South African War, 1899-1902 -- Personal narratives
Friday (the 24th). This day we expected a big fight, but, as usual,
because it was expected, it did not come off. Baden-Powell the day
before had hustled them pretty considerably. We were so close on the
Boers, that we got half of their ambulances, one being a French
presentation affair, and driven by a woman, also some waggons. This day
we did not go very far, our objective being a place known, I believe, as
Warm Baths (the Harrogate or Sanatorium of the Transvaal). It lies due
north of Pretoria, and about 40 miles from Pietersburg. Of course, here
we struck the railway. After picketing the horses, a sick sergeant's
horse was handed over to me. Most of us got permission to go and get a
wash. The place was empty--save for some of Baden-Powell's men, who had
got in at the enemy the day before--a desolate, wind-swept, sandy plain
on the edge of the bush veldt and at the base of a range of kopjes,
comprised of about thirty large corrugated iron bath houses (each
containing two bath rooms), a fairly large hotel and small station--such
is Warm Baths. The baths were well patronised. Some of our fellows,
prisoners the Boers had been obliged to leave behind in their
flight--the rogues had taken the linchpins out of some of the Boer
waggon wheels to impede them as much as possible--were using them as
sleeping apartments. As about a score of men were after each bath and
the doors had no bolts, a bath, though luxurious, was not an altogether
private affair, the person bathing having continually to answer the
question of a string of "the great unwashed," "How long shall you be?"
and having the uneasy knowledge that about half-a-dozen impatient beings
were waiting, sitting on the door-step and exhorting him "to buck up!" A
couple of us managed to secure a fine bath, which we enjoyed without
interruption worthy of mention. The water, which is naturally hot, was
grand, and so hot that we had to use a lot of the cold, which was also
laid on.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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