 | Ballads of the War |  |
A Man of Straw at Ladysmith
A Tommy full of chaff and daring;
The Boer commando wondered why,
They cocked their rifles and let fly,
But not a straw was Tommy caring.
As unconcerned as any mummy
He stood his ground; alive or dead,
He little recked of bullet lead,
For he was just a well-stuffed dummy.
And sent to Joubert for to ax him
A big gun Tommy to displace;
But he was bold enough to face
The music still of gun or Maxim.
And while all Ladysmith is laughing—
To think she fooled the Boerish wits,
Chaff-stuffed, poor Tommy goes to bits,
And all the marksmen get is—chaffing.
Note.—The following is an extract from a letter written by a correspondent of the Natal Witness, who escaped from Ladysmith:—
“Several of our soldiers were guilty of very shabby tricks on the guileless Boer. A squadron of Lancers in one of their patrols took with them one day a Lancer of straw. This figure was left near the Boer position, and viewed from a distance looked a veritable cavalryman. The figure was left on a rock, and it was not long before the Boers were having shots at the soldier who so daringly exposed himself. Mauser bullets had no effect, and it is alleged that, getting exasperated, the Boers turned one of their big guns on the dummy. The truth was discovered only after a vast quantity of ammunition had been wasted. The Liverpools one day set up a row of effigies, and the Boers were driven nearly crazy by the indifference these men showed to their fire. Then there was the bogus artillery some of our people constructed one night on the Town Lands in front of Umbulwana. There were figures of men and something which looked like 15-pounders. The Boers blazed away at this battery, and ‘knocked particular --- --- out of it,’ as an artilleryman, with many delighted grins, said, only to find out that they were being fooled.”
| Ballads of the War | |