After Twelve
Days You Would Forget That Shells Are Dangerous Even As You Forget
When Crossing Broadway That Cable-Cars Can Kill And Mangle.
Up on the highest hill, seated among the highest rocks, are General
Buller and his staff.
The hill is all of rocks, sharp, brown rocks,
as clearly cut as foundation-stones. They are thrown about at
irregular angles, and are shaded only by stiff bayonet-like cacti.
Above is a blue glaring sky, into which the top of the kopje seems to
reach, and to draw and concentrate upon itself all of the sun's heat.
This little jagged point of blistering rocks holds the forces that
press the button which sets the struggling mass below, and the
thousands of men upon the surrounding hills, in motion. It is the
conning tower of the relief column, only, unlike a conning tower, it
offers no protection, no seclusion, no peace. To-day, commanding
generals, under the new conditions which this war has developed, do
not charge up hills waving flashing swords. They sit on rocks, and
wink out their orders by a flashing hand-mirror. The swords have
been left at the base, or coated deep with mud, so that they shall
not flash, and with this column every one, under the rank of general,
carries a rifle on purpose to disguise the fact that he is entitled
to carry a sword. The kopje is the central station of the system.
From its uncomfortable eminence the commanding general watches the
developments of his attack, and directs it by heliograph and ragged
bits of bunting.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 113 of 202
Words from 30877 to 31142
of 55169
