To the ordinary mind the question of mobility resolves itself into a mere matter of mounted men. It is almost impossible to follow the extraordinary ramifications strategically and tactically connected with the term. To increase the mobility of the army--the problem which had to be faced by Lord Roberts on his arrival at the Cape and again at Bloemfontein--it was, above all things, imperative to have quicker moving transport; strategically, a leader would be hand-tied without it. After this it was necessary to provide for perpetual relays of mounts for the cavalry with far less weight on the saddle, and to feed up the infantry, and thus restore to the men their mental and muscular elasticity. Tactical mobility was dependent on these considerations, and they had to be faced equally with the great difficulty of how to deal with the daily increasing number of sick. The Boers had been given too much breathing-time at first, and the delay had to be made up for by the hurried and costly swoop on Cronje, which turned the tide of British fortune. It was now important that another rush should be made--a rush without the "intervals for refreshments" which had served the Boers so conveniently, and enabled their recuperative courage to assert itself--and to organise this a somewhat long halt was obligatory. The Chief now intended to make the capital the advanced base for the invasion of the Transvaal, and decided to attempt no further move till sixty days' supplies should have arrived from the Cape. The heterogeneous units of Imperial and Colonial troops now called for redistribution. Gaps had to be filled in and "inefficients" weeded out. General Warren was put into civil charge of Griqualand West; General Nicholson was given charge of the transport--a thankless and onerous post; General Chermside took over the Third Division from General Gatacre; General Hunter was drawn with Barton's Brigade from Natal to the Free State side; Generals Pole-Carew and Rundle got Divisions; and General Ian Hamilton was appointed to the command of a Division of Mounted Infantry, 11,000 men in all, composed of two Brigades, each of four corps, with batteries of artillery attached. The remounting of the cavalry and Mounted Infantry was an undertaking needing time and help from all parts of the British world. Activities were not all serious, however. Bloemfontein boasted a newspaper. It was styled the _Friend of the Free State_. Before many days were over it had changed hands, and had become the perquisite of the war correspondents. It was now run on Imperial lines, and formed the organ of official communications during the military occupation of the capital. But for that reason it did not lose the sense of humour with which the freelances of the press--Rudyard Kipling among them--were bubbling. A specimen of the jocosity of our exuberant scribes serves as a memento of a wonderful period. "STINKOSSMULEFONTEIN" THE DESCRIPTIVE ART