt (plateau — prairie) as though 
 pushed through from beneath as a bluntly pointed pencil 
 pierces a sheet of paper. Where one plateau ends, and 
 the ascent to the next begins, a long, ragged edge appears, 
 presenting to the eye, from below, an endless range of 
 mountain gorges, weirdly beautiful, sublimely grand, almost 
 oppressive in the sense inspired of permanency and change- 
 lessness ; while from above the eye gazes across a vast 
 plain, apparently limitless in extent, fading away into dim 
 haziness, through which perhaps the faint outlines of a series 
 I I 
 
WITH 'BOBS" ANB KRUGER 
 
 of kopjes appear, and which we hesitate to beHeve are sixty, 
 eighty or a hundred miles away. Coming closer to an iso- 
 lated range of these South African mountains, we see that 
 as a rule their summits are perfectly flat, sometimes many 
 acres in extent, and we realize that there rests a portion of 
 the surface of an ancient plateau long since washed away 
 to the lower level, leaving the flat-topped kopjes as silent 
 sentinels guarding the mysteries of the veldt, and indicating 
 the extent to which it has been conquered by time and the 
 elements. 
 
 The greater part of this country is semi-barren. Sporadic 
 garden-spots of territory exist, while stretches of desert 
 comparable only to the bad lands of the Dakotas abound, 
 and threaten to overwhelm like a rising sea the beautiful 
 island-like oases which the sturdy burghers have torn from 
 the reluctant soil and converted into beautiful homesteads 
 seldom less than five or ten miles distant from one another. 
 
 Fringing the coast line, and penetrating the interior from 
 fifty to a hundred miles, a most luxuriant growth of vege- 
 tation, forest and jungle, is slowly creeping farther inland. 
 Back on the high veldt, between the cultivated spots and 
 the desert regions, are wide areas where a scanty growth 
 of cactus thorn-bush and the South African sage, the 
 Karroo bush, appears, affording a meagre subsistence for 
 the scattered herds of cattle, sheep and ostriches from 
 which the inland Boer derives his sole support. 
 
 At the border of the Free State the soil becomes more 
 fertile, the surface of the country begins to undulate 
 slightly, increasing to heavily rolling stretches as we ad- 
 vance farther eastward, and on pushing northward and into 
 the Transvaal, the veldt folds up, the country *' comes 
 closer," the fifty-mile views disappear, and the traveller or 
 soldier finds himself in a rough mountain land where the 
 reefs of the Rand and their fabulously rich gold-bearing 
 
 2 
 
SOUTH AFRICAN PECULIARITIES 
 
 ores are focused, at once the blessing and curse of the 
 early settlers and their followers. 
 
 When a government official many years ago rushed 
 breathlessly into the presence of President Kriiger with 
 the information that gold had been discovered in paying 
 quantities, and that now all the burghers would become 
 rich, that far-seeing old statesman is reported to have 
 replied, 
 
 " For every ounce of that cursed metal mined in this 
 land the burghers of the Transvaal will pay with great 
 drops of their and their children's blood." A grim 
 prophecy of the war of 1900. 
 
 Through all this country very little water is found. The 
 rivers are far apart, and for the greater part of the year 
 their beds are dry sand. For two or three months heavy 
 rain storms are frequent, and then the farmer stores up 
 his year's supply of water behind great dams, built to im- 
 pound the water that falls on many thousands of acres of 
 the land about his home. 
 
 Occasionally a more fortunate emigrant, slowly toiling 
 across the desert with his tedious ox-teams, came upon a 
 spring, and decided that he had gone far enough, so he 
 stopped there ; and years afterward his children and his 
 neighbors' children came to know the place as " Spring- 
 fontein "or " Ossfontein," and, as in the case of the capi- 
 tal of the Free State, where others too gathered about, 
 they called the place " Bloemfontein " — the spring where 
 the flowers grow. 
 
 About these places a few trees would grow up, carefully 
 planted and tended by the settlers. Tall, slender poplars, 
 frequently outlining twenty to thirty acres of land, with an 
 immense hedge of aloes or century plants between, would 
 form a spacious cattle-kraal. Around the dam a cluster 
 of weeping-willows would be seen, while a dozen or more 
 
 3 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 gigantic blue gums, towering a hundred feet overhead, 
 shaded the homestead from the noonday rays of the sub- 
 tropical sun, which beats mercilessly down from a contin- 
 uously cloudless sky above. 
 
 Then when evening drew near, when the native boys 
 had driven the cattle into the kraals, the pious old burgher 
 would call his entire household, man-servant and maid- 
 servant and the stranger within his gates, "together for 
 evening worship, while the sun dropped behind the edge 
 of the veldt, the darkness of night quickly covering the 
 farm land, the cloudless sky above affording insufficient 
 
 A Typical Boer Farmhouse in the Free State, near Bloemfontein, owned by 
 the Schmidt Family. 
 
 background to enable the rays of the departing king of 
 day to even tint the brief twilight. 
 
 Of the climate no criticism can be made ; for with its 
 high altitudes, dry, invigorating air and bright sunshine, it 
 has built up into strong men and women hundreds of 
 physical wrecks that have gone there from other countries 
 in search of the health that awaited them. 
 
 South Africa has been summed up in a few words as 
 being *' A land without trees, where the fields are without 
 grass, the flowers without smell, the birds without song, 
 the rivers without water, the skies without clouds, the 
 
 4 
 
SOUTH AFRICAN PECULIARITIES 
 
 evenings without sunsets, the men without honor and the 
 women without virtue." The most of this is true. The 
 honor of men in that country, as of men elsewhere, is 
 elastic, and a stranger, especially if he asks questions in 
 English, is likely to be lied to, and to find that the ** next 
 farm, just beyond the kopje," is quite ten miles farther; 
 but that the women are without virtue is as false of South 
 Africa as of England. 
 
 It is not strange that in so surprising a country should 
 develop unexpected differences in war from all our concep- 
 tions of warfare, based on the histories of other conflicts. 
 As the Spanish-American contest was a revelation to 
 Europe of the power of our resources and a renewed re- 
 minder of the efficiency of our navy, so the Anglo-Boer 
 conflict has been in an even broader sense full of astound- 
 ing revelations to the armies of the civilized world, because 
 of the scene of the war and of the great changes brought 
 about by modern implements of slaughter employed in 
 this their first great test in a land-war on a large scale 
 between white men as enemies. 
 
 And so when friends and relatives gather about as the 
 returning warrior, or the defeated patriot, an exile in 
 strange lands, tells his tales and re-fights his battles, one 
 may expect to hear of a war from which all the old-time 
 pomp, parade, enthusiasm and romance have departed. It 
 is strange to hear of great armies without uniforms, — for the 
 Boers fought in their oldest clothes and the British army 
 was clad in khaki, a yellow, mud-colored material which, 
 after a few weeks' wear, bore about as much resemblance 
 to the brilliantly-dressed legions of one hundred years ago 
 as a workman's dirty overalls do to a glittering full-dress 
 uniform. Strange it is, too, to hear of officers without 
 swords, — a sad blow to the English regimental dandies. 
 When Boer sharp-shooting made overlong lists of officers 
 
 5 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 killed, all insignia of rank was stripped from the aristocrats 
 in the field, and the officers were ordered to shoulder rifles, 
 to make them indistinguishable from their men ; then in- 
 deed did the Imperial army degenerate into what their 
 simple-hearted adversaries compared to " a swarm of 
 locusts creeping on over the veldt " — a khaki blur on 
 the grey-green landscape, steadily moving onward, through 
 long, tiresome marches, with never the gladdening beat of 
 a drum to aid in keeping step ; for in that still air all noise 
 
 ** A River Without Water," near Cape Town, with camp guarding Railway 
 Bridge against Threatened Rebellion in Cape Colony. 
 
 was suppressed to avoid warning a possibly careless enemy 
 of the army's advance. 
 
 The British soldier will tell of great battles in which he 
 never saw the enemy, for this was the prerogative of the 
 few men on the scouting line and the officers equipped with 
 powerful field-glasses, through which the forms of the re- 
 tiring foe could be dimly distinguished two or three miles 
 away. 
 
 When the opposing forces came to close quarters, though 
 seldom closer than the old-time longest distance range, the 
 crackling of rifles would be heard distinctly, and the drop- 
 
 6 
 
SOUTH AFRICAN PECULIARITIES 
 
 ping of comrades on all sides would tell plainly enough 
 that an active enemy was in front ; yet with smokeless 
 powder in use on both sides, and rifle-fire effective at a mile 
 and a half, it was seldom indeed that the British Tommy 
 caught sight of a Boer ; while the latter was invariably 
 firing at that '* khaki blur " across the fair face of the veldt, 
 trusting to chance to find a billet for his bullet beneath one 
 of those ugly uniforms. And when advancing to a charge 
 through the thick of a desperate battle, — the long rifle-rolls 
 and lyddite thunders 
 oddly contrasting with 
 the entire absence of 
 smoke, — what a sad 
 lack of the old-time en- 
 thusiasm prevailed while 
 men cautiously crawled 
 up the sides of one of 
 those natural fortifica- 
 tions, the kopjes, with- 
 out a note from a bugle, 
 the single beat of a 
 drum, or even the inspir- 
 ing sight of a flag to 
 nerve the survivors on- 
 ward ! 
 
 Even the cavalry, once the most brilliant and picturesque 
 arm of the service, was now relegated to the sole occupa- 
 tion of executing flanking movements, with no intention of 
 engaging the enemy. The old-time cavalry charges have 
 become a thing of the past, for in the very few instances in 
 which they were made it was clearly shown to be mere 
 murder to send a body of horsemen galloping against the 
 deadly hail of the Mauser or the utterly demoralizing and 
 annihilating rapid-fire of the Maxim and the *' pom-pom." 
 
 7 
 
 A Typical Group of Boer Women with 
 their Brother, Taken near Bloemfontein. 
 
WITH '' BOBS " AND KRUGER 
 
 With the advent of the so-called " civilized warfare," 
 and the total elimination of permitted pillage or looting, 
 the strongest passion and incentive of war, next to the love 
 of fighting itself, is swept away, and the modern army be- 
 comes reduced to a mere emotionless machine. Only one 
 thing more need be subtracted from war — the noise ; and 
 then, when the bullet speeds silently on its mission, when 
 the lyddite bomb breaks gently to dissolve its poisonous 
 vapors, and neither leave the slightest trace of the direc- 
 tion or distance from which they come, then indeed will 
 the last feature, except slaughter, of the old-time wars 
 have passed away. 
 
 So in this Anglo-Boer contest we see war robbed of all 
 its romance — campaigning among veldt and kopje, great 
 armies without uniform marching drearily without music, 
 fighting battles without smoke, making desperate assaults 
 without flags, and achieving conquest without pillage. Since 
 nearly three hundred thousand Englishmen have been sent 
 to South Africa to oppose what at the most amounted to 
 less than forty thousand Boers, and later became reduced 
 to less than fifteen thousand, while the comparative strength 
 of the two armies gradually changed from two to one to 
 twenty to one, we may safely add that history will tell of 
 British victory without glory and of Boer defeat without 
 shame. 
 
 In this strange South African land, as its material devel- 
 opment progressed and its different parts slowly grew into 
 closer contact with each other through railways, telegraphs 
 and newspaper distribution, far-seeing statesmen began to 
 perceive the gradual arousing and growth of the instinct of 
 national consciousness. The different peoples came to 
 realize that they had much in common, and encouraged 
 by scheming politicians at home and the example of our 
 own country abroad, the desire for federation among the 
 
 8 
 
SOUTH AFRICAN PECULIARITIES 
 
 colonies with the Httle isolated republics in the North grew 
 until it became a passion not only with the Boers proper, 
 but even more with the descendants of other nationalities 
 composing the Afrikander element and a few of the Uit- 
 landers who had lived long enough in the country to have 
 learned to love it as their own. For a while this was en- 
 couraged by men like Cecil Rhodes, and it was not until 
 
 Kafifir Diamond Diggers expelled from Kimberley during the siege- sent to 
 the Boer lines, and re-expelled to the English lines — at General Gatacre's 
 Headquarters. The English furnished them with supplies and employed 
 them in repairing the railways. 
 
 Rhodes realized that the anti-English element was too 
 strong to allow of his becoming, as he had fondly dreamed, 
 the first President of the United States of South Africa, 
 that he allowed a policy to be adopted which led on to the 
 shameful Jameson raid. That raid showed England's hand, 
 and from that time the Boers began to arm and prepare 
 for the inevitable conflict. This movement naturally be- 
 gan with, and developed greatest strength among, the in- 
 
 9 
 
WITH '' BOBS " AND KRUGER 
 
 land Boers, who through two hundred years had learned 
 to distrust and fiercely hate the British, who had driven 
 them back from the fertile and beautiful coast line, across 
 the dreadful Karroo Desert, to the semi-barren lands of 
 the high veldt ; but it also found a hearty echo and earnest 
 support among the people of Cape Colony and of Natal. 
 The plottings and schemings went on, for these people had 
 read the history of our own struggle for liberty and inde- 
 pendence against the same power, they had come to idealize 
 and idolize our country and its institutions, they dreamed 
 of duplicating America in South Africa, counted on our 
 moral sympathy and support, and unquestionably expected 
 with confidence some substantial assistance from us when 
 the crisis should arrive. 
 
 Meanwhile, after years of frantic appeal from loyal 
 subjects of the Queen, and after the election of a Boer 
 majority in the Cape Parliament, the British government 
 became aroused, and after pushing troops and supplies 
 close up to the frontier and putting an army on the sea 
 en route for the Cape, her ministers adopted a diplomatic 
 tone shrewdly calculated to force hostilities, and succeeded 
 in compelling the Boers to take a technical initiative in 
 opening the war. The subsequent events have been of too 
 recent occurrence and have received too much publicity to 
 make comment necessary at this time. 
 
 The following narrative will be at times extremely per- 
 sonal, but I wish to impress upon the reader's mind the idea 
 that, rather than being my own story, it is that of an Ameri- 
 can, a disinterested observer with natural feelings of sym- 
 pathy with both sides, whose privilege it has been to be in 
 the thick of the struggle with both armies, and who realizes 
 that the subjective parts of his experiences are not among 
 the least in interest to his readers. 
 
 One thing more : this is a close view of South Africa and 
 
 10 
 
SOUTH AFRICAN PECULIARITIES 
 
 the war. It was not my privilege to obtain the general 
 perspective of operations which a hundred daily newspaper 
 reports from every scene of action brought to the eye of 
 the British and American public. This does not in any 
 sense pretend to be a history of the war ; merely a narra- 
 tive of personal experiences and observations, which I hope 
 may prove deserving of attention and worthy of interest. 
 
 II 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 FROM THE KLONDYKE TO CAPE TOWN. 
 
 LATE in June, 1898, about eight hundred miles from the 
 mouth of the Yukon River in Alaska, two disgusted 
 gold-seekers were completing a twenty-five-hundred-mile 
 trip down that great river, having traversed the entire gold- 
 bearing strip of the country. They were seated in a small 
 row-boat, bearing the euphonious name of Klondyke 
 Sucker, registered No. 21 17, which a week before had 
 capsized, spilling the entire possessions of the two argonauts, 
 including their gold-dust, into the yellow flood. Since then 
 it had been raining dismally, and it was to continue doing 
 so for three weeks longer. Blankets and clothing were wet 
 and refused to dry. Over a small fire in half a barrel of 
 sand on the bottom of the boat were cooked the beans and 
 bacon obtained from a friendly steamboat ; also the sportive 
 ''king" salmon obtained daily from the half Indian, half 
 Esquimaux natives, by bartering pieces of soap from a small 
 box saved from the wreck. Between meals the fire was 
 covered with wet wood for the double purpose of drying 
 the fuel and of making a smudge of smoke to drive away 
 the great clouds of terrible Yukon mosquitoes which at 
 times fairly cast a shadow over the boat. 
 
 It was late in the season, and as the last steamers might 
 leave St. Michael's harbor for Seattle any day, the boat was 
 kept drifting on the four-mile current day and night, increas- 
 ing the perils of the trip, yet saving all-important time. The 
 day was divided into two shifts of ten hours each, the two 
 men, of whom I was one, taking turns at sleeping and 
 
 12 
 
FROM THE KLONDYKE TO CAPE TOWN 
 
 guiding the boat. The remaining four hours were spent in 
 cooking, eating and conversation. During one of these in- 
 termissions my partner, Gene, was looking over a compar- 
 atively recent magazine number which had come into our 
 possession. Pausing at one page, he read a paragraph si- 
 lently, and then handed the magazine to me, saying, 
 ** Here, Fred, I guess this about strikes us." 
 I read the lines indicated, and my mind went back up the 
 river and over the trail to the day I landed at Dyea, with 
 two partners, all three of us victims of the " Black Death," 
 or cerebro-spinal meningitis. Then followed the dreary days 
 in the trail hospital ; the death of my two partners ; the loss 
 of my money and outfit ; my painful first trip over the Chil- 
 koot Pass, a wreck physically and financially ; my meeting 
 with Gene ; the making of our small fortune during three 
 months on the trail ; then the six-hundred-mile river trip to 
 Dawson City and the gold-fields ; the disappointment there ; 
 the departure for new fields ; the loss of our outfit ; and 
 the weeks of helpless suffering during this, our frantic effort 
 to escape from that frozen hell. This is what Gene had 
 read and passed to me : 
 
 ** Persons who have sympathy to spare after feeling for 
 the Cuban reconcentrados, Spain, ourselves, and all sufferers 
 by war, pestilence and famine, are invited to bestow some 
 of their surplus on persons of an adventurous disposition 
 who went months ago to the Klondyke under the impres- 
 sion that there would be more excitement, peril, discomfort 
 and general devilment up there this spring than anywhere 
 else on earth. How these restless enthusiasts will feel when 
 they discover that war has been hatched in the tropics in 
 their absence is something for the imaginative to try to 
 picture. The men who are Klondykers for business reasons 
 will doubtless be thankful that a counter-attraction has de- 
 veloped to draw off the crowd that threatened to swarm all 
 
 13 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 over the new gold country, but those who went largely for 
 sport or in search of material for stories will grieve and 
 worry. There is something exhilarating in being on the 
 spot of earth that all the world is looking at, but to have 
 toiled and starved and frozen and fought to reach that spot, 
 and then to find all the world looking another way, is very 
 like the sarcasm of destiny." 
 
 Gene was right ; it did strike us ; but we kept our mouths 
 shut and our boat straight for two weeks longer, and reached 
 St. Michael's harbor safely. Here we parted company. 
 Gene going back up the river ** piling wood " on a river 
 boat, while I returned to the States on an ocean steamer as 
 a stowaway, and succeeded in landing without detection. 
 Then I went home, where the reaction from exposure, 
 ''Black Death," dysentery, scurvy, typhoid, and Yukon 
 cough, which had been incidental to my Alaskan trip, 
 robbed me of health and ambition for a year. 
 
 Nevertheless, I had a good constitution, inherited from 
 many generations of careful livers, so the fall of 1899 found 
 me restless and anxious to *' hit the trail " again, and until 
 the war-clouds broke over the Transvaal I had been look- 
 ing toward the Philippines. Fearing that again I might 
 ''find the world looking in the other direction," I changed 
 my plans and decided in favor of South Africa. 
 
 But here I came face to face with a great difficulty. To 
 go to the Philippines was easy enough, for it required only 
 enlistment in the army. South Africa was another matter, 
 and my resources were extremely slender. While still 
 pondering this problem I chanced to pick up a copy of 
 Rudyard Kipling's "The Light that Failed," and read with 
 deep interest the opening chapters of the story of the young 
 artist who became a war correspondent. In the second 
 chapter I read the lines — 
 
 " There were many correspondents with many corps and 
 
 14 
 
FROM THE KLONDYKE TO CAPE TOWN 
 
 columns — from the veterans who had followed on the heels 
 of the cavalry that occupied Cairo in '82, what time Arabi 
 Pasha called himself king, who had seen the first miserable 
 work around Suakim, when the sentries were cut up nightly 
 and the scrub swarmed with spears, to youngsters jerked 
 into the business at the end of a telegraph wire to take the 
 place of their betters killed or invalided." 
 
 I read on, mechanically, many pages, my mind following 
 a train of thought suggested by that paragraph. Then I 
 read the entire book, and closed it with the determination 
 to go to South Africa as a War Correspondent. The 
 expression, ** youngsters 
 jerked into the business 
 at the end of a telegraph 
 wire to take the place of 
 their betters killed or 
 invalided," told me that 
 if I could not get sent to 
 the front by a home 
 paper I would stand a 
 chance of getting an op- 
 portunity by going there 
 anyway, and after that 
 my future would depend 
 
 on my own abilities. My Alaska experience was the foun- 
 dation of my assurance, and I went about the business with 
 the spirit outlined in "A Message for Garcia." 
 
 I visited every newspaper office in New York and Phila- 
 delphia, saw the proper persons when I could, and told 
 them of my qualifications and experiences. I failed utterly 
 to get any encouragement. All that resulted from my 
 efforts were two brief letters from a Sunday editor and a 
 newspaper ** syndicate," agreeing to receive any copy I 
 might send them from the front and to pay for it, ''if used.'' 
 
 15 
 
 Irish Brigade marchingdownAdderly Street, 
 Cape Town. Post Office in background. 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 Every would-be correspondent is familiar with those two 
 detestable words. Then I borrowed one hundred and sixty 
 dollars and sailed for Liverpool on a twelve-day boat. This 
 was in the third week of November, 1 899, and my fellow- 
 passengers on the Waesland were betting even money that 
 Ladysmith and Kimberley would be relieved before we 
 landed, and declaring that the war would be over before I 
 could reach Cape Town. Worse still, they utterly refused 
 to believe that I was anything like a war correspondent. 
 
 Then followed five days in London, where I saw more 
 newspaper people, was refused a war license at the War 
 Office, and was strongly advised by the few friends I had 
 acquired that my plan was '' no good," and that I had bet- 
 ter follow other men who had come over with the same 
 idea, and go back home again. My failure at the War 
 Office was specially depressing, for I had hoped to get a 
 license, which I had reason to believe would secure me 
 transportation to Table Bay on a military transport ; and I 
 had also heard that when the British army accept a man 
 as a war correspondent he becomes their guest ; he is pro- 
 vided for as are the military attaches representing the other 
 powers, and is at no expense except for wines and cigars — 
 things which I decided to do without. 
 
 I discovered that I should need a camera, so I spent 
 twenty dollars for one, of American design, which I could 
 have bought in the United States for half the money. On 
 the evening of the fifth day I crept into my bunk on an- 
 other slow boat, this time for Cape Town, I having used 
 half of my remaining funds for a third-class ticket. This 
 was on the iith of December, and the papers of that 
 morning had contained the account of General Gatacre's 
 reverse at Stormberg and the capture of six hundred of 
 his men by the Boers. This was the first real encourage- 
 ment I had received — not that I was a partisan in any sense 
 
 16 
 
FROM THE KLONDYKE TO CAPE TOWN 
 
 of the word, but because it demonstrated that my opinion 
 that the war would be stubbornly contested by the Boers 
 was correct. I believed that the conflict would be long- 
 protracted, and that was why I thought it worth while to 
 see it. 
 
 My plans at this time were somewhat vague. I intended 
 to make a last effort to connect, as per Kipling, with a 
 newspaper at Cape Town. Failing in this, I hoped in some- 
 way to get to the front and see some actual fighting. As 
 a last alternative, if nothing better offered, I intended to find 
 my way through the lines 
 
 Hi 
 
 nimw" 
 
 to the Boer army and join 
 the first body of Americans 
 I should find among them. 
 The presentation of my 
 American passport would 
 prevent misunderstandings, 
 and I felt certain that, in- 
 cidentally, there would be 
 opportunities for taking 
 photographs of much in- 
 terest. 
 
 The voyage to Table Bay 
 lasted nearly four weeks. 
 For a few days, until we had crossed the Bay of Biscay, 
 the rough seas kept everybody below deck. My steamer, 
 the Australasian, was a freighter, and only carried passen- 
 gers as an accommodation — a few third-class and still fewer 
 first-class. There was no second cabin. There were only 
 sixteen male passengers and half a dozen women. Our 
 accommodations were crowded, but clean and comfortable 
 — about thirty bunks in one room between decks in the 
 forward part of the boat, with three small tables, seating six 
 each, at one side. We kept our baggage in the lower berths 
 
 17 
 
 The Sussex Regiment marching down 
 Adderly Street, Cape Town. The 
 Grand Hotel in the background. 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 and slept in the upper ones ; mine, fortunately, had a 
 port-hole, giving ample light and fresh air — both desirable 
 when fifteen men are sleeping, eating and living in one 
 cabin. 
 
 We were a cosmopolitan lot. I was the only American, 
 though four of my fellow-travellers had been in the United 
 States. One of the company had been a fur hunter and 
 trapper in the Rockies, another was a telegraph and cable 
 operator, a third had been a Texan cow-puncher, while 
 the fourth was a South American adventurer who had 
 served in half a dozen different armies and taken part in 
 a dozen Central and South American rebellions. Several 
 had been gold miners, and fully half had already been in 
 South Africa, some having taken part in the bloody 
 •'native" wars of a dozen years before. Then there were 
 a few sickly-looking clerks from London, several emigrants 
 to Australia bent on sheep-raising, and, quite unique among 
 the rest, a rich old Scotch merchant from Edinburgh, taking 
 an economical sea voyage for his health. He tried hard to 
 be "one of the boys," but failed dismally. Most of the 
 party were going to South Africa to fight. Having failed 
 to secure enlistment in desired corps at London, they in- 
 tended to make the coveted connections at Cape Town. A 
 few hoped to take advantage of the bustle and increased 
 activity at the Cape to obtain employment ; all hoped to 
 make their fortunes during the great " boom " which was to 
 begin in the gold-fields immediately after the end of the war. 
 It was interesting to doze in my berth and listen to their 
 talk. English dialect and Western slang harmonized mu- 
 sically, and tales of war and peace crossed one another 
 before reaching my bunk. A piratical-looking fellow, with 
 a broad yellow sash and a long stiletto, told tales of Moul- 
 mein and Mandalay that made me think of Kipling's "Bur- 
 mah girl," while the old Scotch merchant crept off to his 
 
 i8 
 
FROM THE KLONDYKE TO CAPE TOWN 
 
 closed berth in the corner to nip his whiskey alone, never 
 dreaming of passing the bottle. 
 
 Quite unexpectedly the Australasian stopped for a few 
 hours at Teneriffe, the capital city of the Canary Islands, 
 where with a party of the other passengers I went ashore, 
 and strolled about until my steps brought me to the Mus- 
 cogne Hotel, over which flew the Stars and Stripes, indica- 
 ting that the American Consul lived there. Having a 
 general letter of introduction from Secretary of State John 
 Hay to the entire American diplomatic and consular ser- 
 vice (a favor obtained 
 through the courtesy of 
 Senator Penrose), I de- 
 cided that the consulate 
 at Teneriffe would be a 
 good place to try this 
 letter and find out just 
 what the *' courtesies " 
 requested in my behalf 
 might be. I entered 
 the hotel, asked for the 
 ''Consul Amerique," 
 presented my letter, re- 
 ceived "the glad hand," and promptly accepted the hos- 
 pitable official invitation to dinner. I found Consul Ber- 
 liner a capital fellow and a credit to the department. The 
 dinner was quite as much so. The hotel, while pre- 
 tending to be English, was very Spanish. The other 
 guests were about half Spanish and half English. With 
 the exception of the Consul, I had the honor of being 
 the only American on the island. The Englishmen present 
 were very quiet and had little to say, for a cablegram had 
 just been received from the Cape telling of General Buller's 
 reverse at Tugela and giving his official report. The Spanish 
 
 19 
 
 Troopship Assaye. Cape Town Docks. 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 were in high spirits ; in fact they made every English 
 reverse the occasion of much merriment and rejoicing. The 
 Consul was diplomatically neutral, and, taking my cue 
 from him, so was I. I was greatly pleased to note that the 
 late unpleasantness between America and Spain did not 
 have any effect on my treatment by the Spaniards at Ten- 
 eriffe. The men were courteous with the traditional Span- 
 ish dignity, through which I was unable to detect any 
 aversion, while the charm of the ladies was such that I 
 am sure, had they defended San Juan, the Rough Riders 
 would have rushed up the hill to surrender even faster than 
 they did to conquer. 
 
 The remainder of the voyage was uneventful. Christmas 
 and New Year's day were celebrated by appropriate exten- 
 sions of the usually monotonous menu and the contribution 
 of bottled beer by the captain. We drank his health, the 
 Queen's and the President's, nearly everybody else's of im- 
 portance, and each others'. Then we went to our bunks to 
 digest and sleep, after which there were athletic contests on 
 deck, followed by dreary singing, accompanied by deplor- 
 ably unskillful *' vamping " on the small and rickety deck- 
 piano brought up for the occasion. Then another storm, 
 more sea-sickness, and at last Cape Town. 
 
 20 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 GETTING A WAR LICENSE UNDER DIFFICULTIES THE FIRST 
 
 COUP. 
 
 [LANDED with exactly seven guineas in my purse, 
 equivalent to about thirty-six dollars in American 
 money, and I made the securing of a boarding-place my 
 first duty. I went to a cheap hotel with my baggage, and 
 then putting on my best clothes, in order to properly play 
 the part of " a distinguished American journalist," I called 
 on Colonel J. G. Stovve, U. S. Consul General for South 
 Africa, to whom I had strong letters of introduction. The 
 Colonel gave me a royal welcome, and instinctively I knew 
 that he was a man in whom I could confide. So I told him 
 my whole story down to the thirty-six dollars, now shrunk 
 to thirty-four. Colonel Stowe looked thoughtfully at me for 
 a few moments, and then rapidly wrote a letter which he 
 handed to me, saying, *' Take this to the Censor's office and 
 he will give you a press license that will enable you to 
 draw rations, and you can go to the front at once, where it 
 won't cost you anything to live. That will keep you going 
 until money begins to come from the articles you write. 
 No thanks necessary ; you'll find the Press Censor at the 
 Castle Barracks. Come and tell me how you make out- 
 good luck to you." 
 
 Arriving at the Censor's office, I found a notice posted 
 to the effect that positively no more licenses would be issued 
 to newspaper correspondents. Ignoring the notice I went 
 in and presented my letter, which was one of introduction, 
 requesting a license. Major Evans, P. C. (Press Censor), 
 
 21 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 politely but firmly called my attention to the notice on the 
 door, and regretted his inability to do anything for me, 
 naming, as a comforter, several distinguished men who also 
 had been refused. I sadly left the office and returned to 
 the Consul's office. Colonel Stowe could do nothing more. 
 Then I realized that war correspondence on the accredited 
 plan was out of the question, so I spent the remainder of 
 the day looking for a cheaper lodging, in preparation for a 
 long period of profitless waiting. The next morning I 
 moved into new quarters, a boarding-house filled with refu- 
 gees from the Rand, Eng- 
 lishmen, or sympathizers 
 with their cause, expelled 
 from the Transvaal by the 
 Boers at the beginning of 
 the war. They were a 
 hard lot, but very inter- 
 esting. The house was 
 unique — two-storied, with 
 deep and broad verandas 
 in front covered with 
 wicker chairs, in which 
 the forty-odd boarders 
 
 -ikiir 
 
 Horse Mart on Parade Square, Capetown. 
 
 spent most of the warm afternoons dozing or discussing 
 the war. The furnishings were crude, but the parlor and 
 dining-room were gorgeous with hundreds of gilt-framed 
 chromos and paper flowers in profusion. Small curios, 
 corals, shells, skins and horns, photographs and sofa- 
 cushions were piled in every chair and corner of the parlor, 
 while the dining-room and hallway were equally stuffy ; 
 yet the whole effect was delightful, creating an atmosphere 
 of civilized barbarity, semi-Bohemian, odd, grotesque ; in 
 all, unique. The landlady was rough but kind-hearted, 
 the meals were good and well served, and the terms were 
 
 22 
 
GETTING A WAR LICENSE 
 
 one pound per week, payable in advance — strictly no 
 credit. 
 
 After noon I called again at the Censor's office to 
 make a few inquiries, but found him still obdurate. Then 
 I hunted up the office of the Principal Medical Officer, and 
 volunteered my services as a stretcher-bearer, adding that I 
 was a correspondent who had been refused a license, and 
 that I wanted to see something of the fighting, preferring 
 the ambulance service to enlisting, as I would have more 
 certainty of seeing actual fighting in that department. 
 
 The P. M. O., as he was called, was a kind looking old 
 
 Rand Refugees Camping on the Sand at East London after expulsion from 
 the Transvaal at the beginning of the War. 
 
 gentleman, who became interested at once in the young 
 American who had come ten thousand miles to see the war, 
 but told me that he could not possibly accept my services. 
 Then he asked who refused to issue my Hcense, and when 
 I answered he said, '* Vou went to the wrong man. Major 
 Evans has no authority ; he is only a clerk. Go to Colonel 
 Trotter, Chief of Staff; he is in supreme command here, and 
 can issue you a pass if he cares to. I wish you success." 
 Colonel Stowe gladly gave me a letter to Colonel Trotter, 
 and as I knew that the Chief of Staff and the P. M. O. prob- 
 ably stopped at the same hotel, I waited until the next day, 
 
 23 
 
WITH '' BOBS " AND KRUGER 
 
 hoping that they would meet at dinner or during the even- 
 ing, when the kindly P. M. O. might happen to mention the 
 matter. Something of this kind must have happened, for 
 the next morning, when I called on the Chief of Staff, he was 
 extremely courteous, and promptly wrote an order to the 
 Press Censor to issue me a license. When I saw that officer 
 and presented the order he w^as plainly annoyed, told me it 
 was evidently a mistake, and asked me to call the next day. 
 
 .*r 
 
 
 ^^^h 
 
 II 
 
 
 1^^ 
 
 m ^^^« "^fe 
 
 
 Artist and War Correspondent Mortimer Menpcs, of 
 examining a Lee-Metford Rifle. 
 
 Ijlack and White," 
 
 Oscillation between hope and despair was becoming un- 
 bearable ; but there was no help for it, and it seemed 
 weeks before the arrival of the appointed hour. The fol- 
 lowing afternoon at four o'clock I made my last call on the 
 Censor. A magical change had come over him, and he 
 was affability personified. ** It is very irregular, you 
 know," he said, **but you Americans seem to get every- 
 thing you want." Then he asked to see the credentials 
 from my paper. This was what I had feared. However, 
 
 24 
 
GETTING A WAR LICENSE 
 
 I produced my two letters, which he threw down after a 
 glance, saying, " These won't answer at all. You will have 
 to cable to your paper for proper recognition." This I 
 knew would be folly, for they would not answer. The sit- 
 uation was critical. Having all to gain and nothing to lose, 
 I decided to be a little independent. So I replied, 
 
 ** I have no authority to use the cable in my correspond- 
 ence ; I am writing descriptive articles only and taking pho- 
 tographs. If, however, you desire it, I will write and have 
 the credentials mailed to you ; and, meanwhile, if I am as- 
 signed to some force at the front, I will be where you can 
 reach me if they don't come." The Major hesitated, so I 
 added, *' If I fail to receive this license I will be compelled 
 to go up the east coast to Delagoa Bay, enter the Trans- 
 vaal, and then there will be simply one more Ameri- 
 can correspondent writing pro-Boer articles for American 
 papers." 
 
 Then the Major decided to give me the desired license. 
 I signed a printed form binding me to abide by certain rules, 
 and I received the precious bit of paper, which assigned me 
 to General Gatacre's division. The Major wrote *' Pro- 
 visional" across the top, and added, "If I fail to receive 
 your credentials within two months your license will be re- 
 called, and you will be brought down from the front under 
 guard." 
 
 I was not much impressed by this remark, for I felt that 
 it was a ** bluff," and that the Major would forget all about 
 it in much less time. In fact, he was removed from Cape 
 Town to another command soon afterward, and his succes- 
 sor never knew anything about the matter. I drew my pen 
 twice through the word ** Provisional," and wiped that part 
 out of existence so far as I was concerned. Consul Gen- 
 eral Stowe heartily congratulated me on my success, and 
 a few hours later the railway authorities issued me a 
 
 25 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 general railway pass on presentation of my military 
 license. 
 
 All this was brilliantly successful ; but there was one 
 drawback. The license contained a clause reading, ** He is 
 authorized to draw rations for himself and one servant and 
 forage for one horse, on payment'' On inquiry, I learned 
 that the rations would cost five shillings per diem, payable 
 weekly in advance. The forage for the horse would be 
 the same, but that didn't bother me. I myself was the 
 
 obstacle, with my healthy 
 appetite and regular hab- 
 its of eating. 
 
 Evidently, I had to 
 find some way of raising 
 money if I were to follow 
 the campaign for any 
 period. After consulta- 
 tion with the Consul I 
 wrote a letter stating the 
 particulars, which he en- 
 dorsed with his signature, 
 to one of the papers which 
 had given me a letter, and offered them a fully accredited 
 correspondent in the field for the minimum amount on which 
 I could exist, namely, twenty dollars per week, and re- 
 quested that my acceptance be cabled with a substantial 
 money-order. This I mailed, and, knowing that even a 
 cable reply would take over a month to reach me, I began 
 to make new plans as to how to exist till then on what 
 resources I had remaining ; these resources amounted to 
 four days' board (already paid for) and twenty dollars in 
 cash. 
 
 My first duty was to look around for some quiet, inex- 
 pensive place in the country, where I could wait until I re- 
 
 26 
 
 Mr. Cecil Rhodes boarding the S. S. Nor- 
 man for England, March, 1 900, after 
 the relief of Kimberley. 
 
GETTING A WAR LICENSE 
 
 ceived further credentials and money from America. I had 
 not the sHghtest doubt that my offer of " a correspondent 
 in the field" would be accepted, but I counted on a month 
 of inactivity. As I still had four days' credit with my land- 
 lady, I spent the next few days looking around Cape Town. 
 With its sixty thousand inhabitants ; its fine buildings, some 
 of them eight stories high, equipped with express elevators ; 
 its well-paved streets, traversed by trolley lines ; its luxu- 
 rious hotels, on the piazzas of which I spent much of the 
 time ; its handsome churches ; its tastefully dressed women 
 
 Squad of London City Imperial Volunteers at Cape Town. 
 
 thronging the streets on shopping days and filling the aisles 
 of up-to-date department stores — I frankly admit I was 
 greatly surprised, for I had vaguely imagined South Africa 
 a kind of magnified zoological garden, where the white in- 
 habitants carried rifles to protect themselves from the wild 
 animals and natives. Without exception. Cape Town is 
 surrounded by the most beautiful suburbs I have ever seen 
 — little one-story houses, whitewashed, and encircled by 
 broad verandas ; veritable architectural jewels, encased in 
 a setting of trees, shrubbery and vines, brilliant with gay- 
 
 27 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 colored flowers, occupied by cool-looking, white-dressed 
 people, who seemed to be enjoying a continual vacation 
 from work and worry. Through the centre of the town 
 the municipal gardens stretch, flanked by a magnificent 
 avenue of thick, high trees a mile or more up the slope, 
 ending at the very foot of Table Mountain, which rises 
 abruptly nearly four thousand feet above the bay, flat- 
 topped and cloud-lined, a landmark for a hundred miles. 
 Half an hour by train brings one to Muisenberg, the fash- 
 ionable seaside resort, where unsurpassed sea-bathing may 
 be enjoyed. The same time on the trolley brings one to 
 Grootschure, Cecil Rhodes' home and semi-public gardens, 
 filled with a large variety of zoological specimens, a favorite 
 Mecca for holiday pleasure-seekers. 
 
 On the outskirts of the city thousands of khaki-clothed 
 soldiers were encamped, fatigue details trailing off through 
 the streets of Cape Town, the scarlet coats of the very few 
 in dress uniform giving a slight touch of the military color 
 I had expected to find at this great base of operations. 
 The prevalence of khaki robbed this of most of its bril- 
 liancy and of its romance ; yet a few^ of the Tommies man- 
 aged to look very smart, and found plenty of flaxen-haired 
 maidens to ogle and flirt with in the crowded streets. Up 
 at the foot of Table Mountain, at the end of the Gardens 
 Avenue, is the palatial Mount Nelson Hotel, built to cater 
 for the diamond and gold millionaires from the North, the 
 accommodations of which were at that time taxed to their 
 utmost by the throngs of aristocratic officers, with their 
 wives, sisters and sweethearts who had followed the army 
 thus far. The persistent absence from the front of many 
 of these officers " on leave " became quite a scandal until 
 the arrival of Lord Kitchener, who stalked through the cor- 
 ridors one day asking the idlers in uniform why they had 
 nothing to do, and suggesting that at his next meeting he 
 
 28 
 
GETTING A WAR LICENSE 
 
 would "find them some occupation ;" whereupon the red- 
 collared khakis vanished, the scandals ceased, and the ladies 
 languished. Yes, " Lord Kitchener is a brute." 
 
 Lord Roberts and his famous Chief of Staff arrived the 
 day after I secured my license. If they had come the day 
 before, this tale would have been very different, for Lord 
 Kitchener at once put his mailed hand on the necks of the 
 newspaper contingent, and much writhing and squirming 
 ensued. I found time during these days to visit a Hugue- 
 not seminary at Wellington, sixty miles out in the grape 
 country, where I regaled myself with luscious fruit, but 
 found that the person to whom my letter of introduction 
 was addressed had returned to America a month before. 
 This institution was another revelation, for I was informed 
 that its principal supporters were the back-country Boers, 
 who, contrary to the general impression created abroad 
 by the British, spared neither time nor expense in the educa- 
 tion of their sons and daughters. 
 
 The local newspapers were not lacking in enterprise. 
 Naturally, in a city half full of Boer sympathizers, sur- 
 rounded and occupied by Imperial troops, every bit of 
 news from the front was eagerly looked for. As each 
 new telegram from the front arrived an "extra" of 
 "dodger" size, eight by ten inches, was issued from the 
 newspaper offices. While the presses were still running, the 
 engineer would open the whistle-valve and an agonizing 
 scream would pierce every ear for miles around. Then 
 windows and doors opened and heads protruded, followed 
 by half the body. Men and boys, hatless and coatless, 
 tumbled out, rushing Hke mad down town, every alley and 
 street vomiting its contribution to the dense mob which as- 
 sailed the newspaper offices in a mad fight for the penny 
 extras ; — a splendid speculation for the proprietors. Then 
 the crowd would break up and disperse, streaked with swift- 
 
 29 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 running newsboys selling copies to the laggards, all reading, 
 as they slowly returned to work or went to meals, the in- 
 telligence that Kimberley was or was not relieved, that the 
 situation at Ladysmith was unchanged ; — reading, perhaps, 
 long lists of killed and wounded, the news being joyful or 
 the reverse according to the sympathies of the reader. 
 During the humdrum intervals between the specials, the 
 monotony was occasionally relieved by a few regiments 
 marching through the streets on their way to the front ; or 
 perhaps a small crowd would collect to watch a mammoth 
 
 traction engine round a 
 H ' Jmi^ ^^^^P corner, drawing 
 
 ■ ^.^■H^H ^^^^ or ten heavily loaded 
 
 H ^^^m^ Ml^im^^^^U trucks like a train of cars, 
 
 each turning the corner 
 and following in the tracks 
 of its predecessor with the 
 precision of a goods-train 
 on steel tracks. 
 
 My favorite lounging- 
 n • , n f .X. .AT place, thanks to kind 
 
 Lronje s Guns irom the captured Laager ^ ' 
 
 at Paardeburg. Procession on Adderly hospitality, was the office 
 
 Street, Cape Town. of the American Consul, 
 
 who, however busy, al- 
 ways had time to swing around in his chair, give me a 
 kindly greetings open a box of cigars, and wave his hand 
 toward a pile of the newest home papers — a month old, 
 but ever welcome. Here I met Captain Slocum, the Amer- 
 ican military attache ; Howard Hillegas, author of " Oom 
 Paul's People ;" Mackern, of *' Scribner's Magazine;" the 
 Hon. Webster Davis, just beginning his extraordinary 
 career in behalf of the Boers ; and half a dozen of the 
 more prominent Rand Americans, engineers and opera- 
 tors, who, with characteristic American humor, styled 
 
 30 
 
orm ^>^^[»fe foj^PWewspftper Correspondents. 
 
 No. of Ocence. / Q v'T^ 
 
 ^M.U-^r^^.. 
 
 having signed the Declaration attached to the Rules for News- 
 paper Correi^udents accompanying Troops in the Field, is 
 herchy^censed to act as Correspondent for the , 
 
 '!.lki/f?M[/f(il^..Uj^. ?<. 
 
 with iht^e«>m^^^ii^.-4X^.'.A^:T.-.y^^i'C<^ 
 dated at .(^J-giCj^-^^^^^TWr.^^^ 
 
 1^ - i'w --^ A-*- . /A^^i^^ 
 
 Ho is authorised to draw Rations for himself and one 
 servant, and forage for one horse on payment. /p^ 
 
 ^r1 C.A.A^yiAM^y^ A Bji ORDER. ^ 
 
 ^ / Z)^ // 
 
 Author's War License issued at Cape Town. 
 31 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 themselves ''poor refugees, roughing it at the Mount Nelson 
 Hotel." 
 
 With a supreme effort, and on the advice of Consul 
 Stowe and Mr. Hillegas, I broke away from the fascination 
 of all this, deciding to go at once to the front, and to Gen- 
 eral Gatacre's headquarters, spend my spare time there, see 
 something of the country, write a few articles, and then 
 return a month later for the reply by cable to my letters 
 sent to America. 
 
 Late in the afternoon, before I left Cape Town, I saw 
 an open carriage pass my boarding-place drawn by two 
 beautiful, swift-trotting horses. The livery of the footmen 
 and the crest on the carriage-door I recognized as being 
 those of Sir Alfred Milner, Governor of Cape Colony. 
 Seated in the carriage were a gentleman and a lady ; on 
 the opposite seat a little child. The man wore heavy 
 spectacles and had very dark eyebrows. He seemed to 
 see everything on both sides of the street at a glance. 
 Though I had never seen him before, I recognized him from 
 his pictures as Rudyard Kipling, whose arrival the papers 
 of the day before had announced. 
 
 I frankly confess that as the carriage turned the corner 
 I envied Mr. Kipling all he had acquired, and then drowsily 
 passed into a series of day-dreams and air-castle building, 
 little thinking what an important factor Mr. Kipling was 
 destined to become in helping me to get on in South Africa. 
 At nine o'clock I entrained for De Aar, four hundred miles 
 north, and gratefully found that my free pass included bed- 
 ding in a first-class compartment. 
 
 32 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 OFF TO THE FRONT. 
 
 EARLY the following morning I was awakened by the 
 guard calling us to breakfast. The train had stopped 
 at Matjesfontein, and while the other passengers went into 
 the station restaurant, I opened a package of lunch I had 
 provided for myself and ate alone. Then I walked up and 
 down the long platform, smoking a cigar and watching the 
 other passengers, the Tommies on guard, and the officers 
 idling about, until, after three-quarters of an hour's wait, 
 the train moved on again. 
 
 As the sun ascended higher the day grew warmer, and 
 one by one the other passengers in my compartment 
 divested themselves of their coats, waistcoats and shirts, 
 and we sat as though in a hot oven, the wind blowing in 
 through the open windows as a blast from a furnace. The 
 train ran along drearily about fifteen miles an hour. We 
 were in the great Karroo desert. On each side of the 
 track the country stretched flat, dry and grey, the only 
 vegetation being a few dried-up bushes. Now and then 
 we rattled over a bridge crossing the dry bed of a small 
 stream or river. At each of these places there was a 
 little camp with a company or so of soldiers on guard, for 
 a rising in the colony was feared, and the first move 
 would be to blow up all the railway bridges. Far away 
 on the horizon the faint outHnes of mountains could be 
 seen, shining whitely in the sun against the grey-blue back- 
 ground. Then towards afternoon we passed a few conical 
 kopjes, which soon increased in number and size until for 
 3 53 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 several hours we were passing through a canyon like 
 that of the Colorado, with just such a small river running 
 alongside. As evening closed in, it grew cold and 
 chilly. 
 
 At daylight next morning the train was standing still, 
 and I was told we had arrived at De Aar, which Kipling 
 has said is ** the land of lies." De Aar is a railway junc- 
 tion, contains a handsome station between the parallel 
 tracks, and is surrounded by half a hundred or more small 
 houses, mostly built of corrugated sheet-iron. A few 
 
 Boer Farm in Cape Colony, near Cape Town. 
 
 thousand troops were camped about the outskirts of the 
 village, and the entire country was buried ankle-deep in a 
 fine, powdery dust, slightly alkaline. Not a blade of grass 
 was to be seen. A few trees shaded the fronts of most of 
 the houses, but they were white with this same fine dust, 
 which penetrated every portion of car, house and station ; 
 crept into one's baggage, sifted into food at meals, lined 
 our collars and got inside our clothes ; intruded its pres- 
 ence into every inappropriate place ; made men profane and 
 dirty, and altogether stamped itself irrevocably on our 
 
 34 
 
OFF TO THE FRONT 
 
 memories as being "khaki," which in truth is an Eastern 
 word whose translation is "dirt." 
 
 Stepping out of the car, I was addressed by an officer 
 with a request for my pass. On producing my Hcense I 
 was directed to the commandant's office, where that gen- 
 tleman informed me that I should have continued south- 
 ward with the rest of the train, which had left my car 
 standing on a siding at midnight. I told him I intended 
 
 The veteran War Correspondent and Artist, Frederick Villiers, of the " Illus- 
 trated London News," and Artist F. Wilkinson, of the Sydney ** Daily 
 Telegraph," at De Aar, base of supplies for Lord Methuen, Cape Colony. 
 
 to go on to Modder River, and he replied that my license 
 was made out for General Gatacre's army, and that only 
 the commanding officer at Modder River could give me 
 permission to proceed thence. As this was the column 
 attempting to relieve Kimberley, and I was anxious to see 
 the camp and meet the correspondents there, I wired at 
 once. Late that afternoon I received a courteous reply, 
 regretting the General's inability to comply with my re- 
 
 35 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 quest. Meanwhile, in possession of a twenty-four-hours' 
 pass to remain at De Aar, issued by the commandant, I 
 wandered about the town. Being forbidden to visit the 
 camps, the only places of interest, in despair I went to 
 church for half an hour. 
 
 But it was too hot to stay there, so I left the sweltering 
 congregation of civilians, with a few officers, and went to 
 the only hotel in the place. On the way I heard a man 
 say, ''There goes Villiers, the war correspondent." I im- 
 mediately asked him to point out Villiers to me, and a 
 minute later introduced myself to that gentleman. A more 
 courteous reception I have never had. I accepted his in- 
 vitation to dinner, and spent the rest of the day with him 
 and Mr. Wilkinson, another artist, from Australia. Mr. 
 Villiers gave me lots of advice, gleaned from his twenty 
 years of experience ; prominent among which, as he helped 
 me a third time to meat, was, '* You never know when you 
 will get your next meal in this business, so make it a point 
 to always eat two or three at once when you get the 
 chance, so as to have a few stored away in case of need." 
 By following this advice during the following months I 
 maintained my strength and health, while a dozen or more 
 of my companions collapsed under the strain, and either 
 spent weeks in the hospital or were forced to retire from 
 the field altogether. 
 
 That evening I slept on a pile of hospital bedding at the 
 station, and the guard woke me at two o'clock to take the 
 train to Naauport Junction, another hundred miles away, 
 southeast. From this point I had hoped to get a train to 
 Sterkstrom, a hundred miles farther east ; but as the Boers 
 had destroyed the railway, I was compelled to go on nearly 
 two hundred miles farther south to Graham's Town, where 
 a post-cart crossed the desert to King William's Town, 
 the beginning of a branch connecting with the railway run- 
 
 36 
 
OFF TO THE FRONT 
 
 ning from East London on the coast to General Gatacre's 
 headquarters. 
 
 Arriving at Graham's Town in the evening, the length of 
 my journey being about that of from Paris to Rome, I 
 quickly found a respectable boarding-house, where I spent 
 the night. In the morning I made inquiries, and found 
 that the post-cart only ran once or twice a week, that the 
 charge was three pounds, that the distance was eighty-five 
 miles, and that people had been known to '' walk it." 
 After calling at the local newspaper offices I had a 
 luncheon prepared, and at four o'clock in the afternoon 
 started on my tramp with a small bundle. 
 
 The road led out of town over a high hill. To my sur- 
 prise, on reaching its summit, I found myself on a level 
 plain of fine turf, with a few herds of cattle scattered about. 
 The next eight miles was ideal golfing ground. Then I 
 noticed the road turned to the left, while the telegraph line 
 ran across country and over a hill. Judging that it would 
 come back to the road, I followed the wires, and after half 
 an hour saw the road again. A mile or so away was a 
 building, presumably a hotel. I was in a large field en- 
 closed by wire fencing. A few ostriches were walking 
 about. Suddenly a huge black fellow spied me, and after 
 a moment's hesitation started toward me with a ridiculous 
 dancing gait. I promptly made for the fence, reaching it 
 just in time, with the bird stamping furiously close behind. 
 Diving through the wires, I picked myself up and made a 
 few sarcastic remarks to his lordship, which he evidently 
 failed to appreciate. When I reached the road again I de- 
 cided not to take any more short cuts. The ostrich, with 
 its horn-like front toe, has been known to completely dis- 
 embowel a man ; and the cocks, especially at this, the 
 hatching time, are very dangerous. 
 
 After a glass of milk at the hotel I continued my walk 
 
 17 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 in the dark for another ten miles, the last two of which were 
 down a continuous slope between high mountains, called 
 Pluto's Vale, the scene of an extremely bloody native war 
 many years before. 
 
 Then, being tired, and the moon being heavily obscured 
 by dark clouds, I stepped aside a few yards into the bush, 
 and with my bundle for a pillow lay down for a fev/ hours' 
 sleep. Toward daylight I was awakened by the rumbling 
 of wagon-wheels, and, jumping up, saw a heavy cart passing. 
 
 Pluto's Vale, Scene of a Bloody Native War. 
 mile walk. 
 
 A bit of an eighty-nine- 
 
 drawn by ten span of bullocks. Running after it, I climbed 
 in behind, made friends with the Kaffir in charge, gave 
 him some tobacco, and continued my sleep on a pile of 
 empty sacks, which poorly broke the terrific jolting over 
 the stony road. 
 
 In three hours the cart stopped, the driver outspanned 
 his bullocks, turning them loose to graze near a small rain- 
 pond, and I set out walking again. By keeping this up, 
 alternately sleeping on bullock carts and walking, I man- 
 
 38 
 
OFF TO THE FRONT 
 
 aged to make forty- five miles the first day. Stopping at a 
 hotel, I ordered a heavy meal, and found, to my surprise, a 
 tennis court and several very pretty colonial girls of dis- 
 tinct English type, well educated, and dressed in a style 
 only a year behind that of London. Then I continued on, 
 as before. 
 
 Three mountain ranges and two rivers were crossed. 
 Hotels were passed every twenty miles. Watering places 
 
 General Gatacre welcoming General Brabant on nis arrival at Sterkstrom. 
 
 were ten to fifteen miles apart, and sometimes I grew very 
 thirsty before they were reached. The brush was thick 
 with cactus and thorn-bush. A few ostrich farms were 
 scattered about, but for the most part the road trailed care- 
 lessly through fenceless wastes over which some colonics 
 of baboons occasionally scampered. Tennis courts were 
 at every hotel, and I was told the farmers from twenty miles 
 about gather at these, with their women, every Saturday 
 
 39 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 afternoon, oddly contrasting with the surrounding wilder- 
 ness. I met the post-cart from King William's Town, a huge 
 two-wheeled affair seating six persons, and drawn by four 
 horses at a gallop. With frequent relays, the cart makes 
 the trip in one day. I kept going day and night, toward 
 the end of the journey reaching a railway in course of con- 
 struction, and obtaining a lift for nine miles on a construc- 
 tion train, thus arriving at my destination within two days 
 and four hours after starting. I calculated that by walk- 
 ing I had lost a day and gained three pounds sterling. 
 A train for the main line left within an hour of my ar- 
 
 «aiisi||pM» 
 
 Divine vServices Sunday Morning at General Gatacre's Headquarters at 
 Sterkstrom. Civilian visitors in the foreground. 
 
 rival, and by noon the next day, without further adventure, 
 I arrived at Sterkstrom, General Gatacre's headquarters, 
 twenty miles from Stormberg, from which Gatacre had 
 conducted a '' masterly retreat," after losing six hundred 
 men, a month before. Captain Tennant, intelligence officer 
 for the Third Division, acting Press Censor, countersigned 
 my license, and at last I was a full-fledged war correspondent, 
 with liberty to roam as I pleased throughout the district 
 commanded by General Gatacre. 
 
 Captain Tennant introduced me to two other correspond- 
 ents, Mr. Sheldon, of the " Cape Argus," and Mr. Swallow, 
 of the ''Central News Company" and the "New York 
 
 40 
 
OFF TO THE FRONT 
 
 Journal." He was an Australian, and had spent some 
 years in America. 
 
 I have always found that a foreigner who has been in 
 the United States is quite a different man from his coun- 
 trymen who have not had that advantage. He is invaria- 
 bly more open-hearted, generous in feeling and sympathetic, 
 and has acquired the belief of our glorious West that, after 
 all, beneath clothes and caste all men are brothers. So I 
 indulged in confidences with Swallow which would have 
 damned me if told to any of the English officers or corre- 
 spondents. As a result of this conference, Swallow advised 
 me to temporarily enlist in a company of mounted scouts, 
 where I would be lodged and provided for, and also draw 
 pay of four or five pounds per month, incidentally having 
 ample time and opportunity to gather material and to do 
 some writing. 
 
 
 . J 
 
 Consul General Colonel James G. Stowe and family at his residence in the 
 suburbs of Cape Town, Consular Secretary Miller standing. 
 
 41 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 A ''SOLDIER OF THE QUEEN " FOR ONE DAY ONLY. 
 
 THE prospect of joining Captain De Montmorency's 
 scouts was very seductive. The Captain, who is a 
 V. C. man, has a reputation for being in every fight which 
 comes off. The insignia of the company — a white skull 
 and crossbones on a black field — is sufficiently suggestive 
 to make comment superfluous. I met the Captain at the 
 Press Censor's tent, and after a short talk I wanted to enter 
 service under him. To be sure, it would be somewhat 
 risky, but that was a small matter in comparison to the 
 "copy" I should be able to obtain while out scouting, 
 commandeering Boer horses, and being at the front in every 
 battle or skirmish. Then, too, how fine a thing it would 
 be to go home with the big sombrero, death's-head ribbon 
 and black ostrich- feather on my head ! There was also the 
 five shillings per diem pay, which was increased to ten 
 shillings if the volunteer furnished his own horse. All of 
 this and much more was presented to me in an alluring 
 light by the eloquent friend of the Captain, who was helping 
 him recruit and who had suggested the matter to me. 
 
 The result of my interview with the Captain was that in 
 the afternoon I visited the scouts' camp to be taken on trial 
 for a day or so. The qualifications were ''an ability to 
 ride and shoot well, and to speak both Dutch and Kaffir." 
 The last two were to be waived, provided I would pass the 
 first two. About five o'clock an orderly came up and said, 
 " Captain says you can have his horse now if you want to 
 ride." I had made this request earlier in order to ride 
 
 42 
 
"A SOLDIER OF THE QUEEN " 
 
 around the camp. While the orderly was tightening the 
 
 saddle-girths I made a few inquiries, and learned that 
 
 *' the horse was as quiet and gentle as a lamb," and I made 
 
 the reflection to myself that the lamb referred to was likely 
 
 a very old and irascible gentleman. I mounted, and then, 
 
 trying to look as though I really could '' ride a tiger if 
 
 necessary," as I had assured the Captain I could, I 
 
 gathered the reins in my hand and said " Get up." The 
 
 brute stood still, and some one laughed. I tried again ; 
 
 the Captain suggested 
 
 that I dig my " heels 
 
 into the horse's side." 
 
 I did so, without effect. 
 
 Then a lieutenant of- 
 
 ered me his spurs, and 
 
 I dismounted to put 
 
 them on. When again 
 
 in the saddle I used the 
 
 spurs. 
 
 The pony did buck a 
 little ; then he ran a 
 mile or two out across 
 the veldt, coming 
 
 around in a circle and hoofing for camp, where he stopped 
 so quickly that I slid half way up his neck. As I went to 
 my tent I overheard one man say, ''Well, he stayed on 
 him, anyway," and I felt duly gratified by the compliment. 
 
 The next morning we were roused at half-past four, and 
 all of us washed in one bucket of water. My turn was 
 not the first on the list. Then we were ordered *' out for 
 drill." I took my place at the end of the line, and when 
 fours were counted I found my number to be *'one." The 
 order '' Column fours, trot !" was given, and I took my 
 place at the tail of the column alone. An officer shouted 
 
 43 
 
 Death' s-Head P'lag of Montmorency's 
 Scouts. "The Death or Glory Boys" 
 under General Gatacre. 
 
WITH " BOBS " AND KRUGER 
 
 " Move up ahead of the next four," and I tried to do so, 
 but found that the new horse objected. The order was re- 
 peated, but not carried out. The Captain rode up and 
 asked what was the matter. I replied that my number was 
 '' one " at the end of the Hne, and that I intended to fall in 
 behind the column alone. '* Quite right," said the Captain, 
 and rode off, leaving me in triumph, all through the intelli- 
 gence of my steed, while the other officers quite ignored 
 the whole affair. Some one handed me a tent-peg, and by 
 its aid I got my animal into motion when the column ad- 
 vanced. Through the remainder of the drill I managed 
 all right, and was even advanced to the position of number 
 three, first fours, to take the place of another unfortunate, 
 who, too, was incompetent. My number here became 
 three, and my duty was to hold the horses of the others 
 when they dismounted to fire. When this occurred I 
 found the horse of an officer also on my hands, and the 
 whole five nearly stampeded with me. However, I kept 
 them together, and finally imagined myself a very Autome- 
 don. 
 
 After some more manoeuvring the Captain ordered the 
 new men *' to fall out to the right," and I intuitively knew 
 that the supreme test was about to come. There were half 
 a dozen of us, and the Captain ordered the nearest one to 
 ride out across the veldt as hard as he could go, pass 
 around a bullock-cart half a mile distant, and come back. 
 I fell back a little, raised my stirrups two holes, and waited. 
 I was next to the last, and at the signal from the Captain I 
 thwacked my noble steed's flanks with my tent-peg, and he 
 broke into a gallop. '' Faster!" I heard the Captain shout, 
 and I struck the animal on the neck, and the easy gallop 
 quickly became a dead run. I was nearing the bullock- 
 cart ; the animal, in response to a pull on the right rein, in- 
 tended to navigate him around the cart, intelligently turned 
 
 44 
 
" A SOLDIER OF THE QUEEN '' 
 
 to the left, veered around in a semicircle, and headed for 
 camp. I jerked the curb rein, which resulted in a very pe- 
 culiar motion of his hind-quarters ; then I gently slid off, 
 but instead of alighting on my feet I rolled over on my 
 back. I explained to the Captain that the hobnails in my 
 shoes interfered with the free movement of my feet in the 
 stirrups, and also that a scout had warned me to use only 
 the curb bit, which was evidently a mistake ; but he only 
 smiled indulgently, and dryly observed, '* I am afraid 
 you do not understand these South African horses, you 
 know." I had previously told the Captain that I could ride 
 better than I could shoot ; so I realized that once more 
 cruel fate had tricked me into hopeful anticipations, and 
 that again I was a victim of blasted ambition. The above 
 narrative will, I hope, sufficiently explain why, instead of 
 being a *' scout," with a black ostrich-feather in my hat 
 and the death's-head hat-band, with five-bob a day, looking 
 for a good horse to commandeer and raise it to ten-bob, 
 with a possible V. C. in the future, I continued to be only 
 an ordinary war correspondent, attached to the headquarters 
 staff. 
 
 45 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 AN ARMORED TRAIN RECONNOISSANCE. 
 
 THROUGH the courtesy of Captain Tennant I received 
 a pass from General Gatacre to accompany the officer 
 in charge of the armored train during a reconnoissance. 
 This was an exceptional favor, as the armored train is con- 
 sidered a veritable death-trap, and the English army takes 
 particular care not to allow correspondents accompanying 
 its forces in the field to come to harm. 
 
 At about 9 A.M. Lieutenant Cosset, in command of the 
 train, signalled the engineer to ** go ahead." Captain Ten- 
 nant, divisional intelligence officer, turned up at the last 
 moment, unexpectedly, to accompany us, which was lucky 
 for me, as he was able to point out many places of interest 
 while Lieutenant Cosset was occupied with his duties. 
 
 It was not until we had started that I learned our direc- 
 tion, orders being delivered at the last moment. This cau- 
 tion was necessary, for the reason that Sterkstrom was a 
 hotbed of rebel sympathizers, who, if possible, would warn 
 the enemy of the armored train's prospective movements. 
 Just before starting I took a photograph of the front end 
 of the train, with the Maxim gun showing at the port hole ; 
 I was not allowed to photograph the interior. The engine 
 and tender were encased in heavy armor-plate, and sand- 
 wiched between two ordinary box-cars protected in the 
 same way. A four-inch aperture for observation and rifle- 
 firing purposes extended entirely around both cars near the 
 top, while sliding doors of armor-plate protected the Maxim 
 guns. 
 
 46 
 
AN ARMORED TRAIN RECONNOISSANCE 
 
 The train's force included about thirty men, in addition 
 to the engine crew, who were non-combatants. I had ex- 
 pected that we would proceed eastward on the Indine line 
 towards Dordrecht, but to my satisfaction, as we moved out 
 of Sterkstrom, Lieutenant Cosset whispered *' Molteno " 
 in my ear. This was in the direction of Stormberg, where 
 the battle of that name occurred on December lo, 1899, 
 and Gatacre was defeated with the loss of six hundred men. 
 For the first fifteen miles we were to act as escort to the 
 regular daily passenger train which went as far as Cypher- 
 
 Front View of Arnioied Iraiu Showing Lieutenant Cosset Signalling 
 from Molteno to Cyphergat. 
 
 gat, six miles this side of Molteno. Everything went 
 smoothly until the heavy grade up Bushman's Hoek was 
 reached, where the train came to a standstill until the pas- 
 senger engine behind came to its assistance and pushed us 
 to the summit. 
 
 The run on to Cyphergat, three miles farther, occupied 
 only a few minutes. Lieutenant Cosset stopped for addi- 
 tional orders, after which he, with his signal corps, mounted 
 the roof of the car to exchange signals with an outpost on 
 a kopje three miles distant. In ten minutes we were under 
 
 47 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 way again, going more slowly until we reached Police 
 Carnp, the most advanced outpost, about four miles farther 
 on. From here our progress was very slow, for, though 
 the track had been constantly patroled, caution was neces- 
 sary until Molteno came into view, and we saw the station- 
 master waving a white flag, which showed that at that point 
 at least the line was clear. We then steamed at a more 
 rapid rate to the station, where the two officers and I left 
 the train for dinner at the station restaurant. 
 
 Captain Tennant, who had some important matter in 
 hand, left us here, while Lieutenant Cosset and myself or- 
 dered dinner. Molteno was neutral territory. The residents 
 were Boer sympathizers, while the British scouts patroled 
 the town constantly. The nearest Boer outpost was about 
 five miles beyond, while from the high kopjes at Stormberg, 
 the enemy's main camp, a full view of the entire country 
 back to Molteno was to be had. Captain Tennant joined us 
 in half an hour, and while we were still eating, an orderly 
 entered with a heliograph despatch for him. After reading 
 it he gave us three minutes to finish eating our eggs ; then 
 we ran out and jumped into the armored train. The Cap- 
 tain, of course, being ranking officer, took command, and 
 ordered, *' Stand by with rifles ready, in case of accident." 
 The sentries on a kopje behind Molteno had observed about 
 forty Boers creeping up the side of a kopje several miles 
 beyond, and in the direction of Stormberg. The informa- 
 tion was signalled back to camp, and then heliographed to 
 Molteno, while a detachment of about twenty of the Cape 
 mounted police was sent out to intercept them. The doors 
 of the armored train were closed and fastened on the in- 
 side, and we crept on slowly — about as slowly as a man 
 would walk. The officers swept the country with their 
 field-glasses, occasionally ordering some of the men to 
 keep their eyes on certain spots. 
 
 48 
 
AN ARMORED TRAIN RECONNOISSANCE 
 
 The mounted men were galloping off a mile to our right, 
 toward the position of the enemy. Lieutenant Cosset was 
 carefully watching the track to guard against accident. The 
 Boers had a special hatred for the armored train with its 
 murderous Maxims, and they constantly tampered with the 
 track, spreading the rails, laying mines, and in a hundred 
 clever ways prepared traps, always endeavoring to leave a 
 harmless appearance in order to lead the train into an am- 
 buscade. About a mile and a half out of Molteno, a spot on 
 which I was keeping my glasses fixed developed into a mov- 
 ing object. The sharp eyes of the Captain disentangled the 
 mass into a small body of horsemen riding furiously away. 
 
 Fortified Station Building near Cyphergat, at Bushman's Hoek. 
 
 This was on the left ; the expected attack was to come from 
 the right. On both sides single horsemen were to be seen 
 riding at full speed, while from the tops of the kopjes on both 
 sides we expected to hear the shrill screams of shells from 
 the enemy's concealed batteries, if they were willing to thus 
 disclose their position. We moved on, every man hoping 
 to discover a body of the enemy within rifle or Maxim 
 range. It was my first experience on a man-hunt, and pro- 
 portionately superior to the excitement of hunting game, 
 as man is superior to any beast. After another mile the 
 patrol turned sharply to the right, leaving the train at their 
 rear. We waited another half hour, and then, as they 
 no longer needed our support, retired to Molteno. It was 
 4 49 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 not until then that I reaHzed the strain to which we had 
 been subjected. Thoroughly fatigued, I threw myself down 
 to rest. The officers and men, to whom this was an every- 
 day experience, smiled at me, but not disparagingly. 
 
 Then we returned to Police Camp, where I accompanied 
 Captain Tennant to the quarters of the advance scouts on 
 top of a kopje half a mile from the railway. From here a 
 
 commandin 
 
 q: view 
 
 of the neighboring country was to be 
 
 Major Nylen, Cape Mounted Police, and Captain Tennant, Third Divisional 
 Intelligence Officer and Press Censor, Heliographing from Cyphergat to 
 Sterkstrom. The mirror reflecting the sun's rays can flash signals eighty 
 miles. The Morse telegraphic code is used. 
 
 had, and the Captain pointed out the more important stra- 
 tegical features to me. 
 
 On the return trip we slipped down the heavy grade from 
 Bushman's Hoek, where a complete horseshoe-curve skirts 
 the edge of a steep embankment. As the train flew along 
 the narrow-gauge track, rounding sharp curves at great 
 speed, it seemed that it must leave the track and crash down 
 the mountain side. Indeed, I felt so sure that this would 
 happen that I kept myself braced against the side of the 
 car, so as to relieve the force of the fall when it came. Of 
 
 50 
 
AN ARMORED TRAIN RECONNOISSANCE 
 
 course nothing happened. Lieutenant Cosset fully knew 
 what he was about, but for all that I was glad to reach 
 Sterkstrom camp again and leave the train. 
 
 At this time General Gatacre was much broken in spirit, 
 and, in the opinion of those who had known him a long 
 while, a greatly changed man. Captain Tennant discouraged 
 any interviewing, and so it happened I never came into per- 
 sonal contact with the General other than by a mere formal 
 introduction, which he acknowledged without comment. 
 Among the officers, 
 correspondents and 
 soldiers, however, 
 I found that he was 
 highly esteemed as 
 an officer and a gen- 
 tleman. The Tom- 
 mies spoke affection- 
 ately of him as "the 
 old man." He had 
 the reputation of 
 working his men 
 very hard ; yet, it 
 was always said, 
 " no harder than he 
 himself worked." All sympathized deeply with him in 
 the disgrace which had attended his reverse at Stormberg 
 and after his dismissal, when the five Irish companies were 
 captured at Edenberg and the blame was wrongly laid on 
 his shoulders, he being made a scapegoat to satisfy the 
 public clamor in England ; everyone acquainted with the 
 facts was loudly indignant, for his failure to relieve the 
 Irish companies was said to be entirely due to orders being 
 sent to him direct, from Lord Roberts, to remain where he 
 was, until it was too late. Months after, when I had become 
 
 51 
 
 General Gatacre reads a Despatch. 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 a guest of the Boer army, I heard an interesting tale about 
 his reverse at Stormberg. General Oliver was his oppo- 
 nent. Had General Gatacre marched half an hour longer, 
 on that disastrous night, instead of retreating, he would 
 have reached an impregnable position unoccupied by the 
 Boers, which would have separated General Oliver from 
 the rest of his army. Oliver's retreat would have been cut 
 off, and he would have been forced to surrender to General 
 Gatacre. The failure to do this ruined General Gatacre's 
 reputation and shattered his health. This is a striking in- 
 stance of how an accidental decision the wrong way at a 
 critical time diverted victory from the British and gave it to 
 the Boers, and is one of many instances which has made 
 South Africa *' the graveyard of reputations." 
 
 During my stay at Sterkstrom I had the pleasure of 
 accompanying the Deputy Secretary of Agriculture of 
 Canada, Mr. W. B. Scarth, and his party, including Captain 
 Martyr of the steamship Montauk and the Misses Scarth. 
 The party had sailed from Boston with a load of Canadian 
 hay — a gift from the colony to the Imperial army. Arriv- 
 ing at East London, they went to the front in a special car, 
 and I met them at Molteno, the most advanced outpost of 
 Gatacre's command, on the scouting line. 
 
 On another occasion I made the fifteen-hour journey by 
 rail from Sterkstrom to East London, Cape Colony, and 
 courted certain sea-sickness for the purpose of going out on 
 the tug to the steamship Moor, to meet Consul Hay on his 
 way to Pretoria. The Consul promised to get me out of 
 prison if I was captured, and I took a snap-shot of him, which 
 I had the pleasure of presenting to him personally in Pretoria 
 five months later, a few hours before Lord Roberts' occupa- 
 tion of that city. After two weeks at Sterkstrom, during 
 w^hich I made repeated trips to East London, it began to 
 dawn on me that General Gatacre was not to be allowed to 
 
 52 
 
AN ARMORED TRAIN RECONNOISSANCE 
 
 take any further active part in the war, and that the wily 
 Press Censor at Cape Town had bested me, after all, by 
 sidetracking me to this point, while the real campaign was 
 to take place under Lord Roberts' personal supervision 
 from Modder River. So I decided to bid farewell to my 
 new friends, being especially sorry to leave the courteous 
 Censor, Captain Tennant, who was afterward taken prisoner 
 
 Kaffir Worknien passing through Graham's Town, badly frightening the inhab- 
 itants, who mistook the band for a hostile Boer commando. 
 
 at Edenberg, and I started again for the Cape, repeating 
 my eighty-five-mile walk — being less fortunate in getting 
 lifts, and one night straying from the road in the darkness 
 and rain, becoming hopelessly lost, and being compelled to 
 sleep until morning in the wet, when, after considerable dif- 
 ficulty, I found the road again and continued my walk to 
 Graham's Town. 
 
 So ended my connection with the Third Army Division 
 
 53 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 in South Africa, which from its many misfortunes, dating 
 from Stormberg and continuing thereafter, affecting almost 
 every officer attached to it, came to be generally spoken 
 of, in the words of Kipling's ''Gentlemen Rovers," as "the 
 legion of the lost," or ''the cohorts of the damned." 
 
 By this time I had begun to doubt the likelihood of the 
 American papers doing anything to help me financially, 
 
 although I could not expect 
 any answer for a week or 
 more. I had succeeded in 
 spending all of my money but 
 fourpence. However, as I 
 had two large pieces of bag- 
 gage, I did not hesitate to go 
 into debt to my landlady at 
 Graham's Town. But I real- 
 ized that something must be 
 done to properly finance my- 
 self in case remittances failed 
 to arrive a week later. 
 
 I called on Messrs. Grocott 
 
 and Sherry, proprietors of the 
 
 " Penny Mail," at Graham's 
 
 Town, and had a long talk 
 
 with them. They agreed to 
 
 correspond with half a dozen 
 
 other colonial papers, with a view of their collectively 
 
 taking special service from me as their correspondent at 
 
 the front. 
 
 The plan was that each member of the syndicate was 
 to pay five pounds per month for the service, which would 
 mean thirty for me, or one hundred and fifty dollars. Mr. 
 Grocott gave me a letter of authorization to represent his 
 paper and a few letters of introduction. By this "deal" I 
 
 54 
 
 The Author a month after arrival in 
 South Africa. Two weeks on 
 eight cents, and no prospects. 
 
AN ARMORED TRAIN RECONNOISSANCE 
 
 secured the credentials I had hoped to get from America, 
 and which I needed to back up my license. But the money 
 was still a long way off, for the different members of the syn- 
 dicate insisted that I should send my daily despatches from 
 Lord Roberts' headquarters ; and I must by some means 
 procure a transfer from General Gatacre to the Field 
 Marshal's Staff in order to do this, which the advent of 
 Lord Kitchener had made practically impossible. 
 
 However, I decided to make the attempt ; and with my 
 letters and credentials, my fourpence in cash, and a pack- 
 age of lunch put up by my landlady, kind-hearted Mrs. 
 Kent, who knew nothing of my affairs except that the local 
 paper had noticed that her guest was a *' distinguished 
 American war correspondent," I started back on the two- 
 day railway journey for Cape Town via the khaki-cursed 
 De Aar, which the green and pleasant camp at Sterkstrom 
 made doubly hideous by comparison. 
 
 55 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 BEGINNING ALL OVER AGAIN. 
 
 MEANWHILE I had telegraphed to the Chief Press 
 Censor, but had received no reply. Expecting this, 
 I hurried on to Cape Town. There I hunted up the Gra- 
 ham's Town representative in the Cape Parliament, who,, 
 fortunately, was strongly loyal, showed him Mr. Grocott's 
 letter, and was introduced by him to Sir Gordon Sprigg, 
 ex-Premier of Cape Colony, and the leader of the loyal 
 party in that body. I persuaded Sir Gordon to write a 
 letter for me to the Press Censor, requesting the addition 
 of the Graham's Town *' Mail " to my license, and that it 
 be made general. On presenting this at the Censor's office, 
 I found that Major Bagot was in charge, having super- 
 seded Major Evans, who had sent me to Sterkstrom. 
 Major Bagot, one of the suavest men I ever met, betrayed 
 by his manner of refusal that he had no power to act. The 
 newly appointed Chief Censor, Lord Stanley, had gone on 
 to Modder River with Lord Roberts, for the advance from 
 that point was about to begin. 
 
 Major Bagot would not even give me a pass to go to 
 Modder River to see Lord Stanley, so I entrained for that 
 point without it. Of course, at De Aar I was arrested by 
 the guard, so I forwarded Sir Gordon's letter, together with 
 a personal note, to headquarters, by a friendly officer, who 
 was on his way to that point. No answer came to this ; so 
 after waiting a day at De Aar I went on to Graham's Town 
 again, saw Mr. Grocott, got a new letter addressed to the 
 Chief Censor, and started back for the Cape by way of 
 
 56 
 
BEGINNING ALL OVER AGAIN 
 
 De Aar — a proceeding equivalent to having gone from 
 London to Berlin, finding that a letter had been misplaced, 
 going back to London to get it, and immediately returning 
 to Berlin. On reaching De Aar I found my letters and 
 telegrams to Modder River still unanswered, and so did not 
 stop. Of course, by this time my fourpence had been ex- 
 tirely exhausted. I had sold my camera for two pounds 
 ten shillings, and spent most of the money. Mr. Grocott 
 had kindly advanced me more money after hearing the 
 surprising statement that I had lived for eight days on eight 
 cents. Of course the railways furnished my sleeping ac- 
 commodations during this time, and for meals I depended 
 on lunches and casual invitations to dinner from the many 
 friends I was continually making. Arriving at Cape Town 
 the second time, I asked Sir Gordon Sprigg for another 
 letter, this time to the highest authority at Cape Town, 
 General Forrestier Walker. Presenting this at the Castle, 
 General Walker gave me a note to Major Bagot, ask- 
 ing that Sir Gordon's request be complied with. The 
 Censor relaxed sufficiently at this to add the Graham's 
 Town *' Mail " to my license ; but as for advancing me to 
 Modder River, all I could induce him to do was to send 
 the following telegram to Lord Stanley, Chief Censor with 
 Lord Roberts : 
 
 ** Unger, American press correspondent, also represent- 
 ing Graham's Town paper, recommended by Sir Gordon 
 Sprigg through General Forrestier Walker ; desires to pro- 
 ceed to Modder River. Signed, Bagot, Major, P. C. 
 (Press Censor)." With my customary modesty, I had no 
 doubt that this would result in an invitation from Lord 
 Roberts to be his personal guest during the rest of the 
 campaign. I told my friends that I was going on to the 
 Modder, wired the same to Graham's Town, and received a 
 congratulatory telegram from the editor of that paper. 
 
 57 
 
WITH *'BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 Well, I waited all that day for Lord Stanley's reply, and as 
 evening drew near began to feel intuitively that I had 
 scored another failure. A deep fit of the ''blues " fastened 
 itself on me. I had less than thirty shillings left, all my 
 resources were exhausted, the time had passed for a reply 
 from America, and I realized that I could expect nothing 
 from that source — in short, I was " up against it," and 
 I knew it. The band was to play in the Municipal Gardens 
 that evening, and I walked up the long avenue until I found 
 myself at the Mount Nelson Hotel. 
 
 I knew Mr. Kipling was staying there, and the impulse 
 came over me to call on him. I sent in my card, and a few 
 minutes later found the greatest little man of all England 
 looking pleasantly at me with extended hand, saying, 
 
 "Well, what are you doing out here?" 
 
 I briefly told him of my aspiration to be a "youngster 
 jerked on at the end of a telegraph wire ;" and how, now 
 that I had failed, I was ready to attempt my last alternative 
 of getting captured by the Boers on my return to Sterk- 
 strom, and try my luck as a soldier of fortune in their 
 army. Mr. Kipling appeared much interested and said, 
 
 " I like your nerve ; but why don't you sink your 
 nationality and join one of our corps of rough riders or 
 scouts? There you'll get the real thing." 
 
 I replied that this would prevent my having the neces- 
 sary freedom of movement, and then suggested that he 
 take me with him as his secretary, servant, driver, or in any 
 capacity he could use me. Mr. Kipling hesitated a mo- 
 ment, and then put me through the most exhaustive ex- 
 amination I have ever had. Could I cook, pack a horse, 
 ride and drive, put up a tent, beg, borrow or steal forage, 
 tell the truth or lie if necessary, mind my own business and 
 never see or hear things not to be seen or heard ; was I 
 "discreet," and was I sure I would not "poison him with 
 
 58 
 
BEGINNING ALL OVER AGAIN 
 
 my cooking?" And then, when I told him that I was an 
 old Klondyker, he chopped his questions abruptly off with, 
 
 *' Oh, I guess if you've been over the Chilkoot you 
 have all the necessary qualifications." 
 
 My hopes by this time had reached the boiling-point, 
 and just as I expected him to say *'A11 right, I'll take you 
 with me," he said the other thing. 
 
 *' You see," he added, by way of explanation, " I could 
 never have a man in the same line as myself with me. You 
 would be using my material, and if you wouldn't, you 
 should — I would in your place ; in fact, I'd do anything to 
 secure a beat on anybody else." I heard him out patiently, 
 and then said, 
 
 *' But, Mr. Kipling, I hope you don't think for a mo- 
 ment that I am so foolish as to think myself in the same 
 class with you ?" 
 
 ** That's just where you make a mistake," he snapped 
 out energetically ; " you should think yourself every bit as 
 good as I, and make it your object to beat me at my own 
 game. You are a newspaper man, and out here to write 
 what you see, and that is all I'm doing. Keep yourself 
 thinking that you can do better than I can, and don't let 
 yourself think anything else, and perhaps then you will be 
 able to do so." Then after a pause for breath he added, 
 with a twinkle in his eye, "But I've got a pretty good 
 start on you, and don't intend to let you, or any one else, 
 catch up with me if I can help it." 
 
 The kindliness of his manner and the forcefulness of his 
 remarks were a powerful stimulant to me, and I felt fully 
 half a foot taller and more of a man in every way. As I 
 was deciding that I would follow his advice and try to beat 
 even the great Rudyard Kipling, he continued, '* No, I'm 
 no good for you ; but put your address on this card, and 
 I'll speak to a few fellows I know who might be able to 
 
 59 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 use you, and then let you know." Then he gave me a 
 hearty grasp of his hand, said *' Good luck to you," and I 
 walked back to my lodging-house as rich in optimism and 
 determination as any South African millionaire who has 
 ever passed out of the Mount Nelson Hotel in the good old 
 days before the war. 
 
 The Battlefield of Spionkop. This photograph has the unique distinction of 
 having been subjected to an attempted suppression by two Governments. 
 Representing the British dead on the field of Spionkop three days un- 
 buried, with pockets turned inside out and shoes taken off, the Boers did 
 not relish this evidence of their love of loot. On the other hand, being 
 evidences of the terrible slaughter inflicted on the English, Lord Roberts 
 ordered the confiscation and destruction of all plates and prints at Bloem- 
 fontein. Both Boer and British attempts at suppression failed, and a 
 large, surreptitious sale of the Spionkop pictures was carried on, at eight 
 shillings each. 
 
 I began to hope for a favorable reply from Modder River, 
 and the next morning took up my stand at the Censor's 
 office and spent the day there. Still no reply. Another 
 day passed in the same way, and as no word came from 
 Mr. Kipling either, I felt the blues coming on again. Mean- 
 
 60 
 
BEGINNING ALL OVER AGAIN 
 
 while the first report of General French's advance through 
 the Free State was handed out at the Censor's office, and 
 for ten minutes I fought like a tiger with half a dozen other 
 correspondents for the privilege of copying it, and then 
 rushed it off by wire to Graham's Town. Incidentally the 
 same message was sent by an agency in Cape Town, but 
 allowing for delay in recopying, I succeeded in getting my 
 message delivered ten minutes earlier, which gave '' The 
 Mail " a chance to issue its extra a few minutes before its 
 local rival, which was a member of the same agency. When 
 the excitement subsided I began to fret and worry to get 
 back to the front at once. So I tackled the Censor once 
 more, and got him to promise to forward the Modder River 
 reply to De Aar, so that I could proceed at least that far 
 on my journey and save precious time. I was now reduced 
 to just one pound sterling, and with a big package of lunch 
 entrained for the North again. 
 
 All that night, then all the following day, hot and dusty, 
 through the Great Karroo Desert, my fifth trip, and then 
 all night again, and I was at De Aar. Inquiries at the 
 Commandant's office found no message for me. At 9 
 A. M. the train left for Modder River, and as I had be- 
 come desperate, I managed to elude the guard and go 
 along. But, alas ! half-way, at Orange River, I was not 
 able to show satisfactory cause for being on the train, and 
 was promptly put under arrest and marched off to the 
 Commandant's office by a triumphant sergeant. Of course 
 I was not idiotic enough to allow that individual to do any 
 talking to the Commandant. I simply put on my most in- 
 jured and innocent air and began "to explain things." 
 After talking a while, the very polite officer said he was 
 sorry he did not have authority to allow me to go on to 
 the Modder River, but that I could telegraph to the Chief 
 of Staff there for the necessary permission. I grudged the 
 
 61 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 few paltry shillings this message cost me, especially as I 
 knew so well the uselessness of sending it ; but off it went, 
 for I did not dare allow my bluff to be " called" by not 
 doing so, and the very polite officer promptly censored it 
 himself to avoid delay. The reply, which I knew would 
 not come, could not be expected anyway for several hours, 
 so though I was nominally under arrest for the time being 
 I wandered away from the station, found the office of the 
 local chief of staff, and asked him to add the Orange River 
 District to my license. This he obligingly did, not think- 
 ing it would do me any good, and being, as the English 
 officer always is, a courteous gentleman. 
 
 However, in having the freedom of the Orange River 
 District I had made some progress, and when night came, 
 and still no message for me, I boarded a goods train and 
 went back to De Aar, where I hunted up a first-class car- 
 riage, with all its accommodations, took a bath and slept 
 the sleep of the just until morning, when I discovered that, 
 as usual, no message for ** Unger, American press corre- 
 spondent," had come yet. 
 
 Then I heard the news that Kimberley had been relieved, 
 with great vexation at having missed that show. Becoming 
 fully desperate, I took the morning train back to Orange 
 River, as was now my privilege, concealed myself in a top 
 bunk under a lot of baggage, and succeeded in passing the 
 guards at that place, although I was nearly suffocated for 
 five hours in the heat of the day, while the train waited. 
 At midnight we reached the long-sought Modder, where I 
 was to beard the lion Chief Censor in his den, and either 
 get what I wanted, or escape to the Boer lines, or be sent 
 back to Cape Town under a guard in disgrace, and de- 
 prived of my original license with all its privileges, includ- 
 ing my precious railroad pass. A guard came in to inspect 
 passes. I pretended to be asleep, and when awakened 
 
 62 
 
BEGINNING ALL OVER AGAIN 
 
 drowsily showed my Gatacre license. He took down a 
 name and told me to report to the Commandant in the 
 morning, then left me to another night's virtuous slumber. 
 
 In the morning I discovered that Lord Stanley had gone 
 on to Jacobsdal, with the headquarters staff and the army, 
 in pursuit of General Cronje. I called on the Commandant, 
 who referred me to the Chief of Staff, who, in turn, being 
 very busy and anxious to get rid of me, and assuming that 
 I had been there a long time as a correspondent, obligingly 
 complied with my request for a pass for the local outpost. 
 I was then ready to follow up the army to Bloemfontein, 
 always being '* on my way to see Lord Stanley " and care- 
 fully avoiding finding him, and was about to start out on 
 foot, trusting to Providence to find me horses later on. 
 How I was to keep on living on my remaining ten shil- 
 Hngs I did not like to think about, but would trust to luck. 
 Having had such a hard time so far, I was determined to 
 get to the worst of it as quickly as possible. 
 
 At this juncture I met Major Pollock, w^ho had repre- 
 sented the London ** Times" at Sterkstrom. He introduced 
 me to Mr. Amery, who was in charge of the entire '* Times" 
 staff of correspondents. They were discussing means of 
 getting their despatches from the army back to the Modder 
 River station telegraph office. They had several men in 
 view to carry them, but I did not allow that fact to pre- 
 vent my suggesting that they take me along for the pur- 
 pose. It did not strike them very forcibly at first, until 
 suddenly Mr. Amery turned to me and asked, 
 
 ** What is your name?" I answered him, and added 
 that I was an American correspondent. ** Why, you must 
 be the man Mr. Kipling was talking to me about," he 
 said. ''Can you come with us right away ?" I felt like 
 grabbing him about the neck, but instead maintained my 
 composure by a supreme effort, paused a moment, and then 
 
 63 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 hesitatingly replied, "Well, that will depend upon whether 
 it will interfere with my own work." After further ap- 
 propriate discussion I finally agreed with him that I could 
 write my weekly letters between times, and accepted his 
 offer of thirty pounds a month and all expenses, including 
 horses and transportation of my baggage. Nominally I 
 was a despatch rider, actually third on the list of the ten 
 ** Times " correspondents. As the regulations only allowed 
 "The Times" two regular representatives with Lord Roberts, 
 this arrangement gave them the advantage of having really 
 a third. 
 
 While still talking a sentry appeared, saluted, and ad- 
 dressing me as " General Gatacre," requested my presence 
 at the Commandant's office. I knew at once that the night 
 before the guard had taken that name from my license in 
 mistake for my own, and this looked as though my last 
 opportunity was to be snatched from me, when the truth 
 was learned that I had come to the front without permis- 
 sion. However, there was no help for it. Off I had to 
 go to the Commandant's office. There I explained the 
 mistake, and to my infinite relief the officer was so amused 
 at the guard's preposterous error that he quite forgot to 
 question me further. In four cases out of five I invariably 
 found my being an American correspondent predisposed 
 all the authorities in my favor, and fortunately this was one 
 of the four. Late that afternoon Mr. Amery and I rode 
 off towards Jacobsdal on two spirited little ponies, and 
 after we had passed the outposts and I was safe on the 
 wide, free veldt, where no questions were asked, I enter- 
 tained him with a rough narrative of my experiences in the 
 country up to the time when, thanks to Mr. Kipling, he 
 had decided that I was the "youngster" to be "jerked into 
 the business at the end of the Modder River telegraph 
 wire." 
 
 64 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE AFRIKANDERS AND THEIR FEELINGS. 
 
 DURING this first month I had travelled nearly two 
 thousand miles by rail and two hundred on foot, 
 covering all of the more thickly populated portion of Cape 
 Colony. Travelling first-class as the guest of the railway, 
 I spent days at a time with representative people of all sec- 
 tions, cooped up in narrow compartments, where tedium 
 enforced conversation between the most reserved strangers. 
 I was greatly impressed with the half-sullen gratification 
 with which the most loyal Afrikanders viewed the recent 
 reverses to the British forces at Magersfontein and at the 
 Tugela. 
 
 The Afrikander is the colonial-born descendant of British 
 or other foreign settlers who are not exactly Boers. The 
 word is to Africa what American is to America. For the 
 most part, the Afrikanders were thoroughly loyal to the 
 English cause ; yet the same feeling which brings forth a 
 child's triumphant '' I told you so " at a playmate's misfor- 
 tune, stirs up what I have called a " sullen gratification at 
 British disasters." 
 
 Being native to the country ; familiar with all its geo- 
 graphical, climatic and racial peculiarities ; having fought 
 side by side with the Boers in the many Kaffir, Basuto and 
 Zulu wars ; thoroughly understanding the jockey-like na- 
 ture of the Boer in business transactions ; fully appreci- 
 ating his bravery and military resourcefulness, being all 
 the while aware of the warlike preparations of the last three 
 years, and doing everything in their power to arouse the 
 5 65 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 government to take measures to avoid the coming conflict, 
 the Afrikanders could hardly be blamed for resenting the 
 slothful indifference of the home government to repeated 
 warnings of the state of things in the Transvaal and to the 
 disloyalty of the Cape Colony administrators, who were 
 party to the Afrikander Bond, an organization devoted to 
 the establishing of a United South African Republic. They 
 felt, too, a certain amount of satisfaction at the outcome, 
 which I repeatedly heard expressed as follows : '* Except 
 
 Behind the '* schantzes " at Spionkop. As they fell 
 
 for the poor fellows in the hospitals at Pretoria and those 
 left on the field, it serves the pig-headed English most jolly 
 right" Apropos of these defeats, over which all England 
 was so frantic, I heard a grey-headed old veteran of our 
 Civil War say, 
 
 " Why, these battles are only skirmishes. We lost 
 more men at Fredericksburg or Gettysburg than the total 
 number of men engaged on both sides in any of these 
 fights." 
 
 Even more impressive than the attitude of the Afrikanders 
 
 66 
 
AFRIKANDERS AND THEIR FEELINGS 
 
 were the many evidences of the fierce, unforgiving hatred, 
 amounting to abhorrence, of the Enghsh by the Colonial 
 Boers, scores of whom travelled on every train I was on. 
 The cause of this can only be understood after a careful 
 study of the history of South Africa from the time of its 
 settlement at the Cape by the Dutch, over two hundred 
 years ago. Condensed, it is simply a case of *'trek, trek, 
 trek," for the Boers, with the British taking up the lands 
 behind after each removal farther North. I will not attempt 
 to review the incidents, but will content myself with stating 
 as a fact, undisputed by either pro- or anti-Boer, that the 
 hatred and suspicion of all Dutch for everything English is 
 beyond measurement, and to an unbiased observer is simply 
 astounding. 
 
 In attempting to reach an understanding of its cause, I 
 was swamped in the flood of historical instances which 
 poured in upon me. For myself, it was enough that so 
 powerful a degree of national feeling, overwhelming in its 
 unanimity, could only arise from some powerful cause, 
 which, right or wrong, had touched the very hearts of the 
 whole people and aroused their strongest feelings and pas- 
 sions. The English-born Britisher, whether in the army 
 or in civil life, on discovering my nationality, made anxious 
 query concerning the attitude of the United States in this 
 war. They appeared to believe that England has Acnerica's 
 entire sympathy, yet they were in that condition of doubt 
 which needed continual confirmation of their hopes to sat- 
 isfy them. 
 
 There was something pathetic in this continual craving 
 of the Mother Country for the moral support, at least, of 
 her healthiest daughter. If it suited my purpose to assure 
 them that " America is all right," the assertion was unques- 
 tionably accepted with a half-sigh of relief, and I would be 
 offered a cigar, which was also accepted with a more pro- 
 
 67 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 found sigh of relief on my part ; for the condition of my 
 expenses at this time very nearly resulted in putting my 
 wits on the bias. 
 
 I met a great many Boers, and had many opportunities of 
 conversation. They were hard to draw out, as I could not 
 speak Dutch; and, as the country was supposedly infested 
 with spies, they were intensely suspicious. However, the 
 recent diasters to the Imperial forces gave me ample op- 
 portunity to speak of British blunders and losses in their 
 presence, and the expression of their faces, together with 
 the things they left unsaid, told me that the Dutch to a 
 man were for the Republics. Occasionally I met with a 
 Dutchman whose business interests were identical with those 
 of the British cause. In the case of one old fellow, who 
 was handling large army contracts, with whom I travelled 
 on one occasion, the nature of his inquiries, together with 
 an expression of face which showed intention to conceal 
 expression, told me plainly that his heart was with his 
 brother Boers. The uneducated Duch are always very 
 suspicious of any one who speaks English, and I was un- 
 able to extract much information from that class. How- 
 ever, a judicious suggestion of British blunders and Dutch 
 excellence in strategy seldom failed to show brightening 
 eyes when Dutch prowess was being spoken of At Beufort 
 West, near the edge of the Karroo, a few weeks later, when 
 there was danger of the Cape Dutch rising, an effort was 
 made by the British authorities to raise a town guard of 
 two hundred men to quell any threatened disturbance. 
 The officer in charge of this admitted to me that it failed, 
 because they were unable to get a dozen men on whom 
 they could safely depend as being loyal to the Queen. 
 
 Among the uneducated English and the Tommies there 
 wasn't the slightest doubt of America's attitude. *'Why, 
 didn't the American Government send out the hospital ship 
 
 68 
 
AFRIKANDERS AND THEIR FEELINGS 
 
 Maine T' was usually delivered with an air of finality which 
 silenced further attempts to draw out Mr. Atkins. 
 
 The "natives" (blacks) with whom I came in contact 
 were impenetrable. Comparatively i^^ spoke English, and 
 they were purposely kept in ignorance of the state of the 
 war as much as possible. However, in some sections they 
 were described as being " very quiet ;" "quite too much 
 so," some of the older men would say. In other districts 
 they were "■ restless." In appearance they seemed to be 
 much like our American negroes, only much more brow- 
 beaten and cowed, even in English-ruled Cape Colony. 
 The Kaffirs are of a more degenerate race ; while the 
 Basutos are all fine specimens, physically, but not quite so 
 hardy or warlike as the Zulus. While on my long tramp 
 across the bush between Graham's Town and King Wil- 
 liam's Town I met many groups of from two to twenty 
 Kaffirs on the road, some of them evil-looking fellows 
 enough, and in the dim moonlight casting dark shadows 
 across the path. Out on that barren veldt, ten miles from the 
 nearest civilized habitation and in my lonesomeness, I was 
 often in some trepidation ; but by putting on a bold front 
 and stalking through their midst, forcing them to turn out 
 of my way or collide with me, they always stepped aside 
 with a celerity that told its own story ; while a hearty 
 ''Halloo, boys !" invariably brought back a pleased chorus 
 of guttural grunts, which from its evident infrequency also 
 told its stot-y. 
 
 One of the chief causes of the Boer hatred for the Eng- 
 lish is the latter's alleged " lifting up of the niggers and 
 setting them on a level with white men." At this time the 
 Boers were accused of inciting some of the Basutos and 
 Matabeles to take up arms, but I afterward learned that 
 both sides were equally desirous of preserving the war as a 
 white man's fight. 
 
 69 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 I know little of the native character, and came too slightly 
 into contact with ''the silent, sullen people, half devil and 
 half child," to rouse more than the childish side of their 
 nature. One may be sincerely thankful that the devil side 
 of native South Africa was not let loose, which would have 
 resulted, had they risen in their millions, in a common war 
 against all white men, as was the danger for many months, 
 and is even now not entirely over. 
 
 The British failure in the early part of the war was ex- 
 plained to me in many ways by the Colonials and Afri- 
 kanders. For four hundred miles my travelling companion 
 on one occasion was a Scotchman, whose thirty years' 
 residence in South Africa had made him to all practical 
 purposes an Afrikander. He was a member of Parliament 
 from a half-English and half-Dutch constituency, and suffi- 
 ciently loyal to possess an admission pass into every British 
 military camp in the country. His explanation of British 
 failure was, "Our artillery is out-ranged by that of the 
 Boers. The ' up-and-at-them men ' of the English may 
 be well enough in fighting niggers, but that sort of fight- 
 ing is all foolishness out here. It's simply slaughter for 
 the English to do anything until they get more and better 
 artillery." The practical sense of this is realized when 
 one considers the nature of the country from which the 
 Boers had to be driven. The mountains and kopjes on 
 which they entrenched, — steep, stony, devoid of bush, tree 
 or grass, — form an endless series of natural fortresses, the 
 taking of which by assault was quite impossible. The 
 commander of an outpost of Mounted Police from the 
 Cape told me, *'The Dutch are the cleverest mounted forces 
 in the world, and every man of them is mounted, too. As 
 for riding, it makes no difference whether on the level or 
 up or down the steep and stony sides of a kopje, they al- 
 ways go at a dead run. Their horses are trained to such 
 
 70 
 
AFRIKANDERS AND THEIR FEELINGS 
 
 usage ; and, in addition, every horse knows his own master. 
 The rider leaves his horse standing, hides behind a rock, 
 and blazes away, never wasting a single cartridge. When 
 our men get too close, they bolt for their horses and gallop 
 off, leaving our men to advance over empty ground or per- 
 haps into a trap. They fight in such extended order that 
 there is no getting at them; and" — as the memory of 
 
 1 
 
 
 1 
 
 ^^ 
 
 l^% 
 
 '■y-;--/ 
 
 ^ ■ 
 
 ^.^^^^f^^^%^(^A 
 
 tS'^--: 
 
 
 '^% 
 
 ^^M 
 
 ^',^'^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 > : --* 
 
 
 ^M^:^ 
 
 
 
 
 ^w 
 
 1 
 
 WBmrJ^^Bfr~^-^k§m 
 
 w 
 
 The Burial Trenches at Spionkop, showing Englisli dead. Colonel Blake of 
 the Irish American Brigade told the author that they were buried so 
 carelessly that the first rainfall washed away the soil, leaving knees, 
 elbows, feet, legs and arms protruding. 
 
 Stormberg came back to him, he continued — " and as 
 for tricks, the devil himself can't beat the Dutch for cute- 
 ness." 
 
 Another source of weakness was revealed to me by a 
 prominent railway official in whose company I travelled 
 nearly eight hundred miles. He was an Afrikander, and 
 his pet grievance against England was the insufficiency of 
 her intelligence department. With us was a captain of 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 the British army, and I succeeded in getting the two into 
 a discussion. 
 
 *' I don't want to criticise my own side," he said, ** but 
 the way in which our intelhgence department has been 
 conducted is an infernal outrage. The Boers know every 
 move we make or think of making, while we hardly 
 know either their position or numbers. But then," the 
 officer interposed apologetically, without contradiction, 
 " we must remember that we are fighting in the enemy's 
 country, where every farmhouse, town and village is filled 
 with their sympathizers ;" which statement, made then, 
 when the Boers were invaders of Cape Colony, was rather 
 a serious admission. 
 
 72 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SOME TYPES OF WAR CORRESPONDENTS. 
 
 WITHIN the general military operations another 
 fiercely contested campaign was waged by the small 
 army of war correspondents who had drifted to South 
 Africa in the wake of the Imperial forces. Fully one-third 
 of these knights of the pen and pencil were collected from 
 the ends of the earth under the erroneous impression that 
 they were to be the guests of the army, that a horse, tent, 
 servant, rations, forage and transportation would be fur- 
 nished gratis, and that the Imperial Government would 
 generally do what it could to make the life and work of 
 correspondents as inexpensive and pleasant as possible. 
 The fact was that, when licensed, the correspondent was 
 allowed to draw a limited amount of food for himself, ser- 
 vant and horses, for which a pretty stiff price had to be 
 paid, usually a week or month in advance. Horses and 
 servants were absolutely necessary, and the usual outfit in 
 the field included a two-wheeled cart, two driving-horses, 
 one or two riding-horses, and a Kaffir servant. All this 
 meant an outlay of a thousand dollars at the start, and 
 about fifty dollars per week for running expenses, to which 
 had to be added the great expense of cabling messages, 
 which cost from one shilling and sixpence to five shillings 
 per word, according to whether press rate or full rate was 
 charged. The Censors were usually courteous and gentle- 
 manly officers, especially selected for their tact in dealing 
 with this very sensitive, annoying yet indispensable news- 
 paper contingent. Nevertheless, short shrift was allowed 
 
 71 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 for the transgressor of the press rules. There was a small 
 but gradually increasing colony of correspondents at the 
 Cape who had violated these regulations in a more or less 
 flagrant manner, and, as a consequence, had been deprived 
 of their licenses and sent down from the front under escort. 
 Then followed a miserable existence, their expense allow- 
 ances generally having been stopped, living from week to 
 week on borrowed funds, all the time making ceaseless 
 efforts to have their licenses restored. Meanwhile every 
 other correspondent who ran down from the front for a few 
 days' rest was besieged with solicitations from these unfor- 
 tunates to be taken up to the front again as servants. 
 
 Of course, to do this would be to risk the loss of one's 
 own license also, so the request was invariably refused. 
 Perhaps after a month or more of weary waiting a new 
 hcense might be granted, or else the man would enlist in 
 one of the irregular mounted forces at five shillings per 
 day ; or, last of all, take a third-class ticket back to Eng- 
 land, to face the world there with a ruined journalistic repu- 
 tation. These misfortunes were usually the result of over- 
 zeal. One man went down from the front to the Cape to 
 avoid having his articles censored, and wrote a vigorous let- 
 ter severely criticising a certain commander, which in due 
 course of time brought about his disgrace. Another was 
 found in suspicious proximity to the enemy's lines, and 
 went back to the Cape under guard. Two others, at a 
 critical moment, bothered the headquarters staff with su- 
 perflous questions and were arrested on the spot, not to be 
 released until reaching Cape Town. Still another got 
 drunk and gave vent to a rather free expression of his opin- 
 ions before certain officers, which resulted in his fall from 
 grace. And so on the list might read, painfully long in the 
 rehearsal of misfortune and fault. 
 
 Another colony, which was always of great size, was 
 
 ■ 74 
 
TYPES OF WAR CORRESPONDENTS 
 
 that of the newly-arrived unlicensed correspondents. They 
 each, in turn, went through the weary round of repeated 
 trips to the Censor's office, the Chief of Staff's, the Com- 
 manding General's ; until at last success followed their 
 efforts, or else, disgusted and disappointed, they returned 
 home. A very few persisted in the face of failure, and 
 eventually got to the front in the capacity of servants, trans- 
 port conductors or despatch-riders. Others brazenly re- 
 mained at the Cape, got all the local papers and telegrams, 
 and coolly proceeded to " fake " their copy. At the Mount 
 Nelson Hotel there were a few representatives of the larger 
 papers who were expected to remain there and watch the 
 development of the political situation in the Cape Colony. 
 These men stood at the very top of their profession, and 
 were largely selected because of their social and literary 
 qualifications. 
 
 There were possibly, altogether, two hundred newspaper 
 men in South Africa, many of whom had gone there at 
 their own expense, armed only with the necessary creden- 
 tials. A number of officers acted as correspondents, while 
 a few enlisted men were also doing work for home papers. 
 Of course these were too much hampered by their duties 
 to do more than mere descriptive work ; but still they 
 figured on the lists and helped to swell its proportions, 
 and the large number of correspondents already in the field 
 was the chief obstacle to the granting of licenses to the 
 new arrivals. The month of January, 1900, was an espe- 
 cially trying one to the correspondents. With the excep- 
 tion of the daily skirmishes at Colesberg, all operations had 
 come to a halt, and there was no news. Men assigned to 
 General Gatacre were trying to get exchanged to General 
 French, while those at the latter's camp wanted to get over 
 to Gatacre. Each one was trying to have his license made 
 general, in order to have the freedom of all camps ; while, 
 
 75 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 among them all, the Chief Censor was roused to a condition 
 of fine fury. Yet there were not a few amusing incidents 
 to relieve the monotony. An American correspondent at 
 Colesberg wired to Gatacre for permission to come to Sterk- 
 strom. The reply came back, " All right, come ahead ; 
 but the press staff here is already larger than the army." 
 General Gatacre' s inactivity for over five weeks had made 
 his correspondents the most restless and dissatisfied of the 
 entire lot. However, with the advent of '* Bobs " and the 
 advance from Modder River, a general leniency was granted 
 in favor of those fortunate enough to be north of that 
 river, and they were given an entirely free hand. Lord 
 Kitchener wanted to ship them all out of the country ; 
 but Lord Roberts thought the public had some rights, and 
 contented himself with simply restricting their number.' 
 The larger English papers had men with each column ; so 
 that, since at this time there were no less than four different 
 campaigns going on simultaneously, the expenses mounted 
 up frightfully. 
 
 Just before General French left Colesberg, an artist, rep- 
 resenting ** Black and White," while watching the daily 
 artillery duel from Coleskop, observed a fine-looking Boer 
 horse, with a feed-bag on his nose, walking out on the veldt 
 below. As may be easily imagined, the Boer owner was 
 in an unenviable rage at being unable to go out into the 
 open and lead his horse back ; while our artist friend, to- 
 gether with hundreds of other Britishers, were looking with 
 envious eyes on the fine animal, fondly hoping it would 
 stray close enough for them to ''commandeer" it. Sure 
 enough, on his return to Rensburg the artist passed close 
 by the animal, which had wandered that way. It was a 
 little risky, but, for all that, he took his chances to effect a 
 capture. Seizing the strap hanging from the nose-bag, he 
 undertook to lead the horse in, with the air of a General 
 
 76 
 
TYPES OF WAR CORRESPONDENTS 
 
 surrounding a Boer commando ; but the horse thought 
 otherwise, and, like everything else Dutch, turned out to 
 be a mine of surprising revelations in strategy. Instead of 
 quietly allowing itself to be captured, it adopted the expe- 
 dient of quietly sitting down. The artist kicked and 
 pounded the obstinate animal ; but all in vain. As he 
 tugged at the strap, the horse closely watched him over the 
 rim of the nose-bag, all the while keeping his forefeet firmly 
 
 
 a 
 
 "^-i..^... 
 
 
 1. 
 
 "'^■•'"'^'^"'■i'" — — — 1 
 
 A Modern Ghoul." A Gennan photographer seen by English scouts at 
 Spionkop after the battle piling up British dead, in order to make a par- 
 ticularly gruesome photograph. One of the scouts, unable to control his 
 indignation, took careful aim and shot the artist through the heart. This 
 story, with the photograph, was given to the author by Dr. Vernon Har- 
 court at Bloemfontein. 
 
 planted in front, and braced in such a way that nothing 
 short of a company of Her Majesty's Engineers could have 
 moved him. Finally the zip-zip of a few scattering bullets 
 told the artist that the Boers had at last found the range, 
 and so the attempt at capture was abandoned, and he re- 
 tired ; while, as Mr. Dooley says, " one more ' I regret to 
 state ' found its way into the English papers." 
 
 I made an attempt to pick up the Dutch language, and 
 
 77 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 will unselfishly share the accumulations of my first month 
 with my readers. ** Kop " is a hill. '' Kopje," pronounced 
 *' copy," is the diminutive. '* Nek " is a narrow strip con- 
 necting two kops or kopjes. '* Hoek " is a curve or bend 
 on a railway, such as ** Bushman's Hoek " near Sterkstrom. 
 It is pronounced '' hook." ** Rand " is a ridge or one of 
 the summits on a plain of rolling ground, and is pronounced 
 ** raant." ** Veldt," pronounced '' felt," is, of course, the 
 synonym of prairie. A " laagte " is a hollow, bowl-like 
 stretch of veldt. 
 
 Elandslaagte is derived from the deer-like eland and their 
 feeding-place. The current form of pronunciation used by 
 the Tommies in referring to the battle of Elandslaagte was 
 to call it " The battle of 'ell and slaughter," which sounds 
 very much like the Boer way of speaking the word. 
 "Spec" is Dutch for bacon. **Boom" means tree ; there- 
 fore is is very plain that '' specboom " means elephant 
 food. Another Dutch word which came into more general 
 use after a few charges by the Lancers was '* Kleinzieroch," 
 which means hypersensitiveness to pain. Americans gen- 
 erally are at liberty to pronounce this word as they please. 
 I found it a bit too much, and so abandoned my attempt 
 to study Dutch. Having acquired all this in the short 
 space of four weeks, I think it only fair to denounce as a 
 malicious libel upon a brave, honest and industrious people 
 the reports of some correspondents that ''the Boer lan- 
 guage is barbarous and extremely difficult to learn." 
 
 78 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 ''at the end of a wire" at last. 
 
 RIDING across a stretch of fine, dusty sand, we soon left 
 Modder River station behind us, forded the river, 
 and then struck the broad highway cut out of virgin veldt 
 by the broad tires of a thousand transport wagons and 
 twenty thousand bullocks which had passed the same way 
 only the day before. Jacobsdal was only twelve miles 
 away, and there Lord Roberts and his staff were supposed 
 to be resting. 
 
 About five o'clock we passed a dozen tents, deserted by 
 the enemy and left untouched by the pursuing army. Then 
 a little later there was a dull, thunder-like explosion some 
 miles ahead, and we looked that way in time to see the still 
 ascending column of smoke and dust as it pierced its 
 way skyward a thousand feet, black and white against the 
 grey-blue background, and then dissolved like falling rain. 
 ** Dynamite," said Amery ; "a. mine, likely; I hope none of 
 our fellows have been hurt;" and then, as no further ex- 
 planation was forthcoming, we rode silently on, arriving at 
 the small town of Jacobsdal, with its seventeen white flags 
 flying — halting at the hotel to find the headquarters staff 
 gone, General Wavel in command with his brigade, night 
 coming on, and supper a matter of courtesy on the part of 
 the hotel keeper. 
 
 However, Amery, who seemed to know everybody, was 
 soon drinking a cup of tea with the General, to whom I 
 was presented soon after. After our horses had a good 
 feed, I bought some bread to add to Amery's collection of 
 
 79 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 tinned foods ; then, as it grew very dark, and Amery hav- 
 ing obtained the password, we rode off into the night after 
 the main army. Curiously enough, the countersign was 
 '' Modder River," and we had to give it to three Hnes of 
 sentries, and twice afterward to scouting parties on the road. 
 We rode about a dozen miles, and then, as the moon sank 
 below the horizon and the road disappeared altogether, we 
 off-saddled by the river, knee-hobbled our horses, and laid 
 down on the ground wrapped only in our mackintoshes. 
 
 Perhaps an hour passed in silence, disturbed only by 
 the munching of our ponies' teeth on the grass and the 
 
 Team of Thirty-eight Oxen or Bullocks JJiavving the 4.7 inch Naval Gun 
 on the March. 
 
 murmuring of the Modder. A low rumble, like distant 
 tttunder, sounded in the distance. Half an hour later it 
 came again. Amery thought it meant rain. We timed it 
 an hour longer, and regularly on the half and on the hour 
 it came again. Then we knew that it was the lyddite from 
 the naval guns in action somewhere ahead in the night, and 
 till daylight I continued to lie quiet, alternately dozing 
 and listening to the rolling of the distant artillery — the first 
 sound of actual warfare I had heard. 
 
 At daybreak we were in the saddle again, following the 
 tracks of the army, which spread for half a mile across the 
 
 80 
 
"AT THE END OF A WIRE" AT LAST 
 
 veldt, between a line of kopjes and the river. At ten 
 o'clock we reached Klip Drift, where there had been a 
 fight a few days before. Here a small detachment of troops 
 was encamped, guarding the line of communications. An 
 attempt to secure breakfast failed, as the men were all on 
 half-rations and very *' grouchy" as a result. A few miles 
 farther we came to a looted farmhouse. I dismounted 
 and went inside to see what the place looked like. An 
 American volunteer fire company could not have made a 
 more complete wreck. Everything was on the floor and 
 broken — furniture, window-glass and framework, pictures, 
 books and bedding, crockery, clothes, children's toys, and 
 all that goes to complete the household effects of a well- 
 to-do Free State farmer. Infinite pains had been taken to 
 leave nothing undestroyed as each successive band of 
 stragglers filtered through the doors and windows, each 
 stopping long enough to add an additional twist to the con- 
 torted framework of the iron bedstead or rip half a foot 
 further the mattress, dig another picture off the wall with 
 the point of a bayonet, wrench the last leg off the table, or 
 break into still smaller fragments the already broken look- 
 ing-glass and crockery ; each several act an expression of 
 brutal hatred for the "dirty Boers." 
 
 Eighteen thousand regular soldiers had passed this de- 
 serted home, leaving it untouched ; but then a squadron of 
 irregular horse passed by, and the stragglers finished what 
 these had begun. The irregular horse were mainly recruited 
 from the Colony ; their friends, or perhaps relatives, had 
 suffered from similar depredations earlier in the w^ar, while 
 the Boers were invading the Colony, and their looting and 
 destruction was as much an act of revenge as love of pilfer- 
 ing and wanton destruction. 
 
 About noon we reached another farmhouse, from its ap- 
 pearance also badly wrecked. As we rode up I saw an 
 6 8i 
 
WITH ^'BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 English soldier coming out with an armful of dishes and 
 disappear in a stable. I followed him, and found fifteen 
 stragglers and sick men camped inside on the ground. 
 They had divested the house of mattresses and bedding, 
 had commandeered a sheep, and were about to serve a 
 delicious stew for dinner. I immediately accepted their 
 invitation for Amery and myself to join them, and at my 
 suggestion a few more chairs and a table were brought out, 
 "to do the thing in style." At the last moment one of 
 the Tommies appeared with a clean white table-cloth and 
 his pockets filled with knives, forks and spoons, more or 
 less dilapidated from having been trodden underfoot and 
 dug out from the general rubbish on the floor. Amery 
 took the head of the table and I the seat of honor at his 
 right. Then two Tommies appeared, with the big kettle be- 
 tween them, and the feast began. Half a dozen others sat 
 at the table. The rest sprinkled themselves around on the 
 floor, in a carriage in one corner, or on their beds. One 
 sat on the top of a small upright piano which had been car- 
 ried from the house, and diligently pounded the keys with 
 his heels until it became unbearable, when two of the men 
 quietly tipped both piano and Tommy over backward, and 
 the disturbance ceased. 
 
 Happening to look back over the veldt, I saw a regiment 
 approaching, spread out in extended order, the end men 
 of which were sure to pass around our stable. Thoughts 
 of arrest and court-martial for marauding at once flashed 
 through my head. I noticed that some of the men ap- 
 peared frightened as they looked up and saw the approach- 
 ing body. One of them silently pushed together the big 
 doors of the stable, and we went on eating quietly. Then 
 there was a step outside, the door was flung open, and, as 
 we looked around, there stood the most astonished ser- 
 geant in South Africa, his eyes riveted on the feast spread 
 
 82 
 
"AT THE END OF A WIRE" AT LAST 
 
 out before us. He had been living on hard tack for a 
 week. He took one hurried look backward, and then, 
 closing the door, stepped inside and said, " For God's 
 sake, boys, get me a plateful." 
 
 It was the quickest meal on record ; he fairly drank the 
 stew — bread, meat, potatoes and broth. We stuffed his 
 pockets with biscuits, he snatched a handful of boiled meat 
 to eat on the march and rushed off, as he said, ^' to report 
 that the stable was occupied by a few sick men." 
 
 The 4.7-inch Naval Gun from H. M. S. S. Powerful on the march. 
 This gun has a range of nearly eleven miles, throwing ninety-eight 
 pounds of steel and lyddite, and was hauled by a team of thirty-eight oxen. 
 It was attended by a naval contingent from the Powerful. 
 
 When the convoy with its long train of creaking com- 
 missariat wagons was safely over the rise we opened the 
 doors again to let in the flood of sunlight, and continued 
 our eating and getting acquainted with Tommy, who is 
 certainly a good-natured fellow, quick to make friends, 
 easily influenced, naturally turning to a superior officer or 
 stronger will for orders or suggestions about every action 
 of his life. A boisterous, rollicking chap ; but only a 
 machine, helpless when stranded or in a difficulty, unless 
 a stronger mind is present to think for him. 
 
 83 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 The sun was already declining when we left the stable. 
 For two hours more we followed the field telegraph wire 
 which had been dropped by the headquarters staff. The 
 cannonading was now only a few miles ahead. Coming to 
 the crest of a ridge of low kopjes, we saw the entire army 
 spread out before us as though on a map. The crystalline 
 air of South Africa brings most distant objects won- 
 derfully close to the eye. We could see the camps of the 
 different brigades and divisions, the long lines of bullock 
 carts, the tens of thousands of bullocks scattered over the 
 veldt across the river and to our right, tended by the 
 native drivers. To our left, by the river bank, hidden in a 
 grove of trees, behind the field-hospital headquarters, floated 
 the' Union Jack over the headquarters of Lord Roberts and 
 his staff, and that was our destination. 
 
 Riding up, we learned that everybody had left the place 
 to watch the bombardment which was to begin at four 
 o'clock ; so, retracing our steps a mile, we came to and 
 climbed little "Spy Kopje," or signal-hill, dotted all over 
 with generals, lords, dukes, and a prince or so, khaki-clad, 
 with red collars as indications of rank, and a sprinkling of 
 correspondents and colonels. On a point above everybody 
 else were the signal corps wigwagging messages with flags 
 to near-by commands, or heliographing eight miles far- 
 ther east to General French ; back to Klip Drift, Jacobsdal 
 and Modder River ; or into the Boer laager where General 
 Cronje and nearly four thousand burghers of the Free State, 
 heroes of Majuba and Magersfontein, with several hundred 
 of their women, were encamped in the river-bed, four miles 
 above. 
 
 Then, with the thunder of a *Tour-point seven" naval 
 gun (almost as large as our five-inch gun), followed by 
 the heavy boom of exploding lyddite, plainly in sight, 
 though four miles away in the laager, the bombardment 
 
 84 
 
-AT THE END OF A WIRE" AT LAST 
 
 began. One hundred and twenty-six guns — only twelve less 
 than General Lee used at Gettysburg — were in a semicircle 
 around General Cronje, keeping up for two hours a con- 
 tinuous rain of lyddite and shrapnel. A magnificent spec- 
 tacle this, — the general bombardment on the second day 
 after the battle of Paardeburg and the surrounding of 
 Cronje's army in the bed of the Modder River. Cronje 
 had only four guns in action. Till six o'clock I watched 
 the engagement. As one used black powder, the puff of 
 smoke from its mouth showed plainly with the flash. The 
 others used smokeless powder, which showed only a 
 reddish-white flash when fired, after which would follow a 
 swishing, fizzing sound in the air, and somewhere below us 
 a nine-pound shell would explode in a cloud of smoke, and 
 perhaps a few men would scatter from their places around 
 a gun. Meanwhile half a dozen pieces of British artillery, 
 ready loaded and sighted at the spot, had sent their charges 
 true as a die to the place of the flash ; and that afternoon 
 three of the guns in the laager were put out of action. 
 How many tons of metal and explosives were hurled at 
 and into the Boer position that afternoon I cannot guess ; 
 but with each discharge, especially of the lyddite guns, 
 which sent up a great cloud of thick black smoke where 
 each shell dropped, I felt a thrill as I thought it was the 
 executioner of perhaps a dozen men, and maybe some 
 women. 
 
 A tall, girl-faced young officer, attached to somebody's 
 staff near by, said, with an affected drawl, " This is the 
 grandest bombardment I have ever seen." On the other 
 side a grizzled old colonel, with India, Egypt and the 
 Crimea written on his face, muttered, ** Damned ass ! I'd 
 like to know what others he has seen !" The old fellow 
 was righteously ruffled at the youngster, for his well-trained 
 professional optics had been focused silently for hours on 
 
 85 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 this affair, now historic, for it was one of the heaviest 
 bombardments of modern times. How any one escaped 
 annihilation up there in the river bed was beyond my 
 comprehension. Surely, I thought, unless they surrender 
 there will be only a few hundred of the poor fellows left ; 
 and when I thought of the women it was with a feeling of 
 detestation of the English, in spite of the fact that the 
 Boers had been equally callous to the existence of women 
 and children in Kimberley and Ladysmith. 
 
 The use of lyddite in war may be described as follows : 
 The roar of a 4.7-inch gun is quickly followed by the ex- 
 plosion of the lyddite shell, two or three miles distant. 
 A few seconds elapse ; then suddenly a black cloud of 
 smoke appears near the ground, sharp black points pierce 
 the air in every direction, rounding out into huge dark 
 clouds, which slowly settle and spread their supposedly 
 poisonous vapors over the ground. Four, five, six seconds 
 pass in silence ; then is heard a resounding thunder-clap, 
 as though from a clear sky ; it is the sound of the bursting 
 shell, crashing and shattering the air, deafening the ear, 
 echoing and re-echoing, rumbling away, with several revi- 
 vals, until silence and the flattening of the black vapors on 
 the surface of the veldt follow minutes after ; while com- 
 manders, officers, gunners and correspondents keep their 
 eyes intently on the spot, to note the effect of ninety-eight 
 pounds of steel and lyddite on the laager and its defenders. 
 
 S6 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ''THE times" mess AND A FEW ADVENTURES. 
 
 FAR away to the ruddy west the sun touched the edge 
 of the veldt and sank behind a low ridge of the omni- 
 present kopjes ; then the bombardment ceased without hav- 
 ing compelled General Cronje to raise the white flag. 
 Throughout that and the following seven nights the irregu- 
 lar fire of the naval guns continued. Night was the only 
 time the besieged burghers had in which to get out of their 
 trenches to stretch their cramped limbs, drag away the 
 dead bodies of cattle and horses, and prepare their meals. 
 Even this slight respite was broken into all through the 
 night as the familiar "swish-swish" of a British shell scat- 
 tered all hands to cover in the trenches. 
 
 After the bombardment Amery and I rode back to head- 
 quarters, where the exquisite Battersby, of the *' Morning 
 Post" and "New York Journal," entertained us at supper, 
 while he sent his servants to find *' The Times " cart. When 
 discovered, Mr. Percival Landon, *' The Times" corre- 
 spondent attached to Lord Roberts, was missing ; his 
 servants had not seen him for twenty-two days. He had 
 gone into Kimberley with General French, had started 
 alone from there, according to rumor, for Paardeburg, and 
 it was feared he had fallen into the hands of the enemy. 
 Still, we now had a home, — a huge two-wheeled affair 
 known as a Cape cart, — buggy-topped, two- seated, and 
 drawn by two horses. Under this we slept, covered by the 
 blankets found inside, and slumbered soundly in spite of 
 the cannonading during the night. 
 
 87 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 Early in the morning I was awakened by a furious 
 rattle of rifle volley-firing. Simultaneously one of the Kaffir 
 servants approached with a cup of steaming coffee, to be 
 drunk before dressing, according to the custom of the 
 country. After a hasty toilet on the river bank, Amery 
 and I rode off in the direction of the noise. This seemed 
 to be somewhere near Kitchener's Kopje, a lone bulwark 
 
 The Commanding Officer of an OutposL taking liis Morning Lath on a Kopje. 
 His tub, a rubber blanket laid over a small hole in the ground — the 
 water carried a mile and a half in water-bottles by a file of Tommies. 
 
 of rock three miles south of the laager and four miles 
 eastward from headquarters, and named for a blunder 
 which General Kitchener had made by abandoning it. 
 
 Half-way there we came upon a regiment of the Black 
 Watch, of Magersfontein fame. While Amery was talk- 
 ing to a group of officers I rode off to one side, toward 
 some rising ground, to get a better view of the country. 
 
 88 
 
"THE TIMES" MESS AND ADVENTURES 
 
 I was near the transport wagons, among which a crowd of 
 native drivers were attending the horses and bullocks. As 
 though a gigantic bottle of champagne had been opened, a 
 loud fizzing burst on my ears from the sky overhead. The 
 men near by threw themselves flat upon the ground. I 
 had not time to follow their example. To the left I heard 
 a muffled explosion, like a half-buried cannon-cracker on 
 the Fourth of July. Looking in the direction of the sound, 
 I saw a small cloud of white smoke not thirty yards dis- 
 tant ; then, as several men ran toward it, I galloped ahead 
 of them, and found a hole several feet broad and half as 
 deep, and a few pieces of twisted metal scattered about, 
 which I collected as souvenirs of my first experience under 
 fire, for they were the remains of a fifteen-pound shrapnel 
 shell — one of the last shots from the last gun in the laager. 
 No damage had been done, but, somehow, I was impelled 
 to ride back and stay with Amery for a while. 
 
 Thinking over the incident later, I was unable to recall 
 any sensation of fear. Surprise, as it slowly dawned on my 
 mind that an enemy's shell was coming, was followed by 
 intense curiosity to see it explode and note its effect. The 
 instinct of the newspaper man as a professional observer 
 had, to my supreme gratification, remained uppermost, and 
 I felt that perhaps as a war correspondent I would be able 
 to acquit myself creditably, if only the opportunity would 
 come my way. 
 
 Then it occurred that better than waiting for an oppor- 
 tunity would be the creating of one. Perhaps the absence 
 of Landon suggested the idea to me. However that may 
 be, I hinted to Amery that since Landon was supposed to 
 have joined General French twelve miles beyond, on the 
 other side of the laager, I would be glad to ride on and try 
 to find him. There was some risk, but more definite in- 
 formation of his whereabouts was desirable ; Amery could 
 
 89 
 
WITH " BOBS " AND KRUGER 
 
 not go himself, and Major Pollock would join the column 
 sometime later in the day to assist Amery in the work of 
 correspondence. Then, too, as I thought to myself, he can 
 carry despatches back to Modder River while I will have a 
 chance to see some fighting. Fortunately for me, Amery 
 fell in with the idea at once. As he said, 
 
 " Lord Stanley was very angry at your having come up 
 without leave, for he had answered your telegrams with a 
 negative reply. He was about to have you put under 
 arrest at once and sent back to Cape Town; but I pre- 
 vailed on him not to do so, as we needed you. He gave 
 me a pass for you, and I think it would be just as well to 
 keep out of his sight for a little while." 
 
 He then got out his memorandum book and gave me a 
 slip of paper on which were a few words in ink, over the 
 most noble Lord Stanley's signature, to the effect that I 
 had *' permission to act as correspondent for the Philadel- 
 phia 'Press' with the forces under Lord Roberts." This 
 sHp of paper, according to the latest press regulations, gave 
 me the freedom of the entire army. Still, some verbal 
 restrictions were imposed which made it advisable not to 
 obtrude my presence about headquarters for the present, 
 and so we decided that I was to hunt Landon. Incidentally 
 I resolved to secure from the genial Censor, at some future 
 time, a printed slip such as was issued to the other corre- 
 spondents. Amery rode off with me, intending to go part 
 way. Kitchener's Kopje lay to the right, occupied by an 
 outpost of Botha's relieving column, trying to aid Cronje ; 
 the laager lay to the left. Between was a perfectly flat open 
 stretch of veldt, across which we had to ride to reach Gen- 
 eral French's headquarters at Koodoosrand Drift. 
 
 Riding toward this open country we came on the most 
 advanced outpost and skirmish-line of the besieging army. 
 A shallow line of trenches, filled with men of the Essex 
 
 90 
 
'•THE TIMES" MESS AND ADVENTURES 
 
 
 /u (/ A^^^<^/^^ 
 
 OL/n^' /Lik^i^' ^ 
 
 (U^ 
 
 (Iju^> /u 
 
 u^ ^^ 
 
 / . 1. . ci»--o 
 
 Special Correspondent' s War License issued to the author at Paardeburg by 
 Chief Press Censor Lord Stanley. According to new regulations pre- 
 viously issued by Lord Roberts, this license gave the bearer the extraor- 
 dinary privilege of roaming at will throughout the district occupied by 
 the Imperial Forces — the headquarters camp, Brigade and Divisional 
 camps, firing lines and outposts, as well as the entire line of communica- 
 tions, being alike free of access to the bearer at all times, both day and 
 night, during the march or in time of active hostilities. 
 
 91 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 regiment, was the target for the Boer sharpshooters, only a 
 thousand yards distant in the laager. The men were lying 
 carelessly about, sitting on the earthworks or walking up 
 and down the line. A Gatling gun was near the end of 
 one trench, while a hundred yards back, in a hollow, a 
 4. 7 -inch gun was waiting, its crew moving restlessly 
 about. I inquired the reason of these unwarlike manners 
 on the firing-line, but no one seemed to know anything. 
 Looking down toward the river and the laager, I saw some- 
 thing white waving in the air. Had Cronje surrendered? 
 Surely there was a man approaching, with a white flag 
 waving fifteen feet above his head. As he drew nearer I 
 saw that he wore khaki. 
 
 A staff officer rode up, and I asked him what it all meant. 
 Then I learned that Lord Roberts had sent a messenger into 
 the laager to offer Cronje any medicines or surgeons he 
 might need, and an opportunity to remove from the laager 
 the women and children who were with him. When the 
 bearer of the flag of truce reached the firing-line a sharp 
 order was shouted out, the men tumbled into their places 
 again, and at the same time a metallic ring, like that of a 
 tensely-drawn wire fence struck by a stone, sounded in the 
 air overhead. Then another ** zinged " lower down near 
 the ground, and I heard a Tommy say, *' The beggar 
 caught that ant-hill back there." A short, angry, hornet- 
 like buzz between us caused the staff officer to remark, 
 dryly, ''They have the range on us." We rode back 
 toward the naval gun, where the bullets continued to fly 
 high overhead, sounding like supernatural whispers, until 
 the abrupt '* pop-pop " of the British rifles in the trenches 
 we had just left broke in and announced that Lee-Met- 
 fords and Mausers were again in deadly combat at a dis- 
 tance of nearly a mile apart. It was quite different from the 
 old-time wars, when the firing-lines were only fifty yards 
 
 92 
 
"THE TIMES" MESS AND ADVENTURES 
 
 apart, and men could see the whites of each other's eyes 
 instead of pointing at an ant-Hke speck almost a smooth- 
 bore cannon-shot's range away. All this argued ill for the 
 pacific nature of the truce-bearer's message of reply, and 
 later I heard that Lord Roberts' offer had been curtly 
 refused. 
 
 The way to Koodoosrand lay between the laager and 
 Botha's outpost on Kitchener's Hill. We galloped our 
 ponies midway between, hoping to escape observation ; and, 
 being a mile and a half from either point, our chances of 
 being hit, if seen, were small. When half-way across, a 
 spent bullet from the laager hit Amery's horse on the leg, 
 inflicting only a scratch ; but the animal stumbled, strug- 
 gled to regain its feet, plunged ahead a few yards, and 
 then ploughed up the soft turf with its nose as it fell heavily, 
 pitching Amery over its head, breaking his glasses and 
 scratching his face badly. A deserted carriage stood near 
 by, and we stopped and got behind it for protection. I wrote 
 a short note, to be mailed home if I failed to return, and 
 Amery prepared to go back. Suddenly there came the 
 familiar *' swish-swish " of the morning, as a shell flew 
 overhead. It came from Kitchener's Hill. The Boer 
 artillery seemed to be opening on us personally, so we 
 separated, — I riding rapidly onward to get out of range, 
 while Amery returned to the British lines. 
 
 Shortly afterward I passed a dead horse, — a magnificent 
 grey. A new saddle, with a complete accoutrement of 
 wallets and saddle-bags, filled with supplies, tempted me 
 to stop and make an effort to substitute the outfit for my 
 scanty one. My pony refused to go near, and as there 
 was not even a stone to which to tie him, I was reluc- 
 tantly compelled to abandon the effort. By this time it was 
 evident the firing from Kitchener's Kopje was not directed 
 at me, but at the laager, and a few days later I learned that 
 
 93 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 from a point five miles southwest an English attack had 
 been made on the outpost that very morning, and the can- 
 non-firing was fi-om British guns, dragged up immediately 
 after the rout of the Boers. 
 
 Leaving the dead horse, my route took me close to the 
 river, which made a big bend to the right. On its banks, in 
 a grove of small trees, I could now see a number of men 
 walking about. Being, as I thought, fully three miles 
 above the laager, I rode over to make inquiries. As I 
 drew close enough, an opening in the trees revealed to my 
 astonished eyes an unmistakable group of fifty or more 
 Boers scattered about on the ground. To retreat was 
 impossible, for, being within less than two hundred yards, 
 they could have riddled me with bullets ; so I boldly 
 galloped up. Another surprise greeted me a few moments 
 later, when I saw under a tree, close by its trunk, a British 
 Tommy leaning on his rifle ; a short distance oft" stood 
 another ; and as I approached closer I saw that my " Boers " 
 were a party of prisoners under guard. 
 
 I soon found the commanding officer of the several 
 regiments, isolated there by somebody's mistake, without 
 food or other supplies, and until the recapture of Kitchen- 
 er's Kopje in hourly danger of being captured. I received 
 a pass which enabled me to proceed back several miles 
 from the river to a farm occupied by the Scottish Borderers, 
 where I would receive further information about General 
 French. As I galloped back past the prisoners I was ar- 
 rested. My appearance was not unlike that of the Boers, 
 for I wore a black coat, grey riding-breeches, a soft felt 
 hat and riding-leathers. The officer who detained me, a 
 young lieutenant, laughed at my being a correspondent. I 
 produced the pass just given me, also the one received from 
 Lord Stanley the same morning, and a magical change 
 came over him as he apologized ; and, riding away, I realized 
 
 94 
 
''THE TIMES" MESS AND ADVENTURES 
 
 that in being a correspondent there was some prestige 
 which it would be well to remember in future. 
 
 Arriving at the farm, — a beautiful spot, surrounded by 
 willow-trees, — I found the regimental officers' mess about 
 to dine, and I promptly accepted a cordial invitation to 
 join them. Here all was luxury. Tables and chairs 
 from the house ; chicken, duck and lamb from the farm- 
 
 The Midday Lunch. Officers' Mess of D Troop, Roberts' Light Horse, rest- 
 ing for lunch while on the march. Lieutenant Bradshaw kneeling, Cap- 
 tain Vignoles at his side, and Major Congreve, who won the Victoria 
 Cross with Lord Roberts' son at Colenso, standing. Correspondent Reiss, 
 of the ** Manchester Guardian," to the left. 
 
 yard ; cigars and whiskey from the Colonel's kit, and 
 twenty or more of the best fellows in the world gathered 
 from the ends of the empire. We had much to talk 
 about, much news and information to exchange. The 
 Major drew for me a map of French's position, which I 
 could easily reach before dark, and half the afternoon 
 passed pleasantly, while I almost forgot Landon and **The 
 Times." The table was set beneath a row of weeping- 
 
 95 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 willows, beside a small brook, draining a magnificent spring 
 of clear cold water, — a rare luxury on the veldt, — and I 
 congratulated the officers on their beautiful headquarters, 
 cautioning them not to let Lord Roberts find out how well 
 they were situated or he would commandeer the place 
 for the general staff The Colonel admitted danger of 
 this, and, strangely enough, a week later " The Times " 
 mess occupied this very spot and Lord Roberts the farm- 
 house, while the Colonel and officers of the King's Own 
 Scottish Borderers Regiment were moved out on the open 
 veldt. 
 
 Toward evening I rode off with a final caution from the 
 Colonel to *' Look out for Boer scouting parties !" A 
 rough wagon-road between a line of low kopjes and the 
 river showed me the way. The kopjes were the danger- 
 ous places, and I kept a sharp lookout. Three miles were 
 passed over without incident ; then from a bigger kopje I 
 saw two men riding toward my path. Their rifles shone 
 clearly in the setting sun. Again it was useless to try to 
 escape; I hoped they were English. When they came 
 up, without further question I was ordered to *' come 
 along." Their worn clothing looked like khaki, but their 
 hats were felt with a black feather — not helmets. Their 
 general appearance was rough. I started to explain that I 
 was a correspondent, but that wouldn't '* go." Off I went 
 between them up the kopje, over a barb-wire fence ; the men 
 silent, refusing to answer any questions. Passing around 
 a spur in a hollow of the kopje, I saw half a hundred horses 
 and as many men scattered about half a dozen fires. A 
 rough Boer-looking wagon occupied a conspicuous position ; 
 beside it I saw a tall, slender officer in unmistakable khaki, 
 and I knew it was only another case of ''show up" of 
 passes and on I could go. But the delay was vexatious. 
 The officer smilingly inspected my papers, and then, with 
 
 96 
 
"THE TIMES" MESS AND ADVENTURES 
 
 what I had learned to recognize as the aristocratic drawl, 
 said, 
 
 '' If you are going on to General French, you will be 
 unable to get there before dark, so you may as well take 
 supper with us and stay here until morning. We have 
 just made a rather rich haul," here he looked toward the 
 wagon, ''and, really, it will be worth your while." So, 
 for the third time in two days, I promptly accepted an invi- 
 tation to dinner. The command proved to be the squadron 
 of Roberts' Light Horse, occupying the kopje as an out- 
 post of General French's cavalry brigade. Receiving here 
 definite information as to the location of General French's 
 headquarters, it was really unnecessary for me to proceed 
 farther the same evening, as I could accomplish my mis- 
 sion the following morning and return to Lord Roberts' 
 headquarters before noon. 
 
 The squadron had taken part in the rout of the Boer 
 outpost from Kitchener's Kopje that morning, attacking the 
 fleeing burghers on the flank, capturing a number of 
 horses, transport wagons, and the personal cart belonging 
 to the elder General Botha. The troop-major offered me a 
 drink of whiskey from General Botha's private supply, 
 pried open a fresh box of Botha's cigars, and while I 
 smoked one of a handful he spread out before me the 
 General's own military commission, signed by President 
 Steyn of the Orange Free State. Then we sat down to 
 dinner, served on General Botha's dishes, spread oji a 
 blanket from the General's cart, and by the time we got 
 down to a second issue of his cigars and whiskey, and were 
 soothed by the digestive process acting on tender and well- 
 cooked lamb, we all agreed that General Botha had per- 
 formed a signal service to the Imperial army, represented 
 by ourselves, by his precipitate departure from the field of 
 action and unceremonious desertion of his luxurious outfit. 
 7 97 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 *' It is a mistake to call the Boer Generals barbarians," 
 remarked the Major, as he removed a choice cigar from 
 between his teeth, to drain from a china teacup the last 
 drops of the first decent coffee that had passed his lips since 
 before the dark days of Magersfontein. 
 
 By the dim firelight, after supper, I had conversations 
 with a few of the troopers. One was an old Californian and 
 had been to the Klondyke, which made us friends at once ; 
 
 D Troop, Roberts' Light Horse, Lieutenant Bradshaw in command. Brad- 
 shaw resigned from Her Majesty's Army half a dozen years ago, drifted 
 to the Western United States, and became a member of the Sixth Cavalry, 
 U. S. A. After serving his term of enlistment he became an officer in 
 the Philadelphia Mounted Police Force, serving until the outbreak of the 
 war, when Lord Roberts offered him a commission by cable from Cape 
 Town, which he accepted at once. His wife is a niece of Lady Roberts. 
 
 he was now the officers' cook, and had captured the wagon, 
 single-handed, that morning. He was tall and lanky, and 
 confidentially expressed immeasurable contempt for the 
 '• slow Britishers." 
 
 ** Why," said he, " if I had half a hundred Texas rangers 
 or Apache scouts out here I'd be in Bloemfontein by this 
 time. And what do you think?" he continued: "Our 
 bloomin' Major has asked Bobs' permission to keep this 
 
 98 
 
"THE TIMES" MESS AND ADVENTURES 
 
 damn cart ! They'll likely take it away from us for his 
 foolishness, instead of keepin' his mouth shut and holdin' 
 onto it." 
 
 Another type of trooper was the Honorable William 
 Beresford, son of one of Jthe Lords Beresford, brother of 
 the ''Central News " correspondent and of Captain Beresford 
 of the Irregular Horse. He was one of hundreds of 
 younger sons who went to Cape Town and there enlisted 
 in the irregular horse squadrons out of pure ''deviltry" 
 and desire to "see the show." 
 
 Johnson, the cook, gave an exhibition of Yankee enter- 
 prise the day before my arrival by capturing a handsome 
 stallion, for which his aristocratic Major paid him twenty- 
 five pounds. Months afterward I learned that the stallion 
 escaped two nights later, in spite of two men who had been 
 detailed to watch him ; and as for General Botha's cart and 
 the other supplies captured that morning, the whole outfit 
 was retaken, and a score of the troop, including the Yankee 
 cook, were either killed or captured by General De Wet at 
 Sanna's Post, near Bloemfontein. 
 
 Before I left on the following morning the Yankee cook 
 helped me select a new saddle, bridle and wallets from the 
 heap of captured Boer effects, and when I rode off to Koo- 
 doosrand I had a Hghter heart, a fuller stomach, a better 
 outfit and kinder feelings for Tommy and his officers than 
 at any time since I had " hit the trail " in South Africa. 
 
 99 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 UNDER ARREST AGAIN. 
 
 ARRIVING at General French's headquarters, I found 
 no trace of the missing correspondent, and so re- 
 turned toward Paardeburg. Dinner-time brought me again 
 to the Scottish Borderers as the officers were sitting down 
 to their midday meal, and for the second time I became their 
 guest until an approaching rainstorm made me hurry off, 
 despite cordial invitations to remain. The farm was sur- 
 rounded by an immense hedge of century plants, enclosing 
 at least forty acres of ground. As I rode out at the lower 
 end I passed seven or eight ponies, all of which were more 
 or less disabled by saddle-galls or wounds. As they could 
 only hobble about slowly, I practiced on them for a few 
 moments with a leather lariat I had constructed out of half a 
 dozen straps, in the hope of meeting with an opportunity 
 to lasso one of the occasional Boer ponies I saw on the 
 veldt. Having developed all the skill I cared to, and as 
 the rain was coming on, I off-saddled under a tree, covered 
 my saddles and blankets with my mackintosh, and turned 
 my pony loose with the others, to feed. In half an hour 
 the rain slackened, and after some difficulty I lassoed my 
 own horse. Before I could lift the saddle to his back I 
 was startled by two Tommies coming up on a run, rifle in 
 hand, with two more following closely behind. 
 
 ''You're wanted up to the 'ouse," panted Mr. Atkins. 
 
 "Who wants me?" I queried. 
 
 ''The Adjutant's orders are to bring you in ; come on." 
 
 "But what does he want me for?" I gasped, staring at 
 
 lOO 
 
UNDER ARRES1'^i^Xi>M^^^ 
 
 the fellow, who was getting behind me, as though to pre- 
 vent my running away. 
 
 *' I don't know, sir ; but you mustn't keep him waiting. 
 The orders are to bring that man what's chasing them 
 'orses in." 
 
 " Oh, certainly," I said, understanding at last that I was 
 once more under arrest, — this time for attempted horse- 
 stealing. '* I'll go right with you. Here — help me saddle 
 this horse." 
 
 Thomas nearly had a fit at this. 
 
 ** No, no," he protested ; ** you mustn't ; come right 
 away." 
 
 Further remarks on my part were utterly superfluous, 
 for with a *' Line up, men !" one stepped beside me, 
 another took his place behind, the first man took the lead 
 ten paces ahead, and to avoid being hustled I walked 
 along, externally quiet, but a raging volcano of suppressed 
 wrath inside ; for, in addition to the waste of my valuable 
 time, my horse was still loose, and my saddle and blankets 
 were lying in the rain, which had again begun to fall. 
 
 Right here let me pause in my story to advise anyone 
 who aspires to become a war correspondent, a foreign mili- 
 tary attache, or who in any capacity may happen to get in 
 the path of the British army. When you find yourself up 
 against Tommy, don't waste time talking to him. Wait 
 until you see his officer, and devoutly pray that that may 
 not be long. And include in your prayers that the officer 
 may be a colonel, major-general, or field marshal, — the 
 higher the rank, the better. 
 
 Back through the rain we marched — I, who had left the 
 Colonel's table an hour previously, after a hearty clasp of 
 that officer's hand. 'Twas a long walk for me, past dozens 
 of grinning Tommies, some of whom recognized me as the 
 Colonel's guest, and, being quick to see the mistake, began 
 
 lOI 
 
. V;iTH ''BOBS'' AND KRUGER 
 
 guying my escort. Others, less informed, took me for a 
 spy, and regarded me with an unpleasant show of curiosity. 
 We halted on the clearing where the dinner-tables still 
 stood. Several lieutenants, seeing me, started to walk 
 over to speak, saw my business-like escort, stared in as- 
 tonishment, and abruptly turned and walked off. I was fast 
 becoming rabidly pro-Boer. My three guards remained 
 standing about me while the first went off to report to the 
 Adjutant. It was no joke ; I might be detained a day 
 or more, or heaven only knew what worse idiocy my late 
 hosts might be guilty of. At this moment the Lieutenant- 
 Colonel stepped out of the bushes by the brook, and see- 
 ing me, said pleasantly, 
 
 " Halloo ! So you've decided to wait till the storm is 
 over, after all ?" 
 
 ** Since you have done me the honor of extending the 
 invitation in so kind a manner, certainly," I replied freez- 
 ingly, to a degree calculated to congeal the rain-drops into 
 hailstones. This officer was one of those good-hearted, 
 friendly men whom wanderers like myself learn to ap- 
 preciate as the salt of the earth ; and as the bewilderment 
 on his face grew until he noticed my escort some distance 
 back, I dropped my foolish dignity, and in reply to his un- 
 asked question said, indicating the guard to my right, 
 ** This gentleman will explain things." The Colonel looked 
 at the man and said, 
 
 *' Well, what does this mean ?" Then, before the fellow 
 got fairly started on his explanation, he broke in with an 
 angry wave of his hand and a sharp, " Here, you ; get out 
 of this !" and the by-this-time badly-frightened Tommies 
 scattered, leaving me a free man once more. 
 
 I then explained to my rescuer, who apologized for the 
 mistake, — adding, by way of explanation, that the Adjutant 
 had not been to dinner with us, and had therefore failed to 
 
 102 
 
UNDER ARREST AGAIN 
 
 recognize me through his field-glass before giving the order 
 for my arrest Though still badly ruffled, I managed to 
 have the grace to laugh at the affair ; and then in spite of 
 my protests the Colonel, determined that the unintentional 
 discourtesy should be atoned for as much as possible, 
 walked bare-headed through the rain all the way back to 
 where my horse fortunately still stood, help me up-saddle, 
 and waited until I was well on my way beyond his out- 
 post before he returned. 
 
 A week or more later, after Cronje's surrender, I passed 
 this same regiment encamped on the open veldt several 
 miles away. Stopping to chat a few minutes with its com- 
 manding officer, he asked me when I was going back to 
 Modder River station, and if I would undertake to secure 
 transportation ** at any expense " for their personal supplies 
 which had been left there. He would make me a present 
 of a case of whiskey if I found myself able to manage 
 the matter, hinted that he would not object to my mak- 
 ing a good profit on the transportation contract, and 
 gave me an order without limit on the entire outfit, worth 
 several hundred pounds at least, in order to facilitate their 
 removal from the hands of the railway authorities. I was 
 not able to get the things carted to the regiment, but I still 
 retain as a valued souvenir the Colonel's order for the offi- 
 cers' kit of the K. O. S. B. Regiment which twice dined 
 me, and then arrested me as a horse-thief 
 
 Arriving at the correspondents' camp at Paardeburg, I 
 found Major Pollock just arrived with a wagon-load of 
 forage, supplies and baggage ; and, after making a hasty 
 report, the three of us took refuge in the already overloaded 
 wagon from a terrific cloudburst of rain, while the Kaffir 
 servants stood outside as carelessly as though getting wet 
 was their regular occupation. Before dark the rain stopped, 
 and we moved our camp across a donga (gulch) and within 
 
 103 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 a stone's throw of Lord Roberts' tent, where we found a 
 suitable spot between the headquarters staff and the field 
 hospital, near the river bank. Beyond were the picket- 
 lines and a three-mile stretch up the river to the laager. 
 Amery had tried his hand at commandeering, having brought 
 in a small mule which he found on the veldt after leav- 
 ing me the day before. During the rainstorm it wandered 
 away, fell down a thirty-foot embankment into the river, 
 and after an hour's effort to pry him out of the mud we 
 abandoned the attempt. Two days later he was still stand- 
 ing in the river, the water up to his shoulders, and quietly 
 eating the grass on its bank, and there he remained until 
 the rising waters of the Modder in flood washed him with 
 a thousand other carcasses down the river, out of the Free 
 State and into the Orange River and Cape Colony, thirty- 
 five miles westward. 
 
 104 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE BATTLE OF PAARDEBURG. 
 
 MAJOR POLLOCK returned to Modder River station 
 the following day, bearing our letters and censored 
 press despatches for ** The Times." Crossing the river to 
 see something of the British positions to the northward, I 
 rode up a slight elevation, where several officers were 
 grouped about a heliograph and examining a map. The 
 central figure was General Sir Henry Colville, of the Ninth 
 Division, who gave me an appointment for the afternoon, 
 to hear from him the story of the battle of Paardeburg the 
 previous Saturday and Sunday, — a day before Amery and 
 I had started on our ride to Jacobsdal in search of head- 
 quarters. Leaving the General, I managed to get within 
 a thousand yards of the laager on our side of the river, 
 where another lyddite gun and a number of eight-inch 
 howitzers were in position. There was no firing that day 
 except between sharpshooters, or ''snipers," as they were 
 called, and I did not give them sufficient time to get my 
 range on this occasion, when the first bullet ''zinged" 
 overhead. 
 
 Late that afternoon Amery and I rode over to Spy 
 Kopje, from which we had watched the general bombard- 
 ment a few days before. We found General Colville's 
 headquarters at its base, only two hundred yards from the 
 awful grave containing two hundred of his men. Taking 
 us to the top of the kopje, the courteous General told us 
 for "The Times" how Cronje was surrounded. When 
 General French made his brilliant dash into the Free State 
 
 105 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 the till-then greatest of Boer leaders made a blunder which 
 led on to his Waterloo, and which subsequent events 
 pointed to as '' the turning-point of the war." 
 
 General Cronje's forces, beginning a retreat up the north 
 bank of the Modder River, came in touch with the ex- 
 hausted forces of General French, attempting to rejoin the 
 main army, and forced that famous cavalry leader to retreat 
 into Kimberley, with his half-starved 
 horses and men. These were the facts. 
 A report was sent on to Bloemfontein 
 and Pretoria that General French and 
 ten thousand men were additional pris- 
 oners in Kimberley, and great was Boer 
 rejoicing throughout the land ; and had 
 Cronje returned to his strong positions, 
 just abandoned, the siege of Kimberley 
 might have been continued, and the 
 entire further history of the war would 
 have been different. 
 
 But now a great strategic lie was told 
 to the world. The news was cabled to 
 England that ** Kimberley had been 
 relieved by French with the cavalry di- 
 vision." All London and the world be- 
 lieved the lie, and while London and the 
 Stock Exchange went into a delirium of joy, Paris and St, 
 Petersburg sent m.essages of condolence to Bloemfontein 
 and Pretoria, and the foolish Boers, instead of holding fast 
 until the world learned the truth, were themselves deceived. 
 The wildest consternation reigned, and Cronje con- 
 tinued his lamentable retreat toward Bloemfontein, leaving 
 the way open for the restoration of direct communication 
 between the Modder River and Kimberley, and allowing 
 the great strategic lie to become a fact. 
 
 1 06 
 
 General Sir Henry Col- 
 ville. Photographed 
 at Bloemfontein. 
 
THE BATTLE OF PAARDEBURG 
 
 From then on misfortune seemed to follow every move 
 made by Cronje. On the evening of February i6 he at- 
 tempted to cross to the south bank of the Modder at Klip 
 Drift. He was halted in this attempt by General Kelly- 
 Kenny's division, which had marched thither to head him 
 off from Orange River Camp. Then followed a race east- 
 ward, each of the hostile forces on either river bank trying 
 to get ahead of the other ; the one to cross, the other to 
 prevent a crossing, to the south bank. Only seventeen 
 more miles were made that night, for Cronje's transport 
 service was crippled. The oxen and horses alike were 
 dropping by the way from fatigue, refusing to get up, so. 
 their frantic masters soon abandoned the effort and simply 
 cut them out of the teams, thereby increasing the burdens 
 of the others. At Klip Drift more than eighty bullock- 
 carts were abandoned during the short fighting with Kelly- 
 Kenny. The supplies were partially destroyed by the 
 Boers themselves. 
 
 On the morning of the i8th Cronje arrived at Paarde- 
 burg Drift, and was about to cross the river again when 
 Kelly-Kenny's men were seen several miles to the south- 
 ward, nearly abreast of the Boers. The few carts already 
 across returned, and the weary trek up the north bank con- 
 tinued. Four miles more were covered, when from a 
 ridge of kopjes to the northeast a large body of horsemen 
 were seen, heading off further progress in that direction. 
 This was the cavalry division under General French, which 
 had left Kimberley that morning at three o'clock, arriving 
 at the river at one o'clock, after a forced march of thirty- 
 two miles. 
 
 A determined effort was then made by the Boers to force 
 a passage at this point, where there was a big bend or loop 
 in the river. A number of horsemen got across, but only 
 in time to unsling their rifles and repel with great slaughter 
 
 107 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 a charge made by the Highland Brigade. I was afterward 
 told that the men of the Black Watch and others ran madly 
 down toward the river, not half so much to charge the 
 enemy as to get a drink of water, for which they were 
 almost perishing. A kopje almost three miles south of the 
 river was seized by the British by command of Lord Kitch- 
 ener, thereby becoming named for him. This position 
 eventually prevented further progress of the Boers in that 
 direction. General Colville with the Ninth Division arrived 
 in time to take part in the charge on the river bank. Several 
 of his guns were sent across the drift to the north bank and 
 •joined French's artillery, and Cronje's retreat was completely 
 cut off. During the night the Boers occupied themselves 
 in constructing their wonderful bomb-proof shelters and 
 trenches. A few crossed the river and got as far as 
 Kitchener's Kopje, which had been abandoned by the 
 British. 
 
 Here they stopped and occupied the position, a piece of 
 good fortune which, if taken advantage of, might have saved 
 Cronje further loss than that of his transport. For the next 
 three days the Boers held this position, while the British 
 artillery pounded away at the laager, the sappers worked 
 their way up and down the river bed, and the ** snipers" on 
 both sides picked off their victims. The first day's fighting 
 had cost the EngHsh over eleven hundred men — more than 
 one-fourth as many men as were in Cronje's entire army. 
 Meanwhile reinforcements had arrived from Bloemfontein, 
 and by night scouts arrived in the laager with orders from 
 President Steyn for Cronje to abandon his wagons and come 
 out while the reinforcements under General Botha held the 
 English back. 
 
 But now the very qualities which had made Cronje great 
 in success conspired to bring about his downfall. He was 
 a religious fanatic ; he believed himself inspired by the 
 
 io8 
 
THE BATTLE OF PAARDEBURG 
 
 Almighty ; and, his Dutch stubbornness asserting itself with 
 all its intensity, he sent back the reply, 
 
 " No ; I will stay here until I have killed all the English." 
 For three nights the orders and entreaties for him to 
 escape while the way was yet open were ignored by the 
 old Free Stater, and then, with the attack on Kitchener's 
 Kopje on the morning that I started for Koodoosrand Drift, 
 the outpost was driven from that point and the great khaki 
 net was at last drawn completely around the doomed army, 
 though on the preceding night fifteen hundred of Cronje's 
 men, in defiance of orders, succeeded in crossing the drift 
 and escaping toward Bloemfontein, as the entire army 
 mis^ht have done had its commander been less firm at the 
 onetime in his life that yielding to others would have saved 
 him, and perhao^-ihis country. 
 
 A siege of oiie week followed this last effort to relieve 
 Cronje. Botha was driven back with a loss of a few men 
 killed and wounded, about fifty prisoners, and part of his 
 transports. Wild stories of doings in the laager filtered 
 through the lines and spread about the camp. One was 
 that a committee of eight of the most influential burghers 
 waited on Cronje with a recommendation to surrender. 
 Incensed at this, it was said that he shot them down in cold 
 blood, one after another. The bombardment almost ceased, 
 for Roberts had come to realize that, with the hundreds of 
 dead horses and cattle lying all over the laager, beneath 
 the hot sun, the position would soon become untenable 
 because of its own terrors. After the surrender, a British 
 surgeon who visited the laager was compelled three times 
 within an hour to submit to a penalty like unto that of 
 sea-sickness, and the Boers themselves confessed to having 
 suffered in the same way every time they attempted to eat. 
 Toward the end an effort was made to break away with 
 the transports, but the British managed to get the range 
 
 109 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 of the drift with their lyddite, and the attempt was aban- 
 doned. 
 
 Sufficient artillery-play upon the position was kept up to 
 compel the burghers, with their several hundred men, women 
 and children, to remain in their crowded quarters enveloped 
 in the intolerable stenches, day and night. The lyddite 
 set the wagons on fire, and within a few days only a heap 
 
 Family of Free State Boer women and children living near DeWetsdorp. The 
 father, husband and two brothers were captured with General Cronje at 
 Paardeburg. One other brother was killed. 
 
 of iron bands, bolts and framework, black and charred, 
 and resting on a pile of ashes, marked the place where each 
 had halted on Sunday, the i8th. 
 
 Meanwhile, back in the shady grove of trees about head- 
 quarters, in the correspondents' camp, a new world full of 
 incident and happening had opened up to me, in which I 
 had an interview with Lord Stanley, which nearly resulted 
 in his sending me off to Cape Town. I placated him by 
 
 no 
 
THE BATTLE OF PAARDEBURG 
 
 ceasing my useless protest and accepting his decision that 
 I was not to advance more than five hundred yards ahead 
 of headquarters. Afterward he relented, and said that if at 
 any time an action might be probable, he would give me 
 special permission to go out to *'see the show." His pur- 
 pose was to prevent ''The Times " from seeming to have 
 three correspondents ; as a number of papers had been 
 allowed to have only two, he did not care to allow even 
 " The Times " to exceed that number. But I soon learned 
 that Lord Stanley was a man who said a great many things 
 in the course of a day and forgot them later, so I did 
 pretty much as I pleased about that five-hundred-yard line. 
 
 
 J, 
 
 Jkl 
 
 • 
 
 
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 M 
 
 %■ 
 
 i| 
 
 ^M^ 
 
 P 
 
 Iq 
 
 Vf 
 
 
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 m 
 
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 1 
 
 
 M 
 
 The Turkish Military Attache to Lord Roberts' headquarters. 
 
 Ill 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 CHICKENS AND CHICANERY. 
 
 RETURNING to our camp after listening to General 
 Colville's description of the first day's fight, we found 
 Landon had returned. He was a tall, dark, ruddy-faced 
 Englishman, with eyes rather close together, one of them 
 occasionally going off on the bias, a brown mustache, good 
 figure, kind, but reserved and very ** casual." He accepted 
 my entree into the scene of operations quite as he would 
 have taken a letter from the postman — to be given a certain 
 amount of attention, and then pigeon-holed for future 
 reference. For the next few weeks I regarded this able 
 representative of England's *' Thunderer" as the very beau 
 ideal of all that a war correspondent should be, and, until 
 his nervous and physical collapse at Bloemfontein, I found 
 it well to study his methods, and to a certain extent make 
 him my model. 
 
 One remark he made the first night I met him impressed 
 me deeply, and described the man himself quite accurately. 
 It was after dinner, and five correspondents were smoking 
 pipes or cigarettes, each contributing his share to the post- 
 prandial conversation, the faces darkly outlined by the 
 light of a badly-damaged lantern. From the operating 
 tents of the field-hospital close by escaped an occasional 
 groan, as the surgeons' knives carved their way toward 
 relief, while about the rudely-piled camp-fires the slightly 
 wounded and convalescents grouped themselves in vivid 
 contrasts of light and shadow. In front was the head- 
 quarters of the Field Marshal and his staff, quartered with 
 
 112 
 
CHICKENS AND CHICANERY 
 
 the rude luxury of Cape-cart and trek-wagon ; beyond, 
 the field-telegraph and darkness ; nearby, the subdued 
 murmuring of the Modder as its waters swirled around a 
 dozen bloated carcasses, caught by the branches of a sub- 
 merged tree in an eddy. When my turn came to talk 
 
 Lord Stanley, eldest son of the Earl of Derby, Chief Press Censor under Lord 
 Roberts, attached to the Field Marshal' s staff with rank of Colonel. Lord 
 Stanley is an active member of the Lower House of Parliament, holding 
 the important position of " Government Whip." In tactfully controlling 
 the small army of newspaper men without giving offence, his was by far 
 the most difficult position on Lord Roberts' staff. The photograph was 
 taken at Bloemfontein a month after Paardeburg. 
 
 about myself, I gave an outline sketch of my travels and 
 unique experiences in strange places abroad and stranger 
 places at home, and concluded with the statement that I 
 had always made it an object in life, rather than bend my 
 energies to mere accumulation of material things, to see all 
 « 113 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 the things and places worth seeing. The silence that 
 followed this remark was broken by Landon turning to 
 me and saying, with intensified English accent and de- 
 liberation, 
 
 ** Did it never occur to you how much better it would 
 be to make it the object of your life to get to know the 
 people worth knowing?" Often afterward I suspected 
 Landon of a half-veiled sarcasm in his remarks to me after 
 dinner during those evenings on the veldt, and this first time 
 I promptly " came back at him " by admitting that the idea 
 was a new one to me ; but that, now that I had met him and 
 Kipling, I would adopt it instead of my old one, just ex- 
 pressed. 
 
 Later, when the company had narrowed down to "The 
 Times " representatives only, I told them that while Lord 
 Stanley had given me pseudo-recognition as a correspond- 
 ent, yet I would not be satisfied until he had given me a 
 full, unHmited hcense on the regular form issued to the 
 other correspondents, and like the one I already had, which, 
 however, limited me to General Gatacre's division. For 
 some reason this struck Landon as being somewhat pre- 
 sumptuous, and he told me the story of how Kipling and 
 an energetic American journalist had seen a sea-serpent at 
 the same time ; how the American proposed to startle Eng- 
 land with an account of the discovery ; how Kipling ad- 
 vised him to write up the tale as fiction ; how the American 
 scorned the advice and suggestion that a people seven 
 hundred years older than himself could not be expected to 
 be jarred into quicker activity, journalistic or otherwise, by 
 a youngster from across the Atlantic ; how he tried the sea- 
 serpent on every newspaper and magazine in London, and 
 had the story come back to him with disgusting regularity ; 
 and, finally, how Kipling found him one morning wander- 
 ing about the aisles of Westminster, shaking his head and 
 
 114 
 
CHICKENS AND CHICANERY 
 
 greeting his former adviser with the remark, waving his 
 hand toward the surrounding grandeur, 
 
 ** I understand now why that thing wouldn't go, Enghsh 
 journahsm is a matter of growth through centuries. Its 
 motion cannot be accelerated ; it has become an institution 
 as permanent and unchangeable as this grand old pile." 
 
 Then the American journalist went home in a properly 
 humble frame of mind. 
 
 The moral of this tale was that the British press censor- 
 ship was not an affair of Lord Stanley alone ; it was an 
 institution, — the growth of custom and precedent that 
 made its decisions irrevocable ; so that Lord Stanley's 
 ** No," once said, meant " No " forever, and that the sooner 
 I disabused myself of the idea that Lord Stanley could be 
 prevailed upon to do as I desired, the sooner I would be 
 free from the certainty of disappointment. When we went 
 to bed, I thought of the Censors at Cape Town and a few 
 other obstacles which I had already surmounted ; then I 
 dozed off to sleep, with my determination still unshaken to 
 make Lord Stanley surrender that license. 
 
 Early next morning I started for Modder River station 
 with despatches. First, I had taken them to Lord Stanley, 
 who read the telegrams carefully, crossing out a word here 
 or there, and stamping with his seal each sheet. The letters 
 were stamped only on the outside, as the correspondents 
 were on their honor not to write anything inconsistent with 
 the rules on the subject. The stamping insured their being 
 unopened by the postal authorities under martial law. I 
 asked the Censor if there was anything I could do for him 
 at Modder River, and he gave me some private letters, 
 including several of the Field Marshal's, to carry to the 
 postal authorities there. This made me for the time being 
 an official courier, and I did not hesitate to take advantage 
 of the fact to exact forage for my horse and entertainment 
 
 115 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 for myself from every outpost and camp on my thirty-five 
 mile ride during that morning. I was welcomed at every 
 point, and traded news for cigarettes, picking up more 
 camp gossip to peddle further on ; and I invariably found 
 the British officer a royal good fellow. 
 
 During my ride I hac^ ample opportunity to revolve in 
 my mind the subject of the Censorship — an English insti- 
 tution — and a new license. I vaguely felt that, somehow. 
 Lord Stanley could be ''worked." Lord Roberts being 
 the highest authority, it was evident that the trick was to 
 be done through him. How to ingratiate myself with the 
 Field Marshal was the next question. A brilliant idea was 
 that, as I had heard that Lord Roberts' chief aversion was 
 a cat, perhaps it would be well to bribe a Kaffir to loosen 
 a bagful on the river bank by his headquarters ; then I 
 would rush gallantly in, snatch the creatures by the necks 
 or tails, and bear them off to destruction. But this 
 scheme seemed impracticable, so I cast about for another, 
 which I found, after a little thought, in the Field Marshal's 
 chief weakness, which was chickens ; but he had issued an 
 order against looting, and this was a bar to my securing 
 his favorite food. On my return to Paardeburg I had two 
 healthy fowls packed away in my feed-bag ; but don't for a 
 moment think I rushed up to " Bobs " with my prize. Not 
 a bit of it. Better than finding a way to ingratiate myself 
 with that great man, I had found a way for Lord Stanley 
 to do his chief a little but valued favor. So to the Censor, 
 with my compliments, the chickens were given ; they cost 
 me four shillings each, but I told Lord Stanley I had looted 
 them. I knew he would not " give me away," and I rightly 
 guessed he would turn them over to his cook and invite 
 " Bobs " to dinner that night. 
 
 For the next three weeks, from every long ride to tele- 
 graphic base or to reconnoitre for "The Times," I returned 
 
 Ii6 
 
CHICKENS AND CHICANERY 
 
 with one or more feathered companions. At times, when 
 it was advisable, I withheld them a day or two. Mean- 
 while, tied with a cord to a cart-wheel, they strutted about 
 in their limited area, roosting at night on an axle ; and as, 
 daily, I grew in favor and popularity at headquarters, I 
 fondly watched my feathered charges, and with their every 
 peck at oats, scattered from carelessly-filled feed-bags, I 
 saw the greatest English institution of slow growth gradu- 
 
 Major Congrcve, who won the Victoria Cross with Lieutenant Roberts, son 
 of the Field Marshal, when Lieutenant Roberts was killed in the effort 
 to save Buller's guns at Colenso. 
 
 ally undermined, and a very perceptible wobbling of the 
 lofty towers of Westminster. 
 
 During my first ride back to Modder I followed the 
 river to where the road branched southwest to Jacobsdal. 
 I had now about fifteen miles farther to go. Familiarity 
 with the map, however, told me that a straighter path 
 across the virgin veldt would cut off at least five miles. 
 The country was as flat as a billiard-table, the day was in- 
 
 117 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 tensely hot, the sky perfectly cloudless. Straight ahead, 
 apparently just above the horizon, I saw inverted in the 
 sky a perfect picture of the trees and station buildings at 
 Modder River. 
 
 It was a mirage. I had seen many mirages in Alaska, 
 and in the Karroo Desert from the car-windows. I knew 
 that this one showed me the direction, suggesting the 
 shortest distance in a straight line. So I broke a new 
 trail across the veldt and saved an hour's time, thereby 
 beating a rival rider for another London paper who had 
 started simultaneously with me from Paardeburg. Return- 
 ing the following day, I joined a transport convoy just 
 starting for Paardeburg. The commander. Colonel Um- 
 phelby, was about to go on to Jacobsdal. I told him of the 
 new way and the saving it would effect, and he followed my 
 advice. A week later, while on my second ride, I found 
 that others had followed in the new road his cart-wheels 
 had tracked, and that the virgin veldt through which I had 
 broken my trail that morning had since become a broad 
 and well-defined highway, a thousand cart-wheels having 
 cut a path through the sod, churning it into mud, after 
 which it had sun-baked until the road was hard and solid, 
 while ten thousand hoof-marks between the tracks and on 
 each side marked the road, straight as an arrow, ten miles 
 across the open veldt, where but a week before only 
 straggly grass. Karroo-bush and grazing cattle or cast-off 
 horses were to be seen. 
 
 On Tuesday morning, February 27, while returning to 
 Paardeburg, after carrying despatches to Modder River, I 
 heard loud cheering from the brigade encamped at Klip 
 Drift as I passed within a half mile of their quarters. 
 Riding a dozen miles farther, I met Amery coming at full 
 speed. Connecting this with the incident of the troops 
 cheering, I rightly guessed that Cronje had surrendered. 
 
 118 
 
CHICKENS AND CHICANERY 
 
 Amery stopped when he came up to me, scribbled a short 
 letter, exchanged horses with me, and I turned back to 
 the Modder again. Somewhere on the veldt half a dozen 
 other riders were on their way to the same point. I had 
 already ridden twenty-five miles that day, but there was no 
 help for it — back I had to go ; and, although I got my 
 despatches in ahead of the others, I felt that a hard gallop 
 of over fifty miles was a big enough price to pay for the 
 honor. 
 
 As there would still be several hours before sunset, I 
 decided to start back again for Paardeburg the same day. 
 Ten miles out found the quick night swooping down over 
 the veldt, and fortunately I was near a farmhouse which 
 had not been looted. 
 
 The De Villiers family, well known, and formerly very 
 wealthy, were occupying this old homestead. They gladly 
 gave me entertainment, hoping to get some news, for since 
 the invasion of the Free State they had had none whatever. 
 An old man, over eighty, was the only male member of 
 the family at home ; three women — his wife and two 
 daughters and a child — made up the rest of the family. 
 Only one servant remained — an old Kaffir "boy." They 
 had lost three sons in the war — one killed, one captured, 
 and the third, a mere boy, had gone off with some cattle, 
 and had never been heard of since. The Imperial army, 
 as it swept across this farm, had carried off or scattered 
 four hundred head of cattle and two hundred horses, be- 
 sides a thousand sheep. Thus in one week's time this 
 prominent family was reduced from happiness and affluence 
 to sorrow and poverty. During the evening I told them 
 something of the siege of Cronje and what little I knew of 
 his surrender. That this was a fact they refused to believe. 
 
 '* Why," said one of the women, ** how many men has 
 Lord Roberts?" 
 
 119 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 I answered, 
 
 '* About fifty thousand." 
 
 ''Then Cronje will beat him !" was her reply. 
 
 "But," I said, "how can he, with only five thousand 
 men ?" 
 
 "Why," she answered, "whenever the Boers have had 
 only one to ten against the English they have always beaten 
 them. Look at Magersfontein, where Cronje had only four 
 hundred men ! And then remember Majuba !" 
 
 "Yes," I said, "yesterday was Majuba Day, and it was 
 then that Cronje surrendered." 
 
 Then seeing that they were losing patience with me, and 
 that my statements were making no impression, I changed 
 the subject. 
 
 Early the next morning, as I was about to continue my 
 journey, I saw a cavalcade coming along the road near the 
 house. When it drew closer I called the old farmer and 
 his family out, and together we saw General Cronje, his 
 wife, secretary and eldest son, drive past in a carriage, sur- 
 rounded by a heavy escort of mounted City Imperial Vol- 
 unteers, the crack London corps. When they had passed, 
 the old farmer went into the house, and a few minutes after- 
 ward I found him sitting in the kitchen, his head and arms 
 on the table, sobbing bitterly, while the women were walk- 
 ing frantically to and fro, repeating to each other, " Oh, 
 we never thought it would come to this !" " Now we will 
 never be able to beat the English !" and so on indefinitely, 
 showing that their immediate misfortunes had been com- 
 pletely forgotten in their greater grief over the loss of their 
 country's independence, which they seemed to reahze was 
 bound to follow Cronje's surrender. 
 
 It struck me as being very odd — even as having a ludi- 
 crous side — this old-fashioned outburst of patriotism ; yet it 
 was very touching, and I rode away feeling rather de- 
 
 I20 
 
CHICKENS AND CHICANERY 
 
 pressed. Coming near to Klip Drift again, I saw a long 
 line of men approaching over a distant ridge, straggling 
 along in closer order than troops ever marched, and with- 
 out their regular formation. They looked like a swarm of 
 locusts creeping over the veldt. At Klip Drift they halted, 
 and I saw that this was Cronje's army, marching under guard 
 to Modder River, to be sent to Cape Town by rail. They 
 were given British rations of tinned corned-beef and biscuits 
 while they sat on the ground where they halted, armed 
 Tommies standing guard all around, while several regi- 
 ments lay nearby on the grass, rifles in hand, in constant 
 readiness should the prisoners prove troublesome. Off at 
 one side several hundred of the women-prisoners were 
 grouped about a few wagons, and I could see that there 
 were children, and even babies, among them. Then I rode 
 on to Paardeburg, past hundreds of carcasses of horses, 
 bullocks and mules which lined the path of the army and 
 gave out their intolerable odors to pollute the glorious 
 atmosphere. Here and there were abandoned and broken- 
 down trek-carts ; occasional patches of veldt covered with 
 shining but empty tin biscuit-boxes, indicated where the 
 army had halted for a meal. A few flocks of asvogels 
 (vultures), perched on masses of putrefaction, flopped awk- 
 wardly out of my way as I galloped on. Toward evening 
 I was back in the correspondents' camp by the Modder, 
 with the oppressive impression still strong and vivid before 
 my eyes induced by that quietly-eating army of prisoners 
 sitting under the hot sun back at Klip Drift. 
 
 In camp I found that Major Pollock and Amery had 
 passed me on their way to the Modder, Amery going back 
 to Cape Town to resume his duties as base correspondent, 
 and Pollock for supplies and with despatches. Landon was 
 still at headquarters, and our mess had been increased by 
 the addition of Mr. Young of the Manchester '' Guardian," 
 
 121 
 
WITH '^BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 a young musical critic who had been sent out to write war 
 stories. Verily, war correspondents are sometimes carved 
 out of queer woods. Young was a splendid fellow, very 
 impracticable, aesthetic to a fault, and quite a dreamer. 
 His servants and his outfit were taken care of by Major 
 Pollock during the rest of the campaign until we reached 
 Bloemfontein, when our mess broke up entirely. 
 
 122 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 cronje's laager and his surrender. 
 
 CRONJE'S offer to surrender had been made at day- 
 break, and the formal ceremony was performed 
 later. It seems he had already decided to give up. In 
 the morning, about three hours before sunrise, a party of 
 the Canadian troops, aided by sappers of the Royal Engi- 
 neers, had succeeded, under cover of darkness, in entrench- 
 ing a position within two hundred yards of the laager, 
 flanking the Boer trenches in such a manner as to make 
 them untenable when daylight came. About ten of the 
 Canadians and forty of the Boers were killed, and a few 
 more wounded in the short but sharp fighting which pre- 
 ceded the offer to surrender. 
 
 The number of Boers in the laager was a matter of much 
 speculation before the surrender. The farmers and Boer 
 prisoners already taken said the number could not exceed 
 eight or nine hundred, for Cronje had sent part of his com- 
 mand off in different directions to the north and south when 
 he started on his unfortunate retreat up the Modder River. 
 The actual total number of prisoners taken was 4090, of 
 whom 1327 were Free Staters. The sick and wounded 
 numbered only 163. Despite the terrific bombardment, the 
 number of men killed in the laager was only Sy. For the 
 capture of the prisoners and their two hundred women and 
 children Lord Roberts paid a high price, losing nearly two 
 thousand men, more than five hundred of whom were buried 
 at Paardeburg in long, broad trenches outlined with stones 
 from the Spy Kopje above, the hill from which Lords Roberts 
 
 12^ 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 and Kitchener watched the hell of shrapnel and lyddite con- 
 centrated over the Boer laager, and from the base of which 
 the forgotten Tommies, in their shallow graves, will continue 
 to guard the scene of England's great ''avenging" of 
 Majuba. Six guns were taken in a more or less dismantled 
 condition — four nine-pounders, one Vickers-Maxim or 
 ** pom-pom," and one ordinary Maxim. With General 
 Cronje was General Wolmerans and Commandants Al- 
 brecht, Russe, Maartans, Juste, Woest and Kok. Except- 
 ing the leaders, the prisoners were obviously glad to be 
 captured as a release from the terrors of the laager. 
 
 After the surrender. Young and I visited the scene ; but 
 we did not remain long, for, despite the freshet which had 
 washed most of the carcasses in the river-bed down the 
 stream, there were sufficient scattered about on the level 
 of the veldt to make the place pestilential with foul odors. 
 We could not cross the river, so we satisfied ourselves with 
 an examination of that portion of the laager extending 
 along the south side of the river and what we could see by 
 looking across. The banks of the stream were thirty to forty 
 feet high where the water had cut its way through the clay 
 to the bed-rock beneath. On the south bank were two sets 
 of trenches, one on the veldt level, and another for reserve 
 use on the steep slope of the river bank. They were from 
 two to three feet broad, eight to ten feet long, and five or 
 six feet deep, generally covered with tree-branches as sun- 
 shades, and were broadened out on each side at the bottom ; 
 these were the bomb-proof trenches, and the low number 
 of casualties are sufficient certificates of their effectiveness. 
 On the opposite bank there was a series of trenches half- 
 way down to the water's edge, constructed in the same 
 manner. Both banks were covered with trees, and num- 
 berless well-worn paths from the trenches showed that 
 the Boers must not only have used water for drinking, but 
 
 124 
 
CRONJE'S LAAGER AND SURRENDER 
 
 
 1^^ 
 
 Cronje's Laager at Paardeburg. Sketched by the author after the surrender. 
 
 fShelkr 
 
 Sectional View of Trenches in Cronje's Laager at Paardeburg, south bank of 
 Modder River. Sketched by the author after the surrender. 
 
 25 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 also for lavatory purposes, despite all British assertions to 
 the contrary. 
 
 On the veldt level above the north bank was another 
 small line of trenches, behind which still stood about a 
 hundred trek-carts, mostly shattered by the shell-fire from 
 the British artillery. A brick barn with one end blown 
 out by lyddite stood at the right, while on a ridge still 
 farther back were more trenches. The Canadian advance 
 on the morning of the surrender was to flank these trenches, 
 and they did enfilade them terribly. At the extreme right 
 of the laager a few wagons in the water at the drift showed 
 the attempt to cross the river at that point. Beyond, in 
 the dim distance, the inevitable horizon rim of irregular 
 blue-brown kopjes framed this picture of desolation. 
 
 I walked along the bank and picked up a few fragments 
 of Boer shells and bullets, and, after climbing down into 
 several of the trenches, I was no longer surprised at the 
 failure of the terrific bombardment to do more damage. To 
 any one lying under the overhanging sides of the trenches 
 the heaviest shells exploding overhead were harmless. Even 
 the lyddite failed to achieve its expected slaughter by con- 
 cussion, and save for its ability to set fire to the wagons, 
 and thus destroy supplies, it was not much more effective 
 than ordinary shrapnel. The suffocating effect of the lyd- 
 dite fumes was successfully counteracted by drinking 
 vinegar, of which the burghers had a plentiful supply. 
 
 I was struck by the sharp contrast presented by the 
 abandoned camps of the two opposing armies. The track 
 of the Imperial force was marked by waste and extrava- 
 gance. Empty meat- and biscuit-tins fairly paved the veldt, 
 while on every side the half-consumed remains of slaugh- 
 tered cattle were to be seen. In the enemy's camps evi- 
 dences were found that the Boers lived largely on cereals, 
 carried in sacks ; they always saved the hides of slaughtered 
 
 126 
 
CRONJE'S LAAGER AND SURRENDER 
 
 animals, and during their leisure hours put them through 
 some process of preservation for future use. Of course 
 nothing of this kind was done at Paardeburg. Apropos 
 of the nauseating smells of the laager and the entire Mod- 
 der River trek, I have noticed that the more highly organ- 
 ized the carcass, the more offensive the odor. The most 
 numerous bodies were those of bullocks, which, being 
 grass-eaters, were not as offensive as those of the grain- 
 eating horses. Both were less offensive than the carcasses 
 of dogs or pigs. But a thousand times worse than all the 
 others combined was the nauseating, weakening, nerve- 
 destroying effluvium that arose from the three-foot-deep 
 soil loosely covering the bodies of two hundred members 
 of the Highland Brigade buried in the trenches around Spy 
 Kopje. As man is the highest development of the animal 
 kingdom when living, so, when dead, he is the most offen- 
 sive combination of all decaying organisms. While I was 
 still at the laager, a large trench, almost a cave, was found 
 containing the dead bodies of fifty burghers. The workers 
 were unable to remove them, and the cave was filled up, 
 burying them all en masse. It is needless to say I did not 
 inspect the cave. 
 
 The next day we heard of the relief of Lady smith. This, 
 with the capture of Cronje's army, the relief of Kimberley, 
 and the evacuation of Stormberg and Colesberg by the 
 Boers in less than two weeks, it was generally thought, by 
 the staff of correspondents and headquarters attaches, 
 would so depress the Boers as to entirely break up their 
 very loosely-organized armies and end the war within a 
 few weeks. 
 
 The souvenirs I collected during this visit to the laager 
 at Paardeburg I placed in an empty shrapnel shell, which 
 I found at the same place. I found a cap which fitted over 
 the shell, and the whole made a very compact and neat 
 
 127 
 
WITH - BOBS " AND KRUGER 
 
 relic. This, together with a box of the Queen's chocolates, 
 some Boer Bibles, and a number of other relics, I put in a 
 handsome dress-suit case, which I left at the railway 
 station at Modder River. Afterward I moved it up to 
 Kimberley, where I left it in charge of the manager of the 
 Grand Hotel. 
 
 When about to leave South Africa I had not time to go 
 back to Kimberley to get my baggage, and so telegraphed 
 to have it sent to me. It never came. Instead, I received 
 a telegram saying, ** It cannot be found." Additional let- 
 ters, telegrams, and services of Consuls and attorneys have 
 had no effect ; my valise still remains at Kimberley, and 
 with it the choicest of my souvenirs. The contents are 
 worth possibly ten pounds. 1 have spent at least that much 
 in the effort to regain it. The moral of this is, — when 
 travelling, especially in war time, never become separated 
 from your luggage. 
 
 128 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 OSFONTEIN AND SOME EXASPERATING EXPERIENCES. 
 
 THE next move of Lord Roberts' army was to Osfon- 
 tein, and Roberts selected as headquarters the very 
 farmhouse at which I had been entertained eight days be- 
 fore by the K. O. S. B. Regiment. The correspondents 
 got in motion a Httle later than headquarters, and it was 
 nearly dark before the first of us drove up to the farm. 
 Being familiar with the ground, I rode rapidly around, and 
 found two other newspaper outfits already camping on a 
 beautiful stretch of green turf — ideal golfing ground — just 
 in rear of the farmhouse. I had ** The Times" cortege of 
 two Cape-carts, one spring-wagon, one trek-cart, six oxen 
 and twelve horses draw off at one side, and while the Kaf- 
 fir boys were getting supper, Mr. Young and I, under the 
 direction of Major Pollock, put up our tent. About eight 
 o'clock, just as it was getting dark, a very new Colonel at- 
 tached to headquarters rode up and curtly informed us that 
 we were directly behind the firing-line. He asked us who 
 had given us permission to camp there, .and then ordered 
 the entire lot of us off to another spot. Then he carefully 
 selected the most disagreeable and unreachable place he 
 could find, moved us off in the darkness through a swamp, 
 across a brook, over a stone wall at which every obsti- 
 nate horse balked, forced us to pull down oun tents, reload 
 our wagons, leave our half-prepared suppers, and utterly 
 waste about three hours of our precious time, while this 
 would-be-important-ofificer rode furiously around, thunder- 
 ing orders and playing the fool generally. It was an expe- 
 9 129 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 rience not calculated to put the staff of correspondents in 
 the most amiable frame of mind. When we finally got 
 down to coffee and cigarettes, about midnight, this officer 
 was carefully discussed and his future was prepared. One 
 old war-horse, who in twenty years' campaigning had never 
 been treated so harshly, swore he would have the Colonel's 
 
 Mr. Mackern, an ciULipn^mg Aiinjiican Photographer, representing " Scrib- 
 ner's Magazine," finds a slight elevation better suited to procure the best 
 results on his plates. He uses a stereoscopic camera, ta^<ing two pictures 
 at once. 
 
 scalp, sooner or later. Others suggested milder forms of 
 torture. Each determined to have his blood some time ; 
 I am at it now. The following morning we were delighted 
 to learn that he had got a roasting from ** Bobs " for exceed- 
 ing his authority. But even that did not soften our wrath. 
 We all vowed to carefully remember his name, — no, I shall 
 not give it here ; our object in remembering it is that it 
 
 130 
 
OSFONTEIN AND SOME EXPERIENCES 
 
 shall be forgotten. Neither in this campaign nor in any 
 other may that officer ever hope to have his name men- 
 tioned in cable or letter by any war correspondent, how- 
 ever meritorious the services he may render his country, 
 for the correspondents all stand together, and in secret his 
 name will go down to successive generations of pencil- 
 pushers as the never-to-be-mentioned-man who in so un- 
 heard of a manner outraged the dignity and for a whole 
 night made superlatively uncomfortable the entire staff of 
 correspondents attached to Lord Roberts' headquarters. 
 The man's career, so far as newspapers count in such 
 things, is undoubtedly finished. The firing-line he pointed 
 out was about fifty yards from Lord Roberts' dinner-table 
 that evening — a statement sufficient to show what an ass 
 the Colonel was. The next morning he came around among 
 our carts to make his peace with us, evidently realizing the 
 enormity of his mistake. He was received with silence, and 
 the general frigidity of the atmosphere caused him to leave 
 quickly. It was then that I learned what '* a fatuous ass " 
 was. That's what I heard Landon call him. 
 
 During our midnight dinner, while half a dozen other 
 correspondents were sitting around ''The Times" table, I 
 heard one of them say, '' I heard that Captain Montmo- 
 rency was killed the other day at Stormberg." I then 
 told them of my experience as one of his scouts, and 
 added, by way of conclusion, that he was the first personal 
 friend I had lost in this war. 
 
 This was so unusual a statement for a correspondent to 
 make that it drew forth general comment, for all of the 
 others had lost many of their dearest friends. Happily 
 for me, in addition to not having any direct national in- 
 terest in the war, so far I had been spared a share of the 
 personal sorrows also. The next week was to change all 
 this for me in a peculiarly exceptional manner. 
 
 131 
 
WITH ^^BOBS" AND KROGER 
 
 From Osfontein I made my last ride to Modder River 
 with despatches. The distance was now forty -two miles — 
 iquite a task for one horse, when returning on the same 
 animal was imperative. According to the importance of 
 my messages I always took the best horse in the lot, or 
 held it in reserve for a more important occasion. Starting 
 late in the afternoon, in company with Colonel Walker, of 
 Lord Roberts' staff, who rode with me to Paardeburg Drift, 
 I pushed on to Klip Kraal, where I was to deliver a note 
 from the Field Marshal to Colonel Paget, in command of a 
 
 Transport cart stuck in mud at a "drift" or ford, a familiar scene during the 
 march. Two bullocks have been left to draw the empty cart along after 
 it has been unloaded. The other bullocks have been distributed among 
 other carts to take the place of used-up animals, scores of which dropped 
 dead every day. 
 
 few regiments posted there, and guarding the line of com- 
 munications. I was always especially glad to carry these 
 official messages because they empowered me to exact en- 
 tertainment for myself and horse, so I was able to travel 
 with nothing but a mackintosh and my saddle. I had not 
 even a water canteen or supply of emergency rations in 
 my saddle-wallets, for these were usually stuffed with letters 
 from the dozens of friends I had made, generally including 
 a thick packet from Lord Stanley for headquarters. Stanley 
 I had found to be a conscientious hard worker, holding a 
 
 132 
 
OSFONTEIN AND SOME EXPERIENCES 
 
 most difificult position, for the Press Censor was constantly 
 confronted with a thousand difficulties and misunderstand- 
 ings which his very energetic and professionally jealous 
 staff of war correspondents had thrust upon him. The 
 situation was one that required the greatest tact and 
 diplomacy, and really a better man than Lord Stanley to 
 fill the position could not have been found. It was a thanks- 
 less job, for in spite of the best intentions to deal justice 
 all around. Lord Stanley was forced under the pressure of 
 necessity to offend at one time or other almost every one 
 of the newspaper men, and I was not surprised to hear in 
 London that with the press he was the most unpopular 
 man in South Africa. That this should be was inevitable ; 
 but let me add my humble testimony that from personal 
 contact with the gentleman for some months I am certain 
 that his loss of newspaper favor was altogether a result of 
 his position, and not in the least of his personality. All 
 correspondents who were under his control received favors 
 or* courtesies at some time or other that made personal 
 attacks upon him by any of them decidedly bad taste. 
 
 But back to my ride. Colonel Paget and his officers 
 contributed more letters to my wallets and the usual dose 
 of whiskey and soda to my body. The soda-generating 
 sparklet-bottle had penetrated into every mess outfit on 
 the veldt, and of course where bread and meat was found, 
 near by was always to be found a few bottles of Canadian 
 Club or Scotch whiskey. Before reaching Colonel Paget's 
 command I caught up with the Hon. Robert Beresford, of the 
 ** Central News." He said he was not carrying despatches, 
 — an unlikely thing for a correspondent travelling westward. 
 He borrowed my whip, with which to pound his horse into 
 shape for a few moments, and then with an enterprise char- 
 acteristic of American journalism galloped on ahead of 
 me, and that was the last I saw of my whip until a week 
 
 133 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 later, after Bloemfontein was taken. Luckily my despatches 
 were not sufficiently important to make another man's get- 
 ting to the wire a few hours ahead of me of much moment. 
 But it was a lesson, and after that I took care not to lend 
 either horse, whip or spurs, or even information regarding 
 routes, to anyone who might possibly prove to be a rival 
 rider in disguise. 
 
 Leaving Klip Kraal, another eight miles brought me in 
 the darkness and rain to Klip Drift, where I gathered up a 
 new batch of letters from the officers and men of the High- 
 land Light Lifantry posted there, took a hastily-prepared 
 midnight luncheon with the gentlemen in a rough shel- 
 ter composed of blankets stretched over small peach trees, 
 and then, after the Colonel went to sleep on the table, I 
 napped until 3 A. M. in his arm-chair, commandeered from 
 a neighboring farmhouse. When the sergeant who had 
 taken care of my horse woke me it had stopped raining, 
 and I galloped off in the darkness toward Modder. Break- 
 fast-time brought me to the De Villiers farm, ten miles out. 
 Here I ordered supper and engaged bedroom accommoda- 
 tions. I reached Modder Station in time to get the letters 
 off on the last weekly mail train and filed my cable de- 
 spatches in time for the evening editions. 
 
 Then I looked about for Beresford and my whip, but they 
 were not to be found. I decided to rest myself and horse 
 until toward evening, to escape the heat of midday. Sud- 
 denly I met one of '* The Times'" servants. He had 
 driven in the day before, and had killed one of our horses 
 in so doing. After a few hours I gave up the attempt to 
 buy a new horse, and decided to give him mine to help 
 drive back the cart with supplies, though this would make 
 me a day late in returning. To do this and yet return at 
 once myself placed me in a dilemma from which a little 
 enterprise, assisted by good luck, freed me. I had no- 
 
 134 
 
OSFONTEIN AND SOME EXPERIENCES 
 
 ticed a distinguished-looking gentleman in semi-civilian 
 attire unloading a Cape-cart and three horses from a rail- 
 way truck. Assuming that he was a correspondent, I en- 
 tered into conversation with him ; he proved to be Mr. 
 Alfred Hutton, the Renter's correspondent, who had made 
 a sensational escape from Ladysmith. He had just come 
 around from Natal, and was anxious to reach headquarters 
 at Osfontein, and readily agreed to take me along for a 
 guide, while " The Times" cart used my own horse to follow 
 the next day more leisurely. 
 
 The Foreign Military Attaches on the March. Representatives of all the 
 Friendly Powers are entertained as attaches to the Field Marshal's Staflf 
 during the Military Operations. Captain Slocum, of the United States 
 Army, rides the white horse at the extreme left. 
 
 But Hutton and I fathomed the lowermost depths of 
 exasperation before reaching headquarters two days later. 
 He had bought a new outfit at Cape Town, and had had a 
 balky horse unloaded on him by a rascally dealer. After 
 two hours' effort, aided by half a dozen obliging Tommies 
 and several non-combatant Free State Boers, we got the 
 brute started. Hutton rode a few yards ahead, while I 
 drove and the servant wielded the heavy sjambok or rhi- 
 noceros-hide whip. The purpose was to keep the horse 
 going without a moment's stop, and alternately galloping 
 
 135 
 
WITH *'BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 and trotting we succeeded for nine miles. Then, as we 
 were looking for De Villiers' farm, the abrupt night fell 
 upon us and left us lost on the veldt. Following the 
 direction of a fire in the distance, we came to a convoy by 
 the river, a mile or more from the farm. The officer in 
 charge of the convoy was Colonel Umphelby, of the Royal 
 Australian Artillery, and on his invitation we decided to 
 camp for the night with him. This was the same officer 
 who a week before, at my suggestion, had broken a new 
 road across the virgin veldt, and, strangely enough, I had 
 overtaken him while on the same road. With him was 
 Lieutenant Waite, one of the few '' Rankers," or officers 
 promoted from the ranks, I met in the army. Lieutenant 
 Keswick, of the I2th Lancers, was also travelling in com- 
 pany with the convoy to headquarters. Lieutenant Hil- 
 liard, Aide-de-Camp to Governor Milner of Cape Colony, 
 was a young diplomatic attache on his way to headquarters, 
 presumably with official documents. Hutton and I made 
 up the remainder of this little midnight supper party, the 
 third in succession that I had had. Colonel Umphelby 
 roused us all at daybreak, and while the convoy was get- 
 ting in motion I rode on to the De Villiers farm to order the 
 supper to be recooked that I had missed the night before, with 
 suitable additions for the entire party. Hutton succeeded 
 in getting the balky horse that far, and soon afterward the 
 rest came up also. Colonel Umphelby had only time for 
 a cup of coffee and a few eggs, but the rest of the party 
 stayed for several hours, revelling in the quantities of fresh 
 milk and tender young chickens which Madam De Villiers 
 had prepared for us. The exquisite Hilliard, anxious to 
 show all possible kindness and freedom from personal aver- 
 sion to his hospitable enemies, lifted the little three-year- 
 old child, placed her on his knee, and inquired the cause 
 of her incessant crying. 
 
 136 
 
OSFONTEIN AND SOME EXPERIENCES 
 
 " Oh, it's nothing," said the old lady ; '' the doctor said 
 she has the chicken-pox ; but," she added, as Milliard put 
 the child on the floor quickly, yet with a grave diplomatic 
 diginity, " you needn't be afraid — it's not catching." Never- 
 theless the Lieutenant did not take up the youngster again, 
 but addressed his courtesies to the other members of the 
 
 Lieutenant- Colonel Umphelby, Royal Australian Artillery, killed at Driefontein. 
 
 family during the rest of our stay. The meal was well 
 worth the one pound in English gold I paid Madame on 
 leaving ; and, rightly thinking that it was worth my while to 
 have these gentlemen as my guests on this occasion, I in- 
 sisted on their not contributing a shilling toward the bill. 
 
 Just before we left I spoke of Montmorency's death and 
 my freedom from other losses of friends. Lieutenant Kes- 
 
 137 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 wick remarked that any of us might go next ; and, half in 
 earnest and half in jest, we agreed, in case of accident, to 
 meet again in spirit on some future occasion. A few weeks 
 later I entertained Lieutenant Waite at dinner, again, at 
 Kimberley. Lieutenant Hilliard gave me a champagne 
 dinner at the Mount Nelson in Cape Town, and just before 
 my return to America Hutton was my guest for another 
 meal in London ; but within the week Lieutenant Keswick 
 was killed at Poplar Grove, and a shrapnel shell tore away 
 part of Colonel Umphelby's head at Driefontein. 
 
 The party broke up after breakfast ended, and Hutton 
 and I pushed on ahead of the convoy. Once more the 
 balky horse halted in a bed of wet sand, and it was four 
 hours before he started again. We were thirty-six hours 
 going the forty-two miles to headquarters. All through a 
 long, wet and sultry day Hutton and I and his servant 
 struggled with the three horses. Recent rains had made 
 the roads almost impassable. The two decent horses were 
 thoroughly ''bedeviled" by the balky single brute; under 
 the saddle he threw all three of us separately over his head. 
 When changed to the cart again he spilled Hutton and me 
 collectively into the mud. We did not swear ; the case 
 was too awful for mere profanity. But enough of that 
 dreary, damp, perspiring and exasperating day. After ex- 
 hausting every conceivable way of starting the horse, we 
 all three rode inside of the cart and tied the brute behind, 
 where he followed quietly, having got what he had been 
 working for. 
 
 Arriving at Paardeburg, a terrific storm overtook us, and 
 we took refuge in the deserted commissariat building, a 
 looted farmhouse by the drift. Here we stabled our horses 
 in the parlor, slept and ate in the general living-room, 
 while an abandoned artillery horse quietly died in the 
 kitchen, his galled and famished mate standing, watery -eyed 
 
 138 
 
OSFONTEIN AND SOME EXPERIENCES 
 
 and neighing, just outside, while the Hghtning-flashes 
 startled the intense darkness into '' biograph " pictures of 
 the veldt under a storm, the silver rain -drops appearing to 
 be permanently attached to their positions in the air. After 
 burning several doors and window-frames to cook our sup- 
 per, we slept on the floor, lying in serpent-like curves to 
 avoid the dripping streams of water from the leaky cor- 
 rugated roof overhead ; and Hutton told me tales of the 
 siege of Ladysmith and of his escape through rain and 
 swollen rivers, of being nearly drowned in the Tugela, 
 skirting Boer laagers in the night, hiding in friendly Kaffir 
 kraals by day while his pursuers scouted the surrounding 
 hills for him, being plainly in his sight through a crack in 
 the reed walls of the hut ; — how three Boers rode up to 
 this very hut and demanded milk from the owners, drink- 
 ing it while he lay under a pile of clothing inside ; after- 
 ward traversing snake-infested jungles, narrowly escaping 
 being shot by both Boer and British sentinels, and so on, 
 until I fell asleep, as pleased as though twelve years old 
 again, with Robinson Crusoe and a forbidden dark lantern 
 for bed-companions. 
 
 Among other tales, Hutton told me how he had written 
 a long cable message and entrusted it, with his last and 
 best horse, to a Kaffir, whom he sent out into the night to 
 find a way through the Boer lines to the British camp and 
 the telegraph-office beyond. After his escape he learned 
 that the Kaffir had never reached his destination. His 
 fate — whether he was killed or captured — was unknown. 
 Hutton supposed the Kaffir was safe, but was not in- 
 clined to be reconciled to the loss of the horse, which, 
 as he said, *' Was a valuable animal, brought out from 
 England." 
 
 Months afterward, while dining Hutton, I was able to 
 tell him a remarkable tale of how I had discovered the 
 
 139 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 sequel of his story. Truly, the world of men and things 
 is, after all, very small. 
 
 When we left the deserted house at Paardeburg Drift at 
 sunrise the horse inside was dead. Its companion was still 
 quietly grazing outside. At any place between there and 
 Modder a dozen abandoned horses or mules were seen, 
 having been cast off by their owners or escaped. The 
 veldt is very niggardly of food supplies, and after a few days 
 these brutes became hopelessly run down and not worth 
 the trouble of commandeering. Native horses, however, 
 have the faculty of living off the veldt, and, when possible, 
 I always made it the rule to ride one. The saddle-galls, 
 caused by overloading the British horses, were the most 
 frightful sores I have ever seen. Extending for six to ten 
 inches along the backbone, the excreta of the soreness 
 oozed out, creeping up toward the neck and down toward 
 the tail, running down the sides, and forming an immense 
 V-shaped scab on each side, until the mere sight of one of 
 these poor creatures from a distance was as sickening as a 
 visit to the laager. Hutton and I intended to re-examine 
 Cronje's last stronghold, but the place had become too 
 pestilential, so we hurried on to Osfontein, arriving there 
 in time for breakfast on the third day after starting from 
 Modder. The supply-cart came in the next day with two 
 more horses used up. Two of our servants had deserted, 
 leaving us only four ; a number of our horses were sick, 
 and we had difficulty in finding enough to ride without 
 holding a few in reserve, as was our custom, for despatch- 
 riding. 
 
 140 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE TURNING POINT OF THE WAR THE BATTLE OF POPLAR 
 
 GROVE. 
 
 THE entire army had taken up new positions, with Os- 
 fontein as a centre. The Boer laager was about six 
 miles eastward, the entrenchments extending over fourteen 
 miles in front of the Imperial army. The official estimate 
 of their strength was twelve thousand. The correspond- 
 ents more conservatively figured that there were seven 
 thousand. All agreed that about thirty thousand Boers 
 were concentrating at this point, having been drawn there 
 from Ladysmith and other districts under General Joubert. 
 A big battle was imminent, and it was expected to be the 
 final battle of the war. All the British hoped the Boers 
 would make a decided stand, not doubting that a crushing 
 defeat would be administered that would completely break 
 the backbone of all further opposition. The correspond- 
 ents made elaborate preparations to cover the battle. For 
 days they had been working in conjunction with the intel- 
 ligence department in securing details for the production 
 of a perfect map, which was afterward pronounced to be 
 the most complete plan of the positions in existence. I 
 found time and opportunity to make two copies of this. 
 
 The correspondents' camp had been moved from the 
 dismal swamp in which the officious Colonel with the un- 
 mentionable name had placed us, and now we were delight- 
 fully camped on a clean stretch of turf Our nearest 
 neighbors were Messrs. Gwynne and Hutton, representing 
 Renter's agency ; a little farther on was Battersby, of the 
 " Morning Post ;" beyond was Villiers, of the *' Illustrated 
 
 141 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 News ;" and still farther was Julian Ralph. Only a few 
 more were scattered about, for the latest order from head- 
 quarters, compelling us to bring up all our supplies from 
 Modder Station and refusing to issue us other rations than 
 fresh meat, had made the expense of keeping up with the 
 army enormous, and many had dropped out of line, wait- 
 ing to catch up again when Bloemfontein should be taken. 
 We were all grouped within the Osfontein Kraal, a large 
 enclosure for cattle, hedged about by an impenetrable bar- 
 rier of enormous aloes century plants. A week before, 
 when I had first visited this place as a guest of the Scot- 
 tish Borderers, the hedge was surmounted by thousands 
 of tall, stately blossom-stalks bearing the century flower, 
 twenty feet or more above the ground. Unfortunately for 
 the beauty of this hedge, and fortunately for the camp 
 clicfs, these stalks made excellent fuel ; so now only their 
 unsightly stumps and the countless sharp-pointed leaves 
 remained, forming as impassable an abattis as any which 
 ancient or modern military ingenuity could construct. With 
 our tent erected, and a wide spread of canvas between two 
 wagons to keep off the sun, we were once more comfort- 
 ably housed! Lord Roberts and his Chief of Staff, Lord 
 Kitchener, had gone to Kimberley for a few days. Mean- 
 while, preparations for the great battle went on, and I 
 had two days' rest in camp, with an opportunity to write 
 letters and take care of my colony of hens, having brought 
 four more along in Hutton's cart from the De Villiers farm. 
 We ate one that had a broken leg, but kept the rest for 
 the Press Censor and " Bobs." 
 
 Early on the morning of March 7th the general attack 
 on the Boer positions took place. During the night Gen- 
 eral French's cavalry brigade had moved from its position 
 on the north bank of the river at Koodoosrand, behind the 
 rear of Lord Roberts' headquarters at Osfontein, to make 
 
 142 
 
THE BATTLE OF POPLAR GROVE 
 
 the attack from the right instead of the left flank, where 
 naturally the enemy would expect this movement. 
 
 At sunrise, after a bombardment of the seven kopjes by 
 the naval guns, the Sixth Division, General Kelly-Kenny's, 
 drove the enemy from their position. They fled north- 
 ward along the line of their entrenchments, circling around 
 
 General Kelly-Kenny, of the Sixth Division, and the Duke of Marlborough at 
 the headquarters of the former in Bloemfontein. The photograph was 
 taken about three weeks after the Battle of Poplar Grove. 
 
 Reed's farm and then going due east along the line of 
 kopjes, where there were numerous smaller laagers. Be- 
 yond the pointed kopje they crossed an open plain for three 
 miles, fighting a rear-guard action with small artillery and 
 one big gun. A halt was made at the big kopje near the 
 river, where a large dam furnished breastworks behind 
 which a decisive stand was made for several hours, success- 
 es 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 fully preventing several flank movements of the Imperial 
 cavalry by shelling and once driving back in complete rout 
 a regiment of mounted infantry from Tucker's division 
 which had attempted a charge. This was probably one of 
 the last charges in history by cavalry or mounted troops 
 against modern weapons in the hands of white soldiers in a 
 fortified position. 
 
 General Colville with the Ninth Division was on the 
 north bank of the river, creeping slowly up on the Boer 
 entrenchments on that side, while General Tucker's Seventh 
 Division, assisted by the big yellow military balloon, was 
 on the south bank. A few of the mounted infantry were 
 killed, and General French also lost a few men. The 
 casualties were very kw and of no consequence in compari- 
 son with the slaughter the Boers could have inflicted had they 
 remained in their trenches. It was General French's great 
 flanking movement which filled them with fear of another 
 Paardeburg, for during the advance the great mass of the 
 entire Imperial army was in plain sight on the veldt before 
 the Boer position, and their swarming numbers seemed 
 much greater than they really were. 
 
 Toward sundown the British scouts succeeded in reach- 
 mg the last position of Boer defence only to find the 
 enemy well beyond reach, and darkness put an end to 
 the battle and pursuit. The real purpose of the advance 
 failed completely. General French found his horses too 
 exhausted to complete his attempt to get behind the Boer 
 position before daybreak ; when he again started next 
 morning he was halted in mid-veldt by a small detachment 
 of Boers, who successfully prevented his farther advance 
 all day. 
 
 Generals Roberts and Kitchener were quartered during the 
 action at a farm about two miles east of Osfontein, and were 
 in telegraphic and heliographic communication with the dif- 
 
 144 
 
THE BATTLE OF POPLAR GROVE 
 
 Plan of Boer Positions and English Attack at Poplar Grove. Copied by author 
 from map prepared by war correspondents of " The Times ' ' before the 
 battle, and nearly destroyed by water during his mishap while crossing 
 the Modder River during the fighting. 
 
 145 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 ferent commands throughout the battle. At night head- 
 quarters moved on to Poplar Grove farm, between Pointed 
 Kopje and the river, twelve miles from Osfontein. Presi- 
 dents Steyn and Kriiger had been there earlier in the day, 
 and had French carried out his orders, both of them would 
 have been captured. Colonel Gourko and Lieutenant 
 Thompson — Russian and Hollander — military attaches with 
 the Boers, were captured here when the British advanced, 
 having chosen to remain with their broken cart to avoid 
 losing their personal effects. The Boers fled east and 
 northeast across the river in wild confusion ; and, had the 
 
 Pursuing the Enemy at Poplar Grove. The artillery advancing to take up new 
 positions. The cavahy and mounted infantry in the background. 
 
 British been able to follow, they might have crossed the 
 Vaal River into Transvaal territory six weeks earlier than 
 they did, and thus have prevented the destruction of several 
 hundred miles of railway between Bloemfontein and the 
 bouridary. 
 
 After spending the night in writing letters and preparing 
 despatches I started the following morning for Kimberley, 
 forty-five miles away. During this battle of Poplar Grove, 
 or rout, as it proved to be, and which greater homogeneity 
 among the Boers could have turned into a terrible defeat 
 for the British, I was so fortunate as to get to almost every 
 point of interest at the right time during the day, although 
 
 146 
 
THE BATTLE OF POPLAR GROVE 
 
 the action was spread over twenty miles of country, the 
 British advancing fifteen miles eastward. 
 
 By Landon's orders, given to our servants the night be- 
 fore, we were roused at 3 o'clock in the morning. While 
 we drank our coffee and put a few biscuits and tins of meat 
 in our wallets, we could hear the dull murmur of the 
 Cavalry Brigade passing by our rear on its way to the right 
 flank, the creaking of harness-chains and artillery-wheels, 
 occasional subdued cries of native drivers, neighing horses 
 or low commands mingling in a low, hoarse roar, like a 
 strong, steady wind through high trees at night. 
 
 At 4 A.M. Major Pollock and I rode northward from 
 Osfontein, crossing the drift at Koodoosrand on a pontoon 
 bridge at daybreak. Several miles farther travel brought 
 us to General French's old headquarters, and shortly 
 afterward we reached General Colville's headquarters. 
 There had been considerable mystery regarding the plans, 
 as only '* Bobs " knew what the tactics of the day were 
 to be. 
 
 Nevertheless, we learned that Colville's division was to 
 take a passive part, more to prevent the enemy from re- 
 treating westward on the north bank than to do any fight- 
 ing. Major Pollock, by agreement, was to cover this end 
 of the battle for *' The Times " during the remainder of the 
 day, while I was to ride along the entire advance-line back 
 to the right flank, there to meet Landon, who had gone on 
 with General French. 
 
 Leaving the Major, I rode on to Makouw's Drift, so 
 named for the last great native chief who opposed the ad- 
 vance of the early Boer trekers. I was hesitating to ford 
 the river, which was greatly swollen from the recent rains, 
 when a cavalryman rode up and undertook to show me 
 the way, assuring me that it was perfectly safe. When 
 half-way across, our horses lost their footing. His horse, 
 
 147 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 being the larger, regained his footing immediately, but my 
 little pony was carried downstream. Fifty yards below, 
 the high banks of the river closed in perpendicularly; here 
 there were dangerous rapids, and had I been caught in them 
 my landing would have been impossible. The gallant little 
 beast made a brave fight for the shore, reaching it just in 
 time, though even then he had to wade back upstream thirty 
 yards to the drift before he was able to leave the water. 
 My letters and papers, including the map of the Boer po- 
 sitions, were thoroughly soaked, and I was compelled to 
 halt on the bank and lose more than an hour while drying 
 them in the sun. While doing so, I watched the opera- 
 tions of General Tucker's military balloon near by, saw it 
 slowly ascend a thousand feet or more, held captive by a 
 cable from a windlass on the balloon-cart, saw the messen- 
 gers run to pick up the weighted envelopes containing in- 
 formation, dropped from the balloon above, and then gallop 
 off to headquarters with them. 
 
 From Makouw's Drift, after drying my papers, though I 
 was still soaked to the skin, I rode westward to a low 
 kopje where a company of the Hampshires had a little 
 Maxim gun. This was on the firing-line, although no ac- 
 tion had yet taken place. 
 
 Heavy firing having continued for some time to the 
 southward, I pushed on. Then I rode across the Dry Pan to 
 Banks' farm, where I reached the summit of the low ridge 
 just in time to see several hundred Boers galloping away in 
 retreat from the Seven Sisters Kopjes, two miles distant, from 
 which they had been dislodged by the fire of the lyddite guns 
 and General Kelly-Kenny's advance. A few of the Lancers 
 and Mounted Infantry were stationed here with a battery 
 of two guns ; these advanced soon afterward toward the 
 deserted line of trenches. I rode with them until, seeing 
 the whole of Kelly-Kenny's division coming on from the 
 
 148 
 
THE BATTLE OF POPLAR GROVE 
 
 right at a gallop, I turned to the left and climbed a kopje 
 in order to get a better view. 
 
 Here I could also see part of Tucker's command in mo- 
 tion. The Boers had started to retreat along the line of 
 their entrenchments, and two divisions of the Imperial 
 army — horse, foot and artillery — were in pursuit. On they 
 dashed at full speed, the infantry in long parallel lines of 
 khaki streaming behind, clear and distinct, for several miles, 
 the marvellously transparent atmosphere and bright sun- 
 light making them as visible as though only a few hundred 
 yards distant. The cavalry formation was less regular in 
 
 Artillery in Action, Sighting the 15-pound guns. 
 
 appearance, and the Colonial troops were especially dis- 
 tinguished by their whoops and hurrahs, interspersed with 
 officers' shouted orders. It was little wonder that the 
 Boers fled, for there were fully twenty thousand men in 
 plain sight crossing this three-mile stretch of billiard-table 
 veldt as fast as men and horses could go. The regulars 
 advanced with a parade-like dignity quite Quaker-like in 
 comparison with the Irregular Colonial forces. 
 
 In advance of the main body were several thin lines of 
 scouts, fifty yards apart, sent on ahead to draw the fire of a 
 possibly concealed enemy before the main army could come 
 
 149 
 
WITH '' BOBS " AND KRUGER 
 
 within range. On reaching the ridge, they cautiously sent 
 out a few of the scouts to discover any possible danger ; 
 finding none, they rushed on, over and down into the plain 
 beyond, toward the farm south of the Mud House, where the 
 second line of kopjes began to stretch eastward parallel to 
 the river, a mile to the north. As the army came up, halted 
 before the ridge, and then swept on, I stood watching the 
 brilliant scene for an hour or more, while my pony munched 
 the abundant grass at my feet. I knew that, as the firing- 
 line was hurrying on, my duty was to follow ; but the 
 spectacle of that great army — two full divisions and half a 
 dozen brigades, with artillery and cavalry manoeuvring in 
 actual pursuit of a terrorized enemy — was one so full of 
 action in that wide and solemn expanse of grey-green veldt, 
 bordered by red kopjes and blue skies, that I was semi- 
 hypnotized until the clumsy and lumbering Red Cross 
 ambulance-carts, dragging along in the rear of the khaki 
 hosts, roused me to motion, and I galloped on ahead again. 
 Near the Mud House a small number of Boers could be 
 seen riding distractedly back and forth in different direc- 
 tions, fearful of being surrounded, until they finally dis- 
 appeared among the kopjes. Midway on this plain I met 
 my associates, Landon and Young, and we let the tide of 
 battle sweep on while we sat down for our dinner among a 
 a lot of abandoned Boer forage. 
 
 The Boers had one gun in rear-guard action during this 
 retreat, and were dropping a great many shells among the 
 Imperial forces. We were in the line of fire for a short 
 time, and then the Boers dragged their gun along in their 
 retreat without having effected any damage. At the con- 
 clusion of our cold lunch I became impatient and hurried on, 
 leaving the other correspondents behind. I soon caught 
 up with the troops, who had halted ; I pushed on ahead 
 of the scouts, and found another three-mile stretch of open 
 
 ISO 
 
THE BATTLE OF POPLAR GROVE 
 
 
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 Cavalry JBri^ctde 
 '\W\\' 
 
 Last Stand of the Burghers at Poplar Grove. Sketched by the author during 
 action while watching manoeuvres from X mark on Pointed Kopje. 
 
 151 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 veldt, terminating in a huge kopje, behind which the Boers 
 were making a new stronghold in the empty dam at its 
 foot. I climbed the Pointed Kopje, the last of this range, 
 and from its summit had as beautiful a view of skirmishing 
 for the remainder of the afternoon as ever greeted the eyes 
 of a war correspondent. Below and around me was the 
 level veldt ; far off to the right General French's cavalry 
 brigade lay motionless, recuperating for a night dash on 
 Bloemfontein, and persuaded to wait by a small commando 
 of Boers entrenched in the open, a few guns, meanwhile, 
 booming lyddite at the laager behind the huge black kopje, 
 three miles to the east, by the river. Kelly-Kenny's forces 
 were behind me among the kopjes, while covering the mile 
 of space to the river were the scattered forces of Tucker's 
 division, creeping up into position again — cavalry ahead, 
 artillery close behind — while the slow-moving infantry 
 marched up from far in the rear. On the north side of the 
 river the advanced lines of Colville's scouts could be dimly 
 distinguished from the blurred surface of the veldt as they 
 slowly advanced, looking like dotted parallel lines on a 
 giant map. Between, the yellow military balloon, fastened 
 a few feet above its cart, was cautiously moving eastward, 
 waiting for orders to rise a thousand feet overhead and spy 
 out the enemy's position and the positions of their guns. 
 
 I descended from the kopje to get water for my horse 
 and myself at a pond a short distance ahead on the open 
 veldt. Here I was at the same time in advance of Tucker's, 
 Kelly-Kenny's and French's scouts, and between them all 
 and the Boer laager. 
 
 While I was at the pond a squadron of Kitchener's horse 
 passed by on their way to join French. A battery of sev- 
 eral Maxims and pom-poms started to follow, but, drawing 
 several shells from the laager, they were compelled to 
 retire. They made a dash for cover behind the more north- 
 
 152 
 
THE BATTLE OF POPLAR GROVE 
 
 ward kopje, to which I followed them. Turning my horse 
 loose among a lot of Boer forage I climbed this kopje, and 
 reached its top just in time to see a large body of Tucker's 
 Mounted Infantry make a charge on the Boer position. 
 
 They moved steadily up, the enemy allowing them to 
 come seemingly within about five hundred yards. Then the 
 sharp, irritating "bark, bark " of Boer pom-poms burst on 
 the half-silence. The main body slowed to a halt. A few 
 scattered horsemen rode on in line with the scouts. These, 
 too, halted ; then they turned and galloped furiously back 
 toward the main body, which also began to move back- 
 
 
 IP 
 
 1 
 
 
 ^^yL- 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 
 ■se 
 
 Artillery in Action. A 15-pounder ready to fire. 
 
 ward. A few already in the rear had secured a good start. 
 The whole body soon fell back in a confused mass, thin- 
 ning at some parts, bunching in others. Here and there an 
 empty saddle told of a rider thrown or wounded. A black 
 horse, striding alone, struck by a shell, suddenly crumpled 
 up from the rear, wrinkling Hke paper in one's hand, and 
 stopped abrupdy, falling in a heap. Another stumbled, and 
 then rolled and kicked ; while, all the while, the demoraliz- 
 ing bark of that terrible pom-pom jarred my nerves as 
 badly as it disorganized the unhappy mounted infantry 
 regiment which somebody's blunder had sent galloping 
 against the gallant rear-guard of the retreating Boer army. 
 
 153 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 But within another ten minutes the Imperial guns arrived 
 and began to creep up slowly, alternately firing and ad- 
 vancing, a hundred yards at a time, until within less than a 
 mile of the laager. As they were in a hollow and out of 
 sight of the enemy the fire was not returned, but the Boers 
 had one big gun busily answering French's naval guns at 
 the right. 
 
 Later, about four hundred cavalry made a detour to the 
 south and west on the plain before me, endeavoring to 
 execute a flank movement on the laager ; but they were 
 discovered and shelled so heavily that they had to fall 
 back toward French's position. The laager was now being 
 shelled from three positions — Tucker's by the river, French's 
 to the right, and by the battery accompanying the cavalry, 
 which had fallen back toward French ; only the two last- 
 mentioned were at all replied to by the Boers. From 
 my own position I could see the flash of the guns, hear 
 the whistling of the shells in the air, hear the reports of 
 the guns, see the shells burst, and finally, after a long wait, 
 hear the bursting reports. 
 
 While under the enemy's fire I could first see the red- 
 dish-white spit of flame from a Boer gun when it was dis- 
 charged ; then I could hear the shell coming, and if I could 
 have known just where it would strike I would have been 
 supremely happy ; but I could only wait and listen for the 
 sound of its explosion, and then quickly turn my head in 
 that direction in time to see its smoke — after the danger 
 was over. It was generally safer to lie down ; and I 
 always forgot to note the sound of the gun, which should 
 arrive shortly after. Being an American, a neutral and 
 non-combatant, I always had a feeling of annoyance and 
 irritation, when under fire, as though the enemy should 
 make allowance for that fact. Later, however, even this 
 form of nervousness passed away, and I was not conscious 
 
 154 
 
THE BATTLE OF POPLAR GROVE 
 
 of anything more than interest and curiosity when under 
 shell-fire. But Mauser fire — that's a different matter. 
 
 Afi:er the four-cornered artillery duel had somewhat 
 abated, about a dozen scouts in widely-extended order rode 
 up from the hollow near the guns toward the laager. 
 Slowly they cantered onward to the base of the kopje. 
 Neither they nor I could tell how soon a withering fire 
 
 Artillery Firing with Smokeless Powder ; a fraction of a second after the dis- 
 charge, as shown by the position of the men. The flash would have been 
 shown if it had been possible to press the button on the instant. The 
 smoke, if present, would have lingered long enough to have been caught 
 by the camera. 
 
 would be poured upon them. They were sent out to see 
 if the enemy were still in the trenches ; failure to return 
 would imply they were. As I could see them distinctly, 
 my excitement was nearly as intense as theirs must have 
 been. As they neared the kopje they rose on a slight ridge 
 I had not noticed before, and then paused on its top. An- 
 other dozen followed them, and then another. They hud- 
 dled together nervously for a moment, and then a few ven- 
 
 155 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 tured around the right end and disappeared from view. Very 
 soon they reappeared and began leisurely to scatter about, 
 probably looking for loot ; so I knew that the Boers had 
 retreated farther east along and across the river. 
 
 Months afterward I met one of these men — Charley 
 Ross, the Canadian scout, who told me that he had climbed 
 the kopje, and with several other men watched for an hour 
 the Boers, across the river, streaming away northeastward, 
 while he almost shed tears of vexation because somebody's 
 blunder had failed to provide for the prompt arrival of ar- 
 tillery to send a rain of shells after them. 
 
 *' Why," he said, *' with one battery of field-guns we 
 could have captured a thousand of the bloody beggars !" 
 
 During the later part of these movements General Wood 
 climbed the kopje, and was much interested in what I had 
 to tell him of the preceding events. With the retreat of 
 the Boers from the big kopje and the dam entrenchments 
 the day's fight concluded. It was too late for further pur- 
 suit, and I started to return to camp before darkness. Look- 
 ing at my map, I found I had over fifteen miles to go, and 
 nearly in a straight line. On the way I was joined by an 
 officer and his lieutenant whom I had met at one of the 
 outposts on the Modder River trek ; they were off duty, 
 and, like myself, had merely ridden out to see the fight. 
 We three rode back along the line of the deserted trenches, 
 and took time to examine the empty laagers ; also to loot 
 or commandeer a few things for which we could find use. 
 A soldier 'Moots," and if caught he may be imprisoned, or 
 even hanged ; the authorities *' commandeer," but corres- 
 pondents and officers merely " annex." Evidently the 
 Boers had left camp in a great hurry. In some isolated 
 places, which the troops had not reached during their ad- 
 vance, we found smouldering fires with overcooked meats, 
 still untouched, in pots and pans and kettles. Near by were 
 
 156 
 
THE BATTLE OF POPLAR GROVE 
 
 some milk-tins, freshly filled. The Major annexed a fine 
 toilet set in a leather case. The Lieutenant filled two sad- 
 dle-wallets with table and kitchen utensils, while I took a 
 new mackintosh, a waterproof blanket and a fine camel's- 
 hair blanket, together with a small Bible and a few dum- 
 dum cartridges, which were on a bed in a tent near the 
 trenches. 
 
 These trenches had been constructed in an admirable 
 manner, though they were not very deep. They were 
 mostly at the foot of the hills facing the English advance, 
 cleverly concealed, with other trenches on the tops of the 
 kopjes behind. From their positions it was clearly evident 
 that, had the Boers stood fast and waited until the Eng- 
 lish were within a few hundred yards, a steady fire from 
 Mauser and Maxim would have nearly annihilated the 
 khaki-clad legions and sent them flying in helpless retreat. 
 But the spectacle of the swarming numbers coming across 
 the veldt was too much for the Boers, already half-terror- 
 ized by the Paardeburg affair ; and when they saw away to 
 the southward, five miles beyond their left flank, General 
 French's turning movement, they did not wait to see how 
 far he would get, but fled without firing a shot until the 
 rear-guard action was forced upon them later by the close 
 proximity of their pursuers. We went through five miles 
 of the laagers, and from the appearance of some of them 
 the Boers had been waiting there a long time, expecting 
 the attack weeks earlier. Everything was in confusion ; 
 clothing and food supplies were scattered in all directions ; 
 where the Tommies passed through they ate ravenously 
 everything they found, having been on half-rations for a 
 long time. At one place I found a soap-box post-office on 
 a post ; I tore the sign off as a curio and took it with me. 
 Among other souvenirs I collected was a small tobacco- 
 pouch, carefully and elaborately embroidered. Bibles were 
 
 157 
 
. WITH " BOBS " AND KRUGER 
 
 strewn all about, and every tent or hut constructed of 
 stones and branches had a few letters scattered around. Of 
 course our curiosity caused us to consume considerable 
 time, and the sun fell below the kopje-lined horizon while 
 I was still five miles from camp. 
 
 About this time we met the headquarters convoy on its 
 way to the new headquarters at Poplar Grove. As the 
 troops were all far in advance, this consisted only of a long 
 line of carts and wagons drawn by mules, horses, and trek- 
 oxen. Now and then a Cape-cart containing a tired, dirty 
 correspondent inside, passed by, driving ahead of the more 
 slowly-moving transport. 
 
 At one place we passed almost a regiment of native ser- 
 vants hunting for their masters. The field telegraph corps 
 were already following the insulated ground telegraph wire 
 dropped by the headquarters staff as they advanced, and were 
 erecting in its place the permanent wire on slender rods 
 about fifteen feet high. The road was becoming very bad, 
 and my pony was tired, having carried me nearly forty-five 
 miles since sunrise. Several times he had stumbled badly, 
 plunging along several yards with his nose in the dirt, and 
 nearly unseating me, so I was immeasurably relieved to see 
 the tall willows of Osfontein rising out of the darkness 
 ahead of me, though I reached the camp to find Landon, 
 Pollock and Young all busily engaged in preparing letters 
 and cables, which, together with my own copy, I was to 
 carry into Kimberley, forty miles away, the next morning. 
 
 The casualties among the English that day amounted to 
 about forty. Among them was Lieutenant Keswick, my 
 guest at the De Villiers farm a few days before. Several 
 Boer guns were found buried in trenches after their car- 
 riages had been disabled. Steyn and Kriiger had gotten 
 safely away with the rest of the army, with more speed 
 than dignity ; and, owing to French's neglect to get around 
 
 158 
 
THE BATTLE OF POPLAR GROVE 
 
 to the rear of the Boer position before daybreak, ** Bobs " 
 missed his greatest opportunity to end the war. Three 
 months later I was the guest, one evening, of Colonel Gourko 
 and Lieutenant Thompson, the military attaches captured 
 from the Boer side, after they had been returned by the way 
 of Delagoa Bay to the Boer army. I showed them my map 
 of this Poplar Grove affair, and with the greatest interest 
 we went over it together. We found the Boer positions, as 
 marked, substantially correct. Our other information con- 
 cerning the Boers was approximately accurate also, with 
 the single exception that instead of twelve thousand men 
 in the trenches, with thirty thousand concentrating behind, 
 the total Boer force at Poplar Grove opposing Lord Roberts' 
 entire army of nearly forty thousand men amounted to less 
 than twenty-five hundred ! This is official and beyond dis- 
 pute. From then on, until the appearance of General De 
 Wet in the Free States, there was no further serious oppo- 
 sition to the advance of the Imperial army. 
 
 59 
 
CHAPTER XVITI. 
 
 THE OCCUPATION OF BLOEMFONTEIN. 
 
 EARLY on the morning after the battle I was in the 
 saddle again, riding hard to the new headquarters at 
 Poplar Grove to have our despatches censored, and then 
 to ride on to Kimberley. I had to double back on my 
 tracks from Poplar Grove to Koodoosrand, cross the drift 
 there, and then follow the road across the veldt to the city 
 of diamond fame. The horse I used this time was Landon's 
 best, — a magnificent English hunter, imported into the coun- 
 try at the beginning of the war. He was a big animal, 
 and I galloped him fifty-five miles that day, with an hour's 
 rest half way. My method was to gallop hard for half an 
 hour, then dismount and walk ten minutes ; the short rest 
 always redoubled the horse's energy by the time I got into 
 the saddle again. The whole of the next day I allowed him 
 to rest, giving him a short gallop through Kimberley in the 
 afternoon. This was my first visit to the city, and I was 
 sorry to leave it so soon ; but on the third day I started 
 back at sunrise, having a presentiment that I had wasted 
 time for which I would be sorry later on. I did not ride 
 so hard this time, but pushed steadily on, arriving at Poplar 
 Grove only to find it deserted. The army had gone on. 
 This was sorry news, for I had carried no forage for my 
 horse, and he needed some badly. 
 
 I met a few transports, from the conductors of which I 
 learned that the army had started on the march the day 
 before. There was no trouble in following it, for an army 
 leaves tracks behind it as it progresses, and the broken-up 
 
 1 60 
 
THE OCCUPATION OF BLOEMFONTEIN 
 
 surface of the veldt for the width of half a mile, contracting at 
 times into a narrower but deep-grooved track, showed the way 
 more plainly than any map. I pushed on slowly, and by sun- 
 set overtook the main transport. The army, of course, was 
 ahead, and eight o'clock brought me to headquarters and 
 "The Times " outfit, after having ridden sixty-four miles. 
 
 It was hard on the horse, and 
 I never rode him again. In fact, 
 he never recovered frOm the effects 
 of that ride to Kimberley and back, 
 and no one regretted it more than I. 
 During those three days I had 
 learned to be almost too fond of the 
 animal ; one incident will show why. 
 On the first day, when I off-saddled 
 him to rest half way, I noticed that 
 he showed no disposition to stray. 
 Indeed, when I stretched myself on 
 the grass he ate around me in a 
 very small circle, and when I got 
 up to walk a short distance off he 
 followed me like a dog. At Kim- 
 berley I left him standing at the 
 curb and went into a drug store to 
 inquire the way to the telegraph 
 office ; I saw the clerk look excitedly over my shoulder at 
 the door, and turning, found that my horse had followed 
 me half way in. I backed him out, and then rode on, 
 after receiving directions. When walking to rest him, be- 
 tween gallops, I soon found he would follow without my 
 leading him. During my return ride I stopped to off- 
 saddle at a deserted farmhouse, and I turned him loose 
 without halter or bridle in a small patch of grass, and sat 
 down under a near-by tree to rest. 
 " i6i 
 
 General French poses for 
 the author. A charac- 
 teristic attitude during 
 an engagement. 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 After cropping the thin grass for five minutes he suddenly- 
 stopped, lifted his head, looked around a bit, and then de- 
 liberately started off on a trot. Naturally I was somewhat 
 disturbed at the prospect of having to chase him, perhaps 
 many miles, before catching him ; but instead of following 
 at once I waited. Several hundred yards away were a 
 number of half-wild veldt horses, which I thought he was 
 going to join, but he trotted calmly past them and went 
 on, stopping at* last at a dam which I had not seen. He 
 waded out into the middle, drank full and deep, and then, 
 without even a look at the other horses, turned around, 
 walked out and started, again at a trot, back to where I 
 was sitting, stopping when he came up, and going on eat- 
 ing the poor grass there, although he had passed much 
 better patches on his way back. Three weeks passed, after 
 my sixty-four-mile ride, before I saw him again ; then he 
 was stabled in a yard at Bloemfontein. I walked up to the 
 gate and whistled ; he trotted over, stuck his nose in my 
 my hand, and then followed me all over the yard, rubbing 
 my shoulder and arm. It had been cruel of me to ride 
 him so hard, but war's necessity forced it. 
 
 As it was, I only caught up with the army after the bat- 
 tle of Driefontein had ended. It had been a sharp conflict, 
 and both sides had lost heavily. Young had had a horse 
 shot under him in the afternoon, thus reducing our lot by 
 still another one. Two of, our other horses were lost, and 
 we had to yoke two steers to the spring wagon. I had 
 missed the battle, and early the next morning the army 
 was on the march again. I rode a sick horse a few hours, 
 and then commandeered an abandoned artillery horse on 
 the veldt. This was Sunday, and the army advanced from 
 Driefontein only twelve miles farther, to Assfogelskop and 
 Doornboom. Early Monday the trek was resumed to Ven- 
 tersvalli — sixteen miles. French's cavalry division was 
 
 162 
 
THE OCCUPATION OF BLOEMFONTEIN 
 
 always one day in advance of the staff, and monopolized 
 the fighting, which, of course, I missed seeing. General 
 French made a forced march from Ventersvalli, his horses 
 having no forage for two days except the sparse vegetation 
 of the veldt, and by twenty hours' continuous marching 
 reached the kopjes near Bloemfontein Monday evening, 
 where, on Monday night and early the following morning, 
 he exchanged a few shots with the enemy, without damage 
 to either side. About seven o'clock in the morning a bat- 
 talion of Roberts' horse entered the city, and on their 
 approach about four hundred Boers left, taking with them as 
 prisoners a body of scouts which had entered earlier. The 
 battalion of Roberts' horse also withdrew. By ten o'clock 
 Lord Roberts and his staff reached French's position, and 
 established temporary headquarters at Mr. John Steyn's 
 country seat, eight miles south of the capital. Here he 
 was entertained at breakfast by the President's brother, 
 who had wisely refrained from flight and thus saved his 
 property from destruction, for Lord Roberts immediately 
 put a guard of forty men about the place. A magnificent 
 view of the wide plain, with Bloemfontein at the farther 
 edge, could be had from a ridge of kopjes three miles from 
 Mr. Steyn's place, and from which Lord Roberts and his 
 staff waited the intelligence of the city's surrender, which 
 arrived about noon. Then, with the Cavalry Brigade, the 
 Field Marshal advanced, met some of the Free State offi- 
 cials two miles out, and accepted their surrender, after 
 which he entered the city and occupied the capital of the 
 Orange Free State. 
 
 I rode up on my commandeered steed just as *'Bobs" 
 was leaving Mr. Steyn's house ; he, with his staff, the mili- 
 tary attaches, a few correspondents and a dashing escort of 
 lancers, swept across the veldt to the summit of the ridge 
 and dismounted. Taking a short cut, I followed and reached 
 
 163 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 the ridge about the same time, though several hundred 
 yards farther east. Before our eyes, bright in the clear 
 sunshine and the transparent atmosphere, lay Bloemfontein, 
 the capital of the Free State. Between the city and us a 
 five-mile stretch of velvety veldt, as flat as a billiard-table, 
 lay under a cloudless sky. The enemy, completely sur- 
 
 Mr. John Steyn, Brother of President Steyn, and Daughter, Posing for the 
 Author at Mr. Steyn' s Country Residence, eight miles south of Bloem- 
 fontein. 
 
 prised, was miles away to the northwest, where they had 
 entrenched and were awaiting the advance attack of the 
 hated English. On each flank the British artillery were 
 moving out to encircle the town. 
 
 It was evident that by night the place would be forced 
 to surrender. Of the previous exploit of the battalion of 
 Roberts' horse I was ignorant. So far as I knew, Boer 
 
 164 
 
THE OCCUPATION OF BLOEMFONTEIN 
 
 cannon might at any moment open on us from the high 
 kopjes near Bloemfontein. Dreamily looking across the 
 quiet valley at the shining tin roofs in the distance, a wild 
 American thought surged through my brain ; then, moving 
 well to the right of the staff so as to avoid detention, I 
 cautiously rode down the steep side of the kopje, found my 
 way to the khaki-colored wagon-road which stretched in a 
 nearly straight line across the veldt, and quietly cantered 
 into Bloemfontein. Capture, or worse, was possible, but I 
 was willing to risk any danger to have the honor of being 
 first in Bloemfontein. 
 
 On the way, and about two miles from the city, I met a 
 party of natives on horseback. They all took off their hats 
 to me and shouted " God Save the Queen," after which I 
 graciously allowed them to pass on. I had a notion to 
 commandeer one of their horses, but concluded that that 
 would be unkind. Haifa mile out I met two young ladies 
 on bicycles, wheeling toward the head of Lord Roberts' 
 column, which was forming several miles in the rear and 
 to the left. Near the city I passed several carriages con- 
 taining half a dozen long-bearded burghers, whom I 
 rightly guessed to be town officials. They afterward drove 
 on toward the column, while the ladies returned to the 
 city. The main road, as it enters the city of Bloemfontein, 
 passes over a small kopje, on the summit of which stands 
 a handsome monument in memory of the Burgher-Basuto 
 war ; near by is also the town artillery barracks ; then the 
 road plunges directly into the city down a low grade, end- 
 ing in the market square. 
 
 As I rode alone toward the monument I was loudly 
 cheered by various groups of ladies and a few men who 
 had gathered to welcome the British. One old lady shouted 
 to me, **We have been waiting a long time for you to 
 come. Thank God, you are here at last !" These were 
 
 165 
 
WITH ^'BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 Uitlanders, or British subjects, who had been allowed to 
 remain by the Boers during the war. I had been some- 
 what embarrassed by so much attention, and, until this in- 
 cident, I was undecided as to how to receive it. Then I 
 determined that, temporarily at least, as I was wearing a 
 khaki-colored coat, purchased at Kimberley, I would have 
 to play the part of a true Briton, so I began to salute with 
 my riding-whip in my best military manner. I decided to 
 await the arrival of Lord Roberts at the monument, having 
 from there a clear view of the entire surrounding country. 
 
 As the troops began their march toward the city a 
 number of blacks who, throughout the war, had believed 
 that English victory would mean for them release from the 
 Boer yoke, which they understood to mean the granting of 
 the freedom which is license, broke open the doors of the 
 Barracks in their hilarious joy and commenced looting. 
 Men and women, also a great number of pickaninnies, 
 rushed inside, upsetting the furniture and breaking win- 
 dows. Suddenly one big fellow emerged with a quaint- 
 looking helmet on his head. This set the pace for the rest, 
 and soon helmets, bedding, drums, trumpets and uniforms 
 were being passed around in the crowd, occasioning many 
 quarrels and struggles for possession. While this was oc- 
 curring, the small crowd of whites stood quietly watching, 
 none daring to interfere. Temporarily there was no law, 
 for the Free Stater troops had departed hours before, and 
 the English had not yet taken possession. 
 
 The uproar was at its height when the occupying force, 
 with "Bobs" at its head, reached the base of the kopje. 
 First appeared the escort of Lancers, then several car- 
 riages, containing the Mayor, Landrost, State Secretary 
 and other officials of the Free State. Then followed half 
 a company of lancers in close order, stretching across the 
 road, and acting as escort for Field Marshal Lord Roberts, 
 
 i66 
 
THE OCCUPATION OF BLOEMFONTEIN 
 
 of Kandahar, who followed ten yards behind, riding alone. 
 Directly after him came the staff, the military attaches and 
 then the whole corps of war correspondents riding in a 
 body. I was about to join them when I saw Lord Roberts 
 observing the looting natives, who were waving military 
 coats, horns and trumpets in the air, and shouting '* God 
 Save the Queen !" to the accompaniment of a big base- 
 drum, vigorously kicked by half a dozen at once ; then he 
 pulled up his horse, halting the entire column, and called 
 to his staff officers to stop the looting. Several of them 
 dashed forward, and with their riding-whips soon convinced 
 the blacks that there had been a mistake. The officers 
 were reinforced by half a dozen of the lancers, and, 
 under the personal supervision of Lord Roberts, every ar- 
 ticle was returned to the Barracks ; and not until then did 
 the column proceed on its march of entry and occupa- 
 tion. 
 
 This incident made a deep impression for good on the 
 crowd of whites, who redoubled their cheering, which the 
 chief acknowledged as he passed on. Simultaneously with 
 the advance down the hill into the city the company of 
 lancers began singing ''The Soldiers of The Queen," which 
 was taken up by the entire cavalry brigade behind. It was 
 a thrilling scene, even to a disinterested American war cor- 
 respondent, and I felt something very much like a hurrah 
 ascending my throat ; but I kept quiet, and before the 
 lancers had reached my position I jagged the last remain- 
 ing gallop out of my tired horse with my spurs and rode on 
 ahead of the column during its march through the city. 
 
 Save for a few natives scattered about the streets, and 
 small groups of people, mostly women and children, at the 
 crossings, the city seemed deserted. The houses were all 
 tightly closed, the occupants evidently fearing a general 
 loot by ''The Soldiers of The Queen." The small groups 
 
 167 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 all cheered us indiscriminately as we progressed, I myself 
 coming in for a goodly share. After half a mile of this 
 dismal sort of progress we came to the market square, 
 where a much larger and more enthusiastic crowd was 
 gathered. Here the column turned to the left, passed by 
 the Bloemfontein Club and the United 
 States sub-Consul's office; over this, 
 as I saw the Stars and Stripes, I let 
 out a whoop which made a few of 
 the Free Staters look at me rather 
 curiously. I paid no attention to 
 them, but went on into Maitland 
 Street, for which I saw the column 
 behind was heading. Leaving the 
 square, the atmosphere of desertion 
 and hushed suspense again asserted 
 itself until another half mile brought 
 us to the government buildings. In 
 front stood the statue of Sir John 
 Brand, twenty-five years President 
 of the Free State, and knighted by 
 the Queen. Here was another halt 
 while Lord Roberts quietly read the 
 inscription on the base of the monu- 
 ment. A crowd closed in about him ; 
 English residents pressed forward 
 to thank him for coming, and burgh- 
 ers approached to ask protection 
 for their families and property. The keys of the govern- 
 ment buildings were delivered up to him by a government 
 official, after which Lord Roberts again led the way, turn- 
 ing to the left for several blocks into Georges Street, where 
 he halted again, before the Presidency Building — a large, 
 white sandstone structure, extremely imposing and very 
 
 i68 
 
 Mr. John Fraser, of Bloem- 
 fontein, Secretary of 
 State of the Orange Free 
 State, who officially sur- 
 rendered the Capital to 
 Lord Roberts. He was 
 the single pro-British 
 member of the Raadzaal, 
 or Parliament. 
 
THE OCCUPATION OF BLOEMFONTEIN 
 
 handsome, from which President Steyn had departed in 
 haste only the evening before. The gates were closed and 
 some one inside was objecting to opening them, but soon 
 they swung back and '' Bobs " rode into the grounds, fol- 
 lowed by the staff, attaches and correspondents. 
 
 When the Presidency was reached, I halted until the 
 group of correspondents came by, and then, joining them, I 
 rode into the grounds while the men shouted ** God Save 
 the Queen !" and everybody congratulated everybody else. 
 As I joined the correspondents one of them shouted to me, 
 ** I hear you are the first in ; when did you get here ?" 
 Blushing with pleasure at this public recognition of my 
 feat, I answered — shamelessly adding an extra hour or two 
 to the hour, so as to make assurance doubly sure. A roar 
 of laughter followed, and I learned the speaker himself, with 
 two others, had been in and out again four or five hours be- 
 fore my arrival. There is some satisfaction, after you have 
 taken desperate chances, in receiving the proper reward for 
 so doing ; but to have persuaded yourself for several hours 
 that you were running grave risks, and then, when you are 
 about to close your fingers upon the bubble of satisfaction, 
 to discover there had been no risk at all, and to awaken 
 from the fond delusion to find yourself an object of ridicule 
 is mildly exasperating, to say the least. However, I 
 laughed with the others and admitted my error. Then we 
 learned that the attaches and correspondents would have to 
 find quarters at the hotels, while the chief and his staff oc- 
 cupied the Presidency. Before we left the band assembled, 
 played *' God Save the Queen," and an officer hauled a 
 small Union Jack up the flagstaff in the corner of the 
 yard, while everybody cheered, and Landon took a photo- 
 graph. As we rode out of the grounds, my horse jostled 
 me against Captain Slocum, the American military attache, 
 whom I had met at the Consulate at Cape Town. We ex- 
 
 169 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 changed congratulations at being present on so impressive 
 an occasion, and arranged to meet again later in the day. 
 
 By this time it was after two o'clock, and together with 
 several other correspondents I hunted up a hotel, where, 
 after threatening to confiscate the entire property, we per- 
 suaded a reluctant landlord to furnish us with a hot meal, 
 first opening a few bottles of champagne. Our only other 
 alternative was to drink tea ; coffee and other alcoholic 
 liquors had been completely exhausted during the five 
 months' isolation. So we each drank our quart of *' extra 
 dry" in honor of Lord Roberts' triumphal entry into 
 Bloemfontein, the Capital of the Orange Free State, on that 
 13th day of March, in the year 1900. 
 
 The reluctance of the landlord to serve us was not so 
 much due to his hostility to everything English as to the 
 fact that almost his entire staff of black servants had taken 
 advantage of the presence of the troops to desert him in a 
 body. We did not allow a little thing like that to bother 
 us, and the landlord was pleased to wait upon us himself 
 Then we went to the Bloemfontein Club, a handsome stone 
 and brick structure on the market square, where the of- 
 ficers of the army had installed themselves as self-invited 
 guests. 
 
 A goodly number of Free Staters were there also, not 
 quite sure that the new order of things included them, 
 but nevertheless resolved to make the best of their posi- 
 tion and be as friendly as possible with their conquerors. 
 They talked freely with me on the situation, and my nation- 
 ality seemed to be an immediate bond of sympathy. They 
 all admitted that so far the Free State was concerned " the 
 war was now over." President Steyn had fled the night 
 before. It was said he would have been shot had his fel- 
 low-citizens known of his intended desertion. In fact, he 
 rode off toward the British lines at sundown, and had his 
 
 170 
 
THE OCCUPATION OF BLOEMFONTEIN 
 
 cart meet him out on the open veldt south of Bloemfontein ; 
 then, driving around the outskirts of the city, he retreated 
 northward and joined the commandoes at Brandfort. The 
 abuse of Steyn which followed this course came mainly 
 from pro-British Free Staters ; subsequent events completely 
 vindicate the President's action, for his constant presence 
 among his troops has been as great a factor in continuing 
 the war as the personality of De Wet has been among 
 the Transvaal burghers. There was a general admission 
 that the burghers would continue to make a stubborn 
 resistance ; and, as one old Free Stater said to me, *' We 
 expect plenty of hard fighting yet." The general opinion 
 among British officers was that about four months would 
 be required to end the war. 
 
 171 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 OBSERVATIONS IN THE FREE STATE. 
 
 THE nature of the country taken into consideration, this 
 invasion of the Free State, terminating in the occu- 
 pation of Bloemfontein, was really a marvellous achieve- 
 ment. With the sole exception of the oxen drawing a 
 portion of the transports, neither man nor beast could '* live 
 off of the country." The transport service was compelled 
 to carry food for the men and forage for their horses from 
 the base at Modder River. The roads were generally bad, 
 being either virgin veldt — heavy mud, bringing the carts to 
 a standstill at times — or, after a day's sunshine, fine dust 
 three to six inches deep, which was quite as bad. For 
 two days before taking Bloemfontein General French's 
 Cavalry Brigade had been without forage other than that 
 of the veldt, and before it could go into service again 
 the brigade had to be entirely remounted. The wastage 
 of horses at this time was over five thousand a month. 
 Native horses, broken in and accustomed to the veldt, on 
 which they could live, were only to be had in small num- 
 bers, for the Boers had commandeered all they could round 
 up as they retreated. In addition to the difficulties of the 
 transport, after the column left the Modder River at Pop- 
 lar Grove water became scarce, and obtainable only about 
 once in every ten or fifteen miles, from the farm dams. The 
 days were cloudless, so the hot sub-tropical sun beat 
 directly down on the straggling lines of Tommies, while 
 the bitterly cold nights, with occasional sprinklings of rain, 
 made the coming of darkness a daily horror to the poor 
 
 172 
 
OBSERVATIONS IN THE FREE STATE 
 
 fellows, most of whom carried only a single blanket, and 
 that not very heavy. Only staff officers and correspond- 
 ents indulged in the luxury of carts and tents, and dur- 
 ing the last few days of forced marching the latter were 
 never unpacked. Then the sickness of many of the men, 
 with its depressing effect on their companions, and the 
 failure of the enemy to support the fagging excitement of 
 the troops and relieve the tedium by making a fight, were 
 
 %.. 
 
 A}. 
 
 Ci^^i 
 
 
 .m 
 
 -J 
 
 An improvised water-cart, made from a whislcey-barrel, used at Bloemfon- 
 tein during the water- famine after General De Wet had captured the city's 
 water-works, about twenty miles distant. 
 
 additional causes of discouragement for the English. The 
 average soldier can better endure two days of fighting and 
 one of marching than three days of marching alone, even 
 though on the fighting days he may be compelled to march 
 farther than on the marching days. The excitement of a 
 fight is a wonderful stimulant, but mere steady marching 
 after a retreating enemy, far in the lead, is the hardest kind 
 of work. 
 
 As a marching and as a fighting General, too much 
 
 173 
 
WITH " BOBS " AND KRUGER 
 
 praise cannot be given to Lord Roberts. Of Lord Kitch- 
 ener the opinion most commonly expressed among the 
 army officers was, *' No better man can be found to take 
 any number of men, with their equipment, any given dis- 
 tance within any given time ; but as soon as they get there, 
 for God's sake don't let him have anything to do with the 
 fighting." There was much talk at this time of Lord 
 Roberts taking command, with Kitchener as his Chief of 
 Staff; that '' Bobs " was to be the figure-head, while Kitch- 
 ener was to do the work. In the course of time this came 
 to Lord Roberts' ears, and it is natural to infer it did not 
 please him overmuch. At any rate, there was no lack of 
 evidence that **Bobs" was **the whole thing" himself, and 
 that Kitchener was in fact as well as in rank a subordinate. 
 After the battle of Poplar Grove General Kitchener was 
 sent to Kimberley, and during the remainder of the advance 
 on Bloemfontein he was down at De Aar, superintending 
 the reopening of railway communication, from Nauwport 
 and Colesberg Junction, with Bloemfontein. 
 
 There is little love lost between Lord Kitchener and the 
 war correspondents ; not that the latter are not willing 
 enough to be friendly, for that is their duty, but because 
 Kitchener hates the light of publicity as Satan hates holy 
 water. Had he had his way, we would all have been sent 
 back to Cape Town in February ; Lord Roberts, on the 
 other hand, gave us a ''free hand," with no restrictions, to 
 roam as we would. During the last few days of this march 
 the war correspondents were in a terrible plight. Our 
 horses were becoming exhausted for want of proper food, 
 their powers being overtaxed, and it was impossible to 
 keep fresh riding-horses in reserve for use during a possi- 
 ble attack at any moment. In addition to our other troubles 
 the army commissariat had refused to furnish us with 
 rations and forage, compelling the carting of all supplies 
 
OBSERVATIONS IN THE FREE STATE 
 
 from Modder River or Kimberley, more than sixty miles 
 westward. 
 
 Up to this time my relations with the British officers had 
 been almost entirely of a social nature. I found them with- 
 out exception to be the most courteous and pleasant set of 
 men I have ever met — always dignified, and with what 
 seemed to me to be an exceptionally high sense of honor, 
 their code of which every man appeared to live up to also. 
 Later on I was able to see something more of the same 
 men in action at close quarters. I do not care to criticise 
 their efficiency as officers, for what demerits they have 
 are more the fault of the system than of the material. 
 But as to courage and bravery, the English officer has 
 few equals and no superiors. Bravery, especially in time 
 of battle, is largely a matter of comparison. The British 
 Tommy, drawn from the slums of London, where for per- 
 haps many generations he and his ancestors had never 
 known the meaning of comfort, taken on a dreary voyage 
 to Table Bay, half-baked in cattle-cars for a thousand miles 
 across the Karroo Desert, then marched in the heat of day, 
 sleeping chilled and wet at night, on half-rations all the 
 time — after such a preparation a real battle or skirmish with 
 the enemy is a tremendous relief from a terrible monotony, 
 and requires only a low grade of courage to urge Tommy 
 onward, — he has so little to lose. 
 
 But with the aristocratic officers the case is quite differ- 
 ent. They have been in perhaps half a dozen campaigns 
 before ; there is nothing novel in the experience. They 
 have left comfortable barracks or luxurious quarters and 
 clubs in London ; they belong to the upper ten thousand 
 who have more or less of all that man can desire. They 
 have left behind, and hope to go back to, all that's best 
 in life. They may lose what all the rest of humanity are 
 strenuously striving with might and main to obtain. And 
 
 175 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 they know it. And whenever they rush out under Mauser 
 fire, twenty yards ahead of their companies, shouting 
 '' Come on, men !" they know their chances are not one in 
 ten, for every skirmish results in two or more officers 
 killed or wounded. 
 
 I have seen these clean-faced, long-limbed ** Lion's cubs " 
 leading charges, going to certain death without flinching, 
 as though they were but cheering a cricket match. While 
 I cannot but find fault with a certain recklessness in their 
 manner, yet I must admit there are no braver men in all 
 the armies of the world than these .same aristocratic British 
 officers, who frequently go into action wearing kid gloves, 
 white collars and a monocle. 
 
 176 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 THROUGH THE ENEMY's LINES WITH A MESSAGE FOR 
 THE QUEEN. 
 
 AROUND the corner from the club I found stabling, 
 with a butcher, for my horse — the artillery animal I 
 had commandeered several days before on the veldt. In 
 the next stall stood a little mare which, on inquiry, I found 
 was for sale, the price being fifteen pounds. I went back 
 to the club, where about five o'clock I met Landon, my 
 professional superior officer, who was looking for me. 
 
 " How would you like to ride to Kimberley to-night with 
 a despatch for The Times ?' " he asked ; adding, '' It may 
 be dangerous, and I won't ask you to undertake it unless 
 you want to." 
 
 I intuitively knew that here was an opportunity for ad- 
 venture, perhaps distinction, and promptly answered, 
 
 " That's just what I do want to do ; how soon am I to 
 start?" 
 
 " As soon as you can. How are you fixed with a 
 horse ?" 
 
 I told him of the mare, and he handed me twenty-five 
 pounds. 
 
 '' Be ready in half an hour ; meet me at the club, and 
 don't let anyone know you are going. I have some ex- 
 clusive news which will be public property to-morrow, and 
 I want you to get a good start on the others." 
 
 The half-hour was just sufficient time for me to try the 
 mare, discover that she was what I wanted, and that the 
 butcher could not be beaten down a shilling in the price. 
 12 177 
 
WITH :'BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 Then I went to meet Landon. He took me around the 
 corner, saying that he did not want Gwynne, of Renter's 
 Agency, to see me with a new horse and suspect something. 
 Then he handed me the despatches and asked me to take 
 them up to the Presidency for Lord Stanley to censor, and 
 then get away as quickly as possible. Eight miles out 
 somewhere I was to meet ''The Times" outfit and annex 
 an extra horse. 
 
 Lord Stanley kept me waiting about ten minutes, but 
 when he came out he pleasantly asked why I wanted to 
 have a message censored since there was no way of send- 
 ing it. I told him of my intention of riding to Kimberley 
 that night. 
 
 ** But you'll be shot or captured," he said. "The out- 
 posts guarding the line of communications were all with- 
 drawn after Driefontein, the Boers have gotten in behind 
 us and have cut the telegraph wire, and at this moment 
 even Lord Roberts is entirely cut off from communication 
 with the outside world. You certainly will be unable to 
 get through ; and as your friend, let me advise you not to 
 think of it." 
 
 I answered that " The Times " despatch had to go, and 
 that there was no one but I to carry it ; also, that I was 
 in a hurry to get off at once, as soon as he would censor 
 my papers. He rapidly read them over and stamped 
 them with his seal, holding the papers up against the wall 
 of the Presidency ; then, as he was about to hand them to 
 me, he hesitated and said, '' I don't know about this ; I 
 shall have to consult the Chief" In a quarter of an hour 
 he was back again. ''AH right," he said, "you may go. 
 Here is your despatch, and Lord Roberts wants you to 
 take this with you and give it to the telegraph authorities 
 before any press or private despatches." As he said this he 
 gave me a square, white envelope, sealed and addressed to 
 
 178 
 
THROUGH THE ENEMY'S LIiNES 
 
 the telegraph authorities at Kimberley or Boshof. Along 
 the top was written, *' Clear the line ; must be sent before all 
 press despatches." On the lower left-hand corner the 
 single word "Urgent" was written, heavily underlined, 
 and on the lower right-hand corner was the single word, 
 *' Roberts." 
 
 ** In case of my capture shall I destroy this, to prevent 
 the Boers from reading it?" 
 
 " No ! no !" answered Lord Stanley quickly ; ''you may 
 let them read it, for it's only the Field Marshal's message 
 announcing the surrender of Bloemfontein, and no doubt 
 the Boers will be glad to hear of it." Then, smiling at 
 his little joke, he gave me his hand and said, ''Take care 
 of yourself. I hope you'll get through all right; if you 
 do, let me know as soon as you get back." Then he gave 
 me a private message of his own, asking me to run it in 
 after the Field Marshal's, and told me, **The last news 
 we had before the wire was cut was that Boshof had been 
 captured by our troops. Use your own judgment how to 
 ride, but you'll find Boshof a good deal nearer." 
 
 I rode back to the club, consulted Landon, and we 
 decided that it would be unwise to try Boshof, for it was 
 certain that some Boer commandoes were between it and us. 
 So as evening fell I cantered across the square, up the long 
 grade of Monument Avenue, passing Hutton, who was just 
 coming in with the Lancers at the Basuto Monument, and 
 then out into the veldt, striking southward in the path of 
 the army. 
 
 My main object, thus far, was to get out of the city with- 
 out attracting the attention of any of the other correspond- 
 ents. I succeeded in this at the expense of neglecting to 
 procure provisions for myself or food for the mare, or 
 even waiting for her to be fed. We both started on empty 
 stomachs. About four miles out I met a huge trek-cart 
 
 179 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 loaded with forage. I rode up to the officer in charge and 
 asked him for a bundle. Of course he refused. I then 
 told him I was on " special service," and demanded two 
 bundles. Again he refused. Then I showed him Lord 
 Roberts' envelope, pointing to the words '' Urgent" and 
 " Clear the line." 
 
 ** This is my authority," I said. " Now, in the name of 
 
 The Author in the INIarket Square at Bloemfontein, on his return from Kim- 
 berley after carrying the Field Marshal's despatch announcing the sur- 
 render of Bloemfontein. The pony '* Cronje " was captured on the veldt 
 on the return ride, and, together with saddle and bridle, was presented to 
 Mr. Rudyard Kipling, to use while the author returned to Cape Town 
 for several weeks. As ** Cronje" was only a three-year-old, Mr. Kipling 
 preferred the less glorious but more comfortable Cape-cart of Mr. Bennet 
 Burleigh. Taken by Mr. Scott of " The Illustrated London News." 
 
 Lord Roberts and the Queen Fll take two bundles, and you 
 can interfere or not, as you see fit." With this I coolly 
 helped myself I put the two bundles in front of me on 
 the saddle and rode on, the astonished officer evidently 
 being completely nonplussed as to what to do. Rijiing 
 another mile, I halted and fed one of the bundles to my 
 little mare, while I fastened the other securely to the saddle. 
 
 i8o 
 
THROUGH THE ENEMY'S LINES 
 
 It was now getting late, and by the time I was in the 
 saddle the darkness was intense. By and by I saw a light 
 ahead, which I knew to be that of Mr. John Steyn's house. 
 Almost at the same time a sharp '' Halt ! who goes there ?" 
 rang out from the darkness. I answered, ** Friend." ** Ad- 
 vance, friend, and give the countersign," I advanced and 
 told the sentry I didn't know what the countersign was, but 
 that I was from Bloemfontein, on special service for Lord 
 Roberts, and wanted to get to Mr. Steyn's house. He allowed 
 me to pass, but twice more I was halted in the same manner. 
 The last sentry turned me over to his officer, who was sit- 
 ting by a fire close by. ** Who is in command here ?" I 
 asked him, before he could speak. *' General Colville," he 
 answered. *' Have me taken to him at once, please," I 
 said, adding, " I am on special service for Lord Roberts." 
 
 A dark figure led the way, and in a few moments I found 
 myself before General Colville's tent. By the light of a 
 lantern he recognized me as soon as I spoke. I told him 
 of my mission, and asked entertainment for myself and 
 horse, for a rainstorm was coming on. My mare was 
 turned over to a Tommy, and General Colville led the way 
 into Mr. Steyn's house, where I was presented to that gen- 
 tleman and his wife ; then in the back room I had a course 
 dinner with the General and his staff, to whom I told the 
 story of the occupation, and in this way discharged in 
 some measure the obligation incurred when General Col- 
 ville told me the story of the battle of Paardeburg nearly a 
 month before. 
 
 It was still raining when dinner was finished, and the 
 General and his officers returned to their tents, leaving me 
 to enjoy the hospitality of Mr. Steyn and his wife. In the 
 hope of continuing my ride I sat up until nearly midnight, 
 talking over things with these two relatives of the de- 
 posed President, who were virtually prisoners on their 
 
 l8i 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 own estate. Mr. Steyn had publicly opposed his brother's 
 policy of war with England, and it was due to this that he 
 received nominal protection for his property. Neverthe- 
 less, despite the many guards about the place the grounds 
 were entirely stripped of trees and shrubbery, the valued 
 acquisitions of ten years of care. I tried to console Mrs. 
 Steyn by telling her that in eighty miles to the westward 
 there was only one house that had not been entirely looted 
 by the soldiers, that one, the home of a German physician, 
 being protected by the German flag. Mrs. Steyn was de- 
 cidedly pro-Boer. 
 
 About midnight I sent for my horse, and started on again 
 in the light, drizzling rain. Eight miles from the Steyn 
 place I was overtaken by a terrific downpour of rain and 
 compelled to take refuge under an abandoned transport 
 wagon until daybreak. Kimberley was now about ninety 
 miles distant, and in an hour I found my little mare was 
 not equal to the task. About this time I rode into a small 
 herd of veldt ponies, and succeeded in getting close enough 
 to a little Basuto bay to lasso him. After carefully 
 transferring the saddle and tying my mare to it, I waited 
 until my new acquisition was looking aside ; then I vaulted 
 into the saddle, and both of the brutes immediately ran 
 away with me. We covered at least a mile of veldt before 
 my feet found the stirrups, and four miles more before I 
 got both animals under control. I doubt if my new pony 
 had ever been ridden before. Euckily, instead of bucking 
 he merely ran away ; and, since I managed to keep both 
 brutes in the general direction of Kimberley, I made better 
 time as a result. During the remainder of the trip I 
 changed the saddle every five or ten miles, walking a quarter 
 of an hour or more, at times, to rest both horses. 
 
 Shortly after noon I reached the battleground of Drie- 
 fontein, where I found the Sixth Brigade field-hospital en- 
 
 182 
 
THROUGH THE ENEMY'S LINES 
 
 camped, having been left behind, unguarded, by Kitchener's 
 orders. A group of officers were waiting for me, having 
 seen me coming for several miles. The first thing I heard 
 was that another rider had passed by shortly before. From 
 his description I knew it must be Renter's rider on his way 
 to Kimberley. I stopped long enough to take some re- 
 freshment while my horses were watered, and then galloped 
 on with my wallets filled with letters, nearly one hundred 
 
 Lord Roberts interrupting his morning ride to speak to a little 
 Boer girl on the street at Bloemfontein. 
 
 having been collected when I volunteered to carry some to 
 Kimberley. Still more, my pockets were filled with bis- 
 cuits, and I felt sure I could catch up with Renter's man, 
 as he only had one horse to my two. 
 
 The wounded and convalescent officers, including Mr. 
 Scarth of the *' Manchester Courier," crowded about me 
 while I gave them the full details of the march to and cap- 
 ture of Bloemfontein. It was quite evident that the physi- 
 cal disabilities of my hearers were entirely secondary to 
 
 183 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 their disappointment at being absent from the front at the 
 supreme moment. 
 
 Major Pike, who was in command at the hospital camp, 
 gave me Httle encouragement that I would *' catch up " with 
 my rival rider ; but on I went, for if I killed both horses in 
 doing it, Lord Roberts' official message was to get to Kim- 
 berley first. A few miles farther along was a farmhouse, 
 where I learned that the other man had left there a few 
 moments before on a fresh horse — the last one they had. 
 
 My chances looked bad, but on I pushed till four o'clock, 
 when I came to the German doctor's place, where I rested 
 an hour and had dinner; then off again, keeping both 
 horses at a steady gallop. A few miles farther a friendly 
 Kaffir warned me that a Boer commando was just ahead, 
 near the river. I turned slightly out of its path, hoping to 
 get past unobserved, but from a small kopje came the 
 '•zing" of a bullet, followed by several more, and the pop- 
 pop of rifles. Two horsemen started to ride toward me ; 
 I turned abruptly to the left and rode hard toward the 
 south, fondly hoping that my rival had been captured. 
 Fortunately the pursuit was abandoned ; I suppose the 
 Boer scouts were riding very tired horses. I afterward 
 learned that the rival rider had not been captured, but had 
 been fired upon after he had passed the commando. I got 
 safely away, and added a dozen or more miles to my jour- 
 ney's length. At sundown I reached Modder River, hav- 
 ing still forty miles between me and Kimberley. By this 
 time I had given up hope of getting in first, until it came 
 to me as an inspiration that the other man could not pos- 
 sibly reach Kimberley until ten o'clock that night, two hours 
 after the telegraph had closed against the reception of press 
 despatches. This gave me twelve additional hours, provided 
 I could get in by eight o'clock the next morning and manage 
 to file my despatches ahead of the other man. 
 
 184 
 
THROUGH THE ENEMY'S LINES 
 
 My horses were by this time becoming exhausted ; the 
 most I could do was to keep them walking. Once, while 
 leading them, I fell into a half doze, and roused myself to 
 find I was leading only one horse ; walking back half a 
 mile, I found the other quietly eating by the roadside. 
 Passing an abandoned farmhouse, I found it occupied by 
 twenty or more Kaffirs, who had a number of horses and 
 carts loaded with loot ; but as none of the horses was worth 
 taking, I did not attempt to assert my authority and take 
 advantage of the awe in which they held my khaki uni- 
 form. They asked me if they might be allowed to have 
 the house, now that the Boer owners had fled. Knowing 
 that they would do as they pleased after I had left, and 
 until some more potent authority turned them out, I 
 graciously granted them the desired favor ; they thanked 
 "The Mahster" effusively, and I rode on feeling quite 
 magnanimous. 
 
 I kept going all that night, and, with the exception of my 
 short rest at Steyn's house and under the cart on the veldt, 
 had been in the saddle for two days and two nights. 
 At dawn I found myself nearing Kimberley. Here I passed 
 a huge trek-cart drawn by twenty mules, loaded with 
 merchandise for Bloemfontein ; the owner, realizing the 
 need of supplies to take the place of those exhausted by 
 the long isolation of the city, and that the railway would 
 be some time in reopening, saw an opportunity to make a 
 good speculation by getting in first. His cart was hope- 
 lessly stuck in the mud ; but I know, from the situation, 
 that if he succeeded in getting in within the week he was 
 well paid for his trouble. 
 
 In the last few miles of my ride I suffered absolute 
 agony. My back and neck ached terribly, my shoulders 
 were sore from the strain of holding the lines, I was half 
 dazed, and was almost dead of hunger and thirst. It is 
 
 185 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 natural to suppose that my horses were suffering also ; but 
 on I pressed, reached the telegraph office by 7 a.m., found 
 a clerk who had arrived early, presented my despatch 
 from the Field Marshal, and learned to my satisfaction that 
 no others from Bloemfontein had preceded it. I filed Lord 
 Stanley's private message immediately afterward, and then 
 waited until ** The Times " despatch also was on the wire. 
 Then, feeling that I had earned a rest, I went to the hotel, 
 taking with me four pineapples, bought from a peddler on 
 the street, ate the four, went to bed, and remained there 
 twenty-four consecutive hours. 
 
 186 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 A FULL LICENSE AT LAST. 
 
 THIS ended a week of the hardest kind of riding, be- 
 ginning with forty miles on the day of Poplar Grove, 
 fifty-five the next day, resting at Kimberely, then sixty-four 
 miles back to Dreifontein, then for three days averaging 
 twenty-five miles daily, closing the third day by starting on 
 my one hundred and twenty-five-mile ride through the 
 enemy's lines with the Field Marshal's despatch to Kim- 
 berley, riding one hundred and sixty-five miles in the last 
 forty-eight hours, and one hundred miles straight in the 
 final twenty- four. 
 
 I broke my long slumber in the middle to take dinner, 
 and I spent the following two days resting myself and 
 horses and getting better acquainted with Kimberley, inci- 
 dentally meeting and dining again with Lieutenant Waite, 
 the '' ranker " officer I had entertained at the De Villiers farm 
 ten days before. Toward the evening of the second day I 
 started back for Bloemfontein, stopping at night with the 
 officers of a convoy about ten miles out, camping in a 
 looted farmhouse ; the next night I reached the German 
 farm and met young Beresford, who had graduated from 
 Roberts' horse to Bennet Burleigh's ** Daily Telegraph " 
 outfit. He was bringing supplies up to Bloemfontein. I 
 passed him the next day, and at night he again caught up 
 with me, and we slept at an Irish burgher's shop or country 
 store, in which a terrific downpour of rain had driven me 
 to take refuge. 
 
 Shortly before, I had stopped at a Boer farmhouse to 
 
 187 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 ask the way. A sweet-faced girl of about fifteen stood 
 in the doorway, the lower half of which was closed while 
 the upper part swung open, the dark interior forming a 
 background against which her white dress and light hair 
 came out finely. I asked, — 
 
 '' Are there any Boers around here ?'' 
 
 ** I'm a Boer," she answered quietly. 
 
 ** I mean are there any fighting Boers ahead on the road, 
 who might interfere with me if I go on ?" 
 
 *' Oh, no," she answered quaintly in her "book" Eng- 
 lish. "They are all under the English." 
 
 An old man came out and invited me to off-saddle and 
 spend the night ; but having learned of the Irishman's shop, 
 I hurried five miles to reach there before the storm, which 
 burst before I had gone a mile, drenching me thoroughly, 
 so that the ancient Hibernian thought it necessary to dose 
 me with hot water and put me to bed at four o'clock in the 
 afternoon, tenderly caring for me, and as tenderly running 
 up a bill, by the next morning, of twenty shillings, which 
 made me feel justified in "annexing" a fine crash towel 
 from his guest-chamber on leaving. 
 
 One of my ponies had cut his foot soon after leaving 
 Kimberley. At the German farm I had exchanged it for a 
 new horse, giving the owner — a returned despatch-rider 
 from the Free State army — several pounds as a bonus. He 
 and another brother had returned to the farm in obedience 
 to Lord Roberts' proclamation promising immunity to 
 those who laid down their arms and went home. They plied 
 me closely with questions as to the probable British policy 
 toward the conquered Free Staters, and openly lamented 
 that the Free State had gone into the war at all, saying, 
 
 "Why, if we had left the Transvaal to fight it out alone, 
 the English would have bought all our horses and cattle 
 and forage, paying us big prices for them ; now they have 
 
 i88 
 
A FULL LICENSE AT LAST 
 
 commandeered everything and we have got nothing for it, 
 and may even lose our farms, too." 
 
 Beresford and I left the Irishman's shop together, each 
 taking two horses and leaving the cart to follow, Bloem- 
 fontein being only twenty-four miles distant. Half-way to 
 the city we stopped at a farmhouse and asked for some 
 milk. A woman, who with two children were the only 
 people there, gave us a big pitcherful of cold milk and re- 
 fused to take payment ; yet as we left she said, apolo- 
 getically, 
 
 "The retreating Boers took everything I had but my 
 cow ; I haven't even a chicken left. We have nothing to 
 eat in the house, and, our horses having been taken away, I 
 can't drive into Bloemfontein to get provisions. Can you 
 give me anything? I wouldn't ask it for myself, but the 
 children have had nothing but milk since yesterday." 
 
 We searched our pockets and wallets, but found only a 
 few "hardtack" biscuits, which she gratefully accepted. 
 Beresford gave her a slip of paper with an order on the 
 driver of his cart, which was soon to pass by, for more pro- 
 visions, and we hurried on, satisfied that for a few days at least 
 she and her children would be provided for. I gave her a 
 note to present to the commanding officer of the first con- 
 voy which should pass that way, and I have no doubt that 
 it procured her further supplies from the Imperial transport 
 from Kimberley, the officers of which had been my hosts 
 the first night after leaving that city. 
 
 It was afternoon when we reached Bloemfontein, and I 
 rode directly to the Censor's office and made my report to 
 Lord Stanley. He was much pleased with my success, 
 though he was unable to say whether the reopening of tele- 
 graphic communication along the line of the railway south- 
 ward had enabled others to beat me in getting my message 
 off or not. I took advantage of his good humor to tell 
 
 189 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 him that I was leaving ''The Times' " service and desired 
 a full license for myself He looked rather blank as I said 
 this, so I continued, 
 
 " I am only doing descriptive writing, which you do not 
 have to read ; I am not sending any cable messages, so 
 you will not find that granting me this license involves 
 extra work for you." 
 
 He looked at me a moment longer, then, as his face re- 
 laxed into a smile, he said, 
 
 " All right. I'll give you a full license, including tele- 
 graphic privileges. What are the names of your papers?" 
 
 Then tearing out an official blank he wrote out the license 
 I had so long coveted, and put down the names of the "Daily 
 Mail," of Graham's Town, and the Philadelphia " Press," 
 thus attaching me, independently of " The Times," to Lord 
 Roberts' staff as a regularly accredited war correspondent, 
 with full privileges — practically a commission in the 
 Queen's army, with rank equivalent to that of a lieutenant. 
 I thanked him and departed promptly, resolving that in 
 the future I would obtrude my presence upon him as little 
 as possible, to avoid giving him any cause to regret his 
 generosity. 
 
 Leaving the office, I almost ran into the arms of Landon. 
 This reminded me of our conversation on the banks of the 
 Modder River at Paardeburg, when he assured me of the 
 utter futility of attempting to get a pass or license, and how 
 he told me the story of Kipling, the American journalist, 
 the sea-serpent, and Westminister Abbey. I triumphantly 
 waved my new license before his eyes, and reminded him 
 of our conversation on the subject. He examined the license 
 carefully, looked at me blankly and muttered, half to him- 
 self, " How very extraordinary ! I can't for the life of me 
 understand how you got it !" I left him without explaining 
 how " the trick " had been done ; but as I rode off to the 
 
 190 
 
Form of Licence for Newspaper Correspondent^. 
 No. of Licence, v/ ^ 
 
 '^:,£A:^.f.^.Z. 
 
 baying signed the Declaration attached to the Bule« for News- 
 paper Correspondents accompanying Troops in the Field, is 
 
 hereby licensed to act as Correspondent for the lfhi^-f^^»?^ 
 with the Force in. .k.4^<4U\, .^^rH^. . /kCj^^f^:^''. 
 
 dated at .. j 
 
 is ^^.... day of . , ,<h^^r:hfr^. , 
 
 this ^C^.... 4ay 
 
 Ho is authorised to draw Hationi for himself and one 
 servant, and forage for one horse on payment. 
 
 fiY ORDEB. 
 
 War License issued to the Author at Bloenifontein by Chief Press Censor 
 
 Lord Stanley. 
 
 191 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 hotel my mind wandered back to the Modder River treks 
 and my commandeered or otherwise acquired chickens, and 
 I reflected on the fact that, practically, by hanging on to 
 the tail of a hen I had scratched my way into I.ord Stan- 
 ley's favor, and thus found a way to do him and his com- 
 mander a service which made his granting me the desired 
 license a matter of manifest propriety. 
 
 That night I dreamed I saw the towers of Westminister 
 making a profound bow to a very respectable and dignified 
 old hen standing alone out on the veldt ; and this was suc- 
 ceeded by a vision of Lord Stanley entertaining the Field 
 Marshal and his staff at a sumptuous banquet under the 
 trees at Paardeburg. After all, I realized that the (sup- 
 posedly) most impregnable of "■ English Institutions " — the 
 Censorship — when properly handled, was only as high as 
 a chicken stands when dropping a fresh Qgg. 
 
 192 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 TWO BLOEMFONTEINS. 
 
 AS already explained in detail, it had happened to fall 
 to my lot to make two entries into the city of Bloem- 
 fontein — the first on the 1 3th, shortly in advance of Lord 
 Roberts and his triumphal procession, and again, one week 
 later, on my return from Kimberley, by which time the city 
 had settled down to a normal state under the new conditions. 
 The deeper impressions of my first entry were of the halting 
 of the troops at the artillery barracks while Lord Roberts 
 personally superintended the stopping of the native loot- 
 ing ; also, while I rode in advance of the column through 
 the city, passing the small crowds at the street crossings, and 
 hearing their cheers for the army, I could not avoid noticing 
 that there were few men in the streets, and that nearly all 
 the shops and houses were closed, telling plainly how fear- 
 ful the inhabitants had been of pillage or loot. Occasion- 
 ally, from the rear of a garden, a more timid face was seen 
 peering out at the passing troops. All this had given the 
 city an atmosphere of fear and suspense, which was not less 
 noticeable because of the more enthusiastic reception by 
 the English sympathizing portion of the community. This 
 was my impression of Bloemfontein on the day the British 
 entered. 
 
 A week later, the invading army was in full possession 
 of the city into which I was riding. It might have been 
 Cape Town or Kimberley, for all the difference discernible 
 between the khaki-dressed men in the streets and the per- 
 manent residents. The city seemed to have a smiling, 
 13 193 
 
WITH "BOBS'* AND KRUGER 
 
 wide-open expression, contrasting strongly with the frown- 
 ing, closed-up appearance of a week before. The houses 
 seemed to have people inside of them, and certainly many 
 were visible outside. Children played in the streets, and 
 gaily-dressed ladies were going in and out of the shops 
 which only a few days before had been so tightly closed 
 and bolted. The tide of war seemed to have drifted away 
 from me, and the city had an exceedingly cheerful and 
 
 Left Portico of the Raadzaal Hospital, showing the convalescents taking their 
 sun-baths. This building was formerly the Parliamentary meeting-place 
 of the Orange Free State Government, and was a building of which the 
 Free Staters were very proud. 
 
 homelike appearance. How this change had been effected 
 I did not know ; leaving on the evening of its occupa- 
 tion, and being absent an entire week without hearing any 
 news whatever, Iwas unable to foresee what the relation- 
 ship between the army and Bloemfontein would be. But 
 the contrast between the two periods was as striking as a 
 sharp comparison between fearsome anxiety and peaceful 
 security could be, and in a sort of semi-conscious way I 
 
 194 
 
TWO BLOEMFONTEINS 
 
 found myself connecting the incident at the artillery bar- 
 racks with the present conditions, and noting how accu- 
 rately it had been a forerunner of what was to befall the 
 city and its inhabitants. 
 
 So much for the army and Bloemfontein. As for the 
 capital itself, it is not at all unlike scores of cities of the 
 same size scattered through the States of the Union in 
 America, except for the absence of electric cars, without 
 which no self-respecting American city, however diminu- 
 tive, can exist. 
 
 The great numbers of blacks in the streets and the one- 
 story architecture of the place lends a Southern States ap- 
 pearance to Bloemfontein, similar to that of many of the 
 older cities of the Gulf States. 
 
 That Bloemfontein was a metropolis was clearly appar- 
 ent, A centre of supplies, administration and social inter- 
 course always has unmistakable external evidences to 
 indicate its character, whether the locality be Oriental or 
 Occidental, whether the surrounding territory be large or 
 small. The Government buildings at Bloemfontein, the 
 Presidency, the club, the post-office, the stores, hotels and 
 other buildings bordering the market square, all partook 
 of this metropolitan flavor, and served as an entire refuta- 
 tion of the anti-Boer insinuation, circulated in America 
 from British sources, that the Boers were a rude, uncul- 
 tured and semi-barbarous people. 
 
 As for the men of Bloemfontein, the few I met at the 
 hotels and the club, and the many I saw on the street, had 
 the stamp of the city man on their faces and in the cut of 
 their clothes. The usual garb was a grey or brown suit, 
 with a soft felt hat ; but enough top-hats and Prince Albert 
 coats were visible to show that the professional and wealthier 
 classes took their styles from Piccadilly, as did the Lon- 
 doners and New Yorkers. 
 
 195 
 
WITH ^'BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 Through all this, and under the surface, I seemed to see 
 how the future of this fair little city was lying in the hollow 
 of Lord Roberts' palm, with his fingers grasping it tightly, 
 indicative of the firm grasp England intended to take on 
 the entire country. I saw that the more distant future of 
 the city depended on the extension of the railways, and 
 how it was not at all impossible that at some future time, 
 by a single stroke of a pen, some obscure hamlet of the 
 Free State might be declared a more convenient site 
 
 British Tommies digging a grave in the Bloemfontein Cemetery for a com- 
 rade, who died of enteric fever which was prevalent in the camps about 
 the city. 
 
 for the offices now located at Bloemfontein, and rapidly 
 grow into a greater and grander city, leaving the old capi- 
 tal to decay slowly — decay, as have some parts of our his- 
 tory-lacking America ; for on our western prairies there 
 are whole cities of tenantless buildings, doomed to solitude 
 and ruin because some railway king decreed that '* The 
 line will run thirty miles east," — or *'west." 
 
 I began to feel an affection for the little city and its 
 people, and wanted to talk to them, offer sympathy on 
 their loss of independence, and some gentle advice from a 
 
 196 
 
TWO BLOEMFONTEINS 
 
 disinterested outsider. I wanted to tell them how the 
 future of their city would depend on the actions of her 
 citizens or burghers ; that the sword had done its work in 
 carving a path for the Imperial army into its heart, and 
 that now it would remain for the pen to hold in reserve a 
 more powerful destruction of the city's pride — the pen, 
 more potent than the sword to destroy, for it can command 
 a decay from which there is no recovery. 
 
 After all my other memories of Bloemfontein have 
 passed away, I think I shall continue to hear, when its 
 name is mentioned, the almost chant-like singing of ** The 
 Soldiers of The Queen " by the Lancers, as they headed 
 the column marching up Monument Avenue, and, after- 
 ward, the great outburst of ** God Save the Queen !" when 
 the Union Jack was raised at the Presidency. I think, if 
 this national anthem could be more often heard, the ene- 
 mies of Great Britain would be drawn more closely to that 
 grand old country. 
 
 Something like the above appeared in ** The Friend," the 
 local newspaper, which, by request of Lord Roberts, was 
 being edited by a committee of the war correspondents. 
 Landon was chairman of the committee, and asked me to 
 write something for *' The Friend" ''from an American's 
 point of view." While at the club I wrote off my ''im- 
 pressions," consigned my newest acquisition in horseflesh 
 — the pretty little black pony, barely four years old, traded 
 for at the German farm — to Landon' s care until the next 
 week, read in ''The Friend" that Kipling was coming to 
 Bloemfontein, and wrote a short note, offering him the use 
 of my horse while I was away, consigning the note also to 
 Landon. Then I went to Cape Town to see Emery, draw 
 my first month's salary, get my back letters from America, 
 and procure a new camera to take the place of the one I 
 had been forced to sell five weeks before. 
 
 197 
 
WITH ^'BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 The trip took two days ; but, unfortunately, I passed the 
 •interesting places along the line at night, thus failing to see 
 them. Cape Town, however, was full of interest. I was 
 now able to look over the place with the eye of prosperity, 
 to talk to my old friend Colonel Stowe from a new level, 
 and to receive his hearty congratulations on my success 
 with pride and gratification well worth the effort required 
 to earn it. 
 
 Mr. Amery wrote out a big check for me, which I cashed 
 in half an hour, and then felt indeed like a South African 
 magnate. New clothes had to be procured, and tailors 
 worked by night, at extra rates, to get me fitted out. Din- 
 ners were eaten, at which I paid for other plates than my 
 own ; in short, a sense of ease, comfort and luxury, and of 
 the wherewithal to pay liberally for all these, was very de- 
 lightful to me, and for a few days I revelled — that is, in a 
 mild sort of way ; no dissipations included. Soon some 
 imp of darkness persuaded me that I needed a typewriter ; 
 so one was purchased. 
 
 Then I negotiated a new deal, fearful and wonderful in 
 its nature. A certain photographer sent out by an Ameri- 
 can firm at great expense had failed to get to the front. 
 For a month he had vegetated at Cape Town, waiting for 
 me to come back, a certain mutual friend having whispered 
 that I might be induced to take him with me in the nominal 
 capacity of servant, for my pass provided for an attendant. 
 Several letters on the subject had been mailed to me, one 
 of which found me at Osfontein. On leaving Bloemfon- 
 tein I had taken the precaution to secure the proper passes 
 to bring this possible servant up to the front on my return. 
 We negotiated and negotiated, and finally reached the con- 
 tract stage, with witnesses and seals and all that sort of 
 thing. Condensed, the import of a certain slip of paper 
 was that a certain American photographer representing an 
 
 198 
 
TWO BLOEMFONTEINS 
 
 American firm at great expense was to accompany me as 
 my servant. My ** servant " was to pay me the sum of 
 two hundred dollars per month and all my expenses for 
 the privilege of being my servant. On the other hand, I 
 was to put my servant in such places as would secure for 
 his American firm the best returns in photographic plates 
 exposed at scenes at the front. This contract could be dis- 
 solved at any moment by mutual consent, and by the pay- 
 ment of the servant to me, his master, of the sum of two 
 
 Funeral Procession of a Gordon Highlander entering the Bloemfontein Ceme- 
 tery. The body is being borne on the shoulders of four of the High- 
 landers, and is wrapped in a Union Jack. The view beyond is a five- 
 mile stretch of veldt south of the city, across which Lord Roberts made 
 his final march and entry into the city. 
 
 hundred dollars and expenses to date. The servant was 
 incidentally to provide for our transportation while we were 
 on the march, and to purchase horses and carts and hire 
 extra servants, etc., all at his own expense. A peculiar 
 arrangement. To maintain good faith with Lord Stanley 
 the American photographer was also to manipulate a camera 
 for my benefit, becoming my photographer. 
 
 Lord Stanley made no objection to this plan, and on my 
 request was about to give me a separate license for " my 
 
 199 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 photographer," when said servant-photographer entered into 
 a new deal with another correspondent with photographic 
 privileges, cancelled the contract, and paid me in full, with 
 expenses. Our peculiar negotiations consumed some time, 
 bringing us both back to Bloemfontein, where we parted com- 
 pany, I being richer by two hundred and fifty dollars, ac- 
 quired easily enough in less than a week with the expendi- 
 ture of little more than some surplus grey matter and the 
 
 Dr. Conan Doyle, as the author found him at his tent in the Polo Grounds, 
 where he was in charge of the Langman P'ield Hospital. A character- 
 istic pose of the creator of " Sherlock Holmes." 
 
 risk of incurring the displeasure of certain stern authorities. 
 Still, no mishap occurred, and the conclusion of the deal 
 placed me in the enviable position of a '' Free Lance " war 
 correspondent, well mounted, uniformed, provisioned, and 
 supplied with about three hundred dollars in American 
 money — sufficient to keep me going, with economy, for 
 several months, and yet leave enough to get me back to 
 the States via the cattle-steamer route. But I did not in- 
 tend to stop with this amount. My American letters had 
 
 200 
 
TWO BLOEMFONTEINS 
 
 brought me one return in the shape of credentials from a 
 small paper and a draft on London for ten pounds. Then 
 **The Times" was to continue my services at the old rates, 
 and my Colonial Syndicate might be worked into renewed 
 Hfe, with its thirty pounds per month. This last failed ; 
 the papers had made other arrangements, and the syndicate 
 had fallen apart. Lord Stanley vetoed my first attempt to 
 do work for ** The Times " on the score that, as I was now 
 an independent correspondent, it would be manifestly unfair 
 to other papers for ** The Times " to employ an extra cor- 
 respondent. He offered to allow me to carry despatches 
 for "The Times" if I cared to surrender my license ; but 
 this was not to my way of thinking, so I was left alone, 
 even my salary-paying servant having deserted me. Indeed, 
 I had little else but money at this time. Mr. Kipling had 
 passed me on his way back to Cape Town. He had not 
 used my four-year-old, having preferred to drive about with 
 Bennet Burleigh in an ingloriously comfortable Cape-cart. 
 
 So with my typewriter and my experiences I settled down 
 in a modest boarding-house, on the main street, to study 
 the atmosphere of the Free State and its capital, and write 
 reams of copy for my American papers, ** to be paid for if 
 used." 
 
 201 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 KIPLING AGAIN, AND SOME BLOEMFONTEIN ITEMS. 
 
 AFTER a few days I decided to go back to Cape Town 
 again. Lord Stanley asked me to take care of a 
 package of relics and souvenirs which he wanted me to 
 forward to England for him, and this, with a few other com- 
 missions for friends, was sufficient excuse for me to make 
 the trip. I intended to make a stay of only two days. 
 On my first night in the city the manager of a local theatre 
 called on me at my hotel and said that, having seen my 
 arrival noted in the evening paper, he had called to ask 
 whether I would consider a proposition to lecture on the 
 war. We talked over details, and I agreed to prepare a 
 lecture, while he made the arrangements for its delivery in 
 Cape Town and elsewhere. The next afternoon I was 
 walking up Adderly Street, when I came face to face with 
 a little man in a black suit. He had very heavy black eye- 
 brows, and wore spectacles. Yes, it was Kipling, who, 
 according to the papers, had sailed for England the day 
 before. Mr. Kipling knew me at once, and after a friendly 
 greeting inquired after my pony, and thanked me for the 
 offer of its services. Then he invited me to walk along up 
 to the Mount Nelson Hotel with him, while I made an effort 
 to express my appreciation of what he had done for me 
 with "The Times." He seemed pleased that his recom- 
 mendation had proved so efficacious, and listened atten- 
 tively to my tale up to the climax of my carrying Lord 
 Roberts' despatch to Kimberley. Arriving at the hotel, we 
 sat down together for an hour or two, while I absorbed 
 
 202 
 
KIPLING AND BLOEMFONTEIN ITEMS 
 
 great quantities of wisdom from his store of experiences and 
 observation, for he gave me freely of the same ; and although 
 I knew I was to him only another human ** specimen," I 
 felt none the less flattered by the attention. One of the first 
 things he asked me was, 
 
 '' Well, did you find plenty of good material to write 
 up?" 
 
 Enthusing at once, I replied, 
 
 *' My goodness, yes ; why, you can't understand how 
 much — " 
 
 ''What's that?" interrupted Mr. Kipling. 
 
 Realizing that I was making a mistake, I spluttered , 
 
 " Oh, I beg your pardon. I mean — " 
 
 " Well, you'd better," he again interrupted ; " this is just 
 the time you are up against the fellow who can understand," 
 and he chucked with amusement at my confusion. 
 
 I recovered and " went back at him " again, and got him 
 talking about the attitude of the American press, which at 
 that time was quite sarcastic at England's expense. " They 
 are acting perfectly beastly," he said. "I hope in your 
 letters you are taking the right side of things, and telling the 
 readers of your papers the truth about this war." 
 
 I said I was trying to, but I admitted my inability to suc- 
 cessfully impress so capricious an audience as the American 
 people, and asked for a few suggestions. 
 
 "Why," he said, "get them to understand what these 
 Boers really are. Tell them that if they can imagine Tam- 
 many Hall backed up by cannon and Mausers they'll know 
 what the South African Republics are like." 
 
 Then he told me a story of an experience he had at 
 Bloemfontein which well illustrates how conscious he is, 
 and what a keen, boyish delight he takes in being himself. 
 While driving with Bennet Burleigh within a few miles of 
 the firing-line at the Glen, his unmilitary appearance — he 
 
 203 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 wore a grey suit and a straw hat — attracted the attention 
 of a sentinel, who promptly challenged him. Mr. Kipling 
 gave his name, but the doubting Thomas still hesitated 
 about letting him pass, when Kipling broke out impatiently 
 with, " Why, you ungrateful beggar, is this the way you 
 
 A War Artist and Correspondent waiting to photograph "Bobs" at the 
 Presidency at Bloemfontein when the Field Marshal takes his morning 
 ride. The artist- correspondent is Mr. Dinwiddle of " Harper's Weekly,' ' 
 on his way home from the Philippines, and not Mr. Kipling, for whom 
 he is frequently taken. 
 
 treat me after all I've done for you ?" In the words of Mr. 
 Kipling, as he told this story, " Then the stupid Tommy saw 
 that it really was I and saluted and let me pass." Mr. 
 Kipling had previously explained that, as he should have 
 been challenged some eight miles back, it was hardly worth 
 
 204 
 
KIPLING AND BLOEMFONTEIN ITEMS 
 
 while doing so now ; but it was not until he gave expres- 
 sion to his feelings in this characteristic manner that the de- 
 sired effect on the interfering Mr. Atkins was produced. 
 
 Another time, while Kipling was wandering about camp 
 in search of a certain Tommy to whom he was carrying a 
 pair of rubber boots entrusted to him by the said Tommy's 
 tentmate, he was stopped by an officious private, who wanted 
 to march him off to the guard-tent. Mr. Kipling gave his 
 name, which, either because of the private's ignorance or 
 obstinacy, failed to produce the usual magical effect. 
 
 At this critical moment a non-commissioned officer who 
 had known Mr. Kipling at Aldershot approached, and 
 courteously asked, 
 
 '' Is there anything I can do for you ?" 
 
 " Yes," answered Mr. Kipling ; "I want this man taken 
 off and shot. Do you understand ? I want him shot, and 
 I want it done right away." The objectionable man was 
 removed ; but as Mr. Kipling said regretfully, when speak- 
 ing of the incident, " I really am afraid they didn't shoot 
 him, after all." 
 
 I told Mr. Kipling of my proposed lecture tour, which 
 he said was "a. good thing." I showed him some of the 
 photographs I had taken, which he said were "no good." 
 They were the pride of my heart, but I thanked him for 
 his candor, and then listened humbly to further words of 
 wisdom. He seemed to think me worthy soil, so he en- 
 deavored to plant the seeds of Anglo-Americanism iia my 
 brain. He pointed out to me the common identity of in- 
 terest and destiny of the two nations, and by successfully 
 impressing on me the fact that Anglo-Americanism was not 
 only ** the coming thing," but *' the greatest coming thing 
 of the twentieth century," he all but enlisted my humble 
 services in its interest. 
 
 Then he appealed to my selfishness, and showed me how 
 
 205 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 it would help me in my career if I would take up the 
 matter, make it my hobby, and give the world some 
 evidence that I had done so. That clinched the matter, 
 and I gave him my hand and promised that from that mo- 
 ment I would be a decided Anglo-American maniac ; but 
 I reserved the privilege of retaining any pro-Boer sympa- 
 thies which future events or Americanism asserting itself in 
 the subject might cause to grow. Mr. Kipling admitted 
 that the Boer question was, after all, only a minor affair in 
 
 comparison with the 
 great questions of vital 
 interest to both America 
 and England which the 
 coming century might 
 develop. After exchang- 
 ing my wish that he 
 might have a pleasant 
 voyage home for his 
 hope that my success 
 would continue as it had 
 started, I left Mr. Kip- 
 ling, thoroughly con- 
 vinced by him of the 
 truly great common des- 
 tiny of the English- 
 speaking races, their Christian civilization to be aided in 
 the more distant future by two powerful allies — Germany 
 and that Asiatic England, plucky little Japan. 
 
 While at Cape Town I witnessed the presentation by the 
 officers of the corporation of Cape Town of an address to 
 Sir George White, the hero of Ladysmith. 
 
 The presentation took place in the Good Hope Hall, de- 
 lightfully situated in the Municipal Gardens, picturesque 
 and fragrant, noticeably so after a month on the barren 
 
 206 
 
 The Mayor of Cape Town and other dig- 
 nitaries entering the Good Hope Gar- 
 dens to present Sir George White with 
 a Complimentary Address on his rehef at 
 Ladysmith. Taken by E. V. H. Melville. 
 
KIPLING AND BLOEMFONTEIN ITEMS 
 
 veldt. The hall was gayly decorated with flowers and 
 bunting, the Stars and Stripes hanging conspicuously im- 
 mediately over and in front of the platform. 
 
 While a band played softly, the Mayor and other officers 
 entered, His Honor resplendent with ermine and purple, 
 preceded by a sergeant-at-arms bearing a huge gilt mace. 
 
 On the arrival of Sir George the procession met him at 
 the door and escorted him to the platform, while the 
 crowds within and without cheered themselves hoarse. 
 General White responded by bowing, and the cheering was 
 prolonged. During the 
 Mayor's speech and the 
 reading of the address 
 by the town clerk, the 
 General was visibly af- 
 fected. 
 
 His recent illness was 
 apparent, his eyes being 
 hollow and his cheeks 
 fallen in, while from 
 time to time the muscles 
 of his chin quivered 
 slightly. 
 
 When he arose to 
 reply, however, all traces of weakness disappeared ; he was 
 once more the strong, erect General who so bravely de- 
 fended and sustained, through the long, weary siege, the 
 inhabitants of Ladysmith. 
 
 Immediately after the occupation of Bloemfontein, on the 
 13th of March, there was practically a suspension of all 
 operations, while the army took a much-needed rest, and 
 got ready for the more difficult task ahead, which the ad- 
 vance toward Kronstadt and across the Vaal River pre- 
 sented. While, luckily for the English army, a number 
 
 207 
 
 General Sir George White driving from the 
 Good Hope Gardens after receiving the 
 Address of the Cape Town Corporation. 
 Taken by E. V. H. Melville. 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 of engines, trucks and carriages were secured when Bloem- 
 fontein was taken, making possible the reopening of rail- 
 way communication to the Orange River, where the Cape 
 Colony line meets it on the other side, yet the destruction 
 of two spans of the railway bridge at this point by the re- 
 treating Boers delayed the sending of necessary supplies 
 for many weeks, until the new structure was completed. 
 Meanwhile, Lord Roberts and his staff of assistants issued 
 a variety of proclamations to the Free Staters, promising 
 all sorts of things if they would go back to their farms 
 and be good. Of course, they had to give up their arms. 
 
 One day I drifted into the grounds of the Government 
 Building and saw a non-commissioned officer and two 
 privates receiving and recording the guns, as the reluctant 
 but fearful Free Staters brought them in. They were 
 mostly sporting rifles, some very handsome, and their 
 owners gave them up with many questionings as to when 
 they might hope to get them back. It is needless to add 
 that very little satisfaction on that score was given. 
 
 Some touching incidents in connection with this occurred. 
 One white-haired old Free Stater brought in a handsome 
 sporting Mauser rifle, a present from his wife, and piteously 
 begged with tears in his eyes to be allowed to retain only a 
 part of his treasure, giving up sufficient parts of the mechan- 
 ism to render the rifle useless. The appeal was in vain, and 
 the old fellow sadly left the grounds. My sympathy was 
 somewhat tempered when I noticed a number of dum-dum 
 cartridges in the case. 
 
 Active campaigning having temporarily come to an end, 
 the tireless staff of war correspondents which accompanied 
 Lord Roberts directed their energies to the editing of the 
 official organ at Bloemfontein, *' The Friend." Mr. Percival 
 Landon of "The Times," Mr. E. W. Buxton of the *' Daily 
 Telegraph," and Mr. H. A. Gwynne of Renter's, were the 
 
 208 
 
KIPLING AND BLOEMFONTEIN ITEMS 
 
 editing committee. Early numbers soon became unobtain- 
 able, so great was the demand for " The Friend," which for 
 the time boasted of the most distinguished staff of con- 
 tributors in the whole world, considering that the entire 
 staff of war correspondents with Lord Roberts were pressed 
 into its service. With articles from the pens of such men 
 as Bennet Burleigh, our own Julian Ralph, and Rudyard 
 Kipling in its pages, no one will dispute this statement. 
 On March 17th Mr. Kipling wired the following lines from 
 Cape Town. He afterward went to Bloemfontein and took 
 an active part in the editing of the paper. 
 
 " Oh, Terence, dear, and did you hear 
 The news that's going round ? 
 The Shamrock's Erin's badge by law, 
 Where'er her sons be found. 
 
 " From Bobsfontein to Ballyhock, 
 'Tis ordered by the Queen, 
 We've won our right in open fight, 
 The wearing of the green." 
 
 Upon the occupation of Bloemfontein a large number of 
 the Orange Free State stamps were discovered, and the Im- 
 perial Government at once appropriated them for use, sur- 
 charging them with the letters V. R. I. Some of these 
 issues, which had already nearly run out, were immediately 
 bought up by collectors, and soon reached absurd values. 
 The craze grew, and rapidly spread through the rank-and- 
 file of the army, and it was no uncommon thing to see a 
 Tommy and a staff officer side by side in the post-office, 
 artistically pasting stamps a dozen times in value more than 
 necessary on letters for home. 
 
 I have personally given but little attention to this sub- 
 ject, because of my entire ignorance of such matters, 
 but I can give collectors one or two hints. The surcharged 
 sixpenny stamp will bring the best price, especially if it is 
 ^4 209 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 one in which the periods after the letters have been omitted. 
 This also applies to all the other issues. 
 
 I!iiliiiyilll!jij}jjl}ll}illiyill!] 
 
 Editorial page of "The F'riend," containing contributions by Dr. Conan 
 headquarters. 
 
 Another thing : only a limited number of issues were 
 legally surcharged ; there are some of obsolete issues the 
 holders of which have had privately surcharged, with the 
 
 2 lO 
 
KIPLING AND BLOEMFONTEIN ITEMS 
 
 intention of creating rare stamps of great value. It is need- 
 less to add that an accurate record of these surchargings 
 
 II 
 
 iifi.iiilikjji 
 
 niUHUthmmmknuukmudmiMmmiiMM: 
 
 I 111 
 
 Doyle, the author, and other war correspondents attached to Lord Roberts' 
 
 has been kept by the authorities, which will be published in 
 due time, and all frauds exposed. Collectors will do well 
 to exercise caution in buying from dealers and others. 
 While the English undoubtedly treated the Free Staters 
 
 211 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 very generously at first, with a view of conciliating them 
 as much as possible, yet these conquered burghers were 
 by no means reconciled to their lot. One of them accom- 
 panied me to my hotel from the club one night, and talked 
 over his and his fellow-burghers' woes until the early hours. 
 It was very pathetic to hear his expressions of distress at 
 seeing the victorious British filling the streets, hotels and 
 club. His mixture of excuse and censure of the retreating 
 army, which had allowed his city to so easily fall into the 
 hands of the enemy, was touching, and I came to realize 
 that, while officers and correspondents had been writing 
 home in glowing phrase of **the unparalleled leniency of 
 the generous victor," we had entirely overlooked the fact 
 that every blade of grass or shrub-leaf which our horses, 
 tethered on the club lawn, consumed, unnoticed by us, was 
 duly noted and recorded by the native club members as an 
 instance of the enemy's disregard for their rights. 
 
 The semi-barbarous strains of the Highland bagpipe 
 bands grate harshly on the musical ear of the Free Stater, 
 while the hilarious shouting in the streets at night of 
 "Tommy on leave" fills honest burgher hearts with un- 
 speakable bitterness, all the more consuming because of 
 its necessary suppression. 
 
 It was a dark day in Bloemfontein when Lord Roberts 
 rode into the little city ; and while loyal British subjects 
 throughout that vast empire were shouting " Hurrah for 
 Bobs," and joyously singing ** God Save the Queen," there 
 were sad hearts and tears in Bloemfontein. 
 
 One day while riding about the camps I found myself 
 at the headquarters of Roberts' horse, the famous mounted 
 regiment of irregulars named after the Field Marshal. 
 Some two months before, while Cronje was still in laager at 
 Paardeburg, an officer of B squadron of this regiment had 
 mistaken me for a Boer, and sent out a squad of men to 
 
 212 
 
KIPLING AND BLOEMFONTEIN ITEMS 
 
 arrest me. On displaying my license I became the ofifi- 
 cer's guest for the night, and rode away the next morning 
 considerably enriched by a part of the spoils of war taken 
 by him the preceding day. This same officer received me 
 again, and, remembering that I was an American, intro- 
 duced me to Lieutenant J. S. Bradshaw, of Philadelphia, 
 who had been Sergeant of Mounted Police in the 25th 
 
 One of the broken spans of the great ^2,500,000 bridge across the Orange 
 River at Nerval's Poont. This Bridge was blown up with dynamite and 
 gun-cotton by the Boers when General Gatacre advanced to the border 
 of the Free State. 
 
 District when cabled to by Lord Roberts to meet him at 
 Cape Town. Mr. Bradshaw immediately invited me to a 
 "Pink Tea," which his mess was giving that same evening, 
 and I as promptly accepted. The regiment was luxuriously 
 quartered in a new row of brick buildings intended for the 
 leper settlement, but which, fortunately, had not yet been 
 occupied. for that purpose. The pink tea was held in a 
 large flagstone-paved room, with biscuit-boxes for chairs 
 
 213 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 and a dissecting-table to hold the really sumptuous repast 
 which Bradshaw's '' French chef^'' a Yorkshire Tommy, 
 served up. We had soup, made from a condensed mixture, 
 unnamable, but appetizing ; then some tinned fish, whose 
 origin was somewhat obscure ; followed by a turkey, which 
 an obliging trooper had risked sixty days' imprisonment 
 to secure; then a roast, the choicest part of a huge ox, 
 slaughtered only that morning for the regiment. How 
 Bradshaw had managed to secure the whiskey and claret I 
 can't guess ; but there it was in generous quantities, and no 
 one was rude enough to insinuate ** annexation." The dis- 
 tinguished guests were Captain Rogers of the First Canadian 
 contingent, and the famous Canadian scout, Charley Ross 
 (not of kidnapping fame), who, to my great delight, turned 
 out to be an old Klondyker whom I had known in Alaska. 
 We got to bed, rolled up in blankets on the stone floor, 
 sooner than was to be expected, for the programme in- 
 cluded springbok shooting the next morning ; this, how- 
 ever, was abandoned when the early dawn showed up grey 
 and cold through a dreary rain which continued to pour 
 down steadily all day long, while the survivors of the pink 
 tea contested the ownership of certain red, white and blue 
 beans by the aid of a very dirty pack of cards. 
 
 214 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE FREE STATE GIRLS. 
 
 LORD ROBERTS rested his army for six weeks at 
 Bloemfontein, re-outfitting it and moving his base of 
 supplies to it from Cape Town. A number of serious fights 
 occurred in the surrounding territory, culminating in a 
 concerted movement of several divisions to drive the re- 
 maining commandoes out of the Free State entirely, prior 
 to the general advance northward. The first few I missed 
 seeing, and very fortunately for me, for they were British 
 reverses. The general movement included me, and brought 
 me quite as close to superlative experiences as I care to be. 
 Between times I lived quietly and economically, taking one 
 meal each day at the principal hotels or the club-house, in 
 order to keep in touch with things, or riding out among 
 the camps and outposts, or, to a limited extent, mingling 
 with the social life of the burghers and their families. 
 
 As through the crack of a nearly-closed door, I was able 
 to get a glimpse of the beautiful ante-bellum conditions of 
 life in the Free State. The population of the city of Bloem- 
 fontein was only four or five thousand, with about five hun- 
 dred white males of voting age and with burgher privileges. 
 The country is surrounded by a native nation, with whom- 
 little communication was held. The obnoxious class of ad- 
 venturers and the restless element which rushed into the 
 Transvaal on the discovery of the gold-fields of the Rand 
 passed by the Free State, leaving its people to farm and hunt, 
 to attend to the education of their children and the admin- 
 istration of the government unmolested. Their social life in 
 
 215 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 the towns was that of any county seat in Pennsylvania where 
 the population is about the same numerically. The presence 
 of the blacks, who did all the harder labor, developed an easy 
 way of living and of doing things, not unHke that of our 
 own South, years ago. Political corruption and bribery 
 were unknown. The various problems of administration 
 and general intercourse occasioned by the native population 
 
 of blacks had been successfully 
 solved. The Imperial author- 
 ities publicly admitted that the 
 Free State had probably the 
 most perfect government in the 
 world. A cleaner government 
 and society undoubtedly does not 
 exist anywhere. 
 
 Perhaps the most surprising 
 of the many contrasts I met with 
 in South Africa was the difference 
 between the young ladies of Cape 
 Colony and the Free State. The 
 Cape Colony girl is quite English 
 in her appearance and manners ; 
 her habits are those of her mother, who, perhaps, came out 
 to the Cape the bride of an energetic young Englishman, 
 
 Miss Elsa Leviseur of Bloem- 
 fontein,* who, as '* Miss 
 Bloemfontein," had the bril- 
 liant journalistic tilt in the 
 columns of "The Friend" 
 with Mr. Julian Ralph. 
 
 * This beautiful girl above is the eldest daughter of Mr. M, Leviseur, of 
 Bloemfontein, a leading banker and Secretary of the National Museum. 
 When the troops occupied the city and the war correspondents, by request of 
 Lord Roberts, undertook to edit the daily paper, " The Friend," an English 
 correspondent wrote a patronizing letter addressed to the ladies of the town 
 collectively as *'Miss Bloemfontein," in which he assumed that the handful 
 of English women-sympathizers who came out to welcome the troops repre- 
 sented the entii-e town. The tone of the whole letter was unworthy of a man 
 like the writer, and at least one exasperated young woman wrote an answer to 
 him, signing herself " Miss Bloemfontein," which was published, with a reply 
 by the Britisher, which the young lady wisely left unanswered. It is the gen- 
 eral opinion among the officers of the army that she had much the better of 
 
 2l6 
 
THE FREE STATE GIRLS 
 
 to help him build a home and get a start in the new country. 
 The Free State girl is often a mixture of several nationali- 
 ties ; she has the blood of England, France, Germany and 
 Holland in her veins. It was her grandfather, and some- 
 times his father also, who had left Europe for Africa ; she 
 has had fifty to a hundred years longer than the Cape girl in 
 which to draw into her body and soul the atmosphere and 
 spirit of the veldt. Spending her days far from the salt air, 
 among green farms, beside red-brown kopjes, hving among 
 a people whose social purity and administrative cleanliness 
 were superior to those of any other nation, she has ac- 
 quired an air of independence, a freedom of manner, has 
 developed a high quality of self-rehance, and altogether 
 has grown into a healthy, active, full-blooded, up-to-date 
 girl, more like her American sisters that are the girls of any 
 other land. 
 
 When the British occupied Bloemfontein, some of the 
 more fortunate of the officers were introduced to a few of 
 the young ladies of the town. Their first remark usually 
 was, *' Oh, you have been educated in England," and great 
 was their surprise to hear the reply, " No, I have never been 
 
 the literary bout with the distinguished journalist. Later on, when the Press 
 Concert was given, Miss Leviseur took part as pianist ; it was learned that she 
 was a musician and composer of considerable ability. Miss Leviseur holds 
 four diplomas awarded by the Examiners of the Associated Board of the Royal 
 Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music, London. She has also 
 passed matriculating examinations which will procure her admission into any 
 foreign university. Her sole instructor in music has been the Baroness Von 
 Stettler, a Swiss lady who has settled in the Free State. Miss Leviseur comes 
 from a musical family, several members of which have achieved Continental 
 reputation. Her compositions thus far have been confined to the setting of some 
 of Tennyson's verse to music. In company with her father she visited Europe, 
 where she travelled for nearly a year, principally in Germany, returning to the 
 Free State, where she is continuing her musical studies. In addition to music, 
 Miss Leviseur is possessed of marked literary ability, having written a number 
 of stories in addition to her clever reply to Mr. JuHan Ralph in ''The 
 Friend." 
 
 217 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 out of the Free State." A few have travelled extensively, 
 but the majority have grown into charming women solely 
 through their ability to adapt to their own uses the best 
 hints and suggestions that they chanced to receive. They 
 are omnivorous readers, and have great 
 adaptability — another point in common 
 with their American sisters, whom they 
 intensely admire as being the most privi- 
 leged women on earth. 
 
 The Free State girl leads an out-of- 
 door life. In town she rides a wheel 
 and plays tennis. Golf was becoming 
 popular before the war began and put 
 a stop to most of the recreations. The 
 Free State is a horse-breeding country, 
 and riding, of course, is one of her ac- 
 complishments, a common pastime having 
 Miss Florence Fraser, been for a party of young folks to ride 
 Eldest Daughter thirty miles across country to a big farm- 
 of Mr. John Pra- i^Q^gg ^^^ j^^ve a surprise *' house party " 
 
 ser, known as 
 
 "The Free State ^r a few days. 
 
 Nightingale."* Music, art and reading were among 
 
 the Free State girls' indoor diversions, 
 
 and when the vexatious servant-girl question reached the 
 
 unsolvable point, she, like any sensible American girl, 
 
 * This young lady is the eldest daughter of Mr. John Fraser, Steyn's oppo- 
 nent for the Presidency of the Free State. Being a singer of rare ability, 
 greatly in demand not only in the Free State, but also being frequently sent 
 for, by concerts in the Colony and Natal, she has earned the title under her 
 picture, and it is no exaggeration to say all South Africa is proud of her. At 
 the recent concert given in Bloemfontein by the war correspondents and 
 Lord Roberts, Miss Fraser sang a song specially written for her and the occa- 
 sion by Rudyard Kipling. The tune was that of "Old Lang Syne," and at 
 its conclusion I had the honor, in behalf of the audience, of requesting her to 
 repeat the song, as they wanted to join in the chorus. The deafening result 
 will long be remembered by those who were present. Miss Fraser' s musical 
 
 2l8 
 
THE FREE STATE GIRLS 
 
 simply rolled up her sleeves and went into the kitchen 
 herself. 
 
 Dances were frequent before the war, and two or three 
 times a year the Staadt's President gave a ball at the beau- 
 tiful Presidency, and foreign visitors who attended saw, 
 marvelled, and then went away to tell of the wonderful 
 girls and women of the Free State. 
 
 When war was declared the Free State sister helped her 
 brother to pack his scanty outfit, — for the Boer warrior 
 travels light, and is swift — kissed him good-by, and sent 
 him off with her father and her friends' brothers to fight, 
 and then visited him in his laager to prevent his yearning 
 for home from making him grow faint-hearted. 
 
 Now that the enemy has occupied the country and the 
 Boer is a prisoner at St. Helena or still fighting across the 
 border in the Transvaal, the girl sits at home waiting pa- 
 tiently for his return, raising money for his use if he is a 
 prisoner, but uttering no word of complaint to make him, 
 if he is fighting, feel that his place is back at home. 
 
 But now the tennis-racquet is laid aside, for there are 
 *' orderly horses " stabled in the courts. The bicycle stands 
 in the hall unused, for the Provost Marshal requires the 
 girl to ask for a pass if she will ride, and she is too proud to 
 do so ; pony-riding also has been abandoned, for the hateful 
 pass must be obtained for that, too. For the same reason, 
 no more the visiting of country farms ; in addition to this is 
 
 education was begun in Bloemfontein. After four years' study she went to 
 Germany, where she made her debut, giving a successful concert in Berhn. 
 She received her finishing instruction in England under Santley, and after 
 giving a second successful concert in London, at Queen's Hall, returned to 
 the Free State. The first time I heard her referred to as the " Free State 
 Nightingale " was by Mr. John Steyn, brother of the President and one of her 
 father's strongest political opponents, and the pride he took in her spoke vol- 
 umes for the ability of Free State aesthetic appreciation to rise superior to po- 
 litical complications and differences. 
 
 219 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 the sad fact that many of the most dear ones have been 
 razed to the ground. A deadly feud between her and the 
 Uitlander section of her friends has divided her social circle. 
 The city is full of the ugly khaki uniforms. There is little 
 new to read, and the old has ceased to interest. And last, 
 but not least, all evening parties must break up at half-past 
 eight, when the curfews send all but the military home and 
 to bed. 
 
 When the British marched into Bloemfontein the Boer 
 girl closed the house, and in darkness, at midday, threw 
 herself on her bed with her hands over her ears to drown 
 the sound of the enemy marching, and cried bitterly, 
 for her heart was breaking. Now that she feels that the 
 cause of Afrikanderdom is hopelessly lost, she is bravely 
 drying her tears and getting ready to help the returning 
 warrior face the new conditions and to make the best of 
 them. She w^as, and still is, proud of her country, and 
 though still impatient at the suggestion that as a part of the 
 British Empire a larger field is open for her for the exploita- 
 tion of the greater personality which she unconsciously 
 holds in reserve, yet she will come to a realization of this 
 and of many more things earlier than her more slowly- 
 thinking brother, and help him to grow more easily into 
 the new conditions. 
 
 The Free State girl so impressed me, an American, by 
 her appearance of being of the American type, that she 
 made me quite homesick, and almost as sorry to leave 
 Bloemfontein and go with the Queen's army toward Pre- 
 toria as I had been to leave America. 
 
 220 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 TWO OTHER AMERICANS CAPTAIN SLOCUM, UNITED STATES 
 
 ATTACHE, AND BURNHAM, THE SCOUT. 
 
 A FAVORITE headquarters for the few Americans con- 
 nected with the Imperial army was the house of the 
 mihtary attaches, where Captain Slocum, of the United 
 States army, occupied the best rooms, and there received 
 such of his fellow-countrymen as were fortunate enough to 
 know him. I dropped in on him one afternoon to listen 
 to the refreshing music of the American accent, and shortly 
 afterward Burnham, the American scout, came in also. After 
 introducing us. Captain Slocum reached over to his desk 
 and took up a small bundle of pamphlets, saying, ** Boys, 
 I have had something sent to me from the States — three 
 complete sets of ' Billy Baxter's Letters.' They're overflow- 
 ing with breezy American slang and humor ; they're very 
 funny. I want to give each of you a set and keep one for 
 myself Take them home with you, read them to-night, 
 and then, when you come again, we can laugh together 
 over them. There's no use of my reading or giving them 
 to any of these Englishmen, for they're not familiar with our 
 idioms ; American humor is a bit beyond them, too. I've 
 been fairly starving for some one to enjoy these things 
 with." I took my copies, and offer as a free advertisement 
 right here to the publisher of *' Billy Baxter's Letters " that 
 they were as a draught of cold water in a parching desert 
 to me and half a dozen other Americans, with whom I 
 enjoyed them repeatedly. Yes, Captain Slocum was right : 
 ''Boys, they're simply great." 
 
 221 
 
WITH '' BOBS " AND KRUGER 
 
 Thus introduced, I came to know Burnham very well. 
 Our mutual experience of the Klondyke fields was a strong 
 bond of sympathy. He had left French Gulch, twenty-five 
 miles northeast of Dawson City, solely to volunteer his 
 services to Lord Roberts. Burnham had spent some years 
 in South Africa before, and was therefore famiHar with the 
 country. He received an appointment on the Field Mar- 
 shal's staff. During Broadwood's retreat from Th' Banchu, 
 while the fighting was still in progress, Burnham conceived 
 the idea of going out to see the affair. Galloping off, he 
 arrived just in time to be a witness of the Koornspruit dis- 
 aster. He at once decided to allow himself to be captured, 
 w^ith the idea of acquiring some information from the 
 burghers, and afterward escaping to the British lines. So 
 he quietly rode into the enemy's hands and surrendered 
 himself 
 
 Several days later, while the Boer column was halting at 
 noonday, another prisoner, an English officer, walked up to 
 Burnham, who had concealed his identity, and called him 
 by name. Commandant De Wet (of whom all the world 
 now knows) was lying on the ground under a wagon near 
 by, within earshot. So Burnham tried to make the officer 
 understand, by signs, to be quiet, saying at the same time, 
 coldly, *' You are mistaken ; that's not my name ; I don't 
 know you." The idiotic officer could not understand ; he 
 thought Burnham was joking ; so he laughed and said, 
 
 " Oh, yes, I know you quite well ; you are Burnham, 
 Lord Roberts' Chief of Scouts." At this, De Wet sprang 
 up excitedly, crying, 
 
 **Ah! So you're Burnham, are you? Well, you're 
 just the man I have been wanting this long time." A 
 double guard was immediately placed in charge of Burn- 
 ham, who kept him isolated from the other prisoners. The 
 British officer, realizing his mistake too late, made some 
 
 222 
 
CAPTAIN SLOCUM— SCOUT BURNHAM 
 
 effort to apologize, I believe ; but was hustled off uncere- 
 moniously, even the Boers showing soldierly contempt for 
 such thoughtlessness. 
 
 A few days later Burnham learned from the conversa- 
 tion of his guards that they were nearing the railway, and 
 that they and he would then be sent on to Pretoria by train. 
 
 Burnham, the American Scout, Chief of Lord Roberts' Scouts, attached to the 
 Field Marshal's Staff with rank of Major, and the only scout who con- 
 tinually penetrated the enemy's lines, returning with information. 
 
 Realizing that this would made escape impossible, he de- 
 cided to lose no time in attempting to get away. The mere 
 fact that the British officer's idiocy had made escape doubly 
 difficult in no way dismayed him. At night, for greater 
 safety, he was placed in a trek-wagon, closely covered, ex- 
 cept in front. An armed driver sat on the seat, and guards 
 
 223 
 
WITH ^'BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 rode at each side and at the back. Burnham kept awake^ 
 watching his chance, which came when the driver got down 
 to give some directions to the native boy leading the oxen. 
 Burnham crept up on the seat, from which he slipped down 
 to the *' disselboom," or cart-tongue, and from there slid 
 gently to the ground, allowing himself to fall prostrate on 
 the ground under the cart, which passed on over him. 
 Of course the guards at either side saw nothing of this ; 
 only those on the back of the cart were to be feared. 
 Burnham lay perfectly still, prepared to endure even a 
 horse's tread on his body without giving a sign. The 
 night was fairly dark, the horses of the following cart stepped 
 carefully over him, and their riders ''just happened " not to 
 look downward. The next cart, drawn by oxen, was some 
 distance behind, and before they had come up Burnham had 
 rolled swiftly to the side of the road, where he again lay 
 motionless until the cart had passed ; then, before another 
 cart came, he had gone far enough to allow him to roll on 
 for several hundred yards, until so far from the line of 
 transports that he could dare to get on his hands and knees, 
 and crawl still farther into night and safety. 
 
 About this time his escape was discovered. The column 
 halted, and many lights appeared. Horsemen rode up and 
 down the line shouting, a few shots were fired at nothing 
 in particular, other horsemen scattered rapidly on either 
 side to explore the veldt, and several came very close to 
 where Burnham was lying, but in the darkness he looked 
 so much like any clump of grass about him that he escaped 
 notice. Had the pursuers waited until daylight he must 
 have been discovered. 
 
 Finally the column moved on, and after waiting a proper 
 time Burnham rose to his feet and struck off southward for 
 Bloemfontein. After two days and two nights on the veldt, 
 lying hidden by day on the summits of friendly kopjes, from 
 
 224 
 
CAPTAIN SLOCUM— SCOUT BURNHAM 
 
 where he could see occasional Boer scouts presumably on 
 the lookout for him, he succeeded in reaching Bloemfontein 
 safely, having been for most of the time entirely without 
 food. He had gained important information from the care- 
 less conversation of his guards, and accomplished his pur- 
 pose after it had been made infinitely more difficult by the 
 stupidity of the thick-headed English officer who revealed 
 his identity. 
 
 225 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 WITH GENERAL FRENCH AFTER GENERAL DE WET. 
 
 THE most striking figure produced by the war is that 
 of General De Wet. He is the leader of the Irrecon- 
 cilables, and is by far the most able General the war has 
 developed on either side. He first sprang into notice as 
 a mere commandant after the capture of Bloemfontein, 
 when all active resistance in the Free State had practically 
 ceased. De Wet with two faithful followers slipped quietly 
 down into the southeastern part of the Free State, where 
 thousands of burghers had returned to their farms, having 
 surrendered part of their arms and taken an oath of neu- 
 trality. Going to a reoccupied farm, De Wet called on the 
 burghers to come out with their rifles and follow him. At 
 first they refused, but when De Wet leveled his Mauser at 
 their heads, calling them "traitors," they obeyed at once. 
 As he gathered a small commando about him in this way 
 he went from farm to farm himself, sending out parties 
 of three men each all over that section of the country, 
 until within a week over four thousand men gathered 
 together at the rendezvous he had appointed. All were 
 well-armed and equipped with ammunition and good horses. 
 They were in the richest farming part of the country, and 
 could forage easily and successfully. From the fragments 
 remaining of Cronje's last stand and the smaller oppositions 
 to the invasion at Poplar Grove and Driefontein, De Wet 
 with the assistance of only two other men had created over 
 night, as it were, a new and most formidable army. The 
 first thing of note De Wet did was to attack a pacification 
 
 226 
 
WITH GENERAL FRENCH 
 
 expedition which had gone forty miles to Th^ Banchu, due 
 east from Bloemfontein, gathering forage and distributing 
 proclamations. While this party was returning De Wet pur- 
 sued it steadily for a day until within twenty miles of Bloem- 
 fontein, a stubborn rear-guard defence having been kept up. 
 Night falling, the English troops under General Broadwood 
 made camp near the waterworks within sight of an Eng- 
 lish outpost a few miles nearer the city. During the night 
 De Wet sent part of his force around in front of the British, 
 where they concealed themselves in the dry bed of a small 
 
 General Stevenson directs the placing of the field artillery at the Battle of 
 
 Leuykop. 
 
 stream called Koornspruit. As General Broadwood re- 
 sumed his march at daybreak, and the transports reached 
 the spruit, the Boers, without firing a shot, captured the 
 wagons as they went across the drift, until, after an incred- 
 ibly long time, the alarm was given and the fighting began. 
 The result was that the English were compelled to bolt for 
 Bloemfontein, while De Wet's coup netted him two batteries 
 of seven guns, ninety transports with supplies, and about five 
 hundred prisoners. This was called the Koornspruit Disaster 
 or the Battle of Sanna's Post. The blame for the affair 
 has never been definitely fixed upon any one but De Wet. 
 
 227 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 Shortly after this, five companies of the Irish Rifles were 
 surprised near Edenberg and captured. Survivors of the 
 fight said that, contrary to their usual custom, the Boers, 
 instead of fighting only from behind cover, actually charged 
 up a long slope at the companies, surrounding them, and 
 effecting a complete surrender, with very little loss of life 
 on either side. My old friend Captain Tennant, Press 
 Censor under Gatacre, was captured here, having ridden 
 out "to see the show." This was De Wet's second coup. 
 Shortly afterward the English garrison at Wepner, under 
 Colonel Dalgety, was invested by General De Wet, and, as 
 a result, about five columns of English troops, numbering 
 in all at least forty thousand, were set in motion to relieve 
 Wepner and capture De Wet. 
 
 General De Wet's persistency and tenacity of purpose 
 are said to be due to the fact that he has lost in this war 
 almost every member of his family. He is the leader of 
 the irreconcilables ; his appearance at the darkest hour 
 of the war and his brilliant successes at once revived the 
 flagging spirits of burgherdom, and undoubtedly prolonged 
 the war. 
 
 Bloemfontein was a city of mysteries and rumors. Plots 
 of a hundred kinds were continually unearthed ; scores of 
 weapons concealed in cellars or buried in gardens, and told 
 of by treacherous servants, sent whole families across the 
 border — the men to St. Helena, the women to friends or 
 strangers in the colony. Movements of troops were kept 
 secret ; many officers were afraid to give even a corres- 
 pondent-friend a hint. The wiser of us asked no questions, 
 but kept our eyes on the supply-depot and the transport- 
 camps. One day in April a transport-contractor said to 
 me, " We are getting two hundred ox-teams ready for day 
 after to-morrow." When "to-morrow" came I was in 
 the saddle, mounted on a new pony presented to me a few 
 
 22S 
 
WITH GENERAL FRENCH 
 
 days before by Mr. John Steyn, brother of the President, 
 who was a semi-prisoner on his farm, eight miles south of 
 Bloemfontein. There was no doubt of the direction the 
 movement had taken. A thousand oxen and their wagons 
 leave a track even on paved streets ; so, following the new 
 road across the veldt, I knew it was only a question of 
 time before I would overtake the transports, and near by 
 would be the fighting force, which must be considerable, to 
 have needed so many teams. By noon I agreed with an- 
 
 The firing-line resting between the rushes and watching the shells explode on 
 the enemy's position. The photograph was taKen under a heavy artil- 
 lery and rifle-fire from both sides. 
 
 other correspondent, with whom I was riding, that there 
 were three columns, for the wagon-tracks were separating, 
 taking different directions. Which to follow was a serious 
 question, since we knew not the plans of the movement. 
 
 A dull boom of cannon half a dozen miles ahead de- 
 cided the question for us, and half an hour's hard riding 
 brought us up with General Stevenson's brigade, where his 
 artillery was pounding away on the enemy's position at 
 Leuykop, about twenty miles east of Bloemfontein. A 
 small battle was in progress. The enemy were scattered 
 
 229 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 along a range of kopjes for three or four miles. General 
 French, with the cavalry brigade, had gone on several 
 hours before ; the infantry division, following under Gen- 
 eral Pole-Carew, found itself opposed by the Boers, Gen- 
 eral Stevenson with his brigade endeavoring to dislodge 
 them from their position. As we came up Stevenson was 
 just indicating to a staff officer where he wanted the second 
 battery to take position. I followed the young lieutenant 
 with the guns, watched them unlimber, load and fire for 
 half an hour at a clump of trees three miles off at the 
 
 Creeping up on the farm through the tall grass in the swamp. English shells 
 bursting prematurely overhead. Five men were lost here. 
 
 base of a kopje, and which I knew was an old homestead 
 belonging to some Free State farmer who himself was in 
 the firing-line with his countrymen, or perhaps a prisoner 
 at St. Helena with General Cronje, whose army was almost 
 entirely recruited from this region. Then I attached my- 
 self to a squadron of Roberts' light horse, who were 
 directed to ride out to protect the flank while the guns 
 moved up half a mile closer. Seeing that the squadron 
 would soon be out of action and sight of the fight, I left 
 them, and in company with several artillery scouts rode on 
 
 230 
 
WITH GENERAL FRENCH 
 
 ahead to within a mile of the farm ; then, turning to its 
 left, we rode till we were abreast of it. Behind we could 
 see the English shells falling, scattering great clouds of 
 dust where they exploded. A dozen or more Boers were 
 riding furiously across an open space for cover behind a 
 farther kopje ; the British shells, evidently doing no harm, 
 yet confusing the enemy greatly. 
 
 The Welsh Regiment being driven back behind the farmyard wall. An Eng- 
 lish shell bursting against the kopje in the background. From this wall 
 Captain Prothero led the charge which resulted in his death. 
 
 The scouts pushed on another hundred yards, till we 
 could get a complete view of the new positions taken up 
 by the enemy ; then the ranking Tommy ordered one of 
 the others to return and make his report. While talking 
 he took out his pipe, and was in the act of lighting it as the 
 other man started off. Simultaneously there came a sharp 
 ** pop-pop " from our left, and for the first time we noticed 
 that we were within five hundred yards of a kopje ; then 
 two bullets *' zinged " through the air close by. Tommy 
 looked up from his pipe with a grin and said, ** The bloody 
 beggars ! they're shootin' at us ;" then, as he took another 
 
 231 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 puff, three more shots followed, this time the bullets splash- 
 ing up little puffs of dust just ahead of us. 
 
 *' I guess we'll be gettin' out o' this," energetically came 
 from behind the pipe as Tommy turned his horse and vigor- 
 ously applied whip and spur. I quickly took the lead, 
 having a better horse, and rode directly in front of him ; 
 then, as I noticed the bullets coming faster and spitting 
 up suggestive splashes of dust in a line straight ahead, I 
 decided to ride off to one side, preferring a scattered to a 
 concentrated fire. For half a mile we galloped, the Tom- 
 mies keeping up a rattling exchange of chaff, asking each 
 other, ** Wot's your hurry — forgot somethin' ? Wait a bit, 
 I'm comin' with you. I dropped my water-bottle ; guess 
 I'll not bother about goin' back for it," and so on. When 
 we reached a donga, cut ten feet deep in the veldt by heavy 
 rains, we dismounted and took account of stock. A few 
 things had been dropped, and one of the boys had a bullet 
 in his haversack. I noticed my pony held one leg rather 
 stiffly, and a further examination discovered a little hole — 
 white edges with a dark-red centre — in his left thigh. It 
 seemed to be only a flesh wound, and, as I could not leave 
 my saddle there, I led the animal on toward the farm, 
 where I could see the skirmish-line closing in. 
 
 When near the end man, I looked over his head at the 
 kopjes we had just left so unceremoniously, then along the 
 line of his comrades, lying panting on their faces, waiting 
 for the order to rush another hundred yards before the 
 next rest. The enemy were leaving the farm grounds at 
 this time and a fierce artillery duel was raging over our 
 heads, the shells flying in both directions. Then from the 
 kopje which had spoken sharply to us a short time before 
 came the quick, irritating barking of a Boer pom-pom — a 
 rapid-fire gun of large bore — firing in quick succession a 
 dozen explosive shells of small size. Where they fell, sev- 
 
 2^2 
 
WITH GENERAL FRENCH 
 
 eral hundred yards away, two or three companies scattered 
 rather quickly, and a whole regiment promptly lay down 
 in the grass. Then the pom-pom turned its attention to 
 the mounted troops. The first shell, as I afterward learned, 
 
 went through the 
 body of the Col- 
 onel of Roberts' 
 horse, a gentle- 
 man whose guest 
 I had been a few 
 days previously, 
 
 Like locusts on the dam- 
 wall, firing at the Boers 
 as they " cleared.'' 
 
 and who had 
 ceived his promo- 
 tion less than a 
 week before. He 
 died the following 
 day, and was about 
 the sixth personal 
 friend I had lost since joining the army. 
 
 We were now close to the farmyard walls, and crawling 
 through the high grass of a swamp, while the concentrated 
 fire of three batteries was passing directly overhead, and 
 some of the British shells exploding prematurely above us. 
 We lost five men in the swamp ; then we rushed the farm, 
 
 233 
 
 The Warwicks along the north wall firing with 
 smokeless powder under heavy artillery and 
 "pom-pom" fire from the enemy. 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 getting over the walls and taking cover behind a row of 
 trees and the side-wall farther on. 
 
 The enemy had retired to the kopjes beyond, against the 
 sides of which our shells could be seen bursting. Several 
 men dropped near me slightly wounded, and a few who 
 had ventured beyond the wall were killed or badly wounded. 
 Along another wall the Warwick regiment was firing at 
 the enemy, their smokeless-powder Lee-Metfords making 
 a continuous rattle. To take a photograph of this scene I 
 was compelled to mount my horse, being for the time ex- 
 posed to the enemy's fire. In the corner of the walls the 
 galloping Maxim rapid-fire gun had halted, and its officers 
 were peppering away, one of them remarking, 
 
 ** I cawn't see a bloody Boah ; but we'll let them have a 
 few rounds, anyway." 
 
 Back of the farmhouse the young women, who had been 
 nearly frightened to death an hour before by the bombard- 
 ment, were busily engaged in making and selling tea at 
 thruppence a cup to the straggling Tommies and the offi- 
 cers, while their best rooms were being turned into a tem- 
 porary hospital for the wounded. The ladies and their 
 brother did not make the slightest objection to posing for 
 their photographs, only asking me to wait until the next 
 day, when they could ''dress up a bit." Of course I 
 obliged them, but I was compelled to ride back several 
 miles to do so, for shortly after, just as the sun was setting, 
 I followed the Welsh regiment in an assault on the kopjes, 
 which they carried successfully. As a reward for their 
 work — some military rewards are peculiar — they were 
 compelled to He all night on its summit, half-freezing, 
 and waiting till midnight for the water-carts to come up, 
 they not having had any water since four o'clock that 
 morning. 
 
 That night, while talking around the fire with the officers, 
 
 234 
 
WITH GENERAL FRENCH 
 
 I learned that General Colville, with his division, was to 
 the north ; General Dickson was ahead, with the cavalry ; 
 we were with the infantry division, under General Pole- 
 Carew, and our destination was an indefinite somewhere, 
 to round up the guerrilla chief General De Wet and create 
 
 The galloping Maxim in the corner. ** I cawn't see a bloody Boah ; but we'll 
 let them have a few rounds, anyway." 
 
 another Paardeburg. But the first duty of all was to rest, 
 for the day's work had been very hard. No time was 
 wasted in camp fun or in swapping yarns, but while dozing 
 off to sleep I heard a Tommy, in the most pronounced tone 
 of satisfaction, repeating sleepily to himself, 
 
 *' We charged up the kopgee ; we charged up the 
 kopgee." 
 
 235 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 AN ECHO OF '* THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD." 
 
 WHILE the noise and excitement was at its height, I 
 saw my friend Hodgetts of *'The Express" riding 
 along the lower wall, behind which the Welsh regiment 
 was under cover. Closely following him, and bending low 
 in the saddle, were two red-collared staff officers. As they 
 came nearer, I recognized the young Dukes of Westminster 
 and Marlborough. They rode up to the wall, where they 
 hastily tied their ponies to a tree, and then sat down on the 
 sfround at the base of a twelve- foot wall, well under its 
 cover, crouching low, as though that would make their posi- 
 tion still safer. 
 
 They evidently well appreciated the necessity of taking 
 good care of their dukeships. This was not cowardice, 
 nor even selfishness, for had anything happened to either 
 of these precious young gentlemen, somebody high in the 
 service would probably have had to suffer severely for it. 
 As the Duke of Westminster said to me, as he rode up, 
 
 " I don't suppose we should be here at all ; but we 
 wanted to see something of the fight, you know." They were 
 both very proud of the affair at the time, for it was their 
 first experience under fire. Some weeks later I asked the 
 Duke of Westminster at Brandfort what he thought of the 
 fighting that day, and he answered, 
 
 *' Oh, it wasn't such a very hot fire, you know." 
 
 Coming back, after a run up to the house for a drink of 
 water, to the corner where the Maxim was at work, I saw 
 that another attempt had been made by the men of the 
 
 236 
 
THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD 
 
 Welsh regiment to rush the Boers in the kopjes. A heavy- 
 fire from the enemy drove them back, three or four drop- 
 ping, while several others were slightly wounded. I came 
 up just in time to see the men falling back and clambering 
 over the wall. 
 
 Then two sets of stretcher-bearers went out to carry in 
 the wounded men. Here was a golden opportunity to get 
 
 Miss Dresser, Colonel Slogget, the Duke of Westminster, and Lord Cecil 
 Manners of the " Morning Post," en route from London to Cape Town, 
 Taken by E. H. V. Melville. 
 
 photographs of this incident, and I went out into the open 
 with my kodak and snapped half a dozen films. The sun 
 was almost at the horizon, and I was somewhat excited. The 
 stretcher-bearers were running, and when they came back 
 to the wall I had to drop my camera to help lift the stretcher, 
 with its load, over to safety behind. All this resulted in 
 my pictures being partly spoiled, either by insufficient ex- 
 posure, due to poor light, or else, in my excitement, I moved 
 the camera and blurred the photographs. About ten min- 
 
 '^17 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 utes after the last man was brought in I was standing by 
 the Maxim when a Tommy called to me, ** The Captain is 
 still out there." While he was pointing out to me just 
 where the Captain fell, I saw a tall figure jump over the wall 
 some distance below me and run out to where the Captain 
 lay, sixty to a hundred yards out, he having fallen at least 
 twenty-five yards ahead of any of his men. It was an am- 
 bulance surgeon, whose name I afterward learned was 
 Moore. Going up to the Captain, he quickly laid down be- 
 side him. At first I thought he had been shot, but after a 
 minute's examination he stood up, and I saw him trying to 
 lift the wounded Captain upon his shoulder. The officer 
 was a heavy man, and the doctor was having a good bit of 
 trouble. Just then at their feet I saw a splash of dust a 
 foot or so high, then another and another, and I knew that 
 the enemy was firing on them. '' Great Scott ! They don't 
 see that they are firing on a rescuing party," I thought. 
 
 I ran out to help the doctor, and as I came up to him he 
 said, " Help me get him on my back." I tried, but the man 
 was too heavy, so the doctor rolled the upper half of him 
 into my arms, holding the other end himself, and we started 
 to run back. Half way we dropped our burden for a rest. 
 *'Zing! zing!" sounded overhead. 
 
 "Why, those devils are shooting at us !" I gasped. 
 
 "Certainly, answered the doctor. " Come, we mustn't stay 
 here. Don't stop to lift him ; take hold of his straps !" 
 and, seizing him by his belt and breast-leathers, we dragged 
 him another twenty-five yards. Then two Tommies came 
 to our help, and the four of us lifted the Captain and carried 
 him back and over the wall, and laid him down on the clean 
 grass behind the Maxim, where further surgical assistance 
 came to Dr. Moore. I went over to where the Dukes were 
 sitting, and, thoroughly exhausted, threw myself down on 
 the ground to rest. 
 
 238 
 
THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD 
 
 The thought that the Boers had been shooting at the 
 doctor and while we were plainly a rescuing party put 
 me in a fury. I thought to myself, '' They didn't hit us 
 because they were in their hearts so ashamed of their act 
 that they could not aim straight." An officer came up, 
 
 and, pointing to a 
 smear of blood on 
 my breast and 
 sleeve, said, " I 
 hope you are not 
 hurt?" No, I 
 wasn't, but I was 
 
 Men of the Welsh Regi- 
 ment exposing them- 
 selves to the enemy's 
 fire to help the stretch- 
 er-bearers lift their 
 burden over the stone 
 wall. 
 
 getting very angry, 
 
 Then as I thouo-ht ^^^ stretcher-bearers of the Welsh Regiment re- 
 - ' ,.^, turning to the stone wall, under fire, with a 
 
 of how my little wounded comrade. 
 
 mare had been 
 
 crippled — the one that a night or so before had stepped 
 over me while I was half-asleep on the veldt, carefully lifting 
 her feet so as not to step on me — a lump seemed to come 
 up in my throat, and I am not ashamed to own to a moist- 
 ening of the eyes. Just then I heard the men shouting, 
 
 239 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 " There they go ! They're clearing !" 
 
 I jumped up, and there, sure enough, were those ant-Hke 
 specks on the veldt, half a mile away, swiftly gliding up 
 the slope of the veldt toward the kopjes. The soldiers 
 all around were firing furiously. The thought of my little 
 mare and the wounded Captain urged me to action. I took 
 a rifle out of a Tommy's hand, and, lifting it to my shoulder, 
 took a long, careful aim at the little group of fast-riding 
 Boers. My finger was on the trigger, and I was about to 
 
 " The orderly in the way." Sir John Milbank, General Dickson and General 
 French. (See page 243.) 
 
 pull ; but something seemed to say, " You'll be sorry for 
 this some day," and I dropped the gun for a second. I 
 raised it again with a smile at my sentimentality ; and then, 
 as I shifted it a little to get the range, which had in- 
 creased considerably in the few seconds I had wasted, I 
 seemed to see a familiar picture in one of my old school- 
 books. It was the rough wood-cut of the gathering at 
 Lexington, showing several dead bodies stretched on the 
 village green, with a file of redcoats, smoking rifles in hand, 
 
 240 
 
THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD 
 
 drawn up opposite ; then out of the retreat to Boston, 
 with Yankee Boers behind every tree and farm wall pour- 
 ing their flint-lock fire on the disordered column, while the 
 church-bells all over the country were ringing wildly ; then 
 I saw the charge up Bunker's Hill, the disordered flight 
 down, the final taking of the crest at the point of the 
 bayonet; in short, the ** Shot heard round the world" 
 
 The Ninth Lancer cuts the wire fencing. Notice the stone posts, which are 
 less costly than wood. 
 
 came thundering down the century into the heart of the 
 veldt, and I heard its echo in South Africa. These are the 
 things I seemed to see and hear while looking through the 
 sights of a British rifle in the Free State ; and as I realized 
 that those little black specks, now almost reaching the 
 cover of the kopjes, were merely minute-men of an- 
 other century riding for freedom that they might con- 
 tinue to fight for liberty and independence, as my ances- 
 »6 241 
 
WITH ^'BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 tors had doubtless done many times, I dropped the rifle, 
 and to this day I devoutly thank God I did not fire the 
 shot. Since then the waving folds of the American 
 Flag have had a different meaning to me, and I do not 
 hesitate to adopt a British custom in respect to it — the 
 Englishman always raises his hat when he passes his 
 
 country's flag. 
 
 The next day, after 
 photographing the 
 ladies, I rode on to 
 catch up with General 
 French, who was in 
 command of the two 
 divisions. About ten 
 o'clock I met General 
 Dickson, in command 
 of the cavalry, who 
 seemed somewhat 
 amused at my request 
 for a pose, but wilHngly 
 stood while I aimed my 
 kodak at him. He ad- 
 vised me to remain with 
 him, and promised that 
 I would see some more 
 fighting. Shortly afterward several shots rang out from a near- 
 by farm. A barb-wire fence prevented the approach of the 
 squadron ordered out to occupy the place, and I succeeded 
 in taking the picture of a very nervous Tommy in the act 
 of cutting the wires. The enemy retired on the advance 
 of the troops, and the farm buildings were burned. Soon 
 we met General French, and while the two generals were 
 talking I attempted to photograph them. Finding some 
 difficulty, I asked General French to request his orderly 
 
 242 
 
 General Gordon looks at the enemy's posi 
 tion for General French, Sir John Mil 
 bank coming up behind. 
 
THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD 
 
 to get out of the way. A peculiar smile passed over his 
 face as, in reply, he introduced me to Sir John Milbank, 
 one of the wealthiest men in England, and the winner of 
 the first Victoria Cross awarded during the war. Sir John 
 recognized the introduction rather coldly, and there was a 
 general grin on the faces of the rest of the staff However, 
 one of the richest men in England did move out of my way, 
 and I secured a picture of the two cavalry Generals who did 
 most of the fighting in this war. 
 
 Advance line waiting the order to rush over the ridge of the kopje. The 
 Boer position is less than two hundred yards distant. Dead and wounded 
 only on top of the ridge. 
 
 Continuing the march, in about an hour we reached an- 
 other wire fence, supported on stone pillars, for stone was 
 cheaper than wood in that country. While one of the 
 Ninth Lancers was cutting the wires, I took another pho- 
 tograph ; and, by a strange coincidence, I was to take an- 
 other picture of him before nightfall, but under very dif- 
 ferent circumstances. 
 
 We had hardly passed through the cutting when one of 
 the scouts came galloping back to General French with 
 
 243 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 the report that a body of about two hundred Boers were 
 coming up to a ridge of kopjes a mile in front. Two regi- 
 ments were ordered to occupy the ridge, while the Generals 
 and their staffs turned to the right and rode up on a small 
 kopje half a mile farther away. Through the eyes of Sir 
 John Milbank, who used a telescope, and of several other 
 officers who were similarly occupied, General French 
 watched the movements. Firing by this time was heavy. 
 After an hour or more the artillery were ordered up to the 
 ridge. I made a short cut across the valley, hearing, as I 
 rode, a strange whispering murmur high overhead. This 
 was the sound of bullets aimed at the Generals' staffs, and 
 
 On top of ihe ridge. The Ninth Lancer wire-cutter shown on page 241. 
 Shot through the heart in the first encounter. 
 
 shortly after I left a horse was hit within a short distance 
 of General French. As I reached the ridge the artillery, 
 which had preceded me at a gallop, were retiring. The 
 rifle firing had ceased, the regiments were marching back. 
 I was about to mount the summit when I heard a shot, 
 then a squeal like a pig, then a man came hopping down, 
 holding one foot in his hand. A few lancers came by at 
 the same time. We put the wounded man on a horse and 
 he was taken to the rear. On his advice I remained where 
 I was, for he said, " There are only dead and wounded on 
 top, and the Boers are only two hundred yards away." 
 Then he and his bearers left me, while I waited for the re- 
 inforcements. In ten minutes I discovered, to my disgust, 
 
 244 
 
THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD 
 
 that the British had been retreating to the ridge I had 
 left 
 
 Then the enemy opened fire with cannon and pom-poms, 
 aiming close to the summit beneath which I was waiting. 
 A few of their shells fell short and exploded near by, still 
 further increasing my disgust. I then realized that it was 
 too late for me to retire, as the enemy had probably occu- 
 pied the near ridge, and by going back I would only expose 
 
 On top of the ridge. Four more of the Ninth Lancers. Captain Stanley 
 mortally wounded, at the left. Shot within fifty yards of the Boer 
 position. 
 
 myself to their fire at close range. As a matter of fact 
 they did come up to the ridge, taking rifles, field-glasses 
 and pistols from the wounded men on top, and then retired 
 to their former positions. 
 
 In another quarter of an hour several regiments and the 
 artillery returned, and then for another hour they lay along 
 the back of the ridge in readiness to open fire when the 
 
 245 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 flank movement of a portion of the cavalry should compel 
 the Boers to leave their position. This was accomplished, 
 the cavalry riding four or five miles to get around, and 
 then the majority of the Boers began their retreat. Before 
 this I had amused myself and a lot of the soldiers by hold- 
 ing my hat up in the air on my riding-whip ; and, strange to 
 say, while the Boers are good shots, out of twenty, at least, 
 fired at my hat, not a single bullet took effect. When the 
 
 On top of the ridge. Captain Stanley, of the Ninth Lancers, mortally 
 wounded. The ambulance men dressing his wounds on the field. Cap- 
 tain Stanley died a few days later from exhaustion and loss of blood, 
 having received three bad wounds. 
 
 first lot of Boers started to ride off a few of our men began 
 to fire at them, but immediately stopped, for the enemy, 
 safely covered by a stone wall only a short distance away, 
 picked them off as soon as they showed themselves. And 
 so about forty men held back the English and covered the 
 retreat of their comrades, and then one by one they, too, 
 rode off. If the English had but known — but "if" is the 
 most significant word in war. 
 
 246 
 
THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD 
 
 When the firing ceased I ran over the crest of the ridge, 
 and almost fell over a man lying on his face. I rolled 
 him over and saw he was dead, shot through the heart 
 Then, as the sun was shining brightly on him, I stepped 
 back and photographed him — the body of the same man 
 photographed a few hours before, while cutting a wire 
 fence. 
 
 Meanwhile the artillery had been brought into position, 
 and was threatening destruction to the small groups of 
 Boers riding across the veldt without the slightest cover, 
 the shells following them for at least three miles ; but, as 
 
 On top of the ridge. The last man in the group of four. Though mortally 
 wounded, the sergeant wants a smoke, and gets it. 
 
 far as I could learn afterward, without effect. By this time 
 more men were following me over the ridge, and I took 
 another photograph, showing four soldiers who had fallen 
 comparatively close together, the first quite dead, the others 
 mortally wounded. One of them was a captain whom I 
 watched while the field surgeon bound up his wounds. He 
 died the following day from exhaustion, having had a leg 
 broken in two places, causing great loss of blood. The 
 last man had received hasty relief when I came up to him 
 and offered assistance. All I could do was to fill his pipe, 
 and I left him contentedly smoking and waiting for the 
 
 247 
 
WITH - BOBS " AND KRUGER 
 
 stretcher-bearers. Then I went over to the deserted posi- 
 tion of the enemy and found one dead Boer, his arms and 
 bandolier already taken away by the English. This was 
 the only man killed on their side, and but two had been 
 wounded, yet their party had caused a loss of thirty-six 
 to the English and held in check for five hours General 
 French's division of five thousand men. 
 
 On top of the ridge in the Boer position. The only dead Boer I ever saw, 
 and one of the forty who, acting as rear guard for the commando of 
 two hundred, held back General French's entire Brigade of five thousand 
 men for five hours. This is *' the one killed " of the despatches. British 
 loss at the same place, thirty-six. 
 
 Riding back toward the headquarters staff, I passed a 
 little group of men and officers around several Kaffirs 
 who were digging a hole in the ground, and near by, 
 wrapped in his blanket, I took my third and last pho- 
 tograph of the lancer who had cut his last wire. In con- 
 trast with this scene, a little farther away was a Kaffir 
 kraal, where the Tommies were in high glee over an 
 opportunity to buy fresh eggs and chickens from the 
 
 248 
 
THE SHOT HEARD ROUND THE WORLD 
 
 natives at ridiculously low prices, and the opportunity to 
 loot a few. 
 
 The next day, while with General Dickson, we met 
 Colonel Richardson, from Rundle's division, and found 
 that the enemy, about five thousand strong, had slipped 
 away and escaped because they did not beheve, as did the 
 English, that three sides of a square covered by British 
 troops meant that they were surrounded. Later I was a 
 witness of the meeting between General Rundle and Gen- 
 
 On top of the ridge. Last picture of the Ninth Lancer wire-cutter — burial on 
 
 the field. 
 
 eral French, when the latter, having made a blunder dam- 
 aging to his reputation, roundly abused General Rundle for 
 the mistake he himself had made ; but such abuse is among 
 the privileges of commanding officers, and is a time-honored 
 custom. 
 
 Leaving the army* halted on the veldt, I galloped on to 
 Dewetsdorp, meeting some of General Chermside's troops 
 on their way out. They had occupied the city the 
 evening before. At the Free State Hotel I met a lot 
 of the correspondents who had been with the Third 
 
 249 
 
WITH *'BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 division at Sterkstrom when I was with General Gatacre, 
 and we had a highly enjoyable time after our long sepa- 
 ration. Early the next morning I started back to Bloem- 
 fontein. 
 
 250 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 WAR ON WOMEN, CHILDREN AND HOMES. 
 
 DURING this futile pursuit of De Wet, the raider, I had 
 spent sufficient time on the extreme advance line to 
 be an eye-witness to the great consideration shown to the 
 families of the warring burghers whenever the troops came 
 up to a farmhouse. Everything the advance line took for 
 their use, from eggs and chickens to cattle and forage, was 
 paid for on the spot. On my return to Bloemfontein over 
 the same path I found that the stragglers had not been so 
 considerate. One farm where I spent the night had been 
 completely denuded even of the shrubbery and trees about 
 the house. Where there had been plenty of stock, several 
 hundred chickens and geese, and forage in plenty, the 
 poor Dutch vrouw did not have left in the house even 
 enough rye bread for a single meal. She had been paid 
 for a few of her things, but the rest had been stolen by the 
 stragglers. 
 
 At another point I stopped at a farmhouse where half a 
 dozen soldiers were chasing and catching the few chickens 
 that remained. This was directly contrary to regulations, 
 so I asked the men what authority they had for foraging. 
 They replied that one of their officers had helped himself, 
 and they saw no reason why they should not follow his ex- 
 ample. By the gate, with her frightened children hanging to 
 her skirts, the hausvrouw stood crying bitterly. There was 
 nothing to be done ; the woman was bound to be robbed 
 sooner or later anyway, and the few shillings I might have 
 compelled the soldiers to give her would be of very Httle 
 
 251 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 help. I foresaw that if much of this sort of thing was 
 to take place, the British would have to resort to Wey- 
 ler's reconcentrado policy, and collect all the women and 
 children in the towns and cities to prevent starvation. 
 
 Nearer Bloemfontein I came upon a more striking and 
 pitiable scene of desolation. This was a farmhouse where 
 a few days before I had turned aside from the column to 
 get a glass of water. The hausvrouw had sent her little 
 
 General F. Stevenson of General French's division, and Colonel Richardson, 
 of General Rundle's division, meeting four miles outside of Dewetsdorp. 
 ** Where is DeWet?" 
 
 girl for the water, which she brought me in a pretty china 
 cup. General French's Chief of Staff was talking to the 
 burgher, who was one of those who had surrendered his 
 arms and taken the oath of allegiance. Several white flags 
 were flying overhead as a sign of neutrality. This place 
 was entirely in ashes, still smoking. The farmer's wife and 
 children were camped in an outbuilding, with a few articles 
 of bedding saved from the house. I had seen the smoke 
 
 252 
 
WAR ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN 
 
 of the burning house half an hour after I had left it, but 
 supposed it was only a huge pile of forage being con- 
 sumed to avoid its falling into the hands of the Boers. I 
 learned that just after I left the place a party of Boers 
 had occupied the farm, and one of their pickets had fired 
 on the scouts of the passing army. Information of this 
 was conveyed to the British General. He ordered out a 
 squadron of horse to clear the farm of the Boers, which 
 
 General French and General Rundle meet near Dewetsdorp and discuss Gen- 
 eral De Wet's escape. Three sides of a square closed don't make a trap. 
 
 they did. Then the place was burned ; the old burgher and 
 his son were made prisoners. I afterward met the officer 
 who had charge of this work, and he said '' It was the 
 most miserable piece of business I have ever had to do." 
 His men poured oil over the furniture and woodwork, 
 allowing only a few of the barest necessaries to be removed ; 
 and then, despite the pitiable pleadings of the women and 
 children and the frantic protests of the old, white-haired 
 grandfather, the torch was applied, and one more desolate 
 
 253 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 home was added to the already too long list which this 
 unhappy war had produced. 
 
 This was but the beginning. I was half-prepared for 
 what was to follow, for I had heard at Dewetsdorp that, 
 since the expedition had been a failure, orders had been 
 issued from Bloemfontein that no more supplies would be 
 sent out to French's division. This meant that they were 
 to live off the country, and that, somehow, excuses were 
 to be found to ignore the proclamations of protection guar- 
 anteed by the Field Marshal. So parties of scouts were 
 sent out to search the farms for concealed weapons and 
 ammunition. A rusty old gun or a handful of forgotten 
 cartridges was sufficient evidence ; then the cattle, sheep 
 and horses were rounded up, all the carts about the place 
 loaded with anything of value the marauders desired, the 
 match was applied, and a few prisoners were added to 
 the already over-long lists. 
 
 Between twenty and thirty homesteads were destroyed 
 between Dewetsdorp and Bloemfontein to my certain knowl- 
 edge, and it is very probable that twice that number were 
 added to the list by other detachments of French's troops. 
 
 In each case — after the punishment had been inflicted — 
 some form of trial was given at Bloemfontein. Of course 
 the prisoners had very little opportunity to defend them- 
 selves, and usually they were convicted and sent to Cape 
 Town. Some show of justice was obtained, however. The 
 burgher who had owned the first farm destroyed, and his 
 son also, were actually acquitted, as it was shown that they 
 had not taken part in the firing on the troops, and had pro- 
 tested against it ; so, after having lost their home and been 
 marched eighty miles as prisoners, they were released. By 
 this time the son had gone insane. I doubt if any compen- 
 sation was made other than the filing of their claims, to be 
 settled after the conclusion of hostilities. 
 
 254 
 
WAR ON WOMEN AND CHILDREN 
 
 This policy of burning has evidently been continued on 
 a much larger scale since I left the country. Just before 
 the close of the year 1900 I received a letter from Bloem- 
 fontein, written by as loyal a subject of the Republics as 
 ever lived. The letter read, ** De Wet and Steyn are still 
 fighting. I wish they would give in, for there is no hope 
 that their efforts will be of any benefit, and if they continue 
 there will not be a single farmhouse left standing in the 
 Free State." As to the British side of the question, Gen- 
 
 Tommies buying chickens from natives for a shilling each. Only a few were 
 looted from the Kafifirs. 
 
 eral French returned to Bloemfontein, and the London 
 papers published the news that he had brought in over three 
 thousand head of cattle, and many more sheep, and a large 
 number of horses, and that the supplies brought in were 
 sufficient in value to defray the cost of the expedition. 
 
 On entering the Free State and taking Bloemfontein, 
 Lord Roberts had issued a proclamation to the effect that 
 if the burghers would come in, surrender their arms, and 
 take the oath of neutrality, they would receive passes from 
 
 255 
 
WITH '^ BOBS " AND KRUGER 
 
 the Provost Marshal, and be allowed to go back to their 
 farms. Many of the burghers did this. Afterward, owing 
 to Lord Roberts' failure to give them the promised protec- 
 tion, Boer raiders swept down, accused them of disloyalty, 
 looted their farms, and escaped before troops could arrive. 
 Later, when the English needed supplies, it was not difficult, 
 owing to their own negligence, to find proof that the 
 burgher had rendered assistance to the enemy ; so arrests 
 and burnings followed, with confiscation of the remaining 
 live stock and real estate. Other burghers, seeing their 
 neighbors thus ground between two millstones, seeing that 
 in any event they were doomed to lose everything, naturally 
 took up arms again with their compatriots, driven to renew 
 the fight to the bitter end ; and so all this barbarism of 
 warfare may be traced directly to the kind-hearted and 
 best-intentioned Lord Roberts issuing a proclamation 
 which, when complied with, left the burghers defenceless 
 against their own people, while the imperial troops were 
 unable to afford the protection which, in strict justice and 
 according to promise, should have been afforded. 
 
 256 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 THE GENERAL ADVANCE NORTHWARD FROM BLOEMFONTEIN. 
 
 ON Sunday and Monday, the last two days of April, 
 the journalistic and military atmosphere of Bloem- 
 fontein was heavy with rumors of the approaching general 
 advance northward, for which we had been waiting impa- 
 tiently for so long. All night long the creaking, groaning 
 transport-carts, with their screaming native drivers, had 
 toiled wearily through the streets, their harsh harmony 
 occasionally varied by the clatter of a mounted orderly 
 riding at full gallop, until the everlasting iteration of 
 ''Halt! who goes there?" and, "Advance, friend, and 
 give the countersign," of the stalwart sentry just out- 
 side my window, was followed by the relaxed and mechani- 
 cal " Pass, friend, all's well," and the clatter of hoofs was 
 renewed. 
 
 Early Tuesday morning, in obedience to an impulse which 
 I have long learned to trust implicitly, I strolled, camera 
 in hand, across the market square. Some troops were 
 passing through in heavy marching attire, transports were 
 spaced in between, and a huge traction-engine was snorting 
 and rattling clumsily by. I joined a small group of citizens, 
 one or two correspondents, several ladies and a few officers 
 who were watching the procession. One of the correspond- 
 ents looked at me significantly ; his eyes dropped to my 
 camera ; then he looked at the ladies and the two officers 
 with them, standing a little apart from the rest of us. 
 " Great Scott !" thought I to myself, " surely that little man 
 in fatigue uniform is Lord Roberts, and the ladies are his 
 17 257 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 daughters ; the other officer is General Pole-Carew, and 
 the sunHght falls exactly right." 
 
 The camera opens with a click ; the engine rolls by, and 
 Lord Roberts half turns to watch it. Click ! — and I have a 
 profile. He starts to walk away ; the ladies wait ; '* Bobs " 
 turns around ; I have the focus exactly ; I look up to see 
 if I have everything right, and catch his eye while my thumb 
 is on the button. 
 
 *' What are you trying to do ?" ask his eyes. 
 
 Lord Roberts and his daughters watching advance northward from Market 
 Square, Bloemfontein. My first photograph of him. 
 
 " Photograph the Field Marshal " mine reply. I wait, 
 while for three seconds he regards me gravely ; then a half 
 smile appears on his kind face ; it says, 
 
 *' All right, go ahead !" 
 
 I press the button by His Excellency's permission, close 
 the camera with a snap, turn another film into place, look 
 up, and find the chief still watching me gravely. I am half- 
 frightened, but play the game out by bringing my right 
 hand up to my hat, giving the military salute. Lord 
 
 258 
 
THE GENERAL ADVANCE NORTHWARD 
 
 Roberts waits half a second, then smiles kindly again, and 
 turning, walks off, followed by the ladies. My interview — 
 my telepathic interview — with ''Bobs" is over, and I am 
 the richer by two photographs of the Field Marshal and 
 his daughters. 
 
 Later I had some conversation with General Pole-Carew, 
 who, while not giving me any direct advice, suggested that 
 I get on toward Karee Siding as quickly as possible. 
 
 My interview with " Bobs," and the second photograph. 
 
 While with General French, on the way to Dewetsdorp, 
 one morning, as I was crossing a drift, I came on General 
 Pole-Carew. He smiled pleasantly at me as I stopped to 
 water my horse beside his, and I introduced myself as an 
 ''American correspondent." Usually I found this a good 
 thing to do, and this was no exception, for I found " the 
 most popular man in the English army " very delightful to 
 talk to about my country. 
 
 After a few minutes we rode on together, and I made 
 bold to ask him how he pronounced his name ; that is, 
 
 259 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 whether it was " Pole Caroo " or ** Pole Gary." The Gen- 
 eral laughed and said, ** I am always being asked that 
 question." Then he told me how it was pronounced, and 
 I would be very glad to pass on the information, but 
 unfortunately I have quite forgotten it myself, and did 
 not make a note of it at the time. But an officer of the 
 Guards confided to me that the General really was " Polly 
 Gary." 
 
 At noon I rode on after the troops, over new veldt 
 
 General Pole-Carew (Pole Gary?) in the Market Square, Bloemfontein. 
 
 which was conspicuously free from the all-pervading 
 stenches of the Modder River treks, only an occasional 
 whiff taking me back to the days of Paardeburg, with 
 their frightful mortality of transport-horses and oxen. 
 
 Toward evening I came within sight of Karee, where I 
 could see the army encamped. I was tired, and did not 
 care to spend the night in camp, so I tied my pony to a 
 tree and slept blissfully on the open veldt, away from the 
 noise and clamor beyond. Wednesday was a day of rest 
 for the soldiers, who had marched twenty-two miles the 
 
 260 
 
THE GENERAL ADVANCE NORTHWARD 
 
 day before. I invaded the camp, found a few friends who 
 informed me of the plans for the dash on Brandfort the 
 next day at sunrise, and then spent the rest of the time 
 lounging around and taking a few photographs, until toward 
 evening I crept up to the outposts, sleeping there on the 
 top of the kopjes, with my pony near by, ready to ride on at 
 dawn with the heavy masses of khaki-clad men I saw 
 sleeping on their arms in the laagte below. The strictest 
 
 ** Mother, come quickly ; the * Rooineks' are searching the house,'* 
 
 silence was observed. Not the slightest idea did the Eng- 
 lish have of the strength or position of the enemy. 
 
 The Imperial army commenced its march at daybreak. 
 General Stevenson with the Guards, Welsh, Warwicks and 
 Essexes, was in the centre. General Tucker with the mounted 
 infantry was on the right flank. General Pole-Carew was 
 on the left. The flanks were to advance and make an effort 
 to encircle the supposed Boer position at Brandfort, fourteen 
 
 261 
 
WITH ^^BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 miles distant across the open veldt, while Stevenson with 
 the centfe expected to meet with heavy resistance. I was 
 soon in the saddle, picking my way across the veldt with 
 the scouts, in advance of the centre. 
 
 There was little fighting till toward noon, but I came 
 close to that little, and a few bullets zinged through the 
 air overhead as we advanced. Midway I came up to a 
 farmhouse from which some hot firing had proceeded 
 
 British ofificer examining the occupants of a Boer farmhouse, from which shots 
 had been fired on the English scouts. 
 
 shortly before. While I was getting some milk and cakes 
 from the old vrouw several officers came riding up, and, col- 
 lecting the women together, put them through an examina- 
 tion in regard to the firing. The house was searched after 
 the women were told to surrender any arms or ammunition 
 they had. A few cartridges were brought out, for they 
 had been told '* if we find a single cartridge we will burn 
 the house over your heads." The horses in the stable and 
 two handsome wagons were commandeered ; then the ofifi- 
 
 262 
 
THE GENERAL ADVANCE NORTHWARD 
 
 cers and scouts rode on, leaving badly frightened Boer 
 women where I had found smiling faces and hospitality an 
 hour before. Later I rode on ahead of the scouts, feeling 
 safe in the knowledge of the right and left flank attacks to 
 be made, and early in the afternoon raced madly along a 
 spruit with a dozen or so of scouts, while a heavy can- 
 nonading to the left showed that at last serious resistance 
 
 
 
 > 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 A' l^p 
 
 ^^y i 
 
 n|i ^ 1 
 
 .V 1 
 
 p II 
 
 f H 
 
 Charley Ross, the Canadian Scout, first man inio IJrandfort, rej)orting to Gen- 
 eral Pole-Carew, and showing him where the different safes were located, 
 of which Ross had commandeered the keys. 
 
 of some kind had been encountered. As I reached the 
 town an incessant pop-popping to the north from a kopje 
 convinced me that the scouts were drawing fire, so I edged 
 away from them and rode in alone. The Transvaal flag 
 was still flying over the Red Cross hospital. A hearty 
 American ** Halloo, there !" greeted me, and I found my- 
 self face to face with Charley Ross, the Canadian scout, 
 
 263 
 
WITH ^'BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 second in command of Remington's ** Tigers." He sol- 
 emnly assured me that I was the first correspondent in 
 Brandfort. After loudly boasting of the fact all afternoon 
 and evening, I was confronted with the humiliating fact 
 that Dr. Conan Doyle and two other correspondents had 
 quietly watched my triumphal entry from a comfortable 
 hotel piazza while sipping the whiskey and soda ordered 
 ten minutes before. Ignorant of this, I left Ross and 
 
 Red Cross Hospital at Brandfort, taken before the arrival of the troops, while 
 the flag of the Republic was still flying. A few minutes later it was taken 
 down by order of a Major in the Imperial army, 
 
 galloped to the hospital. Several scouts were standing by, 
 and I ordered one of them to pull down the Transvaal flag ; 
 I wanted it for a souvenir. To my disgust I learned it had 
 already been appropriated by a Major somebody who had 
 gotten there before me and had ordered the man to guard 
 it until he returned ; so I rode on to the Free State Hotel, 
 and ordered rooms and a meal for myself and two other 
 correspondents with whom I had been riding an hour earlier, 
 and with whom I had agreed that the first man in should 
 
 264 
 
THE GENERAL ADVANCE NORTHWARD 
 
 engage accommodations for the other two. These gentle- 
 men were the Hon. Robert Beresford, representing the 
 Central News, and Mr. Burdett-Coutts, representing him- 
 self. I was unquestionably the first man to register at this 
 hotel ; but before we could get to bed, although already in 
 possession of a room, Lord Roberts and his staff arrived, 
 
 1 
 
 
 ml 
 
 ^^^^^Hk-V 
 
 1 
 
 ■ 
 
 
 W^mi j| 
 
 
 '% 
 
 ^1 
 
 ■MY 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 
 ^J 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 ■*^*- <sildll-— ^"""""'^ 
 
 r*"** 
 
 - \ 
 
 Kaffirs, discovered by Charley Ross and the author looting clothing from the 
 house of the Brandfort Landrost, who fled on the approach of the British. 
 The Kaffirs were arrested and afterward released with a warning. 
 
 and several dukes and lords commandeered the best rooms, 
 which "threw us out." Messrs. Coutts and Beresford 
 found other quarters for the night, — the first on the floor of 
 the dining-room, and the second on the floor of another 
 room already occupied. I, the heroic first to register, hav- 
 ing risked life and liberty to get there in time, had to sleep 
 in my own blankets in the forage-room in the back yard, 
 
 265 
 
WITH -BOBS'' AND KRUGER 
 
 cold and draughty as the veldt itself. A staff officer com- 
 ing in rather late was equally unfortunate. Two things, 
 however, recompensed me. The Duke of Westminster, 
 richest peer of all England, in coming out of the lighted 
 hall into the darkness of the front stoop collided with the 
 improvised lavatory, consisting of a wicker chair and huge 
 basin of very dirty water just abandoned by some other 
 titled excellency. The result was a gloriously effective 
 spill, from the debris of which some six feet of concen- 
 trated and irate British 
 aristocracy rose in pur- 
 ple indignation, while I 
 and another American, 
 back in a dark corner, 
 the only ones who saw 
 anything funny in the 
 incident, nearly stran- 
 gled in the effort to 
 suppress our merri- 
 ment. Half a dozen 
 colonels and brigadiers 
 ran to the Duke's as- 
 sistance ; for the rich- 
 est nobleman of all 
 England to fall from his dignified altitude of six feet to kiss 
 his mother earth midst a general mix-up of basin, chair and 
 dirty water, was a serious affair. But the two American de- 
 generates in the dark corner, as soon as it was safe to move, 
 walked leisurely up the road for fifty yards or so ; then one 
 of them shied a stick at a cur dog, which ran yelping away, 
 while the two said degenerates doubled up with laughter — 
 at the dog, of course. 
 
 The other source of compensation was suggested by my 
 roommate, the belated staff officer. We both comman- 
 
 266 
 
 Three Burghers captured at Brandfort, one 
 wearing khaki. All three still defiant. 
 
THE GENERAL ADVANCE NORTHWARD 
 
 deered enough forage during the night to make our horses 
 swell up like balloons by morning. This may be a bit ex- 
 aggerated, yet my pony carried me back forty miles to 
 Bloemfontein the next day without a stumble — a feat im- 
 possible to a horse that had not been well fed. 
 
 This advance toward Pretoria, as far as Brandfort, showed 
 clearly that the Boers did not intend to make any serious 
 resistance. '* Bobs " had them on the run, and evidently 
 would be able to keep them so. Somehow I felt like going 
 back to Cape Town. I had enough money in hand to get 
 me back to America, and thought that that was why I w^as 
 going back. The ** Daily Express " regular correspondent 
 was taken sick, and I was offered his position, — ordinarily a 
 brilliant opportunity that any sane man would jump at. I 
 didn't feel for the job, but refused it. Strangely enough, 
 it was the wisest thing to do, as subsequent events clearly 
 proved. There was no more fighting of any consequence. 
 The Boers had begun their long trek to the northward, and, 
 with the exception of a few skirmishes, the evolutions of 
 the opposing forces resolved themselves into mere retreat 
 and pursuit. 
 
 267 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 FAREWELL TO THE ARMY AND THE FREE STATE. 
 
 ABOUT ten o'clock on the morning of May 4th I 
 started back for Bloemfontein, after shaking hands 
 for the last time with the chief press Censor, Lord Stanley. 
 Riding through the streets, I met many of my old friends. 
 Out on the veldt the rest of the army was straggling in, with 
 an occasional belated correspondent urging his weary outfit 
 along, grumbling at this, that or the other cause of his being 
 a day late in reaching Brandfort. Most of these were my 
 friends, and each cost me from ten minutes to half an hour's 
 time in mutual expressions of good-will and good-fellowship. 
 I met and passed many contingents of troops whose officers 
 had entertained me with everything from whiskey and soda 
 to several days' hospitality. The whole distance of twenty- 
 five miles back to the Glen was a continuous, long-drawn- 
 out farewell to the Imperial army. Half way I met the 
 foreign attaches riding along in a body. Captain Slocum, 
 of the U. S.'.army, was among them, and shouted after me, 
 as we parted, ** Give my best love to all the Yanks, when- 
 ever and wherever you meet them." Finally the last lum- 
 bering transport bringing up the rear creaked wearily out 
 of sight, and I rode on over the delightfully green and 
 fresh veldt, so charmingly free from the odorous carcasses 
 and loathsome vultures which distinguished the Modder 
 River treks — a welcome proof of the highly improved con- 
 dition of the Imperial transport service. 
 
 My old instinct for breaking new trails soon led me to 
 deviate from the beaten tracks, and to ride on toward a 
 
 268 
 
FAREWELL TO ARMY AND FREE STATE 
 
 distant farm in line with the big kopjes behind Bloemfon- 
 tein, which loomed up faintly twenty miles away. I kept 
 going steadily all day, so nightfall found me weary and 
 hungry, as well as tormented with excruciating pains in the 
 back and neck. Still half an hour out from the city, I 
 arrived at the centre building of a succession of rambling 
 outhouses and barns belonging to a typical Boer farm. A 
 dusky figure stood in the road ahead of me. It was a 
 soldier on guard, protecting the property against marauders. 
 
 ^r^^mmmm 
 
 
 
 
 
 l^fil^^^^mC^^^O^ 
 
 
 j^ -^^ 
 
 The Canadian Scout Charley Ross in consultation with a staff-oflicer at Brand- 
 fort. 
 
 At my request he called a Kaffir servant, whom I de- 
 spatched into the maze of buildings in search of his niaster. 
 Soon an old, long white-haired, and equally white-bearded, 
 burgher came out. I told him in a few words that I was 
 sick, and craved his hospitality for a few hours before con- 
 tinuing my journey. The old man helped me off my horse, 
 sent it off to the stable with the *' boy," took me into the 
 house, and put me to bed in his guest-chamber, where, on 
 a feather-bed, between clean white sheets, I soon fell asleep, 
 while the old man sat by the bed talking to me like a father 
 
 269 
 
WITH ^'BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 whose boy has come home after a long journey. Then he 
 left me, coming back after several hours to tell me, as I 
 awoke and roused myself to go on to town, that I had 
 better stay until morning and rest. After breakfast I left 
 this old homestead, my host accepting just five shillings, 
 the regular price for the forage my horse had consumed. 
 As for my own meals and accommodations, I had been his 
 "guest," and seeing that he would have it that way, I was 
 content. To him I had been an officer of the Queen's army, 
 
 The Brandfort Hotel, headquarters of Field Marshal Lord Roberts and Staff. 
 
 an enemy of his country ; but, for all that, he had given his 
 best to the stranger coming to his gates after nightfall. 
 
 Bloemfontein had already settled down into a half-sleepy 
 condition again. A small army of occupation still hung 
 about its outskirts, but the hotels and club were empty of 
 the crowd of officers that had filled their halls and rooms 
 a week before, and the few transports and khaki-clad occu- 
 pants of the streets had the leisurely air of permanency — 
 in short, the atmosphere was already that of the normal 
 for the next year or so, until peace and loyalty to the 
 
 270 
 
FAREWELL TO ARMY AND FREE STATE 
 
 Queen might be assured and all troops could be withdrawn. 
 That evening I attended a bazar and oyster supper in the 
 town hall, for the benefit of the Boer prisoners at St. 
 Helena. Few officers attended, and none of the pro-British 
 townspeople, but the Boer families came out in force ; and 
 as I sat at a little fairy lamp-hghted table talking to some 
 of the young ladies, whose every tone vibrated with sorrow 
 for the loss of their country's independence, — as I looked 
 into the blue eyes of some of these belles of the Free State, 
 — I found myself wondering whether, perhaps, it would not 
 be better to seek and find a way to remain for all time ; to 
 become one of them, and live out my years in an effort to 
 successfully fit myself into the machinery of reconstruction. 
 Then my harsher Northern philosophy asserted itself; I 
 reflected that the Free State must be of necessity the Poland 
 of South Africa ; that sighs, and even tears of sympathy, 
 would doubtless be expended in great quantity to no avail ; 
 so in a few confidential conversations I reminded my 
 stricken friends that ** Though the mills of the gods grind 
 slowly, yet they grind exceeding fine." 
 
 The Free State is conquered for the time being, as is also 
 the Transvaal. Some of their people have resigned them- 
 selves to the inevitable. Others are still out on the veldt 
 in arms, bound by strange oaths to fight to the bitter end 
 till death. Putting aside my prejudices and sympathies, I 
 could not help seeing plainly that the war had but given 
 new birth and strength to the cause of Afrikanderdom ; 
 which, though it may slumber for many years, yet sooner 
 or later will again burst forth ; and a future United States 
 of South Africa is as inevitable as it is that, in the natural 
 course of events, all children, on their approaching ma- 
 turity, must and will become self-supporting and indepen- 
 dent. With all its greatness, the British Empire cannot 
 hope to rule forever either its natural or adopted children. 
 
 271 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 CONVERSION OF " LOOT " INTO LITERARY CAPITAL. 
 
 FOR the twelfth time I crossed, by train, the Karroo 
 Desert, now cool and delightful, where five months 
 before it had been a lurid hell of dust and aridness. At 
 Cape Town I soon found the man who was to make my 
 lantern-slides, and on hunting up the theatrical manager 
 mentioned in an earlier chapter I learned that he had 
 abandoned the lecture scheme, owing to a recent fiasco, per- 
 petrated by another correspondent, which had ''queered" 
 the business for the time. However, I determined to " buck 
 the tiger " myself and make my own arrangements, in- 
 tending to start at Graham's Town, afterward lecture at Port 
 Elizabeth, and then either go back to England at once, to 
 lecture there during the siege of Pretoria, which all sup- 
 posed would be in progress, or else return to the front and 
 join Lord Roberts before he reached Johannesburg. I en- 
 gaged quiet boarding-rooms with a private family while 
 waiting the five days it would take to get out my *' slides." 
 Incidentally I called on Mr. Robinson, the '' Daily Ex- 
 press " manager at the Mount Nelson Hotel, which was 
 within a stone's throw of my new home. I explained to 
 him my reasons for not waiting to receive his answer to 
 Hodgett's proposal to take me along to Pretoria for the 
 ''Express." I found Mr. Robinson a delightful man to 
 talk to — largely, I presume, because he was a good listener 
 to my tales and able to enjoy American humor, and also 
 sufficiently my superior in mental calibre to make my effort 
 to reach and remain on his plane exhilarating and pleasur- 
 
 272 
 
''LOOT" AND LITERARY CAPITAL 
 
 able. The climax of this enjoyment was reached when he 
 asked me to write up one of my tales in the shape of a 
 story for the " Express ;" and when, next day, I handed him 
 the copy, and received in exchange a check for a sum ex- 
 pressed in guineas which quite agreed with my own appre- 
 ciation of myself, my admiration for Mr. Robinson reached 
 the stage of personal devotion. 
 
 Incidentally, while talking over '' my plans " I mentioned 
 
 The Author waiting for Trince Francis of Teck, Commander of the Remount 
 Yards, at Bloemfontein, to pose for a few photographs. 
 
 the fact that I regretted I had not time or money enough 
 to go up the east coast to Delagoa Bay, from there into 
 the Transvaal, and see the remainder of the war from the 
 Boer side. The idea struck him as odd, since he did not 
 realize that as an American it was my privilege to do this. 
 When I explained the situation to him, he asked me if I 
 would go on to Pretoria in that way for the ''Express." 
 Then followed negotiations, for my keen nose scented a 
 18 273 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 "new deal." The cable to London was brought into 
 requisition ; and two days later, when the reply arrived, 
 " Rush Unger on to Pretoria," we came to terms that for 
 the next three months made me the best paid war corres- 
 pondent in South Africa. The lecture scheme was aban- 
 doned, although the slides had been delivered and paid for. 
 Then I made my last and thirteenth trip across the Karroo, 
 
 reaching Graham's Town, where 
 I refunded the loan of two 
 pounds I had received several 
 months earlier from Mr. Grocott, 
 and spent a delightful evening at 
 his home, telHng him of some of 
 my experiences, for what man is 
 he that does not enjoy a good 
 listener ? 
 
 The conversation, written up, 
 which really secured me my posi- 
 tion with the " Express," was 
 an imaginative yet truly descrip- 
 tive sketch which I think worth 
 while reproducing. It was published in the "Express" 
 on June 6, 1900, and was as follows : 
 
 Prince Francis receives news of 
 a fresh capture of Boer ponies. 
 
 "Loot." 
 
 " And if any man shall steal a chicken, he shall hang ; 
 that the sin of looting may pass away." So said the great 
 Field Marshal, and — we who write — all echoed his words 
 and said, " Yea, it is just." 
 
 Two days later, while riding to Paardeburg, I stopped to 
 off-saddle my horse at a deserted farm. While he quietly 
 grazed in the garden I made an investigation of the interior 
 of the house. Truly, as Kipling has said, " It looked as 
 though whirlwinds had met there to wrestle." Broken 
 
 274 
 
"LOOT" AND LITERARY CAPITAL 
 
 furniture, crockery, pictures, bric-a-brac of all kinds, cloth- 
 ing, broken glass — everything destroyed — a pitiable scene 
 of desolation. In a corner, with its legs twisted out of shape, 
 lay a little tin horse, a child's toy, the paint cracked and 
 the head bent back to the tail. Even this trifle had seemed 
 deserving of the attention of some stalwart trooper. I was 
 told that 17,000 regulars passed by this place, leaving it 
 untouched, and then a few regiments of irregular horse 
 swooped down and did the work. ** Outrageous !" I 
 mused meditatively, at the same time unconsciously crunch- 
 
 An unruly mare demands IVince Francis' attention. The Prince is the most 
 expert horseman in the British army, and exercises a wonderful control 
 over animals. 
 
 ing an unbroken piece of glass under my heel. Then I 
 picked up a tattered Bible, mechanically tearing out a few 
 more leaves. Then I saw a table in so advanced a stage 
 of dissolution that one good kick would completely smash 
 those three legs, leaving the fourth to hold one corner 
 in the air, that men looking in might see that nothing 
 good remained. The kick was delivered, the three legs 
 gave way ; some books and dishes slid to the floor. One 
 corner remained elevated in the air, emphasizing the work 
 of destruction I had completed. Suddenly the thought 
 struck me that I, too, was a vandal, and, thoroughly 
 
 275 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 ashamed, I hurriedly went out, up-saddled and galloped 
 off. 
 
 I comforted myself with the thought that the thing was 
 contagious, and firmly resolved to be more cautious in 
 future, that I might sin no more. Two days later my sad- 
 dle-girth broke. A neighbor's lay near by. It was but 
 the work of a moment to substitute the good girth for my 
 useless one, and as I rode away I was conscious of a ting- 
 ling thrill of satisfaction at having successfully acquired 
 something without having given an equivalent value in ex- 
 change. Surprised at the absence of shame, I yet realized 
 on what an awful danger I was bordering. 
 
 Had I but paused then I might have returned to virtuous 
 ways ; but, alas ! instead, I went from bad to worse. 
 
 I visited an outpost which had had a sharp skirmish with 
 the enemy near Koodoosrand Drift, driving them off and 
 leaving a quantity of stores behind. An account of stock 
 had not yet been taken when I arrived ; so I quietly ex- 
 changed my old saddle for a new one, picked up a new 
 bridle and saddle-cloth ; also a much needed pair of sad- 
 dlebags. I boldly rode off with my loot, feeling that I had 
 taken an irrevocable step, and that the first stage of my 
 degradation was complete. From that time on I allowed 
 no unnecessary qualms of conscience to interfere with my 
 acquisition of things. True, I respected and feared the 
 Provost Marshal ; but that was only to the extent of avoiding 
 his part of the camp when returning with a conspicuously 
 large bag of " forage," or with a pair of very indignant old 
 lady chickens vigorously protesting from the depths of my 
 saddlebags. Only once, some weeks later, did I hesitate in 
 my downward career, and that was when I started to ride 
 into camp on a magnificent black stalHon. I wisely changed 
 my mind and took the unbranded mare instead, and as a 
 reward for my discretion rode the gallant little beast for 
 
 276 
 
LOOT" AND LITERARY CAPITAL 
 
 many weeks thereafter unchallenged as to the propriety of 
 my ownership. 
 
 The finishing touches were put to my education in the 
 art of looting at Poplar Grove. While the enemy was in 
 full flight, with the Imperial forces hotly pursuing, I met 
 another friend, who inquired if I " had been in any of the 
 deserted laagers yet?" I answered, *' No ;" and when he 
 suggested '* I saw a lot of good mackintoshes up on the 
 hill awhile ago," I galloped off after him. We were joined 
 
 ■• 
 
 ,Mm>:.. 
 
 
 
 iH^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 w^^ 
 
 M' 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 The Prince subdues with une hand the unruly mare which for half an hour 
 had dragged half a dozen men about the yards. 
 
 by a third vandal, and together we three went through half 
 a dozen of the abandoned outpost laagers. The camp had 
 been occupied a long time, and had been evacuated hur- 
 riedly. We found half-prepared food on smoking fires ; we 
 picked up a blanket here, there a pair of saddle-wallets, 
 then some new straps ; and so on we rolled, putting the pro- 
 verbial stone to shame. 
 
 When we returned to camp we looked like a caravan of 
 Eastern merchants. Two huge tin pails swung across each 
 saddle filled with a potpourri of camp luxuries gleaned 
 
 277 
 
WITH " BOBS " AND KRUGER 
 
 from the losses of a hundred burghers ; new mackintoshes 
 rolled up on the front of our saddles ; two waterproof 
 blankets apiece ; while my particular loot included a twelve- 
 bladed clasp knife and a toilet and shaving set in a leather 
 case, '' imported from Germany." After that I could twist a 
 chicken's neck, and half an hour later shamelessly invite a 
 staff officer to dinner. I could feed my horse on two bundles 
 of forage, while colonels turned their ponies out on the veldt. 
 
 I was found eating fresh eggs and wheat bread and 
 drinking quarts of fresh milk, while the rest of the army 
 were on half rations of biscuit and ''bully beef." I rode 
 a new horse every three days, and in every skirmish earned 
 the admiration of the rank and file and the envy of my 
 contemporaries by the fearless way in which I followed the 
 scouts, and advanced with the firing-line over laagte, nek 
 and kopje into the enemy's laager ; always first in — to loot. 
 Yes, looting is very wrong, no doubt ; but, as one who 
 knows, next to the fierce joy of fighting, that of satisfying 
 the primeval instinct of robber man is the strongest pleas- 
 ure which war affords. Add the promise of plunder to the 
 certainty of a fight, and you increase by tenfold the effi- 
 ciency of any army in the world. 
 
 Napoleon thoroughly understood this principle in human 
 nature, and, though it may be truly said, ** He carried the 
 art of war back five hundred years to the Middle Ages," yet 
 was there ever so devoted and energetic a body of men as 
 those fearless legions of France who warred for twenty 
 years across the wrinkled face of tortured Europe ? No, 
 if war be right in any case, then be consistent and let the 
 boys loot. A campaign cannot be run like a Sunday- 
 school, nor is going into battle like a tea party. Since war 
 brings to the surface all of man's strongest passions, let 
 Field Marshals realize the folly of trying to utilize one only 
 while suppressing the rest. 
 
 278 
 
"LOOT" AND LITERARY CAPITAL 
 
 Yes, undoubtedly the lust for fighting is one of man's 
 strongest passions, and following close behind is his love 
 of looting. The two go together and are inseparable. 
 "War should support war." **To the victor belong the 
 spoils." So, if for policy or principle it be wise to let man 
 murder, then, for his individual and private gratification, why 
 not let him be also a thief ? 
 
 279 
 
CHAPTER XXXIL 
 
 THE LAND OF DELAY, THE CITY OF TO-MORROW, AND THE 
 HOUSE OF NEXT MONTH. 
 
 FROM Graham's Town I went on to Port Elizabeth, 
 there to catch the steamer up the east coast to 
 Durban, where a French steamer, due to leave for Dela- 
 goa Bay the day after my arrival, was to end my voyaging 
 for another period of weeks, months, or maybe longer. 
 Before leaving Graham's Town a rumor spread through the 
 streets that Mafeking had been relieved, and the extras 
 issued as the train steamed out confirmed the report, and 
 sent hundreds of flags sliding up as many flagstaffs and 
 strings of bunting crossing the streets, and before the train 
 wound out of sight beyond the hills Graham's Town was 
 going through a deHrium of rejoicings. At the larger sta- 
 tions along the line crowds of school-children with flags in 
 hand cheered and hurrahed as the train, the daily mail, 
 passed by. Port P^lizabeth was reached at night, and had 
 already had its first spasm. The evening was a ** wide- 
 open " one, with bands and processions and thousands of 
 people thronging the streets. The Boer element kept 
 indoors, and the few who ventured out looked as de- 
 pressed and sombre as the black clothing nearly all of 
 them wore. 
 
 This was Saturday. My steamer was not due until Tues- 
 day. Sunday was appropriately quiet, and I wrote letters, 
 while Port Elizabeth got ready for a monstrous celebration 
 on Monday. The speeches, processions, hilarity and gen- 
 eral festivity of that day wore away. Between time I wrote 
 
 280 
 
THE LAND OF DELAY 
 
 many letters, bought a few essentials, and by Tuesday after- 
 noon was snugly stowed away on the steamship Dunvc- 
 gan Castle^ occupying the best stateroom, on my way to 
 Durban. 
 
 The steamer stopped a day at East London, but I did 
 not go ashore. Instead, I sat on deck, smoked, and looked 
 at the sandy and rocky shore where I had bathed during 
 
 Mafeking Day. Procession through the main street of Port Elizabeth. 
 The Town Hall in the background. 
 
 my runs down to the coast from Sterkstrom. It was here 
 that I had met Consul Hay on his way to Pretoria, and I 
 pictured his surprise when I should walk in on him weeks, 
 or maybe months, before the arrival of Lord Roberts and 
 his army. I saw the tug come out with new passengers, 
 take off visitors to the shore, and remembered how seasick 
 I had been doing the same thing a few months before, and 
 congratulated myself anew on the reversed order of things, 
 
 281 
 
WITH " BOBS " AND KRUGER 
 
 with my present prosperity assured, and smoked another 
 cigar. I made few friends on the boat, for the time was too 
 short, and my own thoughts and imaginings were sufficient 
 company for me. The voyage was smooth, and I was 
 spared the agony of sea-sickness. In every way I felt 
 lucky ; the gods were smiling on me, and my star was in 
 the ascendant. I was quite ready to undertake anything 
 that might present itself, and felt that all the world, seen 
 and unseen, was ready to stand by and aid me in every 
 effort. 
 
 The dream was short, but sweet. I was soon to learn 
 anew that what I would get I would have to fight for, and 
 fight good and hard, too. 
 
 On the morning of the 25th I reached Durban and went 
 to a hotel, where I found that the French boat had not yet 
 arrived. I saw the agent and bought my ticket for Lorenzo 
 Marquez. When I had paid over the money he told me 
 that I would have to see the English commandant and get 
 permission to leave, and that it was useless to attempt to 
 get away without doing so, as no one was allowed to go 
 aboard the tugboat unless on the commandant's list. I 
 assumed that, in my case, this would be merely a matter of 
 formahty, and so I took a "ricksha" and called on the 
 commandant. He was in his office, but I was turned over 
 to his assistant. I told him I had bought my ticket for 
 Delagoa Bay, and that I understood a pass was required, 
 in order to insure my departure without delay. 
 
 ''Precisely," was his reply; and then followed a series 
 of questions by which he discovered that I was an Ameri- 
 can war correspondent, in possession of a full war license 
 from Lord Roberts, and that I had been with the army in 
 the Free State for some months past ; also, that my inten- 
 tion was to proceed as quickly as possible into the enemy's 
 country via the Portuguese Territory. When he had 
 
 282 
 
THE LAND OF DELAY 
 
 reached thus far he quietly closed the book in which he 
 had been making a few notes of my remarks and said, ** I 
 am sorry to tell you we cannot allow you to proceed far- 
 ther. We have already had to refuse several other corre- 
 spondents, and one is still here, having waited six weeks for 
 permission to go on." 
 
 ** But I am an American citizen," I replied, *'and you 
 have no authority to detain me ; I must demand my rights, 
 for it is of the utmost importance that I reach Pretoria as 
 early as possible." The Major turned to the commandant 
 and stated my case. The reply was, ** Certainly not ; he 
 cannot go." I expostulated further ; but my only satisfac- 
 tion was a promise to wire to the. General commanding in 
 Natal. Then I left the office. 
 
 The gentlemen had been exquisitely polite, but Gibraltar 
 itself did not seem more inexorably immovable than their 
 decision. Hastily getting into another ricksha, I directed 
 the boy to take me to the American Consul's office. I 
 found Mr. Rennie in and very busy, but not too much so 
 to listen to my story and promise to see the commandant 
 himself He asked me to call again the next day, when 
 he assured me it would be *' all right." 
 
 There was no help for it. I was " up against it," and 
 had to wait. Meanwhile Lord Roberts had left Kronstad 
 and was nearing the Vaal. My steamer would not leave 
 for four days, which was in itself a most exasperating 
 delay ; but in the face of this new obstacle it was rather 
 fortunate, for the next steamer would be a month later, and 
 of course entirely useless to me. 
 
 My visit to the Consul the following morning was far 
 from satisfactory. He had not yet seen the commandant, 
 but said, *' If he gives me any trouble I shall wire to the 
 Governor at Cape Town, and then it will be all right." A 
 few hours later I saw him again, when he told me that the 
 
 283 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 commandant would have allowed me to pass had I not 
 told him that I was a correspondent. However, he would 
 see him again, and promised me better news the next day. 
 Then I quietly went to the telegraph office and wired to 
 Colonel Stowe, the American Consul at Cape Town : 
 '* Authorities here object to further progress." This was 
 what Colonel Stowe had advised me to do if there was any 
 trouble, and he had promised me he would see the Gov- 
 ernor himself in such an event. 
 
 Elizabeth Monument on hill above Port Elizabeth, Cape Colony, decorated 
 during Mafeking Day Celebrations. 
 
 But, alas ! This was late on Friday, and the Colonel 
 would not be at his office on Saturday, which would result 
 in his interview with the Governor in my behalf being 
 delayed until Monday — after my steamer had left. Clearly, 
 something had to be done. Saturday morning I had 
 another interview with the Consul, and still nothing had 
 been done. Then my mind was made up. I had still one 
 trump card to play, and, disagreeable as might be the result, 
 it had to be played. Going back to the hotel I got my 
 papers, and then called for the last time on the com- 
 
 284 
 
THE LAND OF DELAY 
 
 mandant. As I entered the office a shadow of annoyance 
 passed over his face. 
 
 "The American Consul has been here," he said, ''and 
 as I have not yet heard from the General, my answer to 
 him was the same as to you. Nothing can be done till he 
 replies." 
 
 *' Colonel," I said, " I want to thank you for your for- 
 bearance with my persistency, and also to say that I have 
 never been more courteously treated by English officers 
 than I have been by you, and I have received many favors 
 from their hands, which makes that remark mean some- 
 thing. I sincerely hope that, with the exception of a differ- 
 ence of opinion between us, our relations will continue to 
 be as pleasant ; but as a mere matter of form I must ask 
 you to look at this," and I spread out my United States 
 passport on the table before him. 
 
 *' Yes, I know your papers are all right," he said ; and 
 then, looking at the outstretched wings of our American 
 eagle at the top of my passport, he added, in a lower voice, 
 "and a grand old bird this emblem of freedom is, too;" 
 then folding the paper and handing it back to me ; " but I 
 cannot allow you to go to Delagoa Bay ;" closing with 
 the crushing words, " for a correspondent to go from one 
 side of a war to the other is not the usual thing. You are 
 an accredited correspondent attached to our army, have 
 had the status of an officer, and your nationality must stand 
 aside." 
 
 I might have accepted this as final had he not made use 
 of those fatal words, " not the usual thing ;" words which 
 to an Englishman might have been final, but which for an 
 American have no meaning except procrastination, with 
 that magic phrase as an excuse and justification. No ; go 
 I would, and that in spite of all the red tape in the United 
 Kingdom ; so, dropping the mask of affable diplomacy 
 
 285 
 
WITH '^BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 which I had been careful to wear up to this time, I said 
 gravely, looking the commandant straight in the eyes, "■ Do 
 what you will with the accredited correspondent, but be 
 careful not to lay hands upon a citizen of the United vStates. 
 Good afternoon, gentlemen ; I shall go aboard my steamer 
 Monday morning at ten o'clock." 
 
 As I left the office I came face to face with the Ameri- 
 can Consul again. I told him what I had just done, and 
 added, ** My personal relations with the officers of the Eng- 
 lish army for the past six months have been so agreeable 
 that I don't want at the moment of my leaving it, perhaps 
 forever, to have anything unpleasant to mar the memory of 
 my association with them ; but if you see fit to see the com- 
 mandant again, you can tell him for me that if he wants to 
 detain me on Monday he must send a squad of men down 
 to the wharves to prevent it ; nothing less will do, for I will 
 resist, and they will be compelled to carry me off bodily ; 
 and if that should happen, I promise you personally that 
 within the month there will be at least fifty influential pro- 
 Boer American newspapers going into hysterics over the 
 ' Latest British Outrage upon an American Citizen.' " 
 
 I went back to my hotel and dismissed the matter from 
 my mind. Sunday I spent writing letters and resting. 
 Monday morning I loaded up my luggage on a ricksha 
 and went down to the wharf. At ten o'clock I went on 
 the tug. As I walked up the gang plank an officer asked 
 for my name, and as he looked at a paper held in his hands 
 I also ran my eye down the list, and saw a little red check 
 beside my name, which meant "all right." Then he 
 ordered a Tommy to help me with my luggage, and, as I 
 desired, my last touch with British officialdom in South 
 Africa was to receive an additional favor, and add still 
 greater weight to the monumental amount of obligations I 
 am under to that splendid body of men. 
 
 286 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 THE LAND OF THE MILREIS. 
 
 IT was only a twenty-four-hour run from Durban to 
 Delagoa Bay, and the Djemmna arrived there early in 
 the morning. The first thing I heard was the news that 
 Lord Roberts had taken Johannesburg. That miserable 
 four days' delay at Durban had robbed me of the coup of 
 getting into the city before the Imperial army. However, 
 Pretoria was still left, and perhaps I could manage to get 
 there. 
 
 A small fleet of sailboats clustered about the sides of 
 the steamer, manned by undersized, swarthy, dirty-looking 
 Portuguese and natives. Mr. Aamsden, an American 
 photographer who was travelling with me, and I got our 
 twenty-two pieces of baggage on one of these boats and 
 were rowed ashore, where a lot of blacks took our effects 
 and started in a long procession toward the custom-house. 
 This service cost us something almost fabulous, running 
 into the thousands — of milreis, the current coin, equal in 
 value to about one-tenth of a cent. There was no trouble 
 at the custom-house until the package containing my 
 saddle was opened. This was promptly confiscated as 
 being ''contraband of war." I looked regretfully at the 
 pile of ten thousand cases of American tinned beef destined 
 for the Transvaal which was also stored there as contraband, 
 and then a mild attack of determination seized me not to 
 lose my saddle, contraband or no contraband. 
 
 Up to this time the examination had been conducted 
 without the aid of an interpreter. I went outside, along 
 
 287 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 the dock, and after speaking to half a dozen men found one 
 who could understand English, and through him succeeded 
 in informing the customs officials that I did not wish to 
 take the bulk of my baggage into the country at all, but 
 would prefer to leave it with them in bond. No objection 
 was made, and I was given a form of paper with heaven 
 only knows what scrawled on it, and some thousands more 
 milreis were demanded. I began to feel like a millionaire ; 
 but when, later in the day, a cabman charged me two thou- 
 sand five hundred more (about ;^ 2. 50) for driving half a 
 mile, I began to believe that I must be a very exalted per- 
 sonage in the eyes of this community, every member of 
 which seemed to be living on extortionate fees. 
 
 After leaving the custom-house our procession of na- 
 tives, with the baggage considerably reduced in number of 
 pieces, started through the streets of the city of Lorenzo 
 Marquez, arriving, after many turnings and twistings, at a 
 hotel, where we ordered breakfast. We learned that there 
 would be a train leaving for Pretoria that evening ; also 
 that considerable red tape would be required before we 
 could come into possession of the necessary passports ; so 
 after breakfast we started up the long hill at the back of the 
 town to the American Consulate, the usual Mecca of the 
 American citizen abroad when in perplexity of any kind. 
 Mr. Hollis received us with a somewhat bored air, vised 
 our passports, and in an absent-minded sort of way charged 
 us five thousand milreis for putting the seal of the United 
 States over his signature. Then he wrote a note of intro- 
 duction for us to the Transvaal Consul, and gave us the 
 necessary directions as to how to proceed. Near the cus- 
 tom-house we found the Transvaal Consulate, where a 
 beery-faced Dutch secretary took our American passports 
 and letters of introduction, telling us to come back in about 
 an hour. 
 
 288 
 
THE LAND OF THE MILREIS 
 
 ^\B> e 
 
 First Transvaal Passport, including railway transportation to Pretoria, 
 issued to the author by Consul Potts at Lorenzo Marquez. 
 
 289 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 By this time it was nearly noon and we were hungry 
 again, and so we had lunch at a restaurant in the little park 
 or public square near by. Then we went back to the Con- 
 sulate, where the beery-faced clerk presented us each with 
 a Transvaal passport and a railway pass to Pretoria. He 
 also returned our American passports, which we then took 
 to the Prefecture of Police, where, after payment of more 
 thousands of milreis, we received a " Salvo Conducto," 
 which means a certificate that, since our arrival in Lorenzo 
 Marquez, to the exact knowledge of the police we had 
 not committed any crime. With this additional evidence 
 of our upright character we then proceeded to the Gov- 
 ernor's office, where our collection of papers was looked 
 over, and we were requested to call again at four o'clock. 
 We were half an hour late in getting back, and were rep- 
 rimanded for the delinquency ; then an official escorted us 
 through many dark corridors into a very handsome and 
 pretentious room. A small table stood beside the window ; 
 a closed door faced us. The official asked us to sign our 
 names in a book on the table ; then, with our papers in his 
 hand, he vanished through the door, closing it behind him. 
 Instinct told us he was in the awful presence of the Gov- 
 ernor, whose august face we wondered if we were to see. 
 But it was not to be. The official returned, handed us 
 the papers, enriched by the addition of a Portuguese 
 passport, and then calmly collected the staggering fee of 
 ten thousand milreis. That Governor was no slouch ; 
 he understood his business as well as a New York police 
 captain. 
 
 We paid the ten thousand and hurried back to the hotel, 
 where we learned that the train for Pretoria would not start 
 until the following morning. This gave us some additional 
 time, and we spent the evening on the plaza, incident- 
 ally making a visit to the Djemmna to see off some new- 
 
 290 
 
THE LAND OF THE MILREIS 
 
 made friends who were sailing the next day. Before bed- 
 time Mr. Aamsden and I took a part of our baggage to 
 the Consulate, and left it there in charge of Mr. Hollis. 
 I found that a cablegram from Mr. Robinson at Cape 
 Town had come for me, asking me to confer with a cer- 
 tain man at Lorenzo Marquez who was the local agent for 
 the ** Express." On inquiry, I found he was known to be 
 an English spy, so I quickly realized that I would have 
 
 Boer girl, Red Cross nurse at Waterval Oonder. 
 
 to ignore him entirely. From the time of my arrival in 
 Lorenzo Marquez until we steamed out of it the next 
 morning at six o'clock we were under the constant sur- 
 veillance of spies of three governments — England, Por- 
 tugal and the Transvaal. I suppose, at times, fully a 
 dozen men were watching us closely, and, as a result, we 
 felt duly important. 
 
 It was with a sigh of relief that we saw the last of the 
 city and realized that we really were out of it and on our 
 
 291 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 way to Pretoria at last. What that day had cost us we 
 could not figure up accurately from memory afterward, and 
 we had not taken any notes. But it could not have been 
 less than fifty thousand milreis, and we made proportionate 
 note of the item in our expense-books. 
 
 Both the American and Portuguese authorities had re- 
 quired of us our affirmation that w^e were not going into 
 the Transvaal to fight against England. I posed as the 
 representative of an American newspaper, saying nothing 
 of my London engagement, and Mr. Aamsden was my as- 
 sistant and photographer ; hence the courtesy of the rail- 
 road passes. The beery-faced Dutch clerk was the only 
 official we had met who had not charged us a single 
 milreis. 
 
 292 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 BY TRAIN TO PRETORIA. 
 
 LEAVING Lorenzo Marquez, the train seems to travel 
 more swiftly than is the custom in any other part of 
 South Africa. The view is not so extended as in the 
 Karroo. Instead of broad, flat veldt, bordered with faint 
 blue ridges of the inevitable kopjes in the distance, the road 
 runs through a thick bush country, which it is impossi- 
 ble for the eye to penetrate more than fifty yards. All 
 objects presented to the sight fall behind so much more 
 quickly than the Karroo kopjes, ten to twenty miles distant, 
 that the illusion of rapid travelling is complete ; in fact, 
 however, we were going up a long grade, and hardly as fast 
 as one of the same percentage would have been ascended 
 on the Cape government railways. 
 
 Looking from the window, I noticed that the soil was 
 " mixed," being both clay and sand. The grass was thick 
 and high, with great black patches here and there, where a 
 spark from a passing locomotive had fired it. The trees 
 were not as tropical of aspect as I had expected ; they were 
 of about the size and shape of apple trees, and scattered in 
 a manner suggesting a large orchard — so different from the 
 treeless veldts of the Free State. In occasional and irregu- 
 lar acres the natives had planted some corn. They call it 
 ''mealies," the regular South African name for it; foreign 
 travellers refer to it as " maise," and recall my school-boy 
 geography with its lists of ** agricultural products ;" and at 
 last, in South Africa, I learned what maize really was ; 
 maize or mealy, it was the same corn that grew at home in 
 
 293 
 
WITH ^'BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 America, and my heart warmed toward the simple savages 
 who had planted it so close to the orchard-like clumps 
 of trees, that carried me, as I saw it, back across con- 
 tinents and seas to the beautiful farms of Pennsylvania. 
 To one fresh from the States, perhaps no such suggestion 
 would be possible ; but to me, after soaking for half a year 
 on the veldt, the slighest suggestion of home scenes was 
 more than sufficient to recall the rest. 
 
 As we travelled on we got into a more open country. 
 The trees were more scattered, and between them were 
 wide stretches of waving green, with an occasional solitary 
 palm tree as a reminder that at least the country was 
 " subtropical." 
 
 Then the muddy Koomaatti River found its way to the 
 side of the railway embankment, dodging in and out among 
 the trees. On the other side extended a bush-covered 
 range of hills, not '* kopjes," behind which we were told 
 could be found plenty of koodoo, springbok, and other 
 larger game. The lions had all been killed off years be- 
 fore, and now one must travel far beyond the beaten paths 
 of traffic to reach their haunts, farther north and west. 
 
 It was winter, though June, and so while the trees were 
 still green, the grass was dead and dried up. The air was 
 neither hot nor cold ; the climate was delightful, although 
 said to be full of fevers of no particular name but of deadly 
 power. 
 
 Later on, the veldt folded itself up on both sides of the 
 road, forming an immense canyon. At one side now flowed 
 the Crocodile River, said to be full of the silurian monsters 
 and their families ; and, looking down the steep banks into 
 many mysterious green pools, I found no difficulty in believ- 
 ing it to be true. The only animals I saw were a troop of 
 baboons scampering across the tracks ahead of the engine 
 as it rounded a curve. They had melons and other fruit 
 
 294 
 
BY TRAIN TO PRETORIA 
 
 in their paws, and with much jabbering disappeared among 
 the rocks up the sides of the canyon. 
 
 For about thirty miles the train followed the river through 
 that grand gorge, the mineral colors of the natural rocks, 
 with their towering peaks outlined against the blue sky, 
 blending with the fresh greens of a luxurious vegetation 
 and the mysterious dark and silent hues of the crocodile 
 pools below, varied by snow-white cascades and waterfalls 
 all mixed in brilliant confusion, and forming a scene of sur- 
 passing beauty clearly destined to become yet another 
 "special point of interest" for future generations of pa- 
 tiently-suffering Cook tourists. 
 
 Before noon we reached Koomaatiport and the Trans- 
 vaal border, where our passports and baggage were ex- 
 amined, and even our private letters were read. Then 
 hands felt all over our bodies, under coats and vests, and 
 patted pockets in search of revolvers. I was in a state of 
 extreme anxiety when my portfolio was rummaged, for it 
 contained letters from British officials and dozens of com- 
 promising papers, any one of which would have been suffi- 
 cient to deny me the coveted entrance to Boerdom. But 
 to my relief, and also to my disgust, the officials seemed 
 more interested in certain private letters in feminine hand- 
 writing, over which they chuckled considerably, patted me 
 on the back good-naturedly, and chalked crosses on my 
 shoe-tips and baggage as an indication that we were '' all 
 right," for verily all the world loves ** a " — ''but that is 
 another story," as Kipling says. All this we silently sub- 
 mitted to, for it was the necessary price of admission into 
 the land of the burghers. Then the train pulled off again 
 over more miles of rock, river, veldt and bush, and after 
 awhile evening came, and darkness at five-thirty. After a 
 few more hours' running the train stopped at a station 
 where there were many tracks and houses off in the dark- 
 
 295 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 ness, sparkling dim lights like so many yellow stars on the 
 ground, and we learned that we would go no farther that 
 night, for recent dynamite attempts along the line had 
 made night-running unwise. Thus I suffered another vex- 
 atious twelve-hour delay in my journey toward Pretoria, 
 while Lord Roberts was, goodness only knows where, be- 
 tween there and Johannesburg. 
 
 After a cold, wretched night, sleeping in the car in our 
 overcoats, we crawled out in the frosty air to have a miser- 
 able breakfast at the station restaurant. When this agony 
 was over I went out on the platform to smoke. A train 
 from Pretoria pulled in. It had hardly stopped before a 
 heavily-built gentleman, followed by a bull terrier, jumped 
 off and ran off into the town. Although I had never seen 
 the man before, I recognized him as Mr. Richard Harding 
 Davis. In about twenty minutes he came back. I gave 
 him my card, and he introduced me to his wife, who was 
 with him. We had about five minutes' talk before my 
 train went on, but it was sufficient for me to learn from Mr. 
 Davis that Pretoria was still held by the Boers. He was 
 on his way to Lorenzo Marquez to catch the German mail 
 steamer which would leave there for Naples in a few days. 
 The train was crowded with refugees, principally Hollanders, 
 women and children, and their compartments were over- 
 flowing with bundles of baggage, showing that they had 
 left hastily, taking only their more valuable possessions. 
 On the other hand, my own train was filled with armed 
 men, all bent on reaching Pretoria in time to take part in 
 its defence against the British. 
 
 This station was Waterval Onder, meaning below the 
 waterfalls. As our train left, it began to ascend a heavy 
 grade with many curves, which enabled me to see that 
 between the tracks ran a heavy cogged rail, and an extra 
 engine in front and one at the back were pushing the train. 
 
 296 
 
BY TRAIN TO PRETORIA 
 
 This grade ascended for about fifteen hundred feet along 
 the side of an immense gorge, at the bottom of which a 
 small stream was flowing. A bend in the sides of the 
 canyon hid the waterfall from view. Then the train ran 
 out into the open again, and I found myself on the level of 
 an immense plateau, where I was back in the veldt again, 
 as I had known its treeless wastes in the Free State. Ten 
 minutes more brought us to another station known as 
 Waterval Boven, or above the waterfalls. Farther on we 
 passed a station where there were a great many tents and 
 
 Burghers waiting at railway station for daily train on which to hasten to rejoin 
 their commandoes for the defence of Pretoria. 
 
 carts, more side tracks and hundreds of cars. A number 
 of handsomely uniformed officers were standing about the 
 station. This was Machadodorp ; but there was no one to 
 tell us that the Government had moved here from Pretoria 
 a few days before, and that the brilliant uniforms belonged 
 to foreign attaches ; for the other men in our compartment 
 had been singularly uncommunicative, and we were unable 
 to speak their language. Some of them could speak Eng- 
 lish well enough, but our inabiHty to converse in Dutch 
 made us objects of suspicion. Then, too, we did not make 
 
 297 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 any effort to draw them out, for our only object was to get 
 into Pretoria before Lord Roberts. After that, the delude 
 — of khaki or anything else, it mattered not. 
 
 As we neared Middleburg, the largest town on the line, 
 each station began to contribute half-dozen or more burgh- 
 ers returning to rejoin their commandoes at the front. We 
 understood from their talk that a determined defence of 
 the capital was to be made, and that every available man 
 had been called out. Their clothes were the usual greys 
 and browns of everyday wear, with an occasional rusty 
 black garment thrown in. I noticed that in greeting each 
 other they always shook hands, even when apparent 
 strangers to one another. The common cause made of 
 them a common brotherhood. When addressing the women 
 among them, hats were always raised respectfully. When 
 the women gave their last farewells to the burghers there 
 was a conspicuous absence of scenes — no weepings or out- 
 cries, only a quiet "good-by," an occasional embrace and 
 kiss, and a final wave of the hand, an atmosphere of re- 
 spectful silence being the only indication of the deeper feel- 
 ings underneath. 
 
 At some places there was an apparent reluctance on the 
 part of some of the men to go to the front. At such times 
 several of the older burghers got off and harangued the 
 crowd, trying to shame the fellows into joining. They gen- 
 erally succeeded, but force was never used. Clearly it was 
 optional with the individual Boers whether they should 
 fight or stay at home. Usually about twenty warriors were 
 gathered up at each stop ; many were white-haired men of 
 at least threescore-and-ten ; others were fourteen-year-old 
 youngsters ; but all armed with Mausers and heavily-loaded 
 down with ammunition. Open trucks behind the carriages 
 carried their ponies, with which every man was provided. 
 At one station, as the train was about to move on, a cloud 
 
 298 
 
BY TRAIN TO PRETORIA 
 
 of dust in the distance across the veldt developed into two 
 horsemen riding like mad for the train, which waited until 
 they arrived. They galloped up, a dozen burghers raised 
 the plank to the truck, the horses were led on, their owners 
 jumped into the carriage, and the train steamed on. These 
 men had needed no urging ; they were determined to fight 
 to the end, having heard encouraging news. The reports 
 were that General French had lost five thousand men north 
 of Johannesburg, that De Wet had cut off the railway be- 
 hind Lord Roberts and was coming on with twelve thou- 
 sand Free Staters, who had risen again on his appearance. 
 Other reports were that French had been killed, and that 
 the British were retiring southward. By the time we were 
 near Pretoria the train was filled with soldiers, all armed 
 and provided with fresh horses on the trucks behind, and 
 ready to take the field at once. 
 
 We reached the city after dark, and found that even the 
 tram-car and cab-horses had been commandeered, so we 
 were compelled to leave our baggage at the station, appar- 
 ently a risky thing to do, and tramp a long, weary mile in 
 the darkness to the Grand Hotel, which we had been told 
 was the best. The streets were quiet and but few men 
 were seen ; even the hotel seemed deserted. Information 
 of any kind was not to be had ; nobody knew anything, 
 and so, after a cold supper, we turned in for the night in a 
 very anxious and uncertain frame of mind. 
 
 299 
 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 IN THE SHADOW OF SURRENDER. 
 
 BUT the quiet of the evening and night gave way to in- 
 tense activity with the coming of morning. Early I 
 looked out from my window across the markfet square. 
 On one side stood the newly finished but as yet unused 
 Palace of Justice. A commando of about thirty mounted 
 burghers, ranging in age from thirteen tjD seventy, were 
 drawn up in line facing the government building on the 
 other side of the square. With their heads bared they sang 
 several hymn-like airs, and then after a short prayer and 
 an address by their leader they rode off on some expedi- 
 tion. 
 
 All the while small parties of from two to half a dozen 
 mounted men were galloping into and from the streets 
 meeting at the square. At no time were there more than 
 a hundred men in view, but several thousand must have 
 passed within sight during the morning. While Mr. x\ams- 
 den and I were standing in front of the hotel after break- 
 fast, undecided as to what to do next, and still in dense 
 ignorance of affairs, I accidentally overheard Colonel Blake's 
 name mentioned in a rich brogue. Turning to the speaker, 
 I asked him if he was a member of the Irish Brigade. He 
 answered, 
 
 '' Yes, Oi am." 
 
 '' Well," I continued, ''where is the Colonel?" 
 
 '* Insoide, gettin' his grub," was the answer. I went 
 back to the dining-hall and asked a waiter to point out 
 Colonel Blake to me. There he was, sitting at the table 
 
 300 
 
IN THE SHADOW OF SURRENDER 
 
 we had just left. I walked over and introduced myself to 
 him as an American war correspondent. 
 
 A more different individual than the hard-faced swash- 
 buckler I had expected to meet would be hard to find. 
 His face was extremely refined in its expression, his features 
 were strong and regular, his beard square and curly, his 
 forehead bald, and his hair long and also curly ; threads of 
 grey streaked both beard and hair. He looked me squarely 
 
 
 1 
 
 1 
 
 
 |:a,..yy%' 
 
 ii; ,mM 
 
 
 The Market Square, Pretoria, showing granite pedestal erected for the recep- 
 tion of a Bronze Statue of President Kriiger. 
 
 in the eye, out of deep, light-blue eyes, in a manner that 
 made me admire him at once. His greeting was cordial 
 in the extreme, and he at once introduced me to two of his 
 men, rough enough looking customers, whom he was enter- 
 taining at breakfast. His manners were those of a thorough 
 man of the world, equally at home in all societies, but he 
 affects a carelessness of dress and rather boisterous manner, 
 which makes him vWy popular. In the strong, classical 
 regularity of his features, with his long curly hair and beard 
 
 301 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 and his brilliantly clear complexion, he did not look unlike 
 a portrait of St. Peter by one of the old masters. He soon 
 relieved me of my troubles by taking me to the govern- 
 ment building to get new passports, which he said were 
 necessary. The Boers seemed to idolize him, and as we 
 walked across the square our progress was arrested every 
 few steps by some one who wanted to shake his hand. 
 Even the women pressed about him, and so wonderful was 
 the man's memory that he called every man or woman by 
 name, never hesitating a moment or making a single mistake. 
 Colonel Blake told me, as we entered the building, that 
 the Government had been removed several days before to 
 Machadodorp, but that he would find somebody who would 
 fix my papers for me. In a stuffy office, crowded with 
 men who were handling a lot of firearms, many of them of 
 very old and antique pattern, we found an official who 
 looked over the paper the Dutch Consul at Lorenzo 
 Marquez had given me, and then wrote out a new passport 
 (date, June 2, 1 900), affixing the Government seal over his 
 signature. It was not until some weeks later that I learned 
 that in those few seconds I had become a member of the 
 Irish Brigade myself, for my new passport attached me to 
 that body or commando. A similar one was made out for 
 Mr. Aamsden. The possession of my new passport gave 
 me the unique position of holding full correspondent's 
 passes from both Boer and British armies. I had unlimited 
 privileges to go anywhere in the lines of either army, out- 
 posts and scouting lines being as free to me as Cape Town 
 or Pretoria. It was in my power to go absolutely anywhere 
 in South Africa, — a thing which neither **Bobs" nor Kriiger 
 could do, and I think I am safe in saying no one else could. 
 However, the direct representatives of those two gentlemen 
 had accorded me these unusual privileges, and it was now 
 for me to see that I did not abuse them. 
 
 302 
 
IN THE SHADOW OF SURRENDER 
 
 Another gentleman I met after dinner was Commandant 
 Ben Viljoen. I only had a few words with him, but he im- 
 pressed me as a man of considerable dignity, and quite the 
 opposite of his reputation as it had filtered through the 
 lines into the British camps. When the Imperial forces 
 finally take Colonel Blake and Commandant Viljoen pris- 
 oners, they will be agreeably surprised to find two affable 
 gentlemen in their hands, instead of the ruffianly characters 
 the English press has made them appear. 
 
 There was a monotonous sameness in the appearance of 
 the horsemen continually galloping about the streets. There 
 seemed to be no apparent system ; it looked as though it 
 all was quite aimless. Nevertheless, the commandoes pre- 
 paring to defend the city gradually formed themselves and 
 took positions of vantage, described by one who had been 
 outside as *' one long, unending black line in a half-circle 
 around the city." The Boers had burned all the grass on 
 the surrounding hills, so that against the black surface of 
 the veldt the khaki uniforms of the Imperial army would 
 be visible for many miles. 
 
 At this stage of affairs it was very desirable for me to 
 secure a horse. At any moment a contingent of British 
 troops might come galloping in one end of the town, and, 
 naturally, about that time I would like to be galloping out 
 at the other end at the same time. I found that it was im- 
 possible to buy any sort of an animal for the simple reason 
 that the owners all had the same idea as I about the inad- 
 visability of being '' around " when the khaki streams began 
 to pour into the streets of Pretoria. Borrowing was equally 
 out of the question. Colonel Blake proving very friendly, 
 I offered a proper inducement to several of his men if they 
 would ** commandeer " a horse for me. The result was 
 that for two days and nights the entire brigade were on the 
 lookout, especially at night. One of them confided to me 
 
 303 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 that my friend Consul Hay had two very good greys which 
 he hoped to get hold of that evening. I made no comment, 
 but quietly decided not to call on Mr. Hay on horseback, 
 if by any chance or fortune I should become possessed of 
 a grey horse. 
 
 Since this might come to pass, I thought it would be a 
 good plan to call on the Consul before I took to riding ; so 
 after dinner Mr. Aamsden and I walked out to the pretty 
 little suburb, *' Sunnyside," where all the foreign consulates 
 were situated, and, following the direction of a large Amer- 
 ican flag, waving sixty feet above the road, we found under- 
 neath its graceful folds the house of Mr. Hay. In addition 
 to having met him at East London, while he was on his way 
 to Pretoria, I also had a letter of introduction to him from 
 his father. Colonel John Hay, Secretary of State of the 
 United States. It was quite a surprise to him to find me 
 turn up in Pretoria without having been captured, for he 
 had really expected to find me sooner or later among the 
 prisoners on the race-course, where they were penned. 
 However, he gave me " the glad hand," and after an hour's 
 chat about affairs in general and ourselves in particular, we 
 had our photographs taken, Mr. Aamsden kindly manipu- 
 lating my camera. Unfortunately, this film, like many 
 others equally important, was ruined in the developing. 
 The photograph I had taken at East London of Mr. Hay, 
 however, had turned out more satisfactorily, and I had 
 the pleasure of giving him a print of it before I left Pre- 
 toria. 
 
 Returning to our hotel, we had dinner with Colonel 
 Blake and some of the Irish Brigade, who furnished us 
 with ample excuses for their dilatoriness in the matter of 
 stealing riding-horses for us. During the afternoon, while 
 sitting in front of the hotel, still hoping and praying for 
 those mounts, I was semi -paralyzed to see sitting in a pass- 
 
 304 
 
305 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 ing carriage Mr. Donahue, of Sydney, Australia, one of my 
 co-war correspondents on Lord Roberts' staff. Beside him 
 was a portly, important-looking gentleman of middle age. 
 Without thought of formality I ran after the carriage and 
 jumped in. Donahue's turn of paralysis followed. When 
 he recovered, mutual explanations followed, and I learned 
 that he had been captured by a Boer patrol a few days be- 
 fore while riding near Johannesburg. He was placed on 
 parole, and was now the guest of Mr. Mendelsohn, the pro- 
 prietor of the " Standard and Digger's News," of Johannes- 
 burg. This was the gentleman beside him in the carriage. 
 While under parole he was not given much freedom, and 
 the carriage ride was taken at some risk of being followed 
 by closer confinement. From him I learned that two other 
 correspondents were paroled and under guard in rooms at 
 the very hotel at which I was stopping. As I had met one 
 of them during the raid after De Wet to Dewetsdorp, I 
 took my card and knocked at their door as soon as I could 
 get back to the hotel. I found Lord Cecil Manners and 
 the Earl of Rosslyn very comfortably housed, but rather 
 bored, and very glad to receive a fellow-correspondent of 
 the Imperial army. 
 
 Naturally they were greatly surprised to see me free in 
 Pretoria while they were confined, and still more so to find 
 that I had a correspondent's commission with the Boer 
 forces. They thought, of course, I had been captured also, 
 and in some mysterious manner had acquired my freedom 
 and all these privileges. I explained the situation, and 
 passed a very pleasant half-hour with them. The Earl was 
 kind enough to ask me to take dinner with them, a cour- 
 tesy I was compelled to decline because of a previous 
 agreement to dine with Colonel Blake. In this connection 
 I mentioned the Colonel's name, and both gentlemen were 
 interested at once in what I had to say of the man. Lord 
 
 306 
 
IN THE SHADOW OF SURRENDER 
 
 Rosslyn then asked me to bring Colonel Blake to call on 
 them ; but as I was ignorant of that doughty warrior's 
 opinion of British aristocracy, I could only say I would do 
 the best in my power to induce him to call. After dinner 
 I mentioned the fact to Colonel Blake that I had called on 
 the prisoners upstairs, and that they had asked me to bring 
 him in to see them. He looked rather blankly at me until 
 I added, "■ They seem to be under the impression that 
 you are some impossible sort of a swashbuckler, and I 
 would be very glad if you would go up with me and let 
 them see what sort of a man you really are." That was 
 enough. 
 
 ''Where's their room?" he asked, starting up the stair- 
 way ahead of me. " Of course I'll go up to see them, and 
 you'll see that I know just how to talk to them, too." 
 When we entered the room he followed my introduction, 
 while shaking hands, by saying, 
 
 "■ I want you gentlemen to know the notorious Colonel 
 Blake, as that wretched rag, the * Cape Times,' has called 
 me." We spent the entire evening with the distinguished 
 prisoners, and the Earl and Colonel Blake found that they 
 had been opposite each other during a number of engage- 
 ments near Ladysmith, which gave their conversation a 
 unique and mteresting flavor. Lord Rosslyn also wanted 
 to know how he could recover fifty thousand pounds dam- 
 ages from my American paper, which he said had libelled 
 him in a most outrageous manner, picturing him as a ballet- 
 dancer some years before, when he had taken part in pri- 
 vate theatricals. As he said, 
 
 " I don't mind the picture so much ; but what I base my 
 claim for damages on is that the paper said that my danc- 
 ing was so bad that the audience hissed me off the stage." 
 This seemed to annoy him greatly, though he did not mind 
 our laughing at him about it. It then transpired, curiously 
 
 307 
 
WITH " BOBS " AND KRUGER 
 
 enough, that Colonel Blake had been present at this very 
 performance at Queen's Hall, in London, and that started 
 the two off ** reminiscencing " again at a great rate. 
 
 I had some conversation with the gentlemen on the pro- 
 priety of my having changed sides during the war. I 
 quite agreed with them that it had established a dangerous 
 
 f 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 mm 
 
 1 
 
 .1 
 
 I 
 
 mmm, 
 
 i 
 
 I] 
 
 1 
 
 
 The captured Correspondents on the portico of the Grand Hotel at Pretoria 
 overlooking the Market Square. The Earl of Rosslyn, of the "Daily 
 Mail," and Lord Cecil Manners, of the '* Morning Post." Colonel Blake, 
 of the Irish American Brigade, is standing between, leaning against the 
 post. 
 
 precedent, and should have been by no means allowed ; 
 that it was bad form and a questionable proceeding alto- 
 gether ; while on the other hand they returned the compli- 
 ment by agreeing with me that from the newspaper point 
 of view it was a brilliant and commendable piece of work. 
 I held the view that a newspaper man was a non-combatant, 
 
 308 
 
IN THE SHADOW OF SURRENDER 
 
 and should have a status something Hke that of a Red 
 Cross man, being equally neutral. It seems to me that 
 news-gathering during a 'war is not a national but an inter- 
 national affair, concering all nations equally. The Earl of 
 Rosslyn agreed with me, for he had based his claims for 
 release on these very grounds. Lord Manners was non- 
 committal. 
 
 Nominally and technically speaking, a war correspondent 
 is not a non-combatant. On the contrary, he generally 
 is decidedly a participant in hostilities. Not that he often 
 does any actual fighting ; I myself went through the entire 
 period of my experience on both sides during the war, and 
 never carried a more formidable weapon than my riding- 
 whip and a small penknife for sharpening my lead-pencils. 
 But, really, I was a participant in the war on both sides. 
 Every time I carried an official despatch for Lord Roberts 
 I was aiding the British cause. I know positively that it 
 was a common practice for correspondents who had been 
 out with the scouts to report, on their meeting the com- 
 manding officer of a body of troops, what they had seen of 
 the enemy's positions. 
 
 Then, too, when writing to their papers, the British cor- 
 respondents left nothing undone to harm their enemy's 
 prestige, not hesitating to give outrageous calumnies as 
 facts, even falling so low as to attack the chastity of the 
 Boer women. 
 
 I think I, have given sufficient reasons for deciding the 
 status of a correspondent. He is a combatant, and one of 
 the most efficient and deadly, and it is my opinion that 
 whenever he is captured he should be treated as a prisoner 
 of war. The only proper alternative is the organization of 
 an international association of war correspondents and the 
 selection of men whose personal character will enable them 
 to command implicit confidence, and men whose neutrality 
 
 309 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 will enable them to report the facts as they occur without 
 color or prejudice. The war correspondent is a necessity, 
 for he is the direct representative of the public. At the 
 same time, he is unquestionably a military nuisance. Such 
 a proceeding as my own in going from one side to the other 
 during the continuance of hostilities should either be uni- 
 versally condemned and made in the future impossible, or 
 else it should pave the way for an international status for the 
 
 Dutch Reformed Church directly opposite President Kriiger's residence in 
 Pretoria. Before and during the war, when his heahh would permit, 
 the President would preach powerful sermons from the pulpit of this 
 church. 
 
 war correspondent, giving him still greater privileges. My 
 own participation in the hostilities was confined to the carry- 
 ing of despatches, which I repeatedly did for the authorities 
 on both sides; further than that, either in act of arm or 
 word of mouth, I maintained a thoroughly neutral course, 
 and strictly adhered to the implied and defined stipulations 
 of my commissions ; but at the same time I frankly admit 
 that it was a dangerous precedent to establish, and that in 
 
 310 
 
IN THE SHADOW OF SURRENDER 
 
 future wars it should be made impossible by professional 
 ethics as well as by military regulations. 
 
 Colonel Blake was greatly pleased with his reception by 
 **The Lords," as he called them, and during the next two 
 days was. a frequent visitor to their rooms. I trust he and 
 I made' an equally favorable impression on them. I had 
 met Lord Manners before, and found him the same quiet, 
 dignified gentleman of the earlier days in Bloemfontein, 
 differing only by the addition of an air of languid weariness 
 brought on by the lack of exercise. Lord Rosslyn was 
 busy in writing his diary, and showed no signs of boredom, 
 being very much alive and interested in what the Colonel 
 had to say. Their discussion of the merits of the war, 
 when we all freely expressed our honest opinions without 
 reserve, was interesting in the extreme ; I regret that it 
 was of such a nature that its implied privacy forbids its 
 repetition. I can only say for Colonel Blake that he made 
 the surprising statement, 
 
 " The English people are the best friends I have, and 
 against them I have no feelings. My fight is a personal 
 one, and is against those three scoundrels, Rhodes, Milner 
 and Chamberlain, and until I die they will always have me 
 to fight, whether it be here in South Africa, in a Continental 
 army in Europe, or in the Orient." This personal bitter- 
 ness dates back to the days of the exploiting of Rhodesia 
 and the Chartered Company, when certain exposures in 
 the British press by Colonel Blake precipitated a financial 
 collapse and made a general sensation, also many and 
 powerful enemies for the Colonel. *' But that is another 
 story," which the Colonel told Mr. Aamsden and myself 
 after we left '* The Lords" that evening, talking until far 
 into the night. 
 
 The evening had been intensely interesting to Mr. 
 Aamsden, who had accompanied us, as well as to me, 
 
 311 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 although I cannot honestly forgive the three captured cor- 
 respondents for getting into Pretoria before I did, and thus 
 preventing my achieving the honor of being the first of 
 Lord Roberts' correspondents to get into the enemy's 
 capital. 
 
 312 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 THE LAST DAY AT PRETORIA. 
 
 THE next day was Sunday, and the streets seemed to be 
 entirely deserted. The first thing I did was to hunt 
 up Colonel Blake. In his turn, the first thing he did was 
 to hunt up ** The Lords." The proprietor of the hotel was 
 a German ; and, since it was obvious that within a few days 
 the English would be in possession of the city, Blake and 
 the Boers generally were at a discount with him, while 
 lords, even in confinement, were at a big premium. The 
 result was that while "The Lords" had all the liqueurs, 
 cigars and cigarettes they wanted, Blake and some others 
 found themselves unable to get a drop of anything ; for, in 
 addition to the Boer laws against selling liqueurs during the 
 reign of martial law, the supply still on hand was being 
 carefully hoarded by the crafty Teutonic landlord until the 
 arrival of the British. 
 
 This being the situation, it is not surprising that ** The 
 Lords " became a popular resort among the select few who 
 had the privilege of their acquaintance. Photographs were 
 taken of them on the balcony outside their room, where 
 they had the right to promenade. Frequent visits were 
 made to them during the day **to keep them posted," for, 
 poor lords, they had no means of knowing what was going 
 on except through their visitors. Later in the morning 
 Colonel Blake escorted Mr. Aamsden and me to Presi- 
 dent Kriiger's cottage, where we were introduced to two 
 of the old man's daughters, and by special influence of the 
 Colonel we were allowed to take a photograph of the inte- 
 
 313 
 
WITH '' BOBS " AND KRUGER 
 
 rior of the Presidential parlor, showing a huge gilded eagle, 
 the embleiji of liberty, presented by Colonel Blake, as chair- 
 man of a committee of Americans, to the President at the 
 time of the Jameson raid. The remainder of the day was 
 spent in photographing various scenes of interest about town. 
 
 The Piazza or Stoop of the White House, President Kriiger's Cottage at Pre- 
 toria. The persons are, from left to right, the youngest daughter of the 
 President, his grandchild, one of his daughters in-law, the author, and 
 Colonel Blake, of the Irish Brigade. 
 
 Incidentally I met Mr. Sutherland, who had accompanied 
 the Philadelphia messenger boy who had brought a mes- 
 sage of sympathy for the Boers to President Kriiger from 
 the boys of the Quaker City. A law-and-order commit- 
 tee had been organized to police the city after the with- 
 drawal of the burghers, and to prevent looting and other 
 
 314 
 
THE LAST DAY AT PRETORIA 
 
 lawlessness before the entry of the British, when the city 
 should be surrendered. Mr. Sutherland, after acting as 
 escort for the bearer of the message of sympathy, had him- 
 self been placed on this police force, and had made arrange- 
 ments to be the bearer of the city's surrender to Lord 
 Roberts. Whether this spectacle of an American sur- 
 rendering the capital of the Transvaal, another republic, 
 took place or not, I cannot say. 
 
 During the afternoon there were a number of false 
 alarms that the British were entering the city. A few 
 days previously the city was about to be surrendered, a 
 panic having caused the burghers to withdraw ; they re- 
 turned again, however, and no damage was done beyond 
 the looting of some government stores by a mob. As was 
 done in Bloemfontein, barricades were erected in front of 
 the plate-glass show-windows of the principal stores. I 
 noticed a crowd in the street toward evening surrounding a 
 man In khaki, with whom I quickly had some conversa- 
 tion, his guard making no objection. He was a scout who 
 had been captured near Johannesburg, and was spreading 
 the information to the surrounding crowd that Generals 
 French and Hutton, with twenty thousand men each, were 
 approaching Pretoria on either flank, while *' Bobs," with 
 forty thousand infantry, was marching in the centre. This 
 was probably correct. Accurate information was hard to 
 obtain, for the regular authorities had left the city, and 
 their substitutes were in a perturbed and confused state of 
 mind, being besieged with applications for information from 
 all quarters, and giving more or less inaccurate replies — in 
 Dutch. I depended mainly on Colonel Blake for informa- 
 tion, as he had guaranteed to keep me informed in time to 
 leave the city before the British should enter. There was 
 nothing I so much dreaded as to run the slightest risk of 
 being detained by the English authorities, if even for only 
 
 315 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 half a day, for in that time something might happen, the 
 missing of which might mean professional disaster to me as 
 a correspondent. 
 
 After another evening spent with Colonel Blake and 
 *' The Lords " we retired for the night, it being very un- 
 
 The parlor of the White House, showing huge gilt American Eagle, presented 
 to President Kriiger by Colonel Blake, as chairman of a committee of 
 Americans during the time of the Jameson Raid. This is the only pho- 
 tograph of the parlor of the White House taken up to this time. 
 
 certain who would be in possession of the city in the morn- 
 ing, Boer or British. Before we had put out the lights our 
 room was invaded by a half Dutch, half Irish scrub-woman, 
 as ugly as sin, and certainly not less than fifty years old. 
 She demanded a revolver of Colonel Blake. She said, 
 '* They say the British soldiers are going to take the city 
 
 316 
 
THE LAST DAY AT PRETORIA 
 
 to-morrow, and I am a lone woman, and I want to have a 
 revolver to protect myself against them." She was very 
 much excited, and it was with much difficulty that Colonel 
 Blake convinced her that the British soldiers would not 
 harm her. *' They may be brutes, but her face is sufficient 
 protection," added Blake as the old woman pottered off. 
 
 In was evident the next morning that Pretoria was to fall 
 at once. Early, before breakfast, heavy guns were heard to 
 the south of the city. Their dull boom came faintly through 
 the open windows, and recalled the days of Paardeburg and 
 the heavy black pall of lyddite vapor over Cronje's laager. 
 It was estimated that about fifteen thousand burghers had 
 concentrated for the defence of the capital. General Botha 
 really only had about 2500 to defend the city. There was 
 little excitement in Pretoria, although there were many 
 people on the streets, and squads of horsemen were con- 
 tinually galloping by in every direction. Gradually the 
 majority found their way along the road leading to the 
 railway station, beyond which the fighting was expected to 
 take place. On the way to the station, in passing the rail- 
 way offices I dropped in, asked for the superintendent, pre- 
 sented my credentials, and received for Mr. Aamsden and 
 myself railway passes over the entire line. Then for 
 greater security I had my baggage conveyed to the sta- 
 tion, while my partner decided to stay and see the entry 
 of the British troops. I was determined to get out before 
 this could happen. 
 
 The streets were now filling up ; many of the burghers 
 were dismounted, but nevertheless hurried along on foot, 
 eager to be at the front to aid in resisting the attacking 
 forces. The regular daily train eastward was to leave at 
 eleven o'clock, and as that hour approached, to quiet a 
 vague feeling of uneasiness I moved my baggage close to 
 the train. So far as I could learn, the exceptional occasion 
 
 317 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 would not cause any change in the running of trains by the 
 railway authorities, and this would be the last train until 
 next day. A big crowd was gathered at the station, but I 
 was somewhat surprised not to see more people getting 
 ready to leave ; there were very few, as the refugees had 
 almost all left in the preceding week. Those remaining 
 were prepared to endure a siege or surrender into the hands 
 of the enemy. 
 
 Colonel Blake had sent a dozen or more of his unmounted 
 men to entrain for the new capital at Machadodorp, for he 
 was fearful of the kind of treatment his Irish lads mig-ht 
 receive if captured by the British. His mounted men could 
 be depended upon to take care of themselves. He him- 
 self was galloping off on a fine Irish hunter he had cap- 
 tured from an English officer at Ladysmith. He waved 
 his hand to me, and his white silk handkerchief about his 
 neck showed up brightly in the sun as he turned a distant 
 corner, and I had had my last look at that gallant officer 
 and soldier of fortune, Colonel Blake, formerly of West 
 Point and the United States army. 
 
 On the hills above the station were seen groups of men 
 and women watching something on the other side. Oh, if 
 one of those confounded Irishmen would only commandeer 
 somebody's horse for me, so I could ride out and see 
 the battle ! I would rather lose my baggage than miss that. 
 On the hills were forts faintly visible, but they appeared to 
 be unoccupied. As a matter of fact, they had been dis- 
 mantled the preceding night, the heavy guns had been 
 brought down to the station, and were at this very time 
 mounted on railway trucks for removal. For months these 
 guns had stood guard over the city in a semicircle of forts 
 surrounding it, silently awaiting the arrival of the Imperial 
 army, but with their muzzles pointed toward the town. 
 Why was this ? No one could tell me ; perhaps they were 
 
 318 
 
THE LAST DAY AT PRETORIA 
 
 waiting for the occupation, and would then belch forth 
 their showers of death upon patriot and foe aHke, that 
 Oom Paul's prediction would become true — *' The price of 
 peace will be one that will stagger humanity." 
 
 However that may be, they were now dismantled and 
 ingloriously packed on low ballast trucks, to be hauled out 
 of range and out of danger. A few men and women, and 
 perhaps half a dozen men besides the Irish contingent, were 
 
 The last passenger train leaving Pretoria before the surrender, on which the 
 author was a lucky passenger. 
 
 boarding the train. The Colonel failed to make good his 
 promise to have a horse commandeered for me, so I walked 
 nervously about, pretending to be intensely interested in 
 the cannon and Maxim guns on the trucks near by, ready 
 to be pulled out of town at the first indication of danger. 
 Which way would they go ? eastward for safety, or south- 
 ward for defence ? But I was not a bit interested. I would 
 have liked to go out, even on foot, to see the fighting; 
 but to risk missing the last train, and thereby becoming cut 
 
 319 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 off from the Transvaal government and my news-getting, 
 was a serious matter. 
 
 Eleven o'clock came, yet the train did not start. I 
 bought half a dozen oranges from a vendor, gave a few 
 away, stuffed some into my pockets, and mechanically 
 peeled one for myself A few minutes after half-past eleven 
 a bell clanged three times in quick succession, whereupon 
 I threw my baggage through the window of the nearest 
 empty compartment, and, after a quick good-by to my 
 partner, swung myself on the train as it moved off 
 
 The die was cast. If the British were driven back, I had 
 made the mistake of my life. If the Boers fell back, my 
 staying would be as bad. I found myself selfishly hoping 
 for the fall of Pretoria, that my judgment in fleeing might 
 be vindicated. The city remained in sight, as the train 
 moved slowly off, for half an hour. At the same time the 
 British opened fire with their naval guns, and several lyd- 
 dite shells were seen falling into Pretoria. Thank good- 
 ness, I was right ; if the British were near enough to drop 
 shells into the city it would surrender at once, and I would 
 be safely out of it, and in just the nick of time. But one 
 thing marred my satisfaction ; my overcoat, the companion 
 of my trip to the Klondyke — light, stylish, and durable, 
 endeared by many associations, and just the thing for horse- 
 back riding — this precious article of clothing had been for- 
 gotten, and was still in my room at the Grand Hotel. 
 
 320 
 
CHAPTER XXXVII. 
 
 A CHAPTER OF COINCIDENCES. 
 
 THE train rushed jerkily on toward Middleburg, and 
 then on to Machadodorp, where I arrived late at 
 night — too late for supper, and just in time to secure the 
 last vacant bed in the hotel, and even that not an object of 
 vanity. I had eaten nothing but a few oranges since break- 
 fast, every one was in bed, no information was to be had, 
 it was bitter cold, and sleep was well-nigh impossible, so 
 I lay awake and reflected how the more widely a man 
 travels the more he realizes how very small the world really 
 is. This line of thought was suggested by an incident of 
 my trip from Pretoria to Machadodorp that afternoon. I 
 scraped acquaintance on the train with a German newspaper 
 man, and as a result of our friendship, casual though it was, 
 the following curious coincidences occurred. It will be re- 
 membered in the part of my narrative describing the advance 
 on Bloemfontein I devoted some space to a trip I made 
 from Modder River station to Osfontein camp in company 
 with Mr. Alfred Hutton, the Renter's Agency correspon- 
 dent who escaped from Ladysmith during the siege of that 
 place. Among the many tales with which Hutton had en- 
 livened the tedium of those two days in the veldt was one 
 of how, after writing a long cable message, he had entrusted 
 it with his last and best horse to a Kaffir servant, and sent 
 him out mto the darkness to find a way through the Boer 
 lines to the telegraph office in the British camp under Gen- 
 eral Buller. After escaping, he learned that the Kaffir had 
 21 321 
 
WITH '' BOBS " AND KRUGER 
 
 never reached his destination. His fate — whether killed 
 or captured — was unknown. Hutton regretted the loss of 
 the horse very much. The weeks had rolled by rapidly 
 since then. Poplar Grove, Driefontein, the occupation of 
 Bloemfontein, French's raid in the southeastern part of the 
 Free State in pursuit of De Wet, and finally, after a long 
 
 t)ismounted members of the Irish Brigade en route to Machadodorp, the new 
 Capital, to avoid falling into the hands of the British, from whom they 
 expected torture and execution. 
 
 and weary wait, the general advance northward toward 
 Pretoria had followed. 
 
 Meanwhile a strange destiny had taken me away from 
 the British army at Brandfort, back to the Cape, then up 
 the east coast to Lorenzo Marquez, and finally, on June 
 1st, into Pretoria itself, where four days later I started east- 
 ward again on the last train to leave that city, on which I 
 had the fortune to meet this German correspondent in my 
 compartment. He was also a Transvaal burgher, and had 
 
 322 
 
A CHAPTER OF COINCIDENCES 
 
 been fighting valiantly with both pen and Mauser for their 
 cause. 
 
 He grew quite friendly during our trip, and, among other 
 tales, told how, while on patrol near the Utrecht laager, 
 close by the railway station outside of Ladysmith, one 
 dark, stormy night during the siege, he saw a dusky- 
 mounted figure approaching which took no notice of his 
 repeated challenges. After the third warning, as the 
 figure appeared to be attempting to avoid him, he raised his 
 rifle and fired. The stranger turned to escape, but the 
 second shot tumbled him off the horse, which immediately 
 stopped and stood still. The rider was a Kaffir, and the 
 correspondent found, on examination, that the bullet had 
 struck him in the neck, entering the spinal column and 
 killing him instantly. He captured the horse and turned 
 over a bagful of papers and letters to his commandant. On 
 inspection of these, a package was found which, owing to 
 his profession, the commandant allowed him to keep, as 
 well as the horse. Here my German friend cut short his 
 narrative to open a small school-bag which was doing him 
 service as a writing-case, and took out a stained and worn 
 bundle of telegraph forms, on which were some words 
 written in lead-pencil. These I read through with in- 
 terest to the end, where my startled eyes read, in the place 
 designated for the sender's signature, *'' A. Hutton, Renter's 
 Correspondent, Ladysmith." It was the lost message! 
 Neither money nor persuasion would induce my new friend 
 to part with the original papers. However, he allowed me 
 to make a copy of them, I following every line and word 
 closely, even imitating the original mistakes and corrections 
 made by Hutton. 
 
 As the captor of the horse and papers has since left the 
 Transvaal and returned to Germany there is no harm in my 
 giving his name, which he signed to my copy of the mes- 
 
 323 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 sage. He is well known in Germany through his corre- 
 spondence to many papers during the war. By way as a 
 finale, he said, when I told him I knew Hutton, 
 
 " The horse is still in Johannesburg. I told my boy to 
 kill him if the English came ; but if it is still alive, tell your 
 friend Herr Hutton that I make him a present of it back 
 again — if he can find it." He signed his name *' Fritz van 
 Strarten, Editor, Suid Afrikanische Correspondentz, Johan- 
 nesburg, P. O. box 624." Three months later, by an- 
 other mere accident, I nearly collided with Hutton him- 
 self one Sunday evening while walking in Piccadilly, Lon- 
 don. I tumbled him into a cab, accepting no excuses, and 
 after dinner at my hotel spread out this story and the 
 copied message before him. Both he and I were about the 
 last men each expected to meet in London, and our meet- 
 ing at all was about as great a surprise as my having the 
 copy of his original message, which he read through care- 
 fully, with amazement plainly depicted on his face, recog- 
 nizing every word. When he had finished he looked at me 
 long in silence, and then agreed with me that the ''yarn" 
 was only another proof that the world of men and things 
 is very small indeed. 
 
 This meeting with the German correspondent, and the 
 train of reminiscences it had started, furnished food for 
 meditation while I shivered in that cold room at the Hotel 
 Machadodorp the night of my arrival. Finally I fell 
 asleep. 
 
 324 
 
CHAPTER XXXVIII. 
 
 THE TRAVELLING RAILWAY CARRIAGE CAPITAL AT 
 MACHADODORP. 
 
 WITH the first suggestion of dawn, hinting at the 
 coming of another day, an answered knock at my 
 door revealed a distinguished-looking officer, who proved 
 to be Lieutenant Thompson, the Netherlands military at- 
 tache. He rolled up in his blankets on the floor and told 
 me that he had left Pretoria, late in the afternoon, on a 
 truck that was part of a freight train ; that five lyddite 
 shells had fallen near the station ; and in Sunnyside, near 
 the foreign consulates, a fragment of one shell tore away a 
 part of the United States flag over the American Consulate. 
 Also that heavy fighting was in progress, and that he had 
 no idea of the result. 
 
 The night was very cold, so when he concluded I snug- 
 gled closer under my blankets and tried to imagine how 
 miserable he must have been in that cold wind on the open 
 truck. We got better acquainted in the morning as we 
 took a dry wash on the same towel, and then went out to 
 get breakfast and look at Machadodorp. In the dining- 
 room of the hotel I met Captain Reichman, the American 
 mihtary attache, presented my letters of introduction to 
 him, and, after some conversation, requested him to intro- 
 duce me to the proper government official, who he said was 
 Secretary Reitz. Mr. Reitz had just left the dining-room 
 and had gone to his private car. The car provided for the 
 attaches was adjoining it, and so we all went there together, 
 where I was duly presented to His Excellency, Staadt's 
 
 325 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 Secretary F. W. Reitz. Mr. Reitz invited me into his car, 
 informing me that I was the only war correspondent re- 
 maining with the Boers, and that, this being the case, he 
 would ''take good care of" me. I asked him if Pretoria 
 had surrendered, and, if it had, would the war be over? 
 He did not know for certain, but assumed that the sur- 
 render would take place that morning. 
 
 "In any event," he said, ''the war will not be over. 
 Guerrilla warfare is certain for some time to come. Our 
 
 The new Capital at Machadodorp, showing a supply train leaving for the front 
 at Balmoral, where General Botha was encamped. 
 
 burghers are determined to fight to the bitter end, probably 
 retiring to Leydenburg, where we can continue to hold out 
 for many months." 
 
 I learned that all the artillery had been successfully 
 brought away, that two train-loads of English prisoners had 
 been brought from the pen at Waterval and were on their 
 way farther east, and that two more train-loads were ex- 
 pected later in the day. They were to be sent to Nooit- 
 gedacht and imprisoned in a barb-wired enclosure on the 
 open veldt. 
 
 326 
 
THE CAPITAL AT MACHADODORP 
 
 An official bulletin announced that the Federal forces had 
 retired from the west to Pretoria before the British, who had 
 advanced to within three miles. General Botha had in- 
 formed Lord Roberts that he would abandon the defence 
 of the capital, consigning the women and children to Eng- 
 lish protection. Then, cutting the wires to destroy fur- 
 ther communication, he had retired eastward of Pretoria 
 about six miles. During the evening and night the Impe- 
 rial scouts entered the city. The formal occupation would 
 likely take place the next day. General Botha had taken 
 up a new position, half-circling the city, six miles east- 
 ward. President Kriiger was still waiting for further in- 
 formation. 
 
 Later information came in that the Boers, about fifteen 
 thousand strong, were falling back toward Middleburg 
 with all their artillery. It was also said that General 
 French had lost about one thousand men. This report 
 lacked official confirmation. Secretary Reitz told me, also, 
 that General De Wet had cut off Lord Roberts' communi- 
 cations south of Johannesburg, and that President Steyn, 
 having '' Proclaimed the Free State," was marching south- 
 ward, and had informed President Kriiger that he would 
 " retake Bloemfontein." After I had extracted about all 
 the general information from His Excellency that I could, 
 I cautiously approached the main object of my trip into the 
 Transvaal, and bluntly asked Mr. Reitz to secure me an in- 
 terview with President Kriiger. 
 
 ** Quite impossible," was his answer. *' You see, the 
 President is now practically a refugee from his home, and 
 since he was forced to leave Pretoria he has felt very sen- 
 sitive about it, and refuses to be interviewed for any news- 
 papers. Only two days ago a prominent American war 
 correspondent, to whom he felt very kindly, made the same 
 request, and I was forced to refuse him." 
 
 327 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 "Very well," I assented; "I have had the pleasure of 
 interviewing you, at any rate." He laughed pleasantly, 
 and said, 
 
 "I'm glad to be of any service to you. Come to me 
 any time you want anything, and, if possible, I'll help you 
 out." After some hesitancy I told Mr. Reitz of my hav- 
 ing been with Lord Roberts for five months, and added, 
 by way of explanation. 
 
 Captain Carl Reichmnn, the American Military Attache to the Transvaal 
 armies ; who indignantly denies the report that he was in command of 
 the Boers at Koornspruit when they captured seven guns, one hundred 
 supply carts and six hundred prisoners from the British. 
 
 *' I want to see something of this side, so as to be able 
 to judge of the right and wrong in this war solely on its 
 merits, without prejudice, and after having seen both sides 
 myself" I hesitated considerably before making this con- 
 fession, but I decided to do so on remembering scout Burn- 
 ham's experience while a prisoner under De Wet, for I was 
 afraid some idiotic English prisoner might recognize me 
 and ''give me away." Fortunately, as events proved, it 
 
 328 
 
THE CAPITAL AT MACHADODORP' 
 
 was the wisest thing I could have done. Mr. Rcitz did 
 not seem to think there was anything odd about my hav- 
 ing come around to the Boer side, and merely said, 
 
 " I hope you will come to see that we are in the right, 
 and do what you can through your newspaper connections 
 to make the rest of the world see the same thing." At this 
 juncture a message was brought to Mr. Reitz, which he 
 read hastily, and then excused himself to me, sayings 
 
 ''The President has sent for me; I must go at once. 
 Don't hesitate to call on me at any time ; FU tell you if I 
 happen to be too busy to talk." 
 
 We left the car together, and I began to wander about 
 the station and the tracks, looking at the government outfit 
 established in half a dozen private cars, with a printing- 
 office and the Treasury Department in ordinary box-cars. 
 Suddenly, back on the last siding, in a corner of a high 
 embankment, I found the Presidential private car, with a 
 travelling telegraph-office attached. There was a wide 
 space in front, and the bright sunshine and a picturesque 
 Johannesburg policeman on guard suggested a photograph. 
 What was more, there was the old President himself, plainly 
 visible at the window. I unslung my camera and pressed 
 the button, taking a snap-shot. As I was about to walk 
 away, I noticed the President and several other gentlemen 
 inside the car were turning to look at me. Somewhat em- 
 barrassed, I started to walk more quickly and get out of 
 their range of vision, when I heard some one calling me. 
 Looking around, I saw Mr. Reitz standing at the door of 
 the car. He called again, saying, 
 
 " I say, Colonel ! I have been telling the President about 
 you, and he wants to see you ; now is a good time for you 
 to get your interview." 
 
 I quickly pressed the button a second time, getting a 
 view of the Secretary, and then followed him into the car. 
 
 329 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 I found myself in a comparatively luxurious apartment, 
 half the length of the car, with a table in the middle, and 
 revolving chairs alongside in front of each window. In 
 one of these Mr. Kriiger was sitting, a small pipe in his 
 mouth, holding the bowl in his left hand. A rusty silk 
 hat trimmed with crepe was on his head, his clothes were 
 black, frock-coat pattern, dusty and soiled with drippings 
 from his meals. He remained motionless when I entered, 
 and after Mr. Reitz finished speaking while presenting me, 
 
 The famous railway carriage Capital of President Kruger, showing Secretary 
 Reitz extending the President's invitation to the author for an interview. 
 
 the old Statesman held out his right hand for me to grasp. 
 His fingers felt cold and soft, reminding me of a fistful 
 of small sausages. His hand remained limp, phlegmatically 
 unresponsive to the pressure of my fingers. Then his hand 
 dropped to his side, and he continued looking at me through 
 his clear gold-rimmed spectacles, puffing out great clouds 
 of smoke from his mouth and maintaining a silence which 
 was fast making me nervous. Was he suspicious of this 
 correspondent who did not hesitate to admit he had just 
 come from the enemy's camp ? There was not a word or 
 
 330 
 
THE CAPITAL AT MACHADODORP 
 
 sign to indicate what he was thinking. It was plainly " up 
 to me " to say something, so I pumped out, 
 
 *' Mr. President, we Americans make it one of our boasts 
 that every citizen has the privilege of grasping the hand of 
 our Chief Executive. I have met Mr. McKinley, the Presi- 
 dent of the greatest Republic in the world ; now I am proud 
 to have met the greatest President in the world." 
 
 Then Mr. Reitz commenced talking to the President in 
 Dutch, and I imagined that he was explaining that my form 
 of lunacy was a mild one, and not at all dangerous. When 
 he had finished he turned to me and said, 
 
 '* I have been translating what you have said to the Presi- 
 dent ; he does not understand English." 
 
 I waited for the President to say something ; but he still 
 remained exasperatingly silent. So I got off something 
 about " American sympathy for courageous burghers," 
 ** plucky fight," "ultimate success," and goodness only 
 knows what else beside ; all of which was duly translated 
 by Mr. Reitz. Oom Paul still looked fixedly at me, every 
 alternate breath being chronicled by a dense cloud of 
 Transvaal tobacco-smoke. His expression was that of great 
 depression mixed with worry ; yet there seemed to be ara 
 undercurrent of determination and unconquerable persist- 
 ence which was likely yet to cost England enormous sums 
 of treasure, life and energy before that iron will should be 
 overruled. I now made up my mind that I would stare 
 back at His Excellency with an expectant look on my face 
 until he said something, if it was only *' Thanks ; come 
 again." I suppose a full minute passed by in dead silence ; 
 I could see that Mr. Reitz was waiting for the President to 
 collect his ideas into shape, so I kept quiet and waited. 
 The old man's eyelids were very red and inflamed. His 
 eyes were watery and glassy. 
 
 Suddenly he turned to Mr. Reitz, and raising his right 
 
 331 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 hand, bringing it down again as though hammering his 
 sentences into the table, said in a deep, hoarse voice, his 
 words coming out jerkily, — something in Dutch ; which, 
 of course, I could not understand. When he finished, Mr. 
 Reitz turned to me and said, 
 
 *' The President says that he feels greatly encouraged by 
 the fine work which General De Wet and President Steyn 
 have been doing in the Free State. That while it is very 
 likely that the English are already in Pretoria, yet it will 
 by no means follow that that means the end of the war." — As 
 a matter of fact, this interview was happening at the very 
 hour of Lord Roberts' entry into the city. — '* Our burghers 
 are fully determined to fight on to the last. We will never 
 surrender as long as there are five hundred armed men re- 
 maining in the country." I then made some other remark 
 about America having had a similar struggle against the 
 same power a hundred and twenty-five years ago, which, 
 when translated, started the President into vehement speech 
 again, waving both hands violently and almost shouting his 
 words. Then Mr. Reitz turned to me, and in a low, well- 
 modulated voice, repeated in English the President's words: 
 
 '' In a former war England sent thirty thousand blacks 
 against us ; now she is trying to crush us by sending three 
 hundred thousand white men against thirty thousand 
 burghers." Then followed some more conversation, in 
 which the President asserted that the gold coin and bullion 
 at Machadodorp and transported to Europe *'was entirely 
 government money," and that since he had come to Macha- 
 dodorp ''Pretoria is no longer the capital; the capital is 
 now at Machadodorp." There was some remark about 
 the probability of guerrilla fighting, and the other gentlemen 
 joining in, the conversation became general ; much of which, 
 of course, was unintelligible to me, except when Mr. Reitz 
 translated. 
 
 332 
 
THE CAPITAL AT MACHADODORP 
 
 Finally, feeling that it was about time for me to go, I 
 asked Mr. Reitz to ask Mr. Kriiger if he had any message 
 he cared to send to my countrymen through me. When 
 this was translated to the President he appeared to think 
 earnestly for a few moments ; then, as though despairingly 
 realizing that neither as a result of diplomatic negotiations 
 nor of newspaper appeals to the public could foreign inter- 
 vention be expected, he replied. 
 
 Foreign Ambulance Corps Wagons at Machadodorp. 
 
 '* The time has passed for us to talk ; there is now nothing 
 left for us to do but to keep on fighting, — keep on fighting." 
 Then the President sank into deep silence, looking straight 
 before him into space with his lustreless eyes, slowly smok- 
 ing, — a silence from which it seemed difficult to rouse 
 him. His last words must have had greater expressiveness 
 and feeling in Dutch than they had when translated, for the 
 other gentlemen remained respectfully silent, and it ap- 
 peared to me that in their glances at the old man there was 
 
 333 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 expressed a world of affection and feeling. When Mr. 
 Reitz arose to indicate the interview with the President was 
 at an end my camera was still in my hands, and I asked 
 him if I might quickly take a snap shot at the interior of 
 the car. He said, '* No ; I think it would be better if you 
 would not do so." Then the entire party left the car, 
 leaving the old President still sitting in his chair, looking 
 through the window and across the bare, open veldt, of 
 which he had said, *' I found this country a wilderness, and 
 so will I leave it before I will allow my people to come 
 under the English yoke." 
 
 334 
 
CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 "at the end of a wire" once more. 
 
 I NOW had material for a pretty good cable message to 
 England, and after writing it out I went to Secretary 
 Reitz and asked him to help me get it off at once over the 
 official wire to Delagoa Bay, as the local operator had re- 
 fused to send it for me. Mr. Reitz went to the office with me, 
 but found that the wires were completely choked with highly 
 important official messages, and as it was uncertain whether 
 it would be properly transmitted to the cable authorities at 
 Delagoa Bay he advised me to take it back at once to the 
 coast and send it in person. About the same time a freight 
 train was starting eastward, so after dinner with Mr. Reitz 
 and the military attaches I left for Lorenzo Marquez, ex- 
 pecting to reach there sometime the following morning. 
 
 The road was very uneven, and the train ran swiftly 
 down grade and around many curves. I sat on a box in 
 the cold car talking with the conductor and another pas- 
 senger, a Hebrew contractor, who had been at the capital to 
 collect money due him for supplies. The rocking motion 
 of the train was excessive, and produced a feeling of nausea 
 and sea-sickness which made me doubly glad when we 
 arrived, after several hours' run, at Waterval Boven, where 
 I found the train would wait until morning before proceed- 
 ing farther, because of the blocking of the line some miles 
 farther on by the prisoners' trains, which had gone down 
 that morning. I hunted up a nondescript hotel, kept by a 
 half-caste Kaffir woman, the only accommodation available ; 
 and during a supper which was served only after considerable 
 
 335 
 
WITH ^^BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 persuasive power had been exerted, I enjoyed some rather 
 interesting views of the war from my hostess, who was re- 
 markably well-read and a splendid talker. She said, rather 
 vigorously, 
 
 '' This whole war has been nothing but a war of loot 
 from the very start. Why, when the invasion of Natal 
 began, the burghers looted every place they came to. 
 Every man in the Federal army had his Cape-cart, drawn 
 by two horses, and one or two nigger servants behind with 
 
 Group of Burghers at Machadodorp Preparing a Meal. 
 
 two or three extra riding horses. Some of the men had 
 two or three carts, and every one of them was piled and 
 loaded down with loot." 
 
 Later, in the course of conversation, I incautiously said 
 that I had been with the English army. She interrupted 
 me with, 
 
 '' I knew as soon as you came in you were no war cor- 
 respondent ; you are a spy, that's what you are." I thanked 
 her sarcastically for the compliment ; but she quickly re- 
 
"AT THE END OF A WIRE" ONCE MORE 
 
 plied, *' Oh, I don't think any the less of you for all that. 
 This place is full of spies ; one never knows who one is 
 talking to. People have been arrested and sent across the 
 border on information furnished to the authorities by mem- 
 bers of their own families. It's gotten so that one might as 
 well talk to everybody as one feels like, or else keep quiet 
 all the time." 
 
 I agreed with her that the" latter alternative was too 
 awful to be seriously considered, and then asked to be 
 shown to my room. It was clean and comfortable, and I 
 
 Baggage-cart of Boer Commando, showing strings of "biltong" or jerked beet 
 drying on lines hung over the " disselboom " or cart-tongue. 
 
 was soon sound asleep between the covers. Suddenly I 
 was awakened by a noise, and sitting up, was half-blinded 
 by a bright glare of light from a dark lantern in the hands 
 of a man who was talking to me. I was wide awake in an 
 instant, knowing that something had gone wrong. The 
 man was talking in Dutch. I said, 
 
 '' Speak English ; I don't understand you." 
 *' I must see your passport," he replied in broken Eng- 
 lish. 
 
 '* Why must you see it ?" I asked. ** Who are you ? 
 What are you doing in my room? Get out — " I rattled 
 ^^ 33; 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 all this off, half-scared to death, yet realizing that it would 
 be better to put on a bold front. 
 
 *' I am a detective," he said, opening his coat and show- 
 ing a big brass shield pinned on his vest. That stumped 
 me ; and I reached over to the chair on which my coat was 
 hanging, took out my passport, and handed it to him. He 
 looked at it for a moment in the glare of the dark lantern, 
 and then, calmly folding it, put it in his pocket, saying, 
 
 " I must keep this." 
 
 •'Great Scott!" I thought, ''I'm 'up against it' now. 
 Without that passport I can't get out of this town, and the 
 scoundrel himself will probably arrest me the first thing in 
 the morning for not having a passport. Hold on there !" 
 I called to him as he started to leave the room, " Hand 
 that passport back to me ! What are you taking it away 
 for?" 
 
 "That's all right," he said; "I must keep it till to- 
 morrow ; I'll give it back when I see you again." 
 
 " But, man," I said, " I must make that early train ; I 
 am going to Lorenzo Marquez on important business and 
 cannot be delayed ; my train leaves at six o'clock." 
 
 "All right; all right; I'll be at the station," was all the 
 satisfaction I got from him, and he was gone. Then, as I 
 thought over the serious situation I was now placed in, and 
 the extreme probability of my being arrested in the morn- 
 ing and denounced as a spy by my landlady, I began to get 
 very nervous. Why had I been so foolish as to let the fel- 
 low make off with my passport ? What an ass I was ! 
 Why didn't I take it away by force — fight, if necessary ; 
 anything but lose that valuable piece of paper. 
 
 Naturally I was unable to find satisfactory replies to 
 these self-questionings, so I passed the remainder of the 
 night sleeplessly wondering what developments the morn- 
 ing would bring forth. I was roused from the semi-doze 
 
 338 
 
-AT THE END OF A WIRE" ONCE MORE 
 
 into which I had fallen by a servant with hot coffee and 
 the intelligence that it was half-past five o'clock. 
 
 Hastily dressing, I paid my bill and went up to the sta- 
 tion. The first man I met was the detective of the night's 
 adventure. He came up to me and handed back my pass- 
 port, and then walked off again without a word. I was 
 considerably puzzled, and was still standing looking at the 
 
 Boer Long Tom. This gun was split in the muzzle by an English shell at 
 Ladysmith — an accidental shot which put the gun out of commission for 
 several weeks, until repaired by Boer workmen in the railway shops at 
 Johannesburg. 
 
 passport in my hands, hardly realizing that it was actually 
 there, and wondering if I had been dreaming, when my 
 fellow-traveller of two days before, the German corre- 
 spondent, came up to me. He was delighted to see me, 
 and invited me to take breakfast with him, saying that there 
 was plenty of time before the train started, and that he, 
 also, was going back to Lorenzo Marquez. While grind- 
 ing our particularly tough steak I told him of the night's 
 
 339 
 
. WITH - BOBS " AND KRUGER 
 
 happening, and asked him to explain the reason of it 
 to me. 
 
 ** Oh, that's simple enough," he said; **that fellow 
 couldn't read and he didn't want you to know it, so he 
 took your passport off and showed it to some one who 
 could read ; and then, finding that it was all right, gave it 
 back to you again ; beside, he is a blank fool, any way." 
 I was not entirely satisfied with this explanation ; but as it 
 was the only one forthcoming I had to be content. At 
 any rate, I was glad that he found some one who could 
 read, otherwise I might still be waiting at Waterval Boven 
 station, while my passport continued circulating throughout 
 Transvaal officialdom. By eight o'clock I was back at 
 Lorenzo Marquez, having successfully passed the gantlet 
 of baggage-searchers and letter-readers on the border at 
 Koomaatiport. 
 
 Having reached the world where milreis by the thousand 
 were exacted for every breath, I started the campaign to- 
 ward insolvency by taking a carriage to a hotel and then 
 sending out a porter in search of Begg, the Delagoa Bay 
 representative of the ** Express," whom I had learned was 
 an English spy ; yet, from his knowledge of ** Express " 
 affairs, it was necessary to see him before sending any 
 cables. He came in an hour, and it was well I had sent 
 for him, because he showed me a cablegram from the 
 *' Express " requesting ''that Kriiger interview immedi- 
 ately." They thought I had conferred with Begg before 
 entering the Transvaal, and would send my interview to him 
 to cable. He, not knowing anything about me, and merely 
 knowing that the ''Express" desired an interview with 
 Kriiger, coolly sat down and wrote one himself, and was 
 about to send it off to London when I sent for him. It 
 was a close shave for the " Express," for they could never 
 have known the difference until too late. 
 
 340 
 
AT THE END OF A WIRE" ONCE MORE 
 
 Begg then wanted me to give him the use of my other 
 information for local publication, and to forward to Cape 
 Town ; but I wasted no time in informing him that 
 '* Express " messages were for publication in London only. 
 He also wanted me to send my news from Machadodorp, 
 to which I intended returning at once, to London through 
 
 The President's Butchery at Machadodorp. Fresh meat was provided every 
 day. No army has ever fared more sumptuously than the armies of the 
 South African RepubHcs, while the British are nearly always on half 
 rations. 
 
 him ; but I decided to make other arrangements, and told 
 him so. He wanted to get angry about it, and probably 
 did ; but I was going back into the lion's jaws, and knew 
 that anything . published by Begg at Lorenzo Marquez 
 would be sent at once to Machadodorp, where the Secre- 
 tary of State would quickly recognize the similarity be- 
 tween the published report and the items he gave me, 
 
 341 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 thereby putting me under suspicion. I had had one expe- 
 rience with being suspected of being a spy, and, although 
 it ended harmlessly enough, I had no intention of repeat- 
 ing the experiment or of having the most remote relation- 
 ship with a real spy against the Transvaal Republic, which 
 was treating me in too hospitable a manner for me, by act 
 or implication, to hurt its cause in any way. 
 
 Having settled Begg for the time being, although later 
 he managed to put me in a terribly dangerous position by 
 way of revenge, I hurried to the cable-office, where my 
 message was put on file, to go off as soon as the wires 
 were clear. A day later it was published in London, my 
 interview with President Kriager being the first official inti- 
 mation of the fact that the surrender of Pretoria would not 
 mean the end of the war, as had been generally expected 
 would be the case. Then I went back to my hotel, won- 
 dering what new scheme I could concoct to provide food 
 for that long steel and copper serpent of the sea, the Pacific 
 Cable, which so greedily devours fact and falsehood alike 
 at three shillings per word. How and where to get it I 
 could not guess ; only this I knew : its daily meal of two 
 hundred words it must have, if unhappy and distracted I 
 had to upheave a continent to find the "copy." And if 
 any portion of the newspaper-reading public finds occasion 
 to object or in any manner find fault with the news sent 
 from one side of the world to the other, I only suggest that 
 they get out and try the job themselves. 
 
 342 
 
CHAPTER XL. 
 
 STEALING A *' SCOOP " IN ORDER TO BENEFIT ITS OWNER. 
 
 EARLY the next morning I called on Mr. Hollis, the 
 United States Consul. He was asleep, but sitting on 
 the stoop was a young American, who turned out to be an 
 officer of Blake's Irish-American brigade. He was visit- 
 ing Mr. Hollis for a few days before going back to Amer- 
 ica. After some conversation, it occurred to me that per- 
 haps he would like to act as my assistant, return to Macha- 
 dodorp with me, and then every day run back to Lorenzo 
 Marquez to send my cables to London. Lieutenant Ryan, 
 as was his name, seemed pleased with the idea, and I made 
 him an offer which he accepted at once. Then he told me 
 that the New York ''Journal " had cabled to Mr. Hollis to 
 have some one interview President Kruger and cable it to 
 New York. This had been done, and the interview was 
 already in the hands of the man who was to send it off. 
 The interview used was one gotten through a visitor to 
 Machadodorp the same day I was there, but who left in an 
 earlier train. Giving Lieutenant Ryan several Bank of 
 England notes, I sent him off to buy the interview, telling 
 him to tell the party that ''the New York 'Journal' war 
 correspondent had reached here and would send the mes- 
 sage himself." Ryan paid the fellow about four pounds 
 and got the message from him. I took it at once to the 
 cable-office, sent it after the first interview, and added, 
 "Forward New York 'Journal;' co-operation highly de- 
 sirable." I will not expatiate on this operation from the 
 ethical standpoint, for through my sharp practice the 
 
 343 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 "Journal " got its interview a day earlier than otherwise it 
 would have done, for the other man was procrastinating 
 sadly. Also, the '' Express " had the use of the extra in- 
 terview in London, where it appeared as part of the first 
 one. Further, and strangely enough, a cable despatch was 
 already on its way from London to me, saying, "Join 
 Kriiger as representative of New York 'Journal.' " This 
 was from the " Express," which had already made the deal 
 
 "■jH'M^tMl 
 
 ^^ 
 
 r%i3' 
 
 tuilt^:! 
 
 The Travelling Capital's Treasury Car, showing the Staadt's Treasurer paying 
 claims in paper money worth five shillings on the pound. 
 
 with the representative of the "Journal" to give it the 
 American use of my work in the Transvaal. I received 
 this despatch that evening, and, showing it to Mr. HoUis, 
 told him that I was now the correspondent of the New York 
 "Journal," and that I would be glad to have him give me 
 a letter to Mr. Reitz to that effect. 
 
 The next morning Ryan and I started back for Macha- 
 dodorp, where I presented my letter, and, as a result, Lieu- 
 
 344 
 
STEALING A "SCOOP" 
 
 tenant Ryan was furnished with passports and railway 
 passes ; also a special passport allowing him to cross the 
 border without examination of his baggage or letters. I 
 received a similar one some time later. Lieutenant Ryan, 
 for the time being, had become an employe of the Trans- 
 vaal Government, I paying his salary. His work was to 
 carry my letters and despatches to Delagoa Bay, incidentally 
 taking messages for the government to the Dutch Consul 
 at that point. From this time until I left the Transvaal 
 Lieutenant Ryan carried most of my despatches, although 
 later on I found a way to have them sent direct from the 
 capital at Machadodorp by wire. At times, when I made 
 short excursions away from that place, Ryan staid behind 
 and sent messages for me. In this way I "broke him in," 
 so that when I left for London he was fully qualified to 
 take my place ; and he remained, acting as correspondent 
 for the *' Express," for some months, until the Boers were 
 compelled to abandon the railway. 
 
 Thus it came about that an officer in the army of the 
 South African Republic came to serve as a war corre- 
 spondent for an English newspaper. As for Begg, I took 
 good care not to see anything more of him. I learned from 
 Mr. Hollis that Mr. Sangree, an American correspondent 
 who had been in the Transvaal, while stopping at a hotel in 
 Lorenzo Marquez, had had all his private papers and notes 
 stolen. From another source I learned that the man Begg 
 was suspected of being implicated in the affair. I hope he 
 did get the papers, and that he turned them over to the 
 British authorities to read, for among them was a humorous 
 story about the English prisoners' quarters at Pretoria, 
 entitled, " Uncle Paul's Asylum for Absent-Minded Beg- 
 gars," which article would doubtless prove edifying reading 
 for those in charge of the British War Office. 
 
 While on the way to Delagoa Bay, after having secured 
 
 345 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 my interview with President Kriiger, I met Consul Hollis 
 at Waterval Oonder station, where my train passed the up- 
 train. He told me he was on his way to see the President, 
 who had sent for him, and invited me to go along back to 
 Machadodorp, assuring me that I would arrive at Delagoa 
 Bay just as soon, as he had been promised a special train 
 for the return trip. I was not surprised to hear this, for I 
 had had some intimation of his coming while yet at Mach- 
 
 I'he Hotel de Machadodorp, where the officials and attaches took their meals. 
 Colonel Gourko, the Russian attache, is to the right of the photograph. 
 
 adodorp, and was on the lookout for him. I declined the 
 offer to go back, and continued my journey to Delagoa 
 Bay in company with Mr. Van Alphen, Postmaster General 
 of the Transvaal Republic. I thus got my cablegram off 
 a day earlier. From Postmaster General Van Alphen I 
 learned that while Mr. Hollis was at Koomaatiport, at the 
 boundary between the Transvaal and Portuguese Territory, 
 having gone there on affairs relating to American interests, 
 
 346 
 
STEALING A ''SCOOP" 
 
 President Kriiger telegraphed to Van Alphen to approach 
 Mr. Hollis on the subject of his taking refuge in the 
 American Consulate, as he did not feel safe in trusting 
 to the neutrality of the Portuguese, in the event of having 
 to fly from the Transvaal. While Mr. Van Alphen and 
 Mr. Hollis were in conversation, an additional telegram 
 from Mr. Kriiger arrived, asking Mr. Hollis to come on to 
 Machadodorp ; and in this way I happened to meet Mr. 
 Hollis at Waterval Oonder, en route to see the President. 
 
 Mr. Kriiger then asked Mr. Hollis if he would give him 
 protection in the American Consulate in case he had to flee 
 from the Transvaal. Mr. Hollis asked for time to commu- 
 nicate with his government, and Mr. Kriiger assured him 
 that he would give at least one week's notice before leav- 
 ing the Transvaal. About this same time one evening Mr. 
 Hollis was entertaining some of Secretary Reitz's family 
 who were about to leave for Holland. They were sitting 
 on the piazza when a crowd of Portuguese ruffians and 
 British sympathizers approached and commenced stoning 
 the Consulate, and giving groans and hisses for the Ameri- 
 can flag. Lieutenant Ryan, the assistant "■ Express " 
 correspondent, who happened to be there also, quietly 
 stepped out before them, and drawing his revolver fired 
 it point-blank at the crowd, which immediately dis- 
 banded and took to its heels. The police were called 
 out and took care of the men injured by Ryan's prompt 
 action, and the affair was hushed up. Several nights 
 later, when I called at the Consulate, before Mr. Hollis 
 had returned from Machadodorp, I found three police- 
 men on guard to prevent a recurrence of the trouble. 
 The State Department at Washington undoubtedly received 
 a notification from Mr. Hollis of Mr. Kriiger's request, and 
 the Consul was doubtless notified what course to pursue, 
 and in all likelihood President Kriiger was made aware of 
 
 347 
 
WITH - BOBS " AND KRUGER 
 
 the fact that his presence as a self-invited guest in the 
 American Consulate was not desired by the administration 
 at Washington. 
 
 At least I know that Mr. Hollis received instructions 
 from Mr. Hay not to leave Portuguese territory again ; for 
 he was compelled to neglect the interests of the English 
 prisoners at Nooitgedacht, where there was much suffering 
 and complaint because of his neglect. The prisoners won- 
 
 The burghers form a ring about a group of Enijlish prisoners captured by Gen- 
 eral De Wet and sent to the capital at Machadodorp. 
 
 dered why Consul Hay did not visit them ; they thought 
 he had accompanied the government to Machadodorp, and 
 were unaware that he had remained at Pretoria. On my 
 return to London I was sorry to hear that Mr. Hollis had 
 laid himself open to adverse criticism by going into the 
 Transvaal, and in order to put him in a better light I pub- 
 lished the above facts in an interview in the '' Express " on 
 June I 5th. I think it only fair to him that it should be 
 
 348 
 
STEALING A "SCOOP" 
 
 known as publicly as possible that Mr. Hollis left Portu- 
 guese territory only to enter the Transvaal at the express 
 request of President Kriiger. 
 
 The information on which I base this statement was 
 derived from various sources in which I had explicit confi- 
 dence ; but I also took the precaution of sounding Mr. 
 Hollis on the subject, and from his guarded replies and in- 
 ability to deny the truth of what I have said, there is no 
 doubt that President Kruger asked for the protection of the 
 United States Government, and was diplomatically dis- 
 couraged from entertaining the idea seriously. 
 
 349 
 
CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 LIFE AT MACHADODORP. 
 
 BACK again at Machadodorp, prepared for a long stay, 
 having cabled to the '' Express " that I would remain 
 and ''watch Kriiger," hoping that he would bolt suddenly 
 and take refuge on a Dutch warship, and that I might 
 manage to accompany him — meanwhile I found time to 
 look around more freely and see something of the Boers in 
 camp and the little town itself It was not much of a place. 
 There were a dozen or more houses along the railroad ; 
 then, around a great open space, an embryo market square, 
 were the sheet-iron buildings of two stores, the hotel, the 
 post-office, and a few warehouses and station buildings. 
 This was on the slope of a hill, with the railway on the 
 summit and the hotel half-way down. At the bottom ran 
 a small stream where the Boers gathered daily in small 
 groups to bathe. In the centre of the square usually stood 
 one or two huge trek-carts loaded with oranges brought 
 in from some distant farm and sold to the burghers for a 
 shilling per dozen — great, luscious fruit, quite reconciling 
 one to the almost unquenchable thirst which the cold dry 
 air induced. The government was installed in a series of 
 railway carriages side-tracked on three or four sidings. 
 President Kriiger had a private car ; so had Secretary Reitz. 
 The military attaches had another, and in this Mr. Reitz 
 furnished me with a compartment. Two of the attaches 
 were domiciled in a private house ; the other government 
 officials had rooms at the hotel. 
 
 With the exception of the President, all took their meals 
 
 350 
 
LIFE AT MACHADODQRP 
 
 at the hotel, the proprietor of which was doing an amazing 
 business. 
 
 Unfortunately for his profits, most of the officers were 
 fed at government expense, and he was paid in weekly 
 installments of paper money. This had fallen in value to 
 about five shillings to the pound. This hotel usually flew 
 the Transvaal flag, but, with every alarm, the German 
 fla.g was run up instead,, although its proprietor was an 
 
 The persistent staring of" the Bloody Boahs " becomes uncomfortable. 
 
 Englisman. There was a billiard-table in a back room, and 
 it was no unusual thing of an evening to see a crowd of 
 burghers, their rifles stacked in a corner, handling the cue 
 with surprising skill, for, from their appearance, the assem- 
 blage might have been taken for a congress of hoboes. The 
 average burgher, I found, was a sportsman in every sense 
 of the word. With more or less roughness in appearance, 
 yet there was always a gentleness of manner, a hesitancy to 
 offend by word or act. Living on their large estates, the 
 
 351 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 natives doing all the harder work, they have developed into 
 a race of primitive country gentlemen. 
 
 On the tracks between the President's and the Secretary's 
 private cars stood a long line of trucks, carefully guarded 
 by a detachment of Johannesburg police. No one was 
 allowed to smoke near these trucks ; they were loaded with 
 ammunition, and contained enough to continue the war for 
 another year at least. Adjoining the President's car was 
 the official telegraph-station. Next to Mr. Reitz's was the 
 printing-car, from which daily bulletins were issued con- 
 taining news of the previous twenty-four hours. They were 
 surprisingly accurate, and never as much distorted as P^ng- 
 lish news when published in London, for the government 
 had learned that in order to retain the confidence of the 
 burghers they must be kept supplied with the facts. There 
 were many burghers who wished the war over and were 
 willing to surrender, but the majority were filled with a de- 
 gree of patriotism which to me seemed almost fanatical, and 
 of a type belonging not to real life, but to the grandiloquent 
 history-books of my school-boy days. 
 
 Up on the high bank above the Presidential car stood a 
 row of whitewashed huts, provided by the railway authori- 
 ties for the use of its native employes, who were utilized 
 as switchmen, track-cleaners, and in other subordinate po- 
 sitions. They usually dressed in half-civilized, half-bar- 
 barous clothes. It was no unusual thing to see a track- 
 man walking along, an old silk hat or Derby on his head, 
 a vest over his body, a discarded red window-curtain around 
 his waist, his legs and arms bare, a railway lamp in one 
 hand and a bundle of assegais or knobkerris — primitive 
 South African weapons, both — in the other. It is quite im- 
 possible to disarm the native '' Boy ;" he always has half a 
 dozen weapons of some nature within easy reach ; and if 
 these chance to be lost or sold, a bit of pointed iron, 
 
 35^ 
 
LIFE AT MACHADODORP 
 
 ground on a stone and stuck on the end of a slender rod 
 cut from a plank, re-arms him again. This custom of the 
 natives creates a serious problem for the English if they 
 conquer the two republics entirely. If they disarm the 
 burghers, then, to protect them from the native population, 
 which may go on the war-path at any time, a large army 
 of occupation will be needed. If the burghers are allowed 
 
 Inside the ring, ofificers of the Thirteenth Yeomanry reading fresh magazines 
 supphed by their captors. 
 
 to retain their arms as a protection against the enormous 
 native population, sporadic outbreaks of rebellion are bound 
 to occur for many years to come, which at any moment 
 may spread into a gigantic flame of revolt from one end of 
 the country to another. I do not want to pose as an 
 alarmist ; but, in all seriousness, I cannot fail to realize that 
 Afrikanderism is a spirit which will persist in South Africa 
 until its aim is accomplished. 
 
 ^3 353 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 Captain Reichman, of the United States army, introduced 
 me to his colleagues, among them the Hollander officer 
 who had spent part of my first night at Machadodorp in 
 my room, and together we made a very jolly circle. Next 
 to being a correspondent during a war, I would like to be 
 a military attache. The French and German members 
 were at the front with General Botha. We were an essen- 
 tially cosmopolitan circle. First, Captain Reichman, who 
 
 Some of the officers are allowed to take a walk to the store to buy cigars and 
 oranges under an escort of one burgher with his Mauser. 
 
 indignantly denied the absurd report of a Renter corre- 
 spondent that he had been in command of the Boers during 
 the British disaster at Koornspruit. As each mail brought 
 him additional clippings and letters of inquiry from friends, 
 he grew daily more wrathful and desirous of laying violent 
 hands upon that enterprising but untruthful individual. Cap- 
 ^;ain Ram and Lieutenant Thompson, Hollander officers, 
 represented the young Queen Wilhelmina, and gallantly 
 declared her to be the most beautiful woman in Europe, 
 
 3 54 
 
LIFE AT MACHADODORP 
 
 which assertion I deeply regret my personal observations 
 do not enable me to corroborate or refute. Colonel Gourko 
 of St. Petersburg, son of General Gourko, recently de- 
 ceased, had left the command of one of the Czar's regi- 
 ments to watch the wily Boers' methods, and never seemed 
 to realize that the rest of us all wished he would mention 
 us in his will and then try to catch a lyddite shell in his 
 hands ; for the Colonel was a Count, and rumor credited 
 him with the possession of a modest fifty million dollars. 
 
 In the evenings, after that terrible cable message had been 
 gotten off my brain and on its way Londonward, we would 
 gather together in the attaches' car by the light of a candle 
 to discuss the war, the Boers, the English, life in general, 
 or ourselves in particular. On one occasion I brought out 
 my maps of the battle of Poplar Grove, having learned that 
 Colonel Gourko and Lieutenant Thompson had been cap- 
 tured by the British there, while the other officers had 
 escaped. Naturally my map excited great interest, and 
 together we went over the day's fight, all learning many 
 new things, which concluded with the astounding revelation 
 to me that only twenty-five hundred Boers had confronted 
 Lord Roberts' army of forty thousand. 
 
 Among other surprising things I heard from the attaches 
 was one relating to the war in Natal. I cannot help feeling 
 that whether winning or losing, this war will be a terrible 
 blow to England's prestige, not because of the published 
 reports, but because of the private reports made to their 
 respective countries by the military attaches on both sides. 
 The damaging shock to British prestige from this source 
 may be estimated when one realizes that the attaches will 
 report to their governments, as they told me at Machado- 
 dorp, for instance, that for five months during the invest- 
 ment of Ladysmith, thirteen thousand British soldiers in 
 the besieged town were kept separated from seventeen 
 
 355 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 thousand under General BuUer by less than four thousand 
 burghers — much of the time by only twenty-five hundred. 
 Often we were joined for awhile by the old Secretary of 
 State, Mr. Reitz, who would tell as good a story as any, 
 although I never heard a profane word or an unclean expres- 
 sion pass his hps. Frequently, when the attaches were not 
 at home, or upon leaving them, I would step into Mr. 
 Reitz's car. He always made me most welcome, and 
 
 First-class railway accommodations in cattle car.-^ '• lor absent-minded 
 only." British officers entraining for their new prison at Nooitgedacht. 
 
 would talk over the affairs and policy of his government 
 with great freedom. 
 
 I often copied his telegrams from the front, and had them 
 on the way to London, where they were printed, before they 
 had been issued to the burghers. Mr. Reitz during his 
 youth, while an impecunious attorney at Cape Town, had 
 had some experience as a newspaper man, writing leaders 
 for a local paper. He was greatly interested in my work, 
 
 356 
 
LIFE AT MACHADODORP 
 
 and on several occasions, *' to try his hand," as he said, 
 wrote out my full cables for me. Once he laughingly said 
 to me, 
 
 " If I lose this job I might want to apply for a position 
 as a war correspondent myself, and this practice will be 
 valuable." 
 
 On first meeting him I had been particular to impress 
 upon him that while I would talk as freely as possible 
 about my experience with the British, yet I could not forget 
 that I had received many courtesies as the guest of the 
 British army, and therefore would have to refrain from 
 making any statements which might be valuable as *' infor- 
 mation." This was repeated by him to Mr. Kriiger when 
 I was interviewing that gentleman, and neither then, nor at 
 any time during the four weeks I was in the Transvaal, were 
 any questions ever asked me the answering of which 
 would have been incompatible with the playing of my part 
 as a man of honor. 
 
 357 
 
CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 BEGG, THE SPY, GETS BACK AT ME. 
 
 ONE afternoon about five o'clock, while I was making 
 my regular daily professional call before sending 
 off my cable messages, a messenger brought in a telegram 
 for me. 
 
 I tore open the envelope and read a message from the 
 man Begg at Lorenzo Marquez. It ran, *' * Express,' Lon- 
 don, cables all messages from you to be sent through 
 me." (Signed) '* Begg." 
 
 On the table between the Secretary and myself lay two 
 of Begg's daily news sheets, duplicated on a mimeograph at 
 Lorenzo Marquez and subscribed for by all the hotels, 
 clubs, and leading business houses. These copies were 
 sent daily by Transvaal agents to Machadodorp. I knew 
 by this that Begg was well known to the Secretary, and 
 also the fact that he was an English spy. If the Secretary 
 had read this telegram before he had allowed it to be de- 
 livered to me, as was very probable, I was in great danger 
 of coming under his suspicion, and something unpleasant 
 might follow promptly. Looking up, I saw his eyes con- 
 centrated upon me with a piercing glance. There was not 
 much time for thought ; I tossed the telegram over to him 
 to read, saying to him, at the same time, " The London 
 representative of my paper wants me to co-operate with this 
 fellow Begg. He evidently doesn't know much about 
 Begg. Under the circumstances I cannot obey my instruc- 
 tions. The information you give me is not for Begg, but 
 for my paper and the papers it sells the news to." Then 
 
 358 
 
BEGG, THE SPY 
 
 I wrote out on a telegraph form, '' ' Express,' London : 
 Co-operation with Begg impossible. Political reasons." 
 (Signed) *' Unger." 
 
 This I handed to the Secretary, who read it over, censored 
 it with his pencil, gave it to the messeng'er, who took it off 
 to the telegraph office, and the incident closed. The sus- 
 picion, if there was any, had entirely passed out of the old 
 gentleman's eyes, and he never referred to the subject in 
 
 Tommy brings on the kit. 
 
 any way. Yet I am satisfied that Begg, whom I had espe- 
 cially enjoined not to attempt to communicate with me in 
 any way, had for a few minutes placed my liberty, and pos- 
 sibly my life, in extreme danger. 
 
 Incidentally, this impossibility of our co-operating led to 
 his duplicating the main features of my messages every day, 
 about three days after I sent them, when they filtered 
 across the border to Lorenzo Marquez, thus doubling the 
 cable expenses to my paper. I explained this to Mr. 
 
 359 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 Reitz, and said, "This may cost me my position, but I can't 
 help it." 
 
 When I arrived at London and explained the situation 
 to the ** Express " I was thanked for my promptness of 
 action and told that Begg had been selling all his news to 
 several rival papers, and had only just been found out. 
 The result was that all my cables were exclusive news, and 
 I succeeded in preventing any leaks along the line of com- 
 munication. The mere fact that from Machadodorp, the 
 capital of the Transvaal, I was able to cable direct to Lon- 
 don, the capital of England, while the two countries were at 
 war with each other, was in itself as unique a feat of jour- 
 nalism as I ever hope to repeat. 
 
 At this time daily reports were coming in of Boer suc- 
 cesses. That De Wet and Steyn had cut Lord Roberts' 
 line of communication south of Johannesburg had been 
 confirmed. De Wet had captured, and, excepting what he 
 could carry away, had destroyed half a million pounds' 
 worth of supplies, including thirty thousand full suits of 
 clothing and a great quantity of ammunition. I afterward 
 learned that Lord Roberts had been completely isolated for 
 a period of ten days. At the same time it was reported that 
 the bubonic plague had broken out among General Buller's 
 forces ; the Boers, believing this, saw plainly the hand of 
 God at last lifted to strike their wicked enemies. With the 
 advent of cold weather and the isolation of Lord Roberts it 
 was generally predicted that he would be starved out and 
 be compelled to retreat to save his army. In the minds 
 of the burghers Pretoria was to become a second Moscow, 
 and Roberts was to suffer the fate of Napoleon, who saved 
 only five thousand men out of half a million. Indeed, with 
 De Wet in the rear, there were some who even looked for- 
 ward to the destitution among the English forces becoming 
 so great that out of humanity for his men Lord Roberts 
 
 360 
 
BEGG, THE SPY 
 
 would be compelled to surrender his entire army to Gen- 
 eral Botha to save his men from starvation. 
 
 We understood that the Imperial army in the Transvaal 
 numbered eighty thousand. Secretary Reitz stated that 
 the Boers still in commando ranged from fifteen to eighteen 
 thousand. From all I could learn, there were at no time 
 more than thirty thousand burghers under arms. Their 
 losses by sickness and injury were trifling. Probably at all 
 times one-fourth of the fighting force were on leave of ab- 
 
 The prison-pen at Nooitgedacht, a barb-wire enclosure on the open veldt. One 
 thousand prisoners guarded by fifty Boers. Waiting for dinner. 
 
 sence, visiting their farms — living at home for a few weeks 
 until the monotony of the farm, after the activity of the com- 
 mando, together with the urging of the women, who were 
 never satisfied when their brothers or husbands were not 
 fighting, induced them to return to the front, usually with 
 fresh horses, and with clothing in improved condition . The 
 stories of Boer women fighting in the trenches were usually 
 false. They did visit their men in their laagers, but were 
 invariably sent away when there was any danger. 
 
 361 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 At Machadodorp I found the Irish brigade, which had 
 become thoroughly scattered on the capture of Pretoria, 
 slowly reorganizing. Colonel Blake had disappeared. One 
 day I went as far as Middleburg to hunt for him, but failed 
 to find a trace of him. The "brigade" now numbered about 
 fifty men, and included a number of the boys who had come 
 out from Chicago as " Red Cross " men. In justice to them 
 it must be said that they did not enter the Transvaal as Red 
 Cross men, their applications as such being denied by the 
 Portuguese authorities. Their ultimate entry was as Amer- 
 ican citizens, on papers issued by Consul Hollis, and each 
 one had taken an oath that he would not fight. On their 
 arrival at Pretoria they found that there was no Red Cross 
 work for them to do nor money to support them, and that 
 work was impossible to obtain. The Russian Red Cross 
 contingent were never put into commission at all — a proof 
 of the lack of need for such service. The Chicago men 
 thus found themselves destitute. About seven of them, 
 having trained medical qualifications, were employed in 
 other ambulance corps ; the rest of them accepted Colonel 
 Blake's offer and joined his brigade. They received no 
 pay ; all they got was food and clothing. They proved ex- 
 cellent fighters, and I have government authority for the 
 statement that during the long retreat from Bloemfontein to 
 Pretoria they were always the last to leave the field, and 
 fought the rear-guard action for the entire distance. They 
 were nearly captured at Brandfort, having gotten behind 
 the PLnglish lines and within half a mile of where I was 
 riding alone, though I did not know it at the time. On a 
 number of occasions they were reported annihilated, but, as 
 a matter of fact. Colonel Blake told me he did not lose 
 a single man, though several, including himself, were 
 wounded. The use of Blake's right arm was destroyed 
 during the fighting in Natal. In speaking of the Irish 
 
 362 
 
BEGG, THE SPY 
 
 brigade, many burghers repeated to me, sadly, '' If the rest 
 of our army had only fought as bravely as the Irish brigade 
 and Colonel Blake, we would not now be fugitives from our 
 cities and farms." 
 
 I was surprised to learn from the attaches two things : 
 first, that there were less than a thousand foreigners serv- 
 ing in the Boer army ; and secondly, that the earlier suc- 
 cesses were not due to advice in strategy from foreign offi- 
 cers. On the contrary, the Boers were exceedingly 
 
 Several members of the Irish Brigade making a stew. 
 
 stubborn about having their own way in their fighting, and 
 indignantly resented any proffered advice from the few for- 
 eign officers who were with them. There were not many 
 of these officers, and they all had subordinate positions, 
 General Villebois, in command of the French brigade, 
 being the only one having rank of that grade. Early in 
 the year, when I was making my first trip across the Kar- 
 roo on the Cape railway train, in company with a party of 
 English officers, we were discussing the marvellous sue- 
 
 363 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 cesses of the Boers up to that time. '' But," said one of 
 these officers, in extenuation of EngHsh failure, ''we must 
 not forget that in the persons of the foreign advisers be- 
 hind these Boers we are practically fighting all Europe. 
 They have the advantage of the best skill and information 
 at the command of France, Germany and Russia." This 
 opinion I heard expressed frequently, and later on I found 
 that not to the slightest degree was it correct. This was 
 a great surprise to me. 
 
 To the circle of attaches I brought my tale of woe. 
 Neither money nor influence had been sufficient to procure 
 me a horse. My ignominious retreat from Pretoria by 
 train had been the result of my failure to get a mount. 
 
 They sympathized deeply with me, for they were about 
 to rejoin General Botha at the front. The morning follow- 
 ing our discussion of the battle of Poplar Grove, Captain 
 Ram, discovering that he had an extra pony, offered me 
 the use of the same ; and at his suggestion I accepted the 
 general invitation to join the staff mess of the military at- 
 taches at the front. This was a result of my being the 
 only war correspondent left with the Boers and of having 
 spent six months with the enemy, for, naturally, these gen- 
 tlemanly experts in war were extremely interested in what 
 I could tell them of my observations while on the other 
 side ; and as they were neutrals, it was possible for me 
 to talk to them with greater freedom than with any of the 
 Boers. 
 
 364 
 
CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 WITH THE BURGHERS ON THE VELDT. 
 
 UNABLE to leave the capital the same day, I followed 
 the attaches twenty-four hours later by train to 
 Brugespruit. Here the train stopped for the night, as it 
 was deemed unsafe to proceed any farther toward the ene- 
 my's lines. Unloading my pony and blankets, I started to 
 ride another twenty miles to Balmoral. I had not gone 
 two miles before the sun sank in a crimson bed, and a purple 
 darkness descended over the veldt. I was afraid to go on, 
 for fear of losing my way. Two men came riding along 
 with their rifles across their saddles, and we stopped to 
 talk. One of them was a correspondent for the '* Digger's 
 News," of Johannesburg; he advised me to return to 
 Brugespruit with them, which I did, partaking of their 
 scanty supper of eggs, sausage and coffee, and afterward 
 rolling up in my blankets between them behind the station 
 building, falling off to sleep under the clear gaze of the 
 brightest of full moons, which deigned to rise near mid- 
 night. Forty or fifty burghers were camped around us, 
 all sleeping on the bare ground, most of them with only a 
 single blanket, though the air was cold. 
 
 With the coming of dawn and the invigorating warmth 
 of the early sun we roused ourselves to forage for our 
 ponies and our own breakfasts, and then, after a hearty 
 good luck and good-by to my comrades of the night, I 
 started again on my ride to Balmoral. Half-way I stopped 
 at a farmhouse, bought a few bundles of forage for my 
 pony, and at the cordial invitation of the farmer went into 
 
 365 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 the house to drink some coffee and eat a piece of cake. I 
 rested and talked an hour, then up-saddled and started 
 on. As I was about to ride off two men came riding into 
 the farmyard, while half a dozen halted outside ; one of 
 them spoke to me and a^^ked which way I was going. I 
 answered, " I am looking for General Botha's army ; where 
 can I find it?" " Oh, that's all right," he said ; ''follow 
 the railroad about ten miles and you will find it. I thought 
 
 A Boer commando drawn up in line to sing and pray for the Republics before 
 starting out in the morning. ; 
 
 maybe you were going the other way. I was sent back 
 here with a squad of men to turn back all stragglers." 
 While I stopped at the gate to talk to his men the strag- 
 glers came along, were halted, told to return, phlegmatically 
 accepting the inevitable without protest, but off-saddled to 
 rest awhile before going back. 
 
 Meanwhile I rode on. Nearing Balmoral, I galloped past 
 an outpost, answering the sentinel's salutation with a healthy 
 
 366 
 
WITH THE BURGHERS ON THE VELDT 
 
 American '' Hello !" Instantly I heard a whistle, and 
 from behind a clump of bushes, a little farther on, another 
 sentinel sprang up, rifle in hand, and called on me to halt. 
 I immediately obeyed. He asked me, in Dutch, something 
 which I requested him to repeat in English. This aroused 
 his suspicion ; but in tolerable English I was asked who I 
 was, where I was going, what I intended doing when I got 
 there, and a number of other personal questions. The first 
 man was called back, and together they held a consultation 
 in Dutch over the passport which I had tendered to them. 
 Finally it was returned, they having concluded that I was 
 *'all right." Apologies were offered, they raised their hats, 
 and I galloped on. Balmoral station I found surrounded 
 by several small commandoes making camp ; I was told 
 the main army was. farther on. I rode on four or five 
 miles, through a rolling country, where every sheltered 
 bit of ground was occupied by the Boer troops — a ragged 
 army it seemed to be, though for the most part the offi- 
 cers were well dressed, wearing well-cut riding-trousers, 
 and affecting a light brown or grey, which was the nearest 
 approach to a uniform I saw. 
 
 As I was passing through the Heidelberg commando, 
 an unusually large and comfortably equipped body of men, 
 I was halted again on suspicion of being a spy or scout 
 from the enemy's camp ; for when again addressed in Dutch 
 I answered in English, and persistently refused to talk in 
 any other language ; therefore I was detained and asked 
 questions about my family, my clothing, etc., until the veldt 
 cornet decided that I spoke the truth, and was indeed only 
 a harmless scribe. So I was allowed to ride on in search 
 of the military attaches for whom I was looking. Their 
 cart came galloping up, and the driver shouted to me that 
 '*the boss " was behind. On I rode past the huge camp 
 of the Heidelbergers, grouped around their fires cooking 
 
 36; 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 their midday meal, or hanging strips of beef on strings, 
 suspended from the disselbooms of their trek-carts, to dry in 
 the sun and make the famous " biltong" which sustained 
 them through many a long and weary march. As I 
 reached the crest of a big ridge, before my eyes was spread 
 a glorious view of the country for twenty miles toward 
 Pretoria. Far off in the distance, and to the right, began 
 a black dotted line, like the boundary lines on a map ; it 
 
 Dismounted Burghers riding on ox-carts during the retreat from Pretoria. The 
 Boer will never walk if any other mode of locomotion can be pro- 
 vided. 
 
 extended diagonally toward the left, coming nearer, zig- 
 zaging irregularly. I turned my pony loose to graze and 
 seated myself on an ant-hill to watch, for down in the valley 
 I saw a body of horsemen coming my way. Then, looking 
 more closely, I saw another group behind ; farther back 
 was another ; behind them I saw the long line of oxen 
 drawing trek-carts, behind which were more horsemen, 
 all stretching irregularly across the veldt until joining the 
 
 368 
 
WITH THE BURGHERS ON THE VELDT 
 
 dotted line in the extreme distance ; then I reaHzed that 
 from my vantage-point I was watching twenty miles of 
 General Botha's army in full retreat from the British. They 
 were falling back to Balmoral, where a series of high kopjes 
 afforded excellent positions for defence. The first group 
 that cantered by were mostly middle-aged men, dressed in 
 their oldest clothes, greys and browns, their feet dangling 
 loosely in the stirrups, their rifles slung behind their backs 
 or laid loosely across the saddles in front, where a rolled 
 blanket could be seen, while at the back of each saddle 
 hung a bag balanced by a tea-kettle or coffee-pot blackened 
 by a hundred fires. On each head was a dusty felt hat, 
 surmounting a mass of thick hair. The face was heavily 
 bearded, as a rule, while from the eyes two fearless glances 
 like iron rods pierced me as the owner looked *' Who 
 are you ? You are a stranger ; stones may be thrown 
 at you, but you aren't worth it ;" and as the pony car- 
 ried him by, the head would turn to the front again, and 
 the incident of myself on the ant-hill was apparently for- 
 gotten. 
 
 The groups of passing horsemen grew more frequent 
 and more numerous. Several that passed were of fifty or 
 more burghers each. One or two transport carts lumbered 
 creakingly by ; then more horsemen, in pairs and singly. 
 Occasionally a Cape-cart would pass, followed by a Kaffir 
 servant with extra riding-horses, indicating either rank or 
 wealth of the owner. A few of the individual horsemen 
 had extra horses carrying surplus baggage. All rode at a 
 trot or slow canter — not speedy, yet capable of covering 
 forty miles a day for a week or more without doing up the 
 horses. By this time the dotted line had resolved itself 
 into a long procession of trek-carts, extending only half- 
 way across the veldt ; the end of it was in sight, and the 
 advance of the enemy was not yet visible. The retreat, 
 24 369 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 therefore, was not forced, but regular and orderly, without 
 even a rear-guard fight. 
 
 As I scrutinized the faces in the column of horsemen, each 
 of whom passed by on the new-cut road within twenty feet 
 of me, I wondered how their distinctive character might be 
 summed up and expressed in a few words, a single phrase 
 defining the entire man and his companions. I searched 
 long for an adjective, but in vain. The subject was un- 
 usual, so the word must be unusual. Then it occurred 
 to me that the men must be the result of their environ- 
 ment ; the characteristics of the country must have been 
 
 One of ]>uller's khaki-painted guns, captured at the Tugela and put into com- 
 mission by the Boers. The crews are composed of boys from twelve to 
 eighteen years old, officered by one or two foreign soldiers of fortune. 
 
 impressed on their lives. I turned my head, looked out 
 across the veldt, noted the characteristics of the land, and 
 then I found what I wanted — the kopjes. The kopjes ex- 
 press the Boers ; the Boers are kopje-faced. Their faces 
 generally are as rough and rugged as any kopje ever 
 stormed by British troops or defended by burgher warrfors. 
 The stolid expression of their faces is as impenetrable as 
 the bare, grassless sides of those wonderful natural fortifica- 
 tions, yet their hearts are as soft and kind, when reached, as 
 the great, apparently inhospitable veldt surrounding, which, 
 as one who had lived on its bosom, I had learned to love 
 
 370 
 
WITH THE BURGHERS ON THE VELDT 
 
 and trust without fear. Yes, the Boer is kopje-faced ; and 
 with the rough characteristics of those strange geological 
 excrescences combines the equally stem, unchangeable 
 virtues of strength and immovableness. 
 
 I was awakened from my reverie by a hand laid gently 
 on my shoulder. Looking up, I saw I was surrounded by 
 half a dozen young men, who had left their horses with a 
 larger group by the road and walked over to where I was 
 sitting. They were talking to me, and asking questions in 
 Dutch, which was quickly changed to English when I re- 
 quested it of them ; and I answered the usual personal 
 questions about myself, being amused at their simple- 
 mannered way of approaching the subject, their doubt of 
 my being "all right." I talked freely without enlightening 
 them much, feeling secure in the possession of the passport 
 inside my vest. After awhile I walked carelessly over to 
 my pony, arranged his bridle, placed my foot in the stirrup, 
 and was about to spring into the saddle, when I was halted 
 by a voice saying, 
 
 '' I say, old man, you won't mind coming over and see- 
 ing one of our officers, will you ? You see we aren't 
 quite sure you are all right." "Ah!" I replied; "you 
 think I am English and a spy because I can't speak 
 Dutch, don't you?" They began to explain; but I cut 
 them short by displaying my passport and saying, " I am 
 an American correspondent. Here are my papers. Does 
 that satisfy you ?" Quickly came a chorus of 
 
 " Oh, that's all right." "We hope you don't mind." 
 "You see, we didn't know," and a dozen other apologies, 
 all eagerly offered to heal any offence which they feared 
 they had unintentionally offered another man — not the cor- 
 respondent, mind you, but the man ; for I have never, in 
 all my newspaper experience, met a people who, as a class 
 or as individuals, were more indifferent than the Boers to the 
 
 371 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 supposed magical powers of the knights of the pen. 
 **The power of the press" was a phrase that had no 
 meaning for them ; and while I do not hesitate to say that 
 much of the courtesy shown me by the British was prob- 
 ably directed to the war correspondent, all the kindness of 
 the burghers was given to me as to a fellow-man ; and I 
 appreciated it more highly accordingly, as it was the subtler 
 compliment. They helped me on my horse, petting and 
 patting him as I mounted, for he was a beauty ; and a 
 cheery '' good-by " came back in response to my farewell sal- 
 utation as I rode off, feeling that the incident had brought 
 me more closely than any other to the real Boer — the man 
 behind the Mauser — the hero of the veldt. 
 
 I rode back past the Heidelbergers, deciding to hunt 
 up the attaches' cart and await them there. I found that 
 they had arrived before me, having returned by a different 
 road. My reception by them placed me above suspicion, 
 and I learned later that the burghers had passed judgment 
 and decided that I was a consul, that the freedom of the 
 camp and country was mine, and that I was not to be 
 asked questions about the wife and children I didn't have. 
 
 372 
 
CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 GENERALS BOTHA, DELAREY, AND THE DYNAMITE BRIGADE. 
 
 AFTER supper I walked over to General Botha's head- 
 quarters, asked for Commandant Malan, and was by 
 him introduced to General Botha and General Delarey. 
 Both were very busy, holding consultations with their other 
 officers and reading telegrams from headquarters ; but they 
 had time to talk a little to the only war correspondent left 
 with them, and General Botha described the first day's 
 fighting east of Pretoria. 
 
 " It was one of the prettiest fights we have had," he 
 said. " The fighting-line extended for thirty-five miles, 
 and the British would not have broken through at all if 
 we had not been forced to send part of our force to the 
 relief of one of the commandoes which had been sur- 
 rounded." 
 
 I told him I had already cabled a full account of that 
 fight to my paper, and then asked him if it was true that 
 he and Delarey each had been offered ten thousand pounds 
 a year by the British if they would lay down their arms 
 and surrender. 
 
 ** Yes, it is true," said Botha, while General Delarey 
 nodded his head gravely. 
 
 "Well," I said, ''didn't you find that offer rather tempt- 
 ing?" General Botha shook his head and replied, 
 
 " I have only one object now, — to continue fighting for 
 the independence of my country." General Delarey said 
 nothing, but kept looking at the camp-fire, gravely nod- 
 ding his shaggy head in silent endorsement of his col- 
 
 373 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 league's sentiments, with an eloquence which was quite as 
 emphatic as Botha's few words ; and in Botha's eyes I 
 caught an expression of lofty resolve and determination 
 which was not unmixed with fanaticism. As the Generals 
 were busy, I left them, with a promise to return early next 
 morning to photograph them ; then I returned to the 
 attaches. 
 
 That evening we sat around the fire, for it was the 
 winter season in South Africa, and told strange tales of 
 
 One of the deadly ** pom-poms," or Vickers- Maxims, despised by • the 
 British, who were compelled to suspend operations two months until a 
 lot could be sent out from England, after the Boers' first test on the 
 Tommies at Magersfontein. 
 
 things which were and of many more which neither have 
 been nor will be ; for, extept when " talking shop," military 
 attaches and war correspondents are as other men, and the 
 prophet has said, "All men are liars." 
 
 During the night we slept lightly, for we were camped 
 between a detachment of the Irish brigade and the Ameri- 
 can scouts ; so it was deemed wise to tie our horses' 
 halters to our servants' wrists, to sleep on the few bundles 
 of forage yet remaining, and to refrain from making un- 
 
 374 
 
BOTHA. DPXAREY— DYNAMITE BRIGADE 
 
 necessary comments on the amount of chicken feathers 
 which marked the spot where a poultry-house had stood 
 earher in the day, but which, with its occupants, had van- 
 ished to furnish warmth and food for the foreign sym- 
 pathizers who had so nobly come across the seas to aid 
 the Boer cause. 
 
 With the first rays of the rising sun the following day 
 I was back at the headquarters camp to take the prom- 
 ised photographs. The Generals were at breakfast ; de- 
 clining the invitation to join in a cup of coffee, I hurriedly 
 ** snapped" the breakfast party on the open veldt, and a few 
 moments later took another of General Botha by his cart, 
 where he had gone for a few moments to receive a report 
 from an outpost. I found General Botha exceedingly cor- 
 dial, as well as self-contained, and possessed of plenty of 
 dignity. He is a young man — not more than thirty-five, 
 and is idolized by his men. He is rather muscularly built, 
 about five feet eight inches high, has dark-brown hair, a 
 ruddy, healthy complexion, wears a moustache and small 
 goatee, and appeared to be slightly conscious of his posi- 
 tion as commander-in-chief, and thoroughly enjoyed it. 
 General Delarey never said a word to me except when I 
 was introduced to him and when we shook hands at part- 
 ing ; he looked at me when we were talking, and nodded his 
 head from time to time, but made no comment. Neither 
 of these men was in any way *' playing for the newspaper 
 public." They had their work cut out and proposed to 
 do it, and whether the rest of the world ever found it out 
 and took any notice of them or not was a matter of supreme 
 indifference to them. 
 
 At breakfast in the morning, where I discovered that 
 canned sourcrout was edible, our latest guest, Captain 
 Ricardi, of the Italian brigade, informed us that he had 
 been elevated to the command of the dynamite train and 
 
 3/5 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 crew, and invited us to view his men destroy a railway 
 bridge about ten miles beyond our camp and only a few 
 miles in front of the advancing lines of Lord Roberts' army. 
 It was nearly noon when we reached the bridge, which 
 we found to consist of three spans over a large spruit. I 
 first took a photograph of the entire structure from a dis- 
 tance of one hundred yards upstream. Then, after the 
 custom of the Boers, I off-saddled my pony, leaving him 
 
 Commander-in-Chief Louis Botha holding a consultation with his officers at 
 
 Balmoral. 
 
 to graze in a small field near a farmhouse close by, and 
 made an examination of the work of the dynamite crew. 
 They had mined both sides of the two central supporting 
 piers on opposite banks of the spruit, and I learned with 
 surprise that they had been engaged for fifteen hours con- 
 tinuously at this work, and had not yet completed it. The 
 sun was nearly overhead, and the shadow of the span 
 almost prevented my photographing at all, but I succeeded 
 
 3/6 
 
BOTHA, DELAREY— DYNAMITE BRIGADE 
 
 in getting snap-shots at different stages of the work. One 
 was of a group completing an excavation in which to place 
 the explosives. These were ordinary dynamite sticks of 
 the kind used in the mines on the Rand. Then I found 
 another group on the other side of the pier, almost through 
 with their task of covering up the dynamite with large stones 
 roughly cemented with thick, clayey mud. The finished 
 appearance I found in the masonry foundations at the end 
 of the bridge, which I photographed, showing several large 
 stones, part of a bagful of mud on top, and on one side the 
 white fuses extending ready for firing. 
 
 At' this juncture several scouts came riding in from a line 
 of kopjes in the distance and reported the enemy in sight. 
 Preparations were made to fire at once, and while the crew 
 were putting on the finishing touches I quickly up-saddled 
 and rode upstream, looking for a safe and convenient place 
 to observe the explosions and photograph them. 
 
 As I did so I found that the sun had so changed its posi- 
 tion that in order to take the pictures I would have to cross 
 to the other side of the spruit, and this, with the enemy 
 within a few miles and advancing, was rather annoying ; 
 but the photographs had to be taken, so up the stream I 
 rode for nearly a mile before I found a suitable place to 
 cross. Then I went back to within one hundred and fifty 
 yards of the bridge. 
 
 Already two clouds of white smoke were ascending from 
 the lighted fuses at one end of the bridge ; then two more 
 started to creep skyward, and as a man appeared on top and 
 started to run across to where the dynamite train was wait- 
 ing to steam away two more appeared. The engine whistled 
 and moved off. Half a mile beyond, on a kopje, I could 
 see Captains Ram and Reichman quietly sitting on their 
 horses. 
 
 Between myself and my friends was the spruit with its 
 
 377 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 difficult banks, making crossing impossible, and the bridge 
 with its loaded foundations about to be blown up. Hold- 
 ing my camera ready in hand, after a few half-nervous 
 glances backward to see if the enemy were yet in sight, I 
 kept my eyes steadily on the bridge and waited. 
 
 Suddenly one end of the central span raised thirty feet in 
 
 Capuiiu Riiui, ihc Hollander military attach^, General Delarey, and General 
 Louis Botha breakfasting in the laager at Balmoral. 
 
 the air to a forty-five-degree angle ; then, before it dropped, 
 a cloud of smoke and dust shot above and around it — grey, 
 pointed, and several hundred feet high, slowly expanding 
 in dense clouds. Then came a dull boom, which echoed a 
 few times, while half a dozen stones as large as walnuts 
 fell near me, and one rock as big as a water-pail fell ten 
 yards from my pony's nose, causing him to tug nervously at 
 
 378 
 
BOTHA, DELAREY— DYNAMITE BRIGADE 
 
 the bridle and seriously disturb my efforts to turn another 
 film into place before the next explosion. 
 
 Four times more came that dull boom, the end founda- 
 tions goinfT up together, and each time I snapped at the 
 clouds of dust, my attention being divided between falling 
 stones, a nervous pony, and the enemy somewhere behind. 
 Then I rode quickly up to the wreck to take a last picture of 
 the destruction, arriving there as the dust cleared away and 
 while the dynamite crew were still on their train. The central 
 span had fallen horizontally across the spruit, resting on the 
 bases of the shattered piers, and it was necessary that it be 
 broken by the use of another half-box of dynamite. My 
 
 Railway Bridge over the Oliphant River near Balmoral. 
 
 last film was exposed, and I hurried upstream again to 
 find the ford and recross to friends and safety, for how, in- 
 deed, could I explain my position if captured in the act of 
 blowing up the railway communications and taken before 
 my late friends, the British ? 
 
 As I found and crossed the drift I heard a terrific roar, 
 followed by the familiar swish swishing of a shell in the air, 
 and looking beyond the bridge I saw the Boer ** Long 
 Tom," a ninety-six-pounder, mounted on a railway truck, 
 her crew actively engaged in getting ready for another shot. 
 
 Turning in my saddle I looked back, and there, a mile 
 to my rear, along the sky-line, where khaki-colored veldt 
 
 379 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 and brightest of blue skies met, I saw at regular fifty-yard 
 intervals the advance-line of mounted English scouts slowly 
 creeping eastward, and I knew that behind the rise General 
 French, or Hutton, or maybe Baden-Powell himself, with 
 ten thousand men, was advancing to drive back General 
 Botha's little army of twenty-five hundred. 
 
 As we rode back to camp again I discussed the subject 
 
 IIIIIHHHHI 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 ^Hh|HH 
 
 ■T 
 
 
 ^^^^^^■^gi < > 
 
 I' 'J 
 
 wk: 
 
 
 I^hE m ^B sMf^J!^^te 
 
 ^l^^^^^i^^;' - 
 
 ■c;^^M^^ 
 
 The Italian Dynamite Brigade mining tlie piers of the Oliphant River bridge. 
 
 of that offer to the Generals of ten thousand pounds a 
 year, and said it hardly seemed possible. 
 
 **Well," said one of the attaches, '' I don't see why you 
 should doubt it. England, in all her wars, has always tried 
 to buy off the leaders on the other side ; and you as an 
 American, of all people, should not forget the case of Ben- 
 edict Arnold." This from a foreigner, and recalHng that 
 unhappy incident in the history of my own country, settled 
 
 380 
 
BOTHA, DELAREY— DYNAMITE BRIGADE 
 
 all doubts. Later I made careful inquiries, and found the 
 offer was made through the medium of some female rela- 
 tives of the Generals, who were sent out of Pretoria to re- 
 join their husbands. Fuller particulars I was unable to 
 obtain, but it was officially stated to be a fact ; and bulle- 
 tins, announcing that Kriiger anticipated a similar offer 
 himself, together with the facts already narrated, were 
 spread broadcast over the country. 
 
 Commandant Malan, who had presented me to Botha, 
 
 Colonel Ricardi of the Dynamite Brigade superintending the covering up of 
 the dynamite charge before firing. 
 
 told me a story which I must repeat here. He, together 
 with Johan Rissek, Surveyor General of the Transvaal, had 
 been appointed by General Botha to represent the Boers in 
 a military court of inquiry to be held at Kronstad. The 
 case was one of British outrage. According to issued 
 proclamations, whenever the railway was destroyed the 
 nearest farm was to be burned by the British troops. 
 
 This had occurred. A piece of track was torn up near 
 Kronstad ; when it was discovered, a body of British 
 
 381 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 soldiers went to the nearest farm, confiscated the Hve stock, 
 looted and burned the buildings, casting the occupants out 
 on the veldt, and made prisoners of the men. Among the 
 inmates was a woman who had but the day before given 
 birth to a child. The doctor in attendance protested against 
 the woman being moved, but the soldiers were obdurate ; 
 so she was carried out and laid on a mattress, and, later in 
 the day, was removed to a neighboring farm some miles 
 distant. The incident came to General Botha's ears, and 
 he sent to General Roberts a protest against such brutality. 
 A reply came, after some delay, asking that delegates be 
 sent to a court of inquiry that had been ordered. Malan 
 and Rissek were sent. The court was held, and the case 
 dismissed as not proven ; the witnesses for the accusers 
 had, in one way or another, been placed out of reach. 
 After several weeks' delay the two Transvaalers were re- 
 turned to their own side and the subject was dropped. Yet 
 there is no doubt as to the details of the outrage as given 
 above. There were ugly stories of cases of rape by Eng- 
 lish ** Tommies," and they were generally believed by the 
 burghers and headquarters officials. 
 
 A pathetic tale came from Pretoria during the occupa- 
 tion. An old burgher was found crying bitterly. *' Why, 
 man," said a friend, ''this is not the way to take defeat." 
 
 "Ah !" was the reply, *'the English have destroyed my 
 farms and taken my cattle ; they have burned my home ; 
 and of my four sons, two are dead and two are prisoners ; 
 they have robbed us of our liberty, have taken our country 
 and our capital ; they have taken my house in this city, and, 
 not content with all this, they have now robbed my 
 daughters of their honor." The case in question was one 
 in which two young Boer girls had been in the power of 
 English officers quartered in their father's house. 
 
 This story was told me by a clergyman who came out of 
 
 382 
 
BOTHA, DELAREY— DYNAMITE BRIGADE 
 
 Pretoria two weeks after its occupation, disguised as a Red 
 Cross man. With him came my photographic partner, 
 Mr. Aamsden, who had remained behind when I had left 
 the day before Lord Roberts' entry. Mr. Aamsden made 
 me a present of my overcoat, which I had left behind ; so 
 that now, in addition to its Alaskan experiences, it had been 
 in Pretoria while the British were taking that city. I was 
 sorry I had not been inside the coat, to have compared the 
 entry into Pretoria with the entry into Bloemfontein ; yet, 
 from what Mr. Aamsden told me, it was rather a dreary 
 affair, very little enthusiasm being displayed by the troops. 
 "But * The Lords,' " he said, quoting Colonel Blake's favor- 
 ite phrase, *' were most awfully glad to be released, and 
 were immediately surrounded by a crowd of admirers." 
 It's a great thing to be taken prisoner if you are released 
 or escape soon enough — especially if you are a Lord. 
 
 383 
 
CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 A COMMANDEERING EXPEDITION OF NO ACCOUNT. 
 
 AFTER two days at the front with General Botha's 
 army I returned again to Machadodorp in time to 
 meet Ryan, who had come up from the coast with a batch 
 of letters — the first I had received in over a month. Then 
 followed more days of news- gathering and cabling to Lon- 
 don, not much of it very important, yet all of great interest, 
 because it was from the enemy's camp, and the only news 
 from that source. Several items of it cleared up the very 
 vague reports issued by the Imperial authorities ; as, for in- 
 stance, my account of the capture of some of the Thirteenth 
 Yeomanry, the capture of a construction train and three 
 hundred and fifty men, the capture of over seven hundred 
 of the Derbys ; and, during the ten days' isolation of Lord 
 Roberts, when De Wet had cut off his communications, 
 my cables to London to the '' Express " were absolutely 
 the only correspondent's messages from the actual fighting 
 front. 
 
 During these days at Machadodorp there was consider- 
 able anxiety lest the English would make some arrange- 
 ment with the Portuguese to allow the landing of a British 
 force in the rear of the Boers. A force was expected to 
 come through Swaziland, and I cabled the report of the 
 capture of some of their scouts. The report was false, but 
 I did not learn this in time to prevent me going down near 
 the Swaziland border to investigate for myself A special 
 train and a company of mounted police were sent to Bar- 
 berton, the latter to commandeer horses and forage, and 
 
 384 
 
A COMMANDEERING EXPEDITION 
 
 to report on the Swaziland situation. By special permis- 
 sion of Secretary Reitz I accompanied the expedition. We 
 arrived at the sleepy little mining town of Barberton, its 
 mines abandoned, its stores closed, and its people either 
 absent at the front, fighting, or else at home playing tennis 
 and waiting for the end to come. The advent of our party 
 with our handsome horses, and the uniforms of the Johannes- 
 burg police who made up our force, created a great stir. 
 By the next morning there was not a decent horse within 
 five miles, all having been spirited away during the night. 
 
 Blowing up of the Oliphant River bridge. 
 
 The commandeering party finally started across country, 
 and I decided it would not be worth my while to accompany 
 them ; so I hunted up a boarding-house, where I got a 
 glimpse of civilized life again, and took a good rest for a 
 few days. Ryan was back at Machadodorp ready to wire 
 me the instant anything of importance should occur. My 
 impression of this pretty little oasis is best expressed in a 
 letter I wrote from there to a friend in America. In it I 
 said : 
 
 *'Two years and a half ago I lay in a hospital on the 
 .25 385 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 Chilkoot trail, half delirious with pain and fever, and for 
 days dreamed of orange groves and eating great quantities 
 of the luscious fruit. As I grew stronger I determined to 
 find those groves. To-day, after spending half a year in 
 the Arctic regions, a year in the States, and another half 
 year 'way around on the other side of the globe in South 
 Africa, for the first time in my life I have eaten the fruit 
 fresh from the trees. No, I didn't ' walk arm in arm with 
 myself through shady groves hung richly full with the yel- 
 low fruit.' I just picked up the usual garden tool, and 
 going out into the back yard, raked off a hatful, then went 
 around to the front of the house and innocently offered 
 some to my host, in the same old way we help ourselves to 
 apples in Pennsylvania. Yes, and we pile the skins and 
 seeds on a newspaper, and later on carry it off to throw on 
 a brush heap, and wonder why some people are foolish 
 enough to pay fancy prices for such common fruit. 
 
 '' I came into town by special train in company with half 
 a dozen special police on a commandeering expedition. I 
 left the police and hunted up the beautiful little boarding- 
 house where I am writing copy. The arrival of the police 
 made a sensation in the quiet little town. Only one train 
 a week was run from this place, so the arrival of a stranger 
 accompanied by a squad of mounted police was an item of 
 some consequence. I introduced myself as a 'journalist' ' 
 I noticed that no one believed me. They evidently thought 
 I was about to commandeer the whole place. 
 
 " At dark, while sitting unobserved in a corner, I heard 
 a man make some careless remarks about the government. 
 Not caring to be an eavesdropper, I got up and walked off 
 The man followed me and begged me not to give him 
 away. I promised, and accepted his proffered cigar. After 
 smoking one-third of it I changed my mind, and reported 
 him — not for disloyalty, but for attempted poisoning. 
 
 386 
 
A COMMANDEERING EXPEDITION 
 
 ** I am wridng on a beautifully vine-shaded stoop, and 
 trying to recover from the disgust of being unanimously 
 regarded a spy. In every other part of South Africa the 
 merest intimation that I was a war correspondent was the 
 signal for a general opening of the path to all sorts of privi- 
 leges and conditions ; but here people talk in whispers 
 when I am around, and stop altogether when I approach. 
 Very bold ones volunteer some idiotic remark about the 
 weather with a veldt-like smile, and then I yearn for my 
 suspected power, that I might put the whole town in * trunk/ 
 as they call the jail." 
 
 ^■^ 
 
 f^' 
 
 ^^D 
 
 a 
 
 Transvaal Burgher putting up white flag over his home on the approach of the 
 British as General Botha retires. Taken near the Oliphant River. 
 
 After four days of this idleness, and having written 
 masses of copy and indulged in the luxury of a bath every 
 day, I decided that it was time to get back to Machado- 
 dorp. Inquiry at the railway brought out the astounding 
 fact that no regular trains were running, and that I might 
 have to wait a week longer before a special would come. I 
 telegraphed to Secretary Reitz, who, on the authority of 
 President Kriiger, ordered out a special ''trolley" (hand- 
 car) for me. This was pushed up the grades by Zulu **boys," 
 who piled on top of one another, behind, whenever a 
 down-grade was reached. The distance that it had to take 
 
 387 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 me was thirty-five miles, I started out with five boys and 
 a conductor. After going about eight miles the conductor 
 and three of the boys left me. Then I ran another five 
 miles to a way -station, where I was provided with a new 
 and better trolley and two new boys, who took me the rest 
 of the distance ; the ** time " of the entire trip was about 
 three hours. There were some steep grades, down which 
 the car dashed over the rails at a terrific rate ; I held the 
 brake myself, but kept it clear of the wheels in order to 
 make time. Occasionally we would pass the crushed and 
 splintered wreck of a trolley by the track, and my con- 
 ductor told me that they were the results of meeting un- 
 expected *' specials" coming up. We had no accidents, 
 but that in itself was an accident. 
 
 The road ran along a small river descending toward the 
 Koomaati, so that the entire trip was a descent. At the 
 right was a range of low kopjes, bare and grassless, a few 
 cacti and thorn-bushes relieving the monotony. 
 
 The end of the thirty-five miles brought me to the main 
 line again, where, an hour later, I caught the daily express 
 for Machadodorp, arriving there early the following morn- 
 ing. 
 
 During the first seven miles, my conductor, who, though a 
 half-caste, was very intelligent, in reply to my inquiries, 
 gave me the information which explained the mystery of an 
 attack on the railway a few days before. The tale, with 
 appropriate additions by myself, is as follows : 
 
 Adjoining a considerable portion of the Transvaal Re- 
 public at its extreme eastern border, cut off from the sea 
 on the farther side by the Portuguese strip along the coast, 
 lies the independent native state, Swaziland. Where these 
 three countries meet is a high plateau, five to ten miles 
 broad and thirty or more miles long. In the boundary 
 treaties, agreed upon by men who knew nothing of the 
 
 388 
 
A COMMANDEERING EXPEDITION 
 
 country, the line of division between the Portuguese and 
 the other two States was indicated by this elevation, the ter- 
 ritory drained by water running eastward or westward de- 
 ciding which States held legal possession. Rut, unknown 
 to the framers of the treaty, this strip was nearly level. 
 The waters collected in small lakes and ran neither way, 
 and in the course of time it came to be called ** No-man's- 
 land ;" also the refuge of outlaws and other refugees from 
 justice, who, living among a few peaceful natives, success- 
 
 Private hand-car or "Trolley," pushed by Zulus, ordered out for the author 
 by President Kriiger. A South African twentieth century automobile. 
 
 fully defied the authorities of all three States. When war 
 between the Republics and England appeared clearly inev- 
 itable, a fev/ English residents, some of them burghers, to 
 escape transportation or impressment, quietly collected 
 their herds of cattle and drove them across the border into 
 No-man's-land, to there await the conclusion of hostilities. 
 There were, perhaps, fifty white men, including a few noto- 
 rieties from ''The Rand" and Lorenzo Marquez — men 
 good enough if unmolested, having no enemies but the 
 
 389 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 law ; and who welcomed the newcomers cordially, yet 
 Mauser in hand, on guard against possible treachery. 
 
 Fifty miles northward ran the railway line from Preto- 
 ria to the sea ; this was the line of the Boer retreat and 
 the sole avenue of escape. Whether inspired by patriot- 
 ism for England, hatred for the country whose laws they 
 had broken and from which they had been forced to flee, 
 late in June a small party of heavily-armed men, with a 
 
 Side view of the Malelane Bridge, wrecked by British Scouts, sixty miles 
 inside of the enemy's lines. 
 
 dozen horses and two carts, descended from the plateau of 
 No-man's-land, and, travelling mainly by night, seen only 
 by a few frightened natives, reached the railway line near 
 Malelane. Five hundred yards from the station a heavy 
 iron bridge of a single span, resting on massive foundations 
 of granite masonry, crossed the bed of a small stream. 
 
 This, like all the conduits on the line, was guarded by a 
 squad of Boers. Early in the morning, before dawn, a 
 
 390 
 
A COMMANDEERING EXPEDITION 
 
 heavily loaded freight train crept slowly along the track, 
 puffing out great clouds of smoke, and, with much noise 
 and effort, vomiting fire and steam into the night air. The 
 engine reached the bridge ; then there was a dull explo- 
 sion, followed by a crash and a silence, save for the subdued 
 hissing of escaping steam, which deadened a few moans from 
 the dry bed of the stream below. 
 
 With light came rescuing parties, by train and by horse, 
 some having heard the explosion five miles away, though 
 at the station near-by no one was aroused. In the early 
 morning the burghers tenderly lifted a dead engineer and a 
 dying fireman from the wreck, while nine others, chance 
 passengers and trainmen, were carried to the Red Cross 
 hospital at Waterval Oonder. Numerous arrests were 
 made at once. Engineers arrived with supplies and a tem- 
 porary bridge was constructed within ten days ; but for that 
 period the situation was serious for the Boers ; for, though 
 they personally could retire easily enough, their supplies and 
 their heavy guns could only be transported by rail. A 
 week later rumor told of a few stores and a farm or two 
 looted near the Swaziland border. The authorities at 
 Machadodorp were never agreed as to who destroyed the 
 bridge, but my informant knew that off on the high plateau 
 a small settlement of outlaws and refugees were enjoying 
 new and abundant supplies of coffee and sugar. Later, the 
 bridge was reconstructed and re-destroyed by the Boers 
 themselves while retiring before Lord Roberts' steady ad- 
 vance. So ended the so-called Raid from No-man's-land, 
 for a time a mystery, but soon forgotten. 
 
 391 
 
CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 THE LAST DAY WITH KRUGER A TIGHT PLACE. 
 
 EACH day brought its new faces and strange stories to 
 the new capital. A German officer serving in the 
 Boer army told me why the English prisoners had not been 
 removed before the surrender of Pretoria ; of the four or 
 five thousand held by the Boers, only nine hundred were 
 gotten away to Nooitgedacht. It seems that preparations 
 were made to remove them a week before the surrender, 
 but when the guards went to the prison in Pretoria the 
 British officers refused to march out. This German officer 
 then went to the authorities and asked to be entrusted with 
 authority to bring the prisoners out. 
 
 '* How will you do it ?" 
 
 " Order them to march out, one at a time, and if they 
 refuse, shoot them at once with my revolver ; it is entirely 
 consistent with the rules of warfare, and after half a dozen 
 have been shot, and the rest see that I mean business, there 
 will be no further trouble ; they will all come willingly 
 enough, then." 
 
 The German was a man who would have done as he 
 promised, too, and not only the several hundred English 
 officers, but also the thousands of private soldiers would 
 have been out of the way before the entry of the British 
 troops. But the Boer authorities were too tender-hearted 
 for such heroic measures. They were afraid that such an 
 act would alienate foreign sympathy, and the English 
 ** bluff" was allowed to prevail, and Lord Roberts' entry 
 into Pretoria liberated what might have been valuable host- 
 
 392 
 
THE LAST DAY WITH KRUGER 
 
 ages in the hands of the Boers when the time for final settle- 
 ment arrived. 
 
 General Botha's secretary was chief in command at Pre- 
 toria in the last few days before the surrender. Speaking 
 to him of Lords Manners and Rosslyn, I asked why they 
 were not brought on to Machadodorp. He replied, 
 
 ** I gave orders to their guards to bring them down to 
 the station when I left on the train, and intended that they 
 should be held for awhile longer, at any rate. The beg- 
 garly guards, however, failed to obey my orders, and as I 
 did not discover it until the last moment it was too late for 
 me to go personally and bring them out myself When 
 you see them again you may tell them for me that I thor- 
 oughly intended that they should remain prisoners and be 
 removed to Machadodorp instead of being allowed to es- 
 cape." It may interest my and Colonel Blake's Pretoria 
 friends — *' The Lords" — to know this. 
 
 Another item of interest was told me by a government 
 official, while at Machadodorp, which has a strong bear- 
 ing on the attitude the powers may adopt when the time 
 for final settlement at the conclusion of the war shall 
 come. My informant said, " My ! won't the British be 
 mad, when the war is over, to find that, after all, they have 
 lost the gold mines for which they have really been fight- 
 ing?" 
 
 ** Why, how is that ?" I asked ; " surely the Boers haven't 
 carried them off, nor have they been destroyed, as was ex- 
 pected." 
 
 *' Well, I'll explain it to you," he continued. ** You see, 
 the government originally leased the mines with the pro- 
 vision that if at any time they should remain un worked for 
 a period of six months the leases would revert to the gov- 
 ernment. Of course, the beginning of the war put a stop 
 to all mining operations, and when the war was six months 
 
 393 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 old the government privately sold the reverted leases to 
 French and German capitalists. 
 
 '* Now, when the war is officially declared over, these 
 capitalists, through their governments, will insist on their 
 claims, and all sorts of unpleasant complications for Eng- 
 land will be the result. Nothing will be done in this matter 
 until the war is entirely at an end, for the powers desire that 
 England shall have expended as much of her resources as 
 possible in her contest with the Republics. Rather clever 
 of the government, wasn't it? You see, in this way two of 
 the powers have been furnished with a technical excuse for 
 interference, and, in addition, the Republics have succeeded 
 in enlisting on their side un-national capital, which is the force 
 behind all civil power, and must fight for its rights wherever 
 and by whomsoever assailed. England will certainly object 
 to surrendering the mines, and then the trouble will begin." 
 It will be interesting, now that the war appears to be near- 
 ing its final stages, to remember this phase of the subject, 
 and see whether there will be any international develop- 
 ments to which my informant's remarks may be the key. 
 
 Two incidents of some interest occurred on the train be- 
 fore I returned to Machadodorp. One was the meeting with 
 an acquaintance who expressed great surprise on seeing me. 
 ''Why," he said, " I heard you had been arrested as a spy 
 and had been sent to the prison-pen at Nooitgedacht." 
 This was welcome intelligence indeed, and I wondered 
 whether such an intention on the part of the authorities had 
 been father to the report. However, I went to the capital, 
 to liberty or imprisonment, as the case might be, trusting to 
 my papers and my innocence to make the affair not amount 
 to anything more than another ''experience." If I were 
 arrested they would be bound to release me shortly, and 
 the affair would be worth the trouble for the good news- 
 paper " story " it would give me. 
 
 394 
 
THE LAST DAY WITH KRUGER 
 
 But when the other incident occurred I became worried. 
 During all this time the British control over the cable com- 
 pany had been exercised to prevent the transmission of any 
 news whatever from abroad to Lorenzo Marquez. This 
 was done to prevent news leaking into the Transvaal, so late 
 June had arrived and I had not even heard of the first signs 
 of trouble in China. So serious a possibility as the siege 
 of the legations never entered our heads. This knowl- 
 edge would have been of great encouragement to the Boers, 
 and for that reason it was kept from them. But as I was 
 sitting in the railway car en route for Machadodorp I hap- 
 pened to see a newspaper which had been used as the 
 wrapper of a bundle. It was the Natal " Mercury," and 
 bore a very recent date, so I knew it must have come up 
 the coast on the last steamer, and, only being used as a 
 wrapper, it had accidentally eluded the vigilance of the 
 English and Portuguese inspectors at Koomaatiport. I 
 picked it up, and soon was reading of the Chinese crisis ! 
 
 This news told me that my work in South Africa was 
 over, for I knew no newspaper could stand the enormous 
 expense I was entailing on the *' Express " unless the news 
 resulting was of the first importance. The Chinese affair 
 had reduced South Africa and me to second place ; and I 
 was glad of it, for now I could return home — and I was a 
 little homesick. Farther down the front page, in a minor 
 paragraph, I read a few lines which were of much greater 
 importance to me : 
 
 ** President Kriiger, in an interview with an ' Express ' 
 correspondent on June 5th, said, ' We will never surrender 
 as long as five hundred armed men remain together.' " 
 
 It was true enough ; but if a copy of that paper should 
 reach Secretary Reitz's hands, and he should read that the 
 President had said that to a correspondent of the '' Ex- 
 press," London, after I had told him I represented the 
 
 395 
 
WITH ^^BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 •'Journal," of New York, I might be subjected to an in- 
 vestigation resulting in something quite as unpleasant as 
 my reported arrest and removal to the prison-pen at Nooit- 
 gedacht. 
 
 Arriving at Machadodorp in time for dinner, I entered 
 the hotel dining-room in company with Ryan and another 
 traveller. As I walked through the room looking; for seats, 
 I saw that almost every one there was looking at me in un- 
 disguised astonishment. Plainly, the report of my arrest 
 had spread about the capital also. Over in the corner, at 
 his accustomed place, sat Mr. Reitz and the attaches ; there 
 were no vacant places there, but it occurred to me that I 
 would eat easier if I removed all doubt about my standing 
 at once. So I walked boldly over to Mr. Reitz, and, greet- 
 ing him and his companions, shook hands all around, passed 
 a few commonplaces, saw at once that the rumor was 
 groundless, and then, after this public recognition of my 
 continued trustworthiness by the Secretary of State, I 
 returned to my place and ate a good dinner, regardless of 
 the general impression the suspicious crowd about me 
 might have. 
 
 That afternoon I called on Mr. Reitz to have a little talk 
 with him. He was busy writing, and asked me to sit down 
 and wait a bit. As I did so, I saw a fresh copy of the Natal 
 " Mercury," of the same date I had read in the car, lying 
 beside him. Down at the bottom was that dangerous 
 Kriiger paragraph. 
 
 ** I see you have some fresh papers," I said. 
 
 ** Yes ; you may look over them," said the Secretary ; 
 " I have not yet had time to do so myself." I took the 
 " Mercury," read it carefully, and, when the Secretary was 
 looking the other way, I tore off the corner containing the 
 Kriiger paragraph in such a way that it would look as 
 though it had happened accidentally before coming into my 
 
 396 
 
THE LAST DAY WITH KRUGER 
 
 hands. In about ten minutes the Secretary turned to me 
 and began asking about my trip. 
 
 After teUing him all about it, although my mind was 
 running on that Kriiger paragraph all the time, I said, 
 
 ''Well, Mr. Reitz, this is the last time I shall have the 
 pleasure of calling on you. I am leaving for Delagoa Bay 
 this evening. Is there anything I can do for you ?"' There 
 was. He asked me to call again before train time to get 
 some letters, and I spent the balance of the day hunting up 
 friends and saying good-by to them. My train left about 
 six o'clock. At five I called on the Secretary and received 
 from him a bundle of letters ; also his counter-signature on 
 my passport, for a new rule had been made that no one was 
 allowed to leave the Transvaal unless his passport had the 
 signature of Mr. Reitz. 
 
 In addition, he scrawled a few words across its 'face, the 
 import of which was that the authorities at the border 
 were to allow me to pass without examination of my 
 papers or baggage — an unusual privilege. After a last 
 hearty hand-shake, and mutual expressions of esteem and 
 good will, I left the fatherly old statesman who had been 
 so good a friend to me. I deeply regretted the decep- 
 tion I had been forced to practice on him, but, since 
 through it I never did either him or his country's cause 
 the slightest harm, and may yet do it some good, my con- 
 science does not worry me overmuch on that score ; yet I 
 would rather have had it otherwise, for I am sure I always 
 enjoyed his implicit confidence. 
 
 397 
 
CHAPTER XLVII. 
 
 SECRETARY REITZ GIVES ME A LESSON IN AMERICAN 
 HISTORY. 
 
 MY strongest impression of Secretary Reitz is one I re- 
 ceived one night before I made my short visit to 
 General Botha's army at the front. I had been sitting up 
 with the attaches, swapping newspaper yarns for miHtary 
 tales. It was nearly midnight when our party broke up. 
 Before rolling into my bunk I went outside for a moment, 
 and noticed a light in Mr. Reitz's compartment. Feeling 
 far from sleepy, I thought I would see if he was of the same 
 mind as myself about the folly of sleeping when there was 
 talking to be done and stories to be told. I knocked at his 
 door, and, without waiting for a reply, walked in. The old 
 man was sitting in the corner of his bunk ; beside him, on 
 the opposite bunk and on the table between, were piles of 
 papers and official documents scattered about. A long 
 candle, stuck in a bottle, furnished the illumination. He 
 was sitting with one knee over the other, reading a book, 
 when I entered. Looking at me over the tops of his gold 
 spectacles, he recognized me at once in the half-dark- 
 ness. 
 
 *' Oh, is that you, Mr. Unger ? Come in ; I was just 
 reading something that will interest you, and Tm glad you 
 happened in. Sit down," and he commenced pushing the 
 papers aside to make room for me beside him, meanw^hile 
 placing the book on the table. Then, as was his custom, he 
 reached for his box of cigars, and as I took one he refilled 
 his pipe, saying, *' I never smoke cigars ; I wonder why my 
 
 398 
 
A LESSON IN AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 wife sent me this boxful ? However, I'm glad to have them 
 to give to my friends ; I notice you always seem to enjoy 
 them," and he laughed gently, for I had acquired a reputa- 
 tion for always accepting cigars when offered. After light- 
 ing his pipe from the candle he said, " Look here at what 
 I have been reading," and he took up the book he had 
 laid down. 
 
 Mr. F. W. Reitz, Secretary of State of the South African Republic, about to 
 ride out to inspect outposts at Machadodorp. 
 
 I looked at the cover, and it seemed to have a familiar 
 look ; it was worn and old, evidently having seen much 
 service. Finally I recognized it. It was an American 
 school-book, a child's *' History of the United States," 
 brought from America by some traveller, and in some way 
 had drifted into the hands of the Secretary of State of the 
 fugitive Transvaal government, here in its railway capital 
 at Machadodorp. 
 
 399 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 *' I've been reading here," went on Mr. Reitz, between 
 successive puffs of smoke, *' all about your Revolutionary 
 War, and I find it is extremely interesting ; and what's 
 more, so very encouraging to us at this time. Look here," 
 and he began to turn the pages ; " I read here that in the 
 winter of 1777, when your General Washington was at 
 Valley Forge, near Philadelphia, his army was reduced to 
 only fifteen hundred in number, and he knew the name of 
 every man under him, and that at the same time the Eng- 
 lish held your principal cities of New York and Philadel- 
 phia. The comparison between that time and our present 
 situation is so very striking and so much in our favor that I 
 feel greatly encouraged. You see, this is our winter, and 
 our burghers are suffering severely ; the British have pos- 
 session of all our principal cities — Bloemfontein, Johannes- 
 burg and Pretoria — yet we have a fairly comfortable capital 
 here at Machadodorp ; our armies have plenty of supplies, 
 and, though scattered, they number at least fifteen thousand 
 men, and their hearts are full of hope and determination. 
 Don't you see how much better off, in comparison, than 
 you were, we are in this our darkest hour? And yet you 
 won your liberty and independence ; and I think we will 
 also, for I know we are in the right, and I think God will 
 help us !" And the old man looked intently at me, his eyes 
 glistening, his entire being radiating belief and complete 
 confidence in what he was saying. 
 
 What an appeal to my school-boy enthusiasm and pa- 
 triotism ! I felt tears coming to my eyes ; I sought in vain 
 for something to say to encourage and comfort the old 
 statesman and patriot sitting beside me, his eyes sparkling 
 with hope and enthusiasm as he talked and turned over the 
 pages of that familiar school-book. Then, as I thought 
 how my country, where almost every man and woman and 
 school-child within its boundaries were watching this un- 
 
 400 
 
A LESSON IiN AMERICAN HISTORY 
 
 equal struggle, half a world away, with sympathy for the 
 one contestant and anger for the other, our own hereditary 
 enemy — as I thought how my country had stood aloof, her 
 administration crying ** Neutrality ! neutrality !" while with 
 her left hand she allowed and encouraged the selling of mil- 
 lions worth of horses and forage to England to use in the 
 war, and with her right hand refused to insist on the en- 
 forcement of neutrality on the part of Portugal where 
 American supplies for the burghers were being wrongly de- 
 tained in the customs-house, that the armies of the Repub- 
 lics might be starved into submission — as these things 
 passed through my mind I grew sad and sick at heart. 
 
 I told the Secretary to read on, and he would learn how 
 the war in the Colonies lasted seven years, and that it was 
 not until it had been going on for several years that the 
 helping hand of foreign intervention was held out to us ; 
 that even then it was not because of love for us but for 
 hate of our enemy that aid was given ; and, finally, how 
 the great General Washington himself never won a victory 
 personally for several years, until the final surrender at 
 Yorktown. I told him to remember these things ; and then, 
 if he felt that the burghers could keep up the fight against 
 such odds they could in time hope to win, but only in 
 time and under similar conditions. 
 
 "Ah," he said, "but perhaps Bryan will be elected, and 
 then the United States will help us." 
 
 ''Yes," I said, ''perhaps he will; but it would be nine 
 months before he could enter office, and another six months 
 before Congress would meet, and then several months 
 more would slip away before anything could be done. 
 Can you hold out a year and a half or two years?" His 
 face clouded as I said this, and he answered, 
 
 " No ; we can hold out six months more, but if we have 
 to depend on America under such conditions I am afraid it 
 26 401 
 
WITH "BOBS'' AND KRUGER 
 
 will be too late. But," he said, brightening up again, ''we 
 are a God-fearing people ; we believe in Him, and know 
 that if our cause is just He will help us, and I feel that 
 the longer He withholds His hand it is only to give Eng- 
 land more time to repent of her wickedness before He 
 lifts His hand to strike and punish her for what she is doing 
 to-day in South Africa." 
 
 [As this book is going to press, the war has already ex- 
 tended half a year longer than this additional six months 
 which Mr. Reitz foretold to be the limit of its endurance.] 
 
 402 
 
CHAPTER XLVIII. 
 
 THE BRAINS OF THE TRANSVAAL GANG. 
 
 WITHOUT further incident of note I passed out of the 
 Transvaal gates at Koomaatiport, the officials being 
 courtesy personified on the production of my magical pass- 
 port with the Secretary of State's signature. A few days 
 later a steamer left Lorenzo Marquez for Marseilles via the 
 Red Sea and the Suez Canal. Among the passengers was 
 Dr. Lingbeek, formerly of Johannesburg. He was a 
 Hollander, and had been principal medical officer of the 
 Hollander Red Cross Corps. Still earlier he had been 
 President Kriiger's private physician, and told rne that the 
 President, though old, was still in splendid health ; his only 
 ailment was granulated eyelids, which gave him consider- 
 able pain, but that his vital organs all seemed to be as 
 healthy and in as perfect working condition as those of a 
 child. In speaking of the Transvaal administration I said 
 to Dr. Lingbeek, one evening, 
 
 *' My experience among men and affairs has taught me 
 that where two, three, half a dozen or more men are brought 
 together for a common purpose they are usually dominated 
 by one mind. One brain does the thinking for the crowd, 
 and it is not strength of will or character, nor indomitable 
 perseverance which acquires this ascendancy over other men. 
 It is the possession of a faculty of mercurial quickness in 
 adapting the means at hand to the changing conditions ; 
 a clever rather than a strong mind that does the thinking." 
 
 The Doctor assented that, generally speaking, this was 
 true. ''Well," I continued, "when I entered the Trans- 
 
 403 
 
WITH "BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 vaal I was eagerly on the lookout for that leading man of 
 the government. I thought to find him in Kriiger, but in 
 my first interview I saw it could not be he. In my mind 
 Kriiger is merely a romantic figure-head for the govern- 
 ment gang. They have selected the old lion-hunter and 
 reposed the authority in him, relying on their ability to con- 
 trol his edicts by skillful and almost hypnotic suggestion. 
 ''Then I looked to find the master-mind in Mr. Reitz, but 
 
 Loading live steers at Madagascar on French transport bound for China. 
 
 concluded after much hesitation that it was not he. Mr. 
 Reitz is of too honest, too sincere and too trustful a nature 
 to be the man I was looking for. The other members of 
 the government at Machadodorp were mere puppets in 
 comparison, and I wasted no time on them. Now, if I 
 am right in my estimation of the situation, tell me who the 
 man is, for I am convinced that the originator and manipu- 
 lator of the schemes of these two republics in their amazing 
 
 404 
 
THE BRAINS OF THE TRANSVAAL GANG 
 
 defiance of and defence against the Empire of Great Britain 
 must be one of the cleverest mortals alive." 
 
 "You are right," said the eminent physician. ''The 
 man you are looking for is in Europe. His name is Dr. 
 Leyds ; he is the brains of the whole thing. Get to know 
 him and you will see it at once." 
 
 I have never met or seen Dr. Leyds, yet I believe him 
 to be the arch-patriot — or conspirator, as you choose to 
 look at it — of the South African Republics. I know little 
 of his career, but what little information I have picked up 
 merely corroborates my opinion of his position, so strangely 
 unique in the history of this war. Dr. Leyds is a Hol- 
 lander by birth. Some ten years ago he drifted to the 
 Rand with a little money of his own, settled down in Jo- 
 hannesburg, later moved to Pretoria, took an interest in 
 public affairs, gained the confidence of the government to 
 such a degree that, after urging the policy which provoked 
 the war and made it inevitable, he, the unknown of ten 
 years before, was able to leave the country and live in a 
 foreign capital during the period and danger of conflict, and, 
 most stupendous fact of all, to carry with him, as financial 
 agent, the sum of two million and a half pounds in gold, 
 to expend at his discretion, without being called on to render 
 an account. This feat places him easily at the top of the 
 list as the most monumental and successful political ad- 
 venturer of the decade. I do not say this in criticism of 
 Dr. Leyds, for I believe he merely discovered the natural 
 course of public feeling in South Africa, and honestly helped 
 it to flow more easily through its legitimate channels. I 
 insinuate nothing as to his expenditures, for I believe a man 
 of his type finds sufficient satisfaction in the exercise of 
 power alone to make him entirely above the desire for self- 
 aggrandizement. To him and all like him I cry ** Hail ! 
 may success follow in your path and lead your footsteps." 
 
 405 
 
CHAPTER XLVIX. 
 
 Conclusion. 
 
 NOW that I am nearing the end of my story, I feel that 
 there is still something to be said concerning the 
 ethical side of this war. In the preceding pages I have, with 
 all fidelity, recorded the varying sympathies for both sides 
 which occasions chanced to promote. I feel that in my 
 heart I oscillated from one side to the other, and that in so 
 doing the mere accidental halting of my sympathies with 
 either side would furnish no criterion that it was right and 
 the other side wrong. Now, writing six months after my 
 departure from the theatre of action, viewing the situation 
 from a distance of half a world's circumference, I feel better 
 able to think dispassionately. 
 
 The war started as a result of a plot. That plot at one 
 and the same time enlists and alienates American sympathy ; 
 it alienates because it was an assault against a friendly power 
 — a conspiracy to undermine and drive everything English 
 out of South Africa and entirely uproot the last vestige of 
 the Anglo-Saxon civilization and plant in its place that of 
 the Hollander-Boer peoples, which, while it may be just as 
 good, yet is at heart everlastingly hostile to everything 
 British. As I have said earlier in this volume, I am con- 
 vinced that the world-interests of England and America are 
 identical — so the South African war affects us. On the 
 other hand, the conspiracy elicits American sympathy be- 
 cause it was a natural movement toward the establishment 
 of a United States of South Africa, for the same reasons 
 that we ourselves exist as a nation to-day. As an Ameri- 
 
 406 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 can, believing in the republic, I find the admission that 
 South Africa can be better administered by England than 
 by the Republics is an admission that the Imperial form of 
 government may be better than the republican, and this I 
 thank God I am not ready to do. 
 
 Viewing the subject dispassionately, I feel that the little 
 republics, having committed a technical blunder in invading 
 a British colony and starting the war, have already been 
 sufficiently punished. Having seen enough of the con- 
 flict to understand what General Sherman meant by saying 
 ''War is hell !" I am now for peace. The republics have 
 lost their cities, the burghers have seen their homes burned, 
 their herds driven off, their crops destroyed, their brothers, 
 sons and fathers killed, maimed or captured, and their fami- 
 lies broken up. The results of half a century of work have 
 been blotted out. The conquest of the veldt has to begin 
 anew. The Boers are the only people who can or desire 
 to do it. To-day their armies are fighting for one thing 
 only — for their flag. It seems to me that even if they are 
 entirely in the wrong, complete national extinction is too 
 great a punishment to inflict. Cut away three-quarters or 
 nine-tenths of their territory ; force them into the most 
 barren, arid and unproductive part of their country ; cripple 
 them by treaties and restrictions, if you will ; but leave 
 them their flag — the vieux couleurs ; and, though weighted 
 by the deadening pressure of an indemnity that it will re- 
 quire an eternity to pay, the burghers will accept the terms, 
 cease their heart-rending conflict, and there will be peace 
 in South Africa. This is the opportunity of England. 
 Viewed in this way, the act would be a graceful acknowl- 
 edgment of American sympathy for the republics, and 
 would go far to cement the friendship of our people for 
 England. Neglected, I fe^l sure it is only a question of 
 time — that America will stretch out her hand across the 
 
 407 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 seas to grasp that of a new United States, which will have 
 wrested Hberty and independence away from England, the 
 hereditary enemy of our own privileges, and which will 
 have done it without even our moral support, to our lasting 
 shame. 
 
 From the ''Friend,'' Bloemfontein, April, 1900. 
 
 List of Correspondents. 
 
 The following is a list of war correspondents in the field 
 with the main column of the army : 
 
 HEADQUARTERS. 
 
 Central News. — Messrs. Beresford, Graham. 
 *' Daily Chronicle." — Messrs. Donohue, Sheldon. 
 ''Times." — Messrs. James, Macdonell. 
 " Daily News." — Messrs. Pearce, Wright. 
 Renter's. — Messrs. Gwynne, Hutton. 
 "Standard." — Messrs. Maxwell, Bleloch. 
 " Daily Express." — Messrs. Hodgetts, Gotto. 
 "Outlook."— Mr. Goldman. 
 " Daily Mail." — Messrs. Barnes, Jenkins. 
 " Morning Post." — Messrs. Battersby, Churchill. 
 "Telegraph." — Messrs. Burleigh, S. Goldmann. 
 " Morning Leader." — Mr. Smith. 
 Cape "Times." — Mr. Nissen. 
 Cape "Argus." — Mr. Buxton. 
 Midland " News." — Captain Wester. 
 " Sphere." — Messrs. Woollen, Davies. 
 -King."— Mr. Shelley. 
 
 "Illustrated London News." — Messrs. Melton Prior, 
 Owen-Scott. 
 
 " Graphic." — Mr. Fripp. 
 
 "Black and White." — Mr. Mortimer Mempes. 
 
 408 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 '' Cinemetograph." — Messrs. Rosenthal, Hyman. 
 
 '' Harper." — Mr. Dinwiddie. 
 
 *' Laffan's." — Messrs. Rennett, A. Campbell. 
 
 "Scribner." — Mr. Mackem. 
 
 Philadelphia ''Press." — Mr. Unger. 
 
 Stockholm paper. — Mr. Mossberg. 
 
 " Canadian." — Mr. Smith. 
 
 Manchester ''Guardian." — Messrs. Atkins, Reiss. 
 
 Manchester " Courier." — Mr. Scott. 
 
 Chicago " Record." — Mr. Scull. 
 
 Swedish paper. — Mr. de Kleen. 
 
 With various regiments in this force but not attached to 
 headquarters : 
 
 Toronto " Globe." — Messrs. Ewan, Hamilton. 
 
 Montreal "Star." — Mr. White. 
 
 Montreal "Herald." — Mr. Finn. 
 
 Sydney " Morning Herald." — Mr. Paterson. 
 
 Sydney " Evening News." — Mr. Spooner. 
 
 Sydney "Telegraph." — Mr. Wilkinson. 
 
 New Zealand. — Mr. Shand. 
 
 New Zealand. — Mr. Campbell. 
 
 West Australia. — Mr. Lane. 
 
 Melbourne " Herald." — Mr. Reay. 
 
 Melbourne "Age." — Mr. King. 
 
 From the London " Express'' 
 
 The following extract from the London " Daily Express " 
 of June 6, 1900, gives the casualties among the corps of 
 war correspondents up to that date : 
 
 Now that Pretoria is really ours, the time is appropriate 
 for counting the cost. 
 
 The casualty lists have shown how officers and soldiers 
 have suffered. Here is a casualty list of non-combatants, as 
 the war correspondents are described. 
 
 409 
 
WITH -BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 The designation seems almost absurd, nowadays. War 
 correspondents may not shoot, but they face as much shoot- 
 ing as any soldier ; and the wily Boer makes no distinc- 
 tions. 
 
 It seems to have been the fate of half the correspondents 
 to fall on the veldt, to fall ill, or to fall into gaol. The 
 "Daily Mail" was particularly unlucky; Reuter's and 
 "The Times," on the other hand, phenomenally fortunate. 
 The " Express " correspondents have only had a few weeks 
 of the war, but one of them has been laid low by the deadly 
 enteric. 
 
 Mingled with their regrets at this sad price of success, 
 press men may feel a just pride at the courage and enter- 
 prise of their colleagues. Cowards would not be shot, nor 
 laggards taken prisoner. 
 
 OVER FORTY VICTIMS. 
 
 Mr. G. W. Stevens, " Daily Mail," died of enteric during 
 siege of Ladysmith. 
 
 Mr. Alfred Ferrand, " Morning Post," killed at Lady- 
 smith. 
 
 Mr. Albert CoUett, "Daily Mail," killed in action. Mol- 
 ten o. 
 
 Mr. Lambie, Melbourne " Age," killed at Rensburg. 
 
 Colonel Hoskier, " Sphere," killed near Stormberg. 
 
 Mr. Ernest G. Parslow, "Daily Chronicle," shot dead 
 by Lieutenant Murchison at Mafeking. Murderer, penal 
 servitude for life. 
 
 Mr. Mitchell, "Standard," captured, escaped, took 
 enteric fever and died. 
 
 Mr. W. Spooner, Reuter's, died of fever. 
 
 Mr. Charles E. Hands, " Daily Mail," dangerously 
 wounded, Maritsani (recovering by last news). 
 
 Mr. A. G. Hales, " Daily News," wounded and captured. 
 
 410 
 
CONCLUSION 
 
 Mr. Julian Ralph, *' Daily Mail," struck by shell frag- 
 ment at Belmont, and severely injured in accident. 
 
 Mr. F. W. Walker, ''Daily Mail," wounded at Storm- 
 berg. 
 
 Captain Wright, " Daily Mail," injured while despatch 
 riding. 
 
 Lord Delaware, *' Globe," wounded at Vryheid. 
 
 Mr. P. J. Reid (son of Sir H. G. Reid), '' Echo," seri- 
 ously wounded at Khesis. 
 
 Mr. E. F. Knight, *' Morning Post," shot with sporting 
 Mauser bullet at Belmont, right arm amputated. 
 
 Mr. W^inston Spencer Churchill, ''Morning Post," cap- 
 tured at Chieveley, afterward escaped. 
 
 Lord Cecil Manners, " Morning Post," captured near 
 Johannesburg and liberated. 
 
 Mr. Hales, Sydney " Morning Herald," captured. 
 
 Mr. George Lynch, "Morning Herald" and "Echo," 
 captured, released, in hospital with enteric fever, now in 
 England. 
 
 Mr. M. H. Donohoe, " Daily Chronicle," captured, prob- 
 ably released yesterday. 
 
 Mr. A. Graham, Central News, missing since May 21, 
 supposed captured. 
 
 Mr. A. F. Hellawell, Rev. Adrian Hofmeyer, Lady 
 Sarah Wilson, all " Daily Mail," captured. 
 
 Lord Rosslyn, " Daily Mail" and "Sphere," captured. 
 
 Mr. James Milne, Renter's, captured. 
 
 Mr. John Stuart, "Morning Post," nearly blind after 
 the siege of Ladysmith ; recovered ; now ill with dysen- 
 tery. 
 
 Mr. W. Maxwell, "Standard," enteric fever during siege 
 of Ladysmith, recovered. 
 
 Mr. Alfred Kinnear, Central News, enteric, invalided 
 home, 
 
 411 
 
WITH ''BOBS" AND KRUGER 
 
 Mr. Joseph S. Dunn, Central News, twice captured, 
 enteric, recovered. 
 
 Mr. W. Martindale, Mr. W. S. Swallow, and Mr. Chas. 
 Bray, Central News, enteric, recovered. 
 
 Mr. F. A. Stewart, '' Illustrated London News," down 
 with dysentery at Durban. 
 
 Mr. W. T. Maud, '' Daily Graphic," laid up with enteric 
 fever after Ladysmith, and invalided home. 
 
 Mr. Bullen, '' Daily Telegraph," invalided home. 
 
 Mr. H. W. Nevinson, '' Daily Chronicle," in hospital 
 with fever, now recovered. 
 
 Mr. J. A. Cameron, '' Daily Chronicle," enteric ; per- 
 manently invalided. 
 
 Mr. Brayley Hodgetts, "Express," invalided with enteric. 
 
 Mr. Lester Ralph, Mr. H. Lyons, Mr. R. C. E. Nissen, 
 and Mr. L. Oppenheim, ** Daily Mail," invalided. 
 
 412 
 

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