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 at Chieveley. Their total loss amounted to more than 3,000. 1900 RELIEF OF KIMBERLEY Now Generals Roberts and Kitchener came to the front. On February 6 the two left Cape Town and joined the forces that had been collected for them on the Modder River, numbering more than 44,000 men. Generals French and Hector Macdonald kept the Boers at that point occupied by feints with their advanced forces. Lord Methuen was instructed to hold the enemy to his trenches in front with his old lines. Thus it was made possible to turn the flank of General Cronje's inferior forces by a strong concerted movement of the most mobile troops, aggregating nearly 45,000 men. At three in the morning of February 11 the movement began, which resulted in the prompt withdrawal of Cronje's forces -threatened in the rear-and the relief of Kimberley. Thousands of horses were sacrificed in the wild rush of cavalry. Fresh mounts took the place of the fallen horses. For once the mobile Boers found themselves matched in mobility. Cronje, holding Methuen's infantry in check before him, could not throw out his mounted detachments fast enough to intercept the cavalry rush around his flank. Four miles from Kimberley, Cronje arrived just too late to occupy the commanding positions. French brushed the inadequate Boer forces aside and made a dash for Kimberley. Over a straight stretch of five miles the British troopers galloped their spent horses into the beleaguered city. The siege was raised, and Kimberley forthwith became the base of operations against Cronje and the Orange Free State. Cronje had not a moment to lose. As soon as French had slipped by him he gave instant orders to break camp and start for Bloemfontein. With his cumbersome wagon trains, he raced along the banks of the Modder for Koodoosrand Drift, forty miles from Magersfontein. The greater part of the Boer artillery made off in another direction and got away. Kitchener, whom Cronje had eluded at Klip Drift, sent word to French to head off the Boer retreat. Kitchener's |