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 I began our daily visits to the women and children at the
Wanderers' and Tattersall's to-day. At the Wanderers' alone are nearly
three hundred. The wonderful provision made for their health and
comfort spoke well for the intelligence as well as heart of the
Reform Committee, and Mr. Lingham, an American, who has that especial
department in charge. We found the dancing-hall of the Wanderers'
converted into a huge dormitory, the supper-room into a sick ward, and
the skating-rink reserved for women newly confined--fright and
excitement having brought on many premature births. There is a matron
in charge of the sick, and a medical inspector, who comes twice a day
to visit the different wards. I overheard him soundly berate a mother
who kept her children too much indoors. The food was good, and there
was plenty of it. Fresh cow's milk was supplied to the children. I
noticed a large vessel of galvanised iron marked 'Boiled water for
drinking purposes.' The little children were romping and tumbling
about with great energy. The women were wonderfully patient, I
thought, and firm in their adherence to the cause. This in some cases
was but vaguely understood, but there was a general belief that there
was 'goin' to be some fighten,' which was sure to make us all better
off. I heard but one complaint, and that from a hulking slouch of a
man who had sneaked in from duty to take a nap on the foot of his sick
wife's pallet. He complained of the food, showing me the remains of
dainties given out to the sick woman, and _which he had helped her to
eat_. The woman looked up at me with haggard eyes: 'It ain't the
vittles, but the pain that's worrying me, ma'am.'
A touching sight were the yelping dogs of every breed, family pets
tethered to the fence outside. All canteens are closed by order of the
Reform Committee as a precautionary measure, and where there was doubt
of these precautions being observed, the liquors were bought and
thrown away.
Hundreds of varying rumours are afloat, which rush and swirl along
until lost in distorting eddies.
This afternoon a horseman went through the town distributing a
Proclamation from the High Commissioner, Sir Hercules Robinson:--
PROCLAMATION BY
_His Excellency the Right Hon. Sir Hercules George Robinson,
Bart., Member of Her Majesty's Most Hon. Privy Council,
K.C.B., of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and
St. George, Governor, Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty's
Colony of the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa, and of the
Territories, Dependencies thereof, Governor of the Territory
of British Bechuanaland, and Her Majesty's Commissioner,
&c., &c_.
'Whereas it has come to my knowledge that certain British
subjects, said to be under the leadership of Dr. Jameson,
have violated the territory of the South African Republic,
and have cut telegraph wires, and done various other illegal
acts; and
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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