[DEAR DAD — AND OTHERS OF THE CLARK AND DAVIS
FAMILIES:]
I have not had time to write such a long letter as this
one must be, as I have been working on my Ledger and
Scribner stories.
Cecil and I started to the "front," which was then May
4th, at Brandfort with Captain Von Loosberg, a German baron
who married in New Orleans and became an American citizen and
who is now in command of Loosberg's Artillery in the Free
State. The night we left, the English took Brandfort, so we
decided to go only as far as Winburg. The next morning
the train despatcher informed us Winburg was taken, so we
decided to go to Smalldeel, but that went during the
afternoon, so we stopped at Kronstad. From there, after a
day's rest, we went to Ventersberg station, and rode across to
Ventersberg town, about two hours away, and put up in Jones's
Hotel. The next day we went down to the Boer laagers on the
Sand river and met President Steyn on the way. He got out of
his Cape Cart and gave Cecil a rose and Loosberg his field
glasses, which Cecil took from Loosberg in exchange for her
own Zeiss glass, and he gave me a drink and an interview. He
also gave us a letter to St. Reid, who had established an
ambulance base on Cronje's farm, telling him to give Cecil
something to sleep upon. The, Boers were very polite to Cecil
and as she rode through the different camps every man took off
his hat. We went back to Ventersberg that night and about two
o'clock Cecil came to my room and woke me up with the
intelligence that the British were only two hours away. She
had heard the commandant informing the landlady, a grand low
comedy character from Brooklyn, who had the room next to
Cecil's. I interviewed the landlady who was sitting up in bed
in curl papers, and with a Webley revolver. She was quite
hysterical so I aroused Loosberg who was too sleepy to
understand. The commandant could be heard in the distance
offering his kingdom for a horse and a Cape cart. Cecil and I
decided our horses were done up and that we were too ignorant
of the trail to know where to run. So we decided to go to
sleep. In the morning we confessed that each had been afraid
the other would want to escape, and each wanted only to be
allowed to go to sleep again. Loosberg's Cape Cart and five
mules having arrived we
packed our things on it and started again for the Sand River
where we spent the night on Cronie's farm. Mrs. Cronje had
taken away all the bedding but Dr. Reid gave Cecil his field
mattress and I made one out of rugs and piano covers. In the
morning I found that the iron straps of the mattress had
marked me for life like a grilled beefsteak. There were only
Reid and his assistant surgeon in the farmhouse and they were
greatly excited at having a woman to look after.
We bade farewell to Loosberg who had found his artillery
push, and started off in his Cape Cart which he wished us to
use and take back for him for safety to Del Hay at Pretoria.
Our objective point was the railroad bridge over the sand.
The Boers were on one bank, the British about seven miles back
on the other, the trail ran along the British side of the
river which was sad of it. However, we drove on, I riding and
Cecil and Christian, the Kaffir, in the Cart. We saw no one
for several hours except some Kaffir Kraals and we almost ran
into two herds of deer. I counted twenty-six in one herd,
they were about a quarter of a mile away. We came to a cross
road and I decided to put back as we had lost track of the
river and were bearing straight into the English lines. Just
as we found the river again and had got across a drift cannon
opened on our right. We then knew we were in between the
Boers and the English but we had no other knowledge of our
geographical position. Such being the case we decided to
outspan and lunch. Out-spanning is setting the mules and
horses at liberty, in-spanning trying to catch them again. It
takes five minutes to out-span, and three hours to in-span.
We had Armour's corned beef and Libby's canned bacon. Cecil
cooked the bacon on a stick and we ate
it with biscuits captured by our Boer friends at Cronje's
farm from the English Tommies. About three o'clock we started
off again, and were captured by three Boers. I was riding
behind the cart and threw up my hands "that quick," but Cecil
could not hear me yelling at her to stop on account of the
noise of the cart. I knew if I rode after her they would
shoot at me, and that if she didn't stop, as they were
shouting at her to do, they would shoot her. Under these
trying circumstances I sat still. It caused quite a coolness
on Cecil's part. However the Boers could see I was trying to
get her to halt so they only rode around and headed her off.
We were so glad to see them that they could not be suspicious.
Still, as we had come directly from the English lines they had
doubts. We told them we had lost ourselves and the more they
threatened to take us to the commandant the more satisfied we
were. I insisted on taking photos of them reading Cecil's
passport. It annoyed them that we refused to be serious, we
assured them we had never met anyone we were so glad to see.
They finally believed us, and our passports which describe
Cecil as my "frau," and artist of
Harper's Weekly, an idea
of Loosberg's. We all smoked and then shook hands and they
went back to their positions. We next met Christian De Vet
one of the two big generals who is a grand character. Nothing
could match the wonderful picturesqueness of his camp spread
out over the side of a hill with the bearded fine featured old
Van Dyck and Hugonot heads under great sombreros. De Vet made
us a long speech saying it was only to be expected that the
Great Republic would send men to help the little Republics,
but he had not hoped that the women would show their sympathy
by coming too. All this with the most
simple earnest courtesy. He said "No English woman would
dare do what you are doing." He showed us a farin house on a
kopje about five miles off where he said we could get shelter
and where we would be near the fighting on the morrow. We
rode in the moonlight for some time but when we reached the
house it was filthy and the people were in such terror that we
decided to camp out in the veldt. We found a grove of trees
near by and a stream of water running beside it so we made a
fire there. We had only one biscuit left but several cans of
bacon and tea. It was great fun and we sat up as late as we
could around the fire on account of the cold. We could see
the Boer fires in the moonlight on the hills and across the
Sand, the English flashlights signalling all night. We put a
rubber blanket on the grass and wrapped up in steamer rugs but
both of us died several times of cold and even sitting on the
fire failed to warm me. We were awakened out of a cold
storage sort of sleep by pom-poms going off right over our
heads. They sounded just as disturbing I found from the rear
as when you are in front of them. They are the most effective
of all the small guns for causing your nerves to riot. We
climbed up the hill and saw the English coming in their usual
solid formation stretching out for three miles. We went back
and got the cart and drove to a nearer kopje, but just as we
reached it the Boers abandoned it. Roberts's column was now
much nearer. We then drove on still further in the direction
of the bridge. I kept telling Cecil that the firing was all
from the Boers as I did not want Christian to bolt and run
away with the cart and mules. But Cecil remembered the
pictures in
Harper's Weekly showing the shrapnel smoke
making rings in the air
and as she saw these floating over our head, she knew the
English were firing on us, but said nothing for fear of
scaring Christian. I had promised to get her under fire which
was her one wish so I said that she was now well under fire
for the first and the last time. To which she replied
"Pshaw!" I never saw any one show such self possession. We
halted the cart behind a deserted farm house, and saddled her
pony. The shells were now falling all over the shop, and I
was scared to distraction. But she took about five minutes to
see that her saddle was properly tightened and then we rode up
to the hill. Again the Boers were leaving and only a few
remained. They warned her to keep back but we dismounted and
walked up to the hill. It was a very hot place but Cecil was
quite unmoved. We showed her the shells striking back of her
and around her but she refused to be impressed with the
danger. She went among the Boers begging them to make a stand
very quietly and like one man to another and they took it just
in that way and said "But we are very tired. We have been
driven back for three days. We are only a thousand, they are
twenty thousand." Some of them only sat still too proud to
run, too sick to fight! When the British got within five
hundred yards of the artillery I told her she must run. At
the same moment Botha's men a mile on our right broke away in
a mad gallop, as though the lancers were after them. I
finally got her on her pony and we raced for Ventersberg with
Christian a good first. He had lost all desire to out-span.
At Ventersberg we found every one harnessing up in the
street and abandoning everything. We again felt this untimely
desire for food, and had lunch at Jones's hotel on scraps and
Cecil went off to see if
she could loot the cook, as everyone but her had left the
hotel and as we needed one in Pretoria. A despatch-rider came
running to me as I was smoking in the garden and shouted that
the "Roinekes" were coming in force over the hill. I ran out
in the street and saw their shells falling all over the edge
of the village. They were only a quarter of an hour behind
us. I yelled for Cecil who was helping the looted cook pack
up her own things and anyone else's she could find in a sheet.
I gathered up a dog and a kitten Cecil wanted and left a note
for the next English officer who occupied my room with the
inscription "I'd leave my happy home for you." We then put
the cook, the kitten, the dog and Cecil in the cart and I got
on the horse and we let out for Kronstad at a gallop. We
raced the thirty miles in five hours without one halt. That
was not our cruelty to animals but Christian's who whenever I
ordered him to halt and let us rest, yelled that the Englesses
were after us and galloped on. The retreat was a terribly
pathetic spectacle; for hours we passed through group after
group of the broken and dispirited Boers. At Kronstad
President Steyn whom I went to see on arriving ordered a
special car for me, and sent us off at once. We reached here
the next morning, Christian arriving a day later having killed
one mule and one pony in his eagerness to escape. We are
going back again as soon as Roberts reaches the Vaal. There
there must be a stand. Love and best wishes to you all — —
DICK.
