A Woman's Part in a RevolutionHammond, Natalie Harris
History
A Woman's Part in a Revolution
Hammond, Natalie Harris
Jameson's Raid, 1895-1896
Betty and Mrs. Clement were busy all the morning giving out books and
flowers which had been generously sent by various ladies and
commercial firms for distribution among the women and children at the
Wanderers' and Tattersall's. Betty says the women were most grateful.
They are busy, hard-working women, and the enforced leisure is very
trying to them. She spoke with the manager of Tattersall's; he thanked
her for her gifts, remarking, with some weariness in his tone: 'You
don't know, Miss, how hard it is to keep the women amused and
contented--and several of them have been confined!' as if that, too,
were a proof of insubordination.
My husband tells me that the Committee is to hold a meeting at
midnight, and another at six to-morrow morning. He says that Lionel
Phillips nearly fainted from exhaustion to-day. Mr. Phillips is
consistent and brave, and George Farrar, too, is proving himself a
hero. Dear old Colonel, with the kind thoughtfulness so characteristic
of him, never fails to ask how we are bearing the trial.
JANUARY 7.--Sir Jacobus de Wet and Sir Sydney Shippard addressed the
populace from the Band Club balcony, exhorting them to accept the
ultimatum.
LATER.--I have had such a reassuring conversation with Sir Sydney
Shippard this evening. He is a most intelligent man, and speaks with
such fluent decisiveness that all he says carries conviction. I am
told that Sir Jacobus's speech was a rambling, poor affair and weak;
the crowd showed a restlessness that at one time threatened to become
dangerous. He was fortunately pulled down by his coat-tails before the
crowd lost self-control.
Sir Sydney's speech, on the contrary, was strong and full of feeling.
He told the people that he sympathised deeply with them in their
struggle for what he believed to be their just rights, but that being
an English Government official he could take no part. He reminded them
that Jameson was lying in prison, his life and the lives of his
followers in great jeopardy. The Government had made one condition for
his safety: the giving up of their arms. 'Deliver them up to your High
Commissioner, and not only Jameson and his men will be safe, but also
the welfare of those concerned in this movement--I mean the leaders.'
He continued: 'I, whose heart and soul are with you, say again that
you should follow the advice of the High Commissioner, and I beg you
to go home and to your ordinary avocations; deliver up your arms to
your High Commissioner, and if you do that you will have no occasion
to repent it.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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