James Smith, A. D. T. Messenger, No. 1534, was well chosen for his mission, and he proved himself to be worthy of the task. After the message was delivered he stayed in Pretoria for several weeks during the British occupation. During the battle of Pretoria he amused himself by running about in the district near the American consulate, where the shells were falling thickest, picking up chunks of the deadly missiles, unmindful of the great danger he was incurring. Very few men have been under a heavier fire than was this American messenger boy on the day of the taking of Pretoria. That night he told of how he waited for the shells to explode, and then ran and picked up the pieces wherever he saw them kick up the dust. “It was just like the Fourth,” was his comment on an all day’s battle which did as much to reëstablish England’s prestige as any that has been fought in many years. The fight itself lasted but one day, but the effect of the occupation of the capital of the South African Republic by the British army worked wonders in the opinion of the world as to the progress of the war. As Lord Roberts’s army came nearer and nearer to the doomed capital, the excitement grew more intense and the air was filled with alarming rumors. General Botha came back to Pretoria and established his headquarters there in order to reconstruct his forces, which were badly scattered, and to provision them from the government stores. Extra calls for burghers to rally to the cause were issued every day and were responded to by hundreds. Pretoria was the turning point of the war, at which men were called on to decide for themselves whether they would continue the struggle to the bitter end, or leave on the last trains for Delagoa Bay and sail for Europe, or remain in the city and quietly allow the British to overtake them, thus being possibly overlooked among the hundreds of peaceable citizens. Arms were issued from the arsenal to all those who wished to continue the fight or who wished to cast their lot for the first time with the army of the two states. There were arms and ammunition in abundance for hundreds more men than came to take them, for the supply had been laid in with the idea of eventually arming every man and boy in the Transvaal. Many of the burghers exchanged their well-battered rifles for new ones; all filled their ammunition belts, and took in other ways all they could besides.