With Methuens Column on an Ambulance Train | Page 8

Nevertheless the South African dust does not
appear to be so bacillus-laden as, _e.g._, that of Atbara Camp, which,
amongst other evil effects, continually produced ulceration in the
mouth and throat.
De Aar lies in the centre of a large plain, shut in on every side by
kopjes. In fact its position is very similar indeed to that of Ladysmith.

The hills on the east and west were always held by pickets with some
field guns belonging to the Royal Artillery and the Prince Alfred's
Artillery Volunteers. A much loftier line of kopjes to the north was
untenanted by the British, but any approach over the veldt from the
north-east was blocked by several rows of shelter trenches and a
strongly-constructed redoubt with wire entanglements, ditch, and
parapet topped with iron rails. Signallers were continually at work, and
at night it was quite a pretty sight to watch the twinkling points of the
signal lights as they flashed between the tents on the plain and the
distant pickets on the tops of the kopjes. Boers had been seen to the
east and on the west; some at least of the Dutch colonists were in open
revolt; so officers and men were always prepared at a moment's notice
to line the trenches for defence, while the redoubts and the batteries on
the hills were permanently garrisoned.
Everybody loathed De Aar. With the exception of some feeble cricket
played on some unoccupied patches of dusty ground, and a couple of
shabby tennis courts, usually reserved for the "patball" of the local
athletes of either sex, there was absolutely nothing to do, and we were
too far off Modder River to feel that we were at all in the swim of
things. The heat was sometimes appalling. On Christmas day the
temperature was 105° in the shade, and most people took a long siesta
after the midday dinner and read such odds and ends of literature as fell
into their hands.
We train people, of course, read and slumbered in one of the wards,
while our comrades under canvas lay with eight heads meeting in the
centre of a tent and sixteen legs projecting from it like the spokes of a
wheel. Mercifully enough scorpions were few and far between at De
Aar, so one could feel fairly secure from these pests. How different it
was in the Sudan campaign, especially at some camps like Um Teref,
where batches of soldiers black and white came to be treated for
scorpion stings, which in one case were fatal. A propos of reading we
were wonderfully well provided with all manner of literature by the
kindly forethought of good people in England. The assortment was
very curious indeed. One would see lying side by side The Nineteenth
Century, _Ally Sloper's Half Holiday_, and the Christian World. This
literary syncretism was especially marked in the mission tent at De Aar,
where the forms were besprinkled with an infinite variety of magazines

and pamphlets--to such an extent indeed that in some cases the more
vivid pages of a Family Herald would temporarily seduce the soldier's
mind from the calmer pleasures of Mr. Moody's hymn book, and those
who came to pray remained to read.
In the evening about 5 o'clock, when the rays of the setting sun were
less vertical and the cool of the evening was not yet merged in the chill
of the night, we sallied out for a stroll. Everybody walked to and fro
and interchanged war news--such as we had!--and mutual condolences
about the miseries of our forced inaction at De Aar. Canteens were
opened in the various sections of the camp, and long columns of
"Tommies" stood with mess-tins, three abreast, waiting their turn to be
served, for all the world like the crowd at the early door of a London
theatre. The natural irritability arising from residence in De Aar, added
to the sultry heat and one's comparative distance from the canteen
counter, frequently caused quarrels and personal assaults in the
swaying column. But those who lost their temper generally lost their
places too, and the less excitable candidates for liquor closed up their
ranks and left the combatants to settle their differences outside.
Non-commissioned officers enjoyed the privilege of entering a side
door in the canteen for their beer, and thus avoided the crush: and one
of my comrades cleverly but unscrupulously secured a couple of stripes
somehow or other and, masquerading as a corporal, entered the coveted
side door, and brought away his liquor in triumph.
Apart from these liquid comforts, which were, very properly, restricted
in quantity, those of us who possessed any ready money could purchase
sundry provisions at two stores in De Aar. The volunteers were paid at
the rate of 5s. a day, which seems a very