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The Bulloch Herald. OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE COUNTY. ONE DOLLAR PER YEAR. PtfBUSUKD THURSDAYS. Entered at the postoffice at States¬ boro, Ga., as second-class mail matter. Statesboro, Ga., Feb. 9, 1900. Modern armies can worry along with incompetent generals, but an able press censor is an absolute necessity. The lack of information and the negligence in scouting which the Brit¬ ish generals have exhibited have been almost criminal, and the loss of sev¬ eral thousands of brave men is entire¬ ly dne to the generals’ incapacity. The encouraging feature of the growing popularity of Indian corn abroad is that the United States need fear no rival in the production of that grain. The lands which are our most formidable rivals in wheat culture can not produce corn. The news of Washington’s death was not received in New York oity until Dec. 22, 1799, eight days after he expired. What tremendous strides in means of communication have been made since the Father of His Country departed this mortal life. Now comes forward an expert to de¬ clare that white bread is a scourge of humanity. When it looks back on the number and variety of the scourges it has been for so many years prior to this enlightened period nnconsciously enduring, humanity must be staggered at its own staying power. A tidal wave on one of the Molucca Islands has killed its thousands, and the news occupies a paragraph in the papers. The east is prodigal of life; its thousands die aud hardly a ripple marks their eugnlfment. If ever the development of the individual comes in China what a power it will be. But the very superabundance of life seems assurance that the unit there will al¬ ways keep his .place of unimportant atom. Trained men for the diplomatic, consular and colonial service are cer¬ tainly to be desired. Perhaps our in¬ terests have not greatly suffered in the past for the want of such men, but our broadening relations will make an imperative demand for representatives and administrators thoroughly quali¬ fied for the dutieq argues the Omaha Bee. Tliese the schools will supply as far as needed instruction is con¬ cerned, though they cauuot give men the character and tact which are as essential as education. However, the new impulse is iu the right direction and therefore to be encouraged. The automatic voting machine was used iu Buffalo and Utica in the late election. As showing its efficiency, as compared with ordinary ballot counting, the Utica Observer, within 14 minutes after closing the polls, printed and put upon the street an ac¬ curate aud complete return of an elec¬ tion in a city of over 60,000 inhabi¬ tants. The machiue cannot be tam¬ pered with, or made to “beat itself,” without showing indisputably the at¬ tempt at fraud; and if it breaks down, the record remains to the point of collapse and a new machine can be substituted. The voter has only to touch the appropriate keys to cast his vote. Speaking of our export of horses to Russia, the Philadelphia Inquirer Bays: i i These animals are not to be used for military or other working purposes, but they are to serve as the basis to improve the stock of the Rus¬ sian Empire. Just as in the past Ave imported stock from Arabia to bring our oavu breeds up to a higher point of excellence, so now the Russians are coming to us for like purposes.” Americau breeders of the horse, who have for years expended enormous Bums to obtain stock of the finest quaiily, must feel gratified by the ever increasing demand from Europe for the product of our great farms. Our export of horses of all kinds—for the trotting and running tracks, for pleasure or business jnirposes—is the result of long, patient,scientific breed¬ ing, until at last the excellence of the Amei'can liorse isflckuoAvIedged i» all countries. TREKKING. 0 X 0 OF THE Boer Trekking! trekking ! trekking ! will never the trekk be done ? Will never the rest, will never the home be won, and forever won? Are we only as beasts of the jungle afoot for the fleeing prey— With a lair In the bush at midnight—on the Ever the veldt, a trackless way ? word is “onward”—ever our white train goes Deeper and deeper northward beyond ' the grasp of our foes— Deeper ana deeper northward our fathers went before— But the door of the veldt is closed—is closed! —Where can we trekk to more ? Trekking! trekking! trekking! think you we loTe not our home? Think you my father prized not the farm of the yellow loam? And mother—I see her weeping beside my brother tall, Turning and gazing northward beyond the mountain wall. The cattle—they seem to be standing dumb in a brute despair With a longing look at the eu— astures—they feel the trekk in the air Even old Yok seems broken—he turns from I the him tempting bone— see there in the corner, manlike, brooding alone 1 A Heroine at Lydenberg. Ml EPISODE IK THE TRANSVAAL WAR Of I880-’8I. L, BY W. WILMOTT DIXON. One forgets many things in 18 years, and probably the story which I purpose retelling here is forgotten by all except the surviving actors in it and their immediate friends. But the memory of such a signal instance of British pluck should not be allowed to die. On Sunday, the 5th of December, 1880, the little town of Lydenberg, in the Transvaal, was in a state of un¬ wonted excitement The whole popu¬ lation was out in its Sunday best to give a hearty send-off to the Ninety fourth regiment, which had been quartered there for many months and was now ordered to Pretoria. Both officers and men had made themselves extremely popular with all classes, and the expressions of regret at their departure was universal Numbers of the inhabitants accompanied the regiment on its way for five or six miles. One lady and gentleman— Lieutenant Walter Long, the junior subaltern of the Nine y-fourth, and his pretty young wife—rode out as far as 15 miles. The colonel had paid the lieutenant the high honor of leav¬ ing him in sole command of the troops left behind— a responsible position for a youngster of barely two-aud-twenty. As the lientena t and his wife turned their horses’ heads aud bade farewell to their comrades, Colonel Anstruther called oat: “Good bv, Mrs. Jmng! Look after Long, and miud you’re a good little adjutant. Good by, Long! Look after my garden for me; remember I expect to find it in as good order as I leave it.” Both the colonel and the lieutenant were enthusiastic gardeners. As the regiment tramped past, Mrs. Long cried out: “Good by, Ninety-fourth! God bless you!” Aud the men shouted back: “Good by, otir lady! God bless you, Mrs. Long!” It was a last farewell for many of them, though they little thought it; for a fortnight later Colonel Anstruther and more than half his men were killed at Bronkhorst Spruib Out on the open veldt, about half a mile from the town, were eight mili¬ tary huts, each 50 feet long by 18 feet wide, built two abreast, with an inter¬ vening space of 80 fee’, the whole forming a parallelogram 78 yards in length by 20 in breadth. At the first rumor of disaffection among the Boers, Lieutenant Long resolved to withdraw his men into these huts, and throw up some kind of shelter round them, for up to this time they stood without the slightest enclosure aud utterly unpro¬ tected. The force under his com¬ mand consisted of 50 privates and three non-commissioned officers of the Ninety-fourth, seven privates and a sergeant of the Royal Engineers,three privates and a conductor of the Army Service Corps—in all, including Dr. Falvey of the Army Medical depart¬ ment and Lieutenant Long himself, 64 officers and mc-n. Mrs. Long, who had been living with her husband in a pretty little cottage embowered in roses and fruit trees at the lower end of the town, without a moment’s hesitation de¬ cided to leave her comfortable home aud take up her quarters with her husband. Her many friends in Lydon berg tried in vain todi snade her from the step. She was offered a warm welcomo iu b' a dozen houses; but the brave lit , voinau said that her place was be i<*. her husband. 8o th ? soldiers brut $kt her belongings from the pretty ci ttage to one of the huts, showed their admiration for her pluck by taking the greatest pains in making her quarters as taste ul and comfort¬ able as possible. There was, how¬ ever, but scant accommodation for H lady in the hut assigned to her, which sheltered under its too’ three horses (whose syery movement was distinctly Trekking ! trekking! trekking! through the Zulu land wo go. The midnight tiger stalking us, and ever the savage foe— Before—the savage foe to meet, the “red coat” foe behind— What have we done to be blown about like a leaf upon the wind ? Ah, over the Vaal we shall find our peace— over the rushing Vaal— The Lord has led us to rest at last—blindly we followed His call; The land He promised is ours to keep—Is ours forever to keep— Piet, what noise is that in the fold—think you a wolf at the sheep? Trekking! trekking! trekking! we have trekked till our tall, strong men Hare sworn an oath by our father’s God, we The shall never trekk again! closed doors of the northward veldt are —the doors of ou r heart are strong — They shall ope their lock to a brother’s wrong! knock —but not to the threat of There is the gun your father bore when he olimed Majuba’s hill— ’Tls yours, Piet, to bear it now with your father’s faith and will— For the land Is ours—the land is ours—if ever a land was won— You go at the dawn, you say, my sob? Yes— go at the dawn, my son ! Jerome Rooney, In New York Sun. audible) band. besides herself and her hus¬ On the 16th of December they be¬ gan throwing up works of defence round the huts, and Mrs. Long de¬ lighted the men by working as hard as any of them. On the 23d of Decem¬ ber the appalling nows reached them of the massacre of the Ninety-fourth at Bronkhorst Spruit. But, stunned though they were by the terrible tid¬ ings, they set to work more vigorously than ever to complete their defences. When the tiny fort was finished it was christened Fort Mary, in honor of Mrs. Long, and Father Walsh, a Roman Catholic priest who had elected to cast in his lot with the little garrison, formally blessed it. An envoy from the Boers, Dietrick Muller, appeared, on the 27th of De¬ cember’, with a proposal that the gar¬ rison should surrender and accept a safe-conduct into Natal. His surprise at the youthful appearance of the commandant of the fort was great. “Dat younker!” he exclaimed in con¬ tempt. But “dat younker” was not so green as Mr. Muller imagined. He suggested writing to Pretoria for in¬ structions. Muller consented, and Lieutenant Long thus cleverly gained a delay of five days, which he utilized in very materially strengthening his defences. On the 4th of January tha Boers appeared in force, some 700 of them, and formally demanded surrender of the fort, to which summons the young subaltern returned the spirited reply: “It is inconsistent with my duty as a soldier to surrender my trust.” An urgent appeal was once more made by Mrs. Long’s friends iu the town to induce her to quit the fort and take up her residence in one of the many homes placed at her disposal. But she stoutly refused. Two days afterwards the attack com¬ menced. For three hours and a half 700 Boers kept up a continuous rifle fire upon the little fort at a range of 500 yards. In her own charmingly modest and simple narrative, Mrs” Long thus describes her feelings when she first found herself under fire: “I must humbly confess that dur¬ ing the first hour of the firing I Avas dreadfully frightened, and took refuge under a table, for its imaginary shel¬ ter. Father Walsh, enteriug tire hut at that moment, with his breviary in his hand, to look for me,and not find¬ ing me, as he expected, called me. I lifted the table cover and poked my head out, saying, ‘Here I am,Father!’ My position struck me as so ludicrous that I burst into a hearty fit of laugh¬ ter. Not till 4 p. m. was I able to as¬ certain that, notwithstanding the ter¬ rible fire of the last four hours, not a man had been wounded. My hus¬ band, knowing how anxious I should be as to his safety, looked in as often as he could to cheer me.” But she very soon overcame these natural terrors, and got so used to the firing, even when the Boers brought a couple of cannon to bear ou the fort, that she frequently slept right-through the cannonad . What with tending the sick aud wounded, and making sandbags,some¬ times turning out as many as four dozen of them iu a day, Mrs. Long’s time was fully occupied. Think of her there, one woman, little more than a girl, alone among 60 men fighting for their lives against ten times their number! What wonder that the men fought like heroes with this daintily bred England lady sharing all their dangers and setting them an example of patience and courage and cheerful¬ ness. She admitted that at first she felt the absence of any of her own sex keenly. But the soldiers were so do vo ed t > her,so delicate iu their solici¬ tude and consideration for her, that she soon lost the sense of loneliness. One day a strange messenger ar¬ rived, a little black-and-fan tender, vitb roLd a piece of paper P folded in a rag tied its n eck. It was a comma nieatiou from some friendly townsfolk informing them that the Boers were quarreling among themselves, furious with Dietrick Muller for being such a fool as to allow the English those five days to complete their defences; and adding, as a hint, that the defend ers of the fort were firing too high— which hiut, I need hardly say, was quickly taken. in the The garrison had nothing shape of a gun with which to meet the fire of the two-pounders that the Boers had in position. But one day Mrs. Long suggested to oae of the army service men that the “monkey” of an Abyssinian pump which they bad might perhaps be utilized. The idea was promptly seized upon and ingen iously carried into execution; and the Boers were very much amazed when a cylindrical shot weighing two pounds six ounces, formed of round crowbar iron cased in lead, came crashing in among them. “Mrs. Long’s gnn,” as it was christened, proved a very valu able addition to the armament of Fort Mary. mt The . huts . yere riddled through , and , hunr.! bullets, .7/ and .a the escapes 4 ,h0 *r from death .a were Long bo tw.ce .miraculous had tha that Lieutenant assembled man dneted ?lf.a‘a by Father nf’!' Walsh. 1 °' *?," On 1Ce one °° oe- n ' casion a cannon-shot struck the wall within an inch of Mrs. Long’s head and corered her with dust ana debris. lirtd” hred 0 e came , ^d down me ‘ he about h h fh hat inW,iiCh,b ears, and d e her escape from being crushed in the rnin. wa, marre Ions. But she must needs, woman-like, go back to rescue her ••things,” and erpres.ed truly feminine sorrow to find her best bon net smashed as flat as a pancake, and only one cup, two saucers and a couple of plates left of all her cherished crockery. Meanwhile, the men kept up their spirits with music and dancing. “Hold the Fort,” with a strictly local appli¬ cation, was a favorite chdvus, and the men invented a version of the famous Jingo song: We don’t want to fight; but, by Jingo, if we We’ve do, got the pluck, we’ve got the men, and ammunition, too. We’ve fought the Zulu king and Sekekuni, And the too, Boers shall never get into Fort Mary. And they neyer did, though they tried their utm st to drive out the gallant defenders with cannon and rifles, and, what was worse, “Greek fire” shot in metallic tubes into the thatch of the roofs. Perhaps if the Boers could only have summed up courage to make a determined assault while the huts were blazing and half the gar¬ rison occupied in putting out the flames, they.migkt have captured the fort. But they did not care to meet the stubborn defenders of Fort Mary hand to baud. So they contented themselves with potting at the gallant fellows who fearlessly exposed them¬ selves in their efforts to extinguish the fire. Those efforts were success ful, though they cost the lives of two brave rneu who could ill be spared. But the garrison were not content with standing only on the defensive. They made pluck.’,little night-sorties, which scared the Boers considerably aud caused them some loss. Twice Conductor Parsons of the Army Ser¬ vice Corps sallied out alone in the dark and pitched hand grenades in among the enemy, which produced a p rfect panic among them. There was a vigorous sapping and miniug, too, on the part of th Royal Engineers, who made it lively for the besiegers. Then the water ran short. A pint a day for each man was all that could be spared and this was terribly short rations of drink in the hottest month of an African summer. At last the rain, which for many weary hours they had watched deluging the hills around, condescended to visit them, and then they had rather more water than they wanted; for, the huts being all roof¬ less since the fire, there was no shel¬ ter from the pitiless downpour. The soldiers, always eager aud anxious to protect Mrs. Long, rigged up a tar¬ paulin screen to shield her from the rain when sleeping; but, despite their care, she often woke up drenched. The news of the disasters at Laing’s Nek and Ma„ul>n Hill was, of course, promptly communicated to them by the enemy, accompanied by a per emptory summons to surrender. But Lieutenant Long, though badly wounded himself, with his faithful wife nursing him night and (lav, sent back the curt answer: “I shall hold out to the last.” And the men, looking at that (n ave woman so patient and cheerful under her terrible load of anxiety,set the r teeth hard and swore the Boers should never have Fort Mary while there was n man left to handle a rifle. “And ever on the topmast roof the old banner of England blew.” At fii-Bt, indeed, it was but a merchant ship’s ensigo. How they hoisted a real union-jack I will let Mrs. Long tell in her own words: “Our ship’s ensign had become, what with the wind aud what with the bullets, a perfect shred; moreover we were anxious to hoist a real union jack. A Geneva flag was discovered, but though sufficient led aud white were forthcoming to complete the crosses, no blue was to be found. Nothing daunted, the raon came to me to inquire if I possessed for such a thing as a bit of dark blue tue new flag. and, to their delight; a gave them a serge dress of the c e color. A beautiful made and hoisted, union-jack instead ’was of very the Our ship’s engigu,though exchanged, was not discarded, for under Us tat tered shred our brave fellows were earned to their graves. On the 29th of March the Boers kept up a furious cannonade and fusil lade all night Bn e nex morning, to the surprise of the garrison, a white flag was hoisted over the enemy’s lines, and under its protection Lieutenant Baker of the Sixtieth Bines brought them the humiliating news that peace had been concluded wi the Boers, So the gallant defenders marched out from the riddled and battered little fort which for 84 days they had held against ten times their number, Mrs. Long was so thin and pulled down that her friends in Lyuenberg hardly knew her. The Boers cheered her heartily as she passed them oa her way into the town, and their com mander, Piet Steyne, treated her with the utmost courtesy. i Indeed, such a oUi5a , roas gent , em n wae this gallant Boer that he sentenced one of his men t0 a6 laBlw , , or .boating oat during LongT g “Come out, Mrs. fo and mak e us , ome coffee; we are col-1.” At the same time he threatened d w th , K i, an y further in a +iw, i a g ’ thiir , . , , ordw ’Tor successful and he defeuC e.” But I am disposed to M “ k , , th , t . ha re of the- 1 due th , braY6 woman who , sat , than, ., so noble ui an example.- i Chambers s Magazine, THE KHALIFA’S SHEEPSKIN. What It Means!Wh»n the Arab Warrior Sits Upon the Hide. “The most thrilling and dramatic detail in connection with the death of the Khalifa iu the Soudan,” said an English guest in the Grunewald cor ridor, i ( was chronicled in a little inch long press telegram from Cairo printed in a recent paper. It says, in substance, that after the Khalifa found himself surrounded by the Anglo-Egyptian troops, he spread a sheepskin on the grouud, eat down on it and was shot to pieces without making any effort to escape. “The correspondent who sent that bit of news was evidently uuaAvare of its real significance. ‘On their sheep¬ skin’ is a term well known in the Egyptian service and has a grim mean¬ ing of its own. The wild Arab war¬ riors always use a sheepskin in lieu of a saddle blanket for their camels, and in moments of extremity in battle —when they see that all hope is lost— it is their custom to take their stand on their skins as a token that they will neither give nor expect quarter and have determined to die rather than surrender, It is equivalent to saying, ‘I will not budge from this spot; hero you must siny me,’ and for a Soudanese soldier to leave his sheepskin after he has once stepped upon it is something abso¬ lutely unheard of in desert warfare. Such a renegade would be hounded! out of his tribe, and in all probability butchered by his own fellows. When a British officer in an engagement sees the Arabs begin to unbuckle their camel gear he knows what is going to happen, and after that he never dreams of making a demand for surrender. The only thing to do is to kill them with the least possible delay, for they are certain to sell their lives as dearly as they can. When the old Khalifa died on his sheepskin he certainly died happy, for accord¬ ing to all good Mohammedans his soul went straight to the gardens of ever¬ lasting delight.’’—New Orleans Times Deinocrat, A Trick of the Plumber’# Trade. Foreman Parisi.of the gas company,, while boring a hole uuder the pave ment at Oak and Fourth streets, so as to get in a service pipe for gas without breaking up the' pavement, ran his auger through a lead service pipe con¬ nected Avith a water main. Water lead Avas flying in all directions, and as the pipe had been laid some thirty years ago, and ihere Avas no record to show Avith what main it was connected, the water could not be shut off. Fi¬ nally Mr. Pavisi broke opeu the pave¬ ment aud jammed the end of the lead pipe, and stopped the Avater from floAving through it. The conundrum then was how to get the pipe repaired. A plumber w as found Avko Avas equal to the occasion. He procured a lot of ice aud some salt, and packed the mixture around the “live”eud of the pipe, and soon froze the water solid in it. * He then cut off the jammed end, inserted a piece of the broken length, made tAVO joints, fnd then, removing the ice, the pipe soon thawed out and the water flowed through it all right. The spectators who saAv how it Avas done voted the plumber a genius, but he claimed no stopping extraordinary credit for his skill, such leaks being only a part of his business.-—Morning Oregonian. A Prospect Klhninnteil. “Our u 6 av clergyman is a bachelor, but lie looks so melancholy.” “What a shame! It’s clear he’s eu gaged already.”—Chicago Record.