THE EMPIRE SUMMONS ITS FORCES

1899

on the left, under Hart, had likewise failed, and he was compelled by the loss of his artillery to fall back to his original position. His losses were 1,200, all told, and 16 guns.

England was in dismay. In South Africa as well as at home the desire grew for a change of commanders. On December 16 Lord Roberts of Kandahar was appointed Commander-in-Chief in South Africa, with Lord Kitchener of Khartoum to act as his Chief-of-Staff. All the remaining reserves and the militia yeomanry were called out, and new volunteer forces were encouraged to contribute contingents. The Government's former refusal of Colonial aid was now revoked. Lord Strathcona's offer to raise a regiment of Canadian mounted infantry was gladly accepted. Altogether more than 10,000 volunteers were despatched to South Africa from Canada, Australia, and India. Ten thousand more from South African contingents were serving at the front. From England itself 150,000 officers and men were sent. Altogether an average of more than 1,000 men sailed daily from some British port for the seat of war. Nearly 200,000 horses and mules were required for the purposes of war. Owing to the long sea voyage, and an epidemic of horse sickness prevailing in South Africa, the waste in horseflesh at the front was roughly reckoned at 5,000 a month.

Thus ended the campaign of 1899 in South Africa. So far the Boers, though greatly outmatched in men, guns, and munitions of war, had prevailed over the British at almost every point. It was their boast that they had not lost a single gun, wherever equal forces met, man against man. Englishmen at home were in a stupor of amazement and indignation. It was brought home to them with ever-increasing force that the credit of the British army and nation was at stake. On the Continent the long-slumbering hostility to England was shown in open rejoicings. The newspapers of Paris indulged in such scurrilous attacks on

1899

DEATH OF GENERAL LAWTON

Queen Victoria that the British Ambassador to France left the country. The Ministers of various Continental armies made haste to despatch military attachés to the headquarters of the Boer commandants at the front to profit by their lessons in up-to-date warfare. In the United States a series of popular mass meetings declared in favor of the Boers. Funds were collected for them by the descendants of the Dutch in America. Under the guise of medical expeditions and ambulance outfits various bodies departed for service in South Africa. A complete Irish corps went from Chicago. All the Outlanders, save the British malcontents, so the Boers claimed, were serving on their side. Thus they had independent Irish corps, two corps of Hollanders, a Scandinavian division, and a picked body of Swiss sharpshooters. Officers of all nationalities served in their ranks. Late in the year the Boer envoys in Europe were received with honor in several capitals on the Continent. Stung by these reports, public feeling in England was so wrought up that the nation as such was determined to stop short of nothing but a complete British conquest of South Africa.

The American outcry of British aggression in South Africa was invalidated in large measure by similar criticisms of the American campaign in the Philippine Islands. On December 18, General Lawton, the hero of many campaigns, was shot dead while directing offensive operations against the Filipinos near Manila.

By the death of Rosa Bonheur, France lost the foremost woman artist of the nineteenth century. In 1853 she scored a great success with her famous canvas, "The Horse Fair," now at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.

EVENTS OF 1900

Governor Goebel of Kentucky is Assassinated-Death of Ruskin, Art Critic-British Repel Night Attack on Ladysmith-Boers Drive British Off Spion Kop and Vaal Krantz-Roberts and Kitchener Advance to Relief of Kimberley - Methuen Holds Cronje while French Slips by into Kimberley-Cronje Makes for Bloemfontein -He is Intercepted at Paardeberg Drift-He Surrenders after Heroic Resistance-He is Sent to St. Helena-Buller Storms Boer Positions Around Ladysmith and Relieves City-Death of Joubert -Kelly-Kenny Defeats Boers at Dryfontein-Roberts Enters Bloemfontein-British are Decimated by Enteric Fever-De Wet Defeats Broadwood at Sanna's Post and Captures Gatacre's Force at Reddersburg-Expedition Relieves Mafeking-Roberts Enters Johannesburg and Pretoria-British Adopt Reconcentration Policy-Ill Success of Boer Envoys at European Courts-Paris Exposition Opens-Destructive Fires in Hull and Ottawa, Canada-Death of Munkacsy, Painter-Fatal Burning of Steamship Piers in Jersey City-Assassination of King Humbert-He is Succeeded by Victor Emmanuel III-Ashantis Besiege British Force in Kumassi-It Escapes to the_Coast-Professor Pupin Invents New Method of Long-Distance Telephoning-Famine Devastates India-Assassination of Baron_von_Ketteler, German Minister at Pekin-Growth of the Anti-Foreign Boxer Movement-It is Encouraged by Chinese Empress Dowager-Boxers Massacre Native Christians-They Enter Pekin and Threaten Foreign Embassies-British under Seymour Advance from Tien-tsin to Relief of Pekin-They are Beaten Back -European Warships Bombard Taku Forts-Boxer Mob at Pekin Burns Library-Allies March to Relief of Pekin-They Take TungChow-They Enter Capital and Relieve Legations-They Loot City -Emperor Sues for Peace-Duke of Abruzzi Discovers "Farthest North"-D'Annunzio's New Masterpiece-Zeppelin Constructs Flying Machine-Flood Devastates Galveston, Tex.-Successful Strike of Anthracite Miners-Deaths of Ex-Secretary Sherman, Max Müller, the Philologist, Lenoir, Inventor of the Gasoline Automobile Deaths of Oscar Wilde, the Disgraced Poet, and Nietzsche, the Individualistic Philosopher-President Kruger Goes to Europe -United States Declares for "Open Door" in China-William II Sends Waldersee to China to Exact Reprisals for Von Ketteler's Assassination-Russians Beat Chinese at Schacho and Overrun Manchuria-Hohenlohe, German Chancellor, Resigns-He is Succeeded by Von Buelow-Powers Secure Promise of Indemnity and Apology for Boxer Outrages-British Conservatives Win Parliamentary Election on Boer War Issue-American Republicans Win Presidential Election on Philippine War Issue-British are Repeatedly Defeated by De Wet and Others-De Wet Invades Cape ColonyHay-Pauncefote Nicaragua Canal Treaty Lapses Owing to Senate Amendments-Washington, D. C., Celebrates Its Centennial-Senator Hoar Recounts American Progress During the Century.

T

HE year opened turbulently in America. A bitter election contest in Kentucky in the preceding November had brought the two parties in that State almost to the fighting point. The courts had decided in favor of the Democratic contestant, Senator William Goebel. The

1900

ASSASSINATION OF GOVERNOR GOEBEL

Republican contestant, W. S. Taylor, had taken possession of the office, and had gathered about him a guard of lawless mountaineers. On the morning of January 30 Senator Goebel, while entering the Capitol grounds of Frankfort, was struck down by a bullet fired from the window of the adjoining Executive building. The shot proved fatal. The State militia was called out, but the soldiers, like the citizens, split in two factions. Taylor and his threatened associates besought the protection of the Federal Government. Failing to obtain this, Taylor fled from the State to Indiana. He was promptly indicted for murder, but the Governor of Indiana, a member of his party, refused to extradite him.

England lost one of the foremost art critics of the century by the death of John Ruskin. An ardent and enthusiastic admirer of Turner's paintings, Ruskin's first public literary effort was a pamphlet in defense of that artist, which was later expanded into his great work "Modern Painters." During the irregular appearance of this work, which stretched over more than fifteen years, Ruskin published "The Seven Lamps of Architecture," "Stones of Venice,” “Sesame and Lilies," "The Crown of Wild Olive,” and “Fors Clavigera."

On the night of January 6 picked bodies of Boer sharpshooters, creeping in stocking feet, scaled the British defenses of Ladysmith. But for the fact that the British on the same night sent out an expedition to mount a naval gun on an outlying eminence known as West Wagon Hill, the night attack would have succeeded. All night long the fight raged on the ridges of Ladysmith. A party of stragglers from the Imperial Light Horse, desperately clinging to a knoll from which they could maintain a hot fire on the advancing lines of the Boers, finally succeeded in saving the day for the British. The most graphic description of this day's fighting and other experiences of the long siege of Ladysmith was written by George W. Steevens, the brilliant English war correspon

SPION KOP AND VAAL KRANTZ

1900

dent. On January 17 Steevens succumbed to enteric fever. On both sides more men succumbed to enteric fever than to the wounds of war. At one time Sir George White was seriously ill, while on the other side the inactivity of the investing Boers was explained by the increasing ill-health of their commander-in-chief, General Joubert. Another abortive attempt to relieve Ladysmith was made by General Buller. On January 9 the fifth division of the British army, under Sir Charles Warren, had begun its advance toward Vaal Krantz. Near Acton Holmes was the famous Potgieter's Drift crossing the Tugela, and the lofty eminence of Spion Kop. On the evening of January 16 Warren, with a British force of 30,000 men, crossed the river and pushed forward to within three miles of Spion Kop. Owing to various delays, the assault was not made until the night of January 21. The high top of Spion Kop was gained with surprising ease. When day broke, the British, holding the ridges and bare top of Spion Kop, found that the Boer artillery and riflemen had the accurate range of all their most exposed positions! From the neighboring hills the British were subjected to a terrible cross-fire. They heliographed frantically for reenforcements. Though help was sent immediately, Spion Kop was abandoned after the loss of General Woodgate.

On the withdrawal of the British troops from Spion Kop, the Boers dashed up the slope and recaptured their old position. One week later, on February 5, the British troops, under the immediate command of Sir Redvers Buller, were lured into repeating the blunder of Spion Kop. The eminence of Vaal Krantz, three or four miles east of Spion Kop, was taken by storm. After Vaal Krantz was carried and occupied, it was found to be completely dominated by Boer batteries. On the evening of February 7 the baffled British forces recrossed the Tugela and retired to their camps a Chieveley. Their total loss amounted to more than 3,000.