THE VALUE OF WATER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 42, 21 February 1900, Page 4

THE VALUE OF WATER.

w v< The following appears in the London fla&r .JTofl from the pen of Julian I wonder if you bos the picture—the trfjgwl and dusty soldiers, the spent wwes, the clouds of red powdery dust choking us all, the hot, bare veldt , wafeMng away for ever in all directions, the horizon trembling and dancing beCora us by reason of the movement of *. the heated air; finally, the bare naked : ,'RUn, blazing down at us as the Boers , Bad been doing earlier in the day. ('-■■Wei marched to Graspan with our *'water bottles and each regimental cart filled, but the Tommies made away with their shares quickly, S.im. Tommy does with the food and ' drink that's given him to keep him for the day or more. s ?,, -They fought the battle with parched '' * throats, and then discovered that there ' Twaa only one little well to supply us '"'all with more. Around that well hundreds gathered, and when the buckets were being emptied into the carts the soldiers dipped up the wastage wtih their tins. For myself, I got a cup of boiling water from a locomotive engine, and sat down to wait till I coulcUlrink it without being scalded, All, how precious water is out here! Sometimes I think I can remember men with hose pipes • drenching Fleet-street and the Strand with water in the dead of uight. But I can t believe my own memory. It • doeß not seem possible that water was ; ever thrown about like that. We camped beside a muddy, grassy pond on the way to Modder Kiver, and again we revelled in water. We actually washed our bodies and changed ' our clothing 1 , and felt more or less like "just men made perfect." On the next - afternoon, in the heat of a fearful battle, I asked an officer who guarded , 'a water wagon of the Coldstream . .Guards to let me fill my bottle. u We have net enough for our own •men,' said he. ;; ■ j u It was to your wounded men that I "* gave what I had," said I, turning .•' .••■> away. . - ■ J: "Please come back and fill your bottle," said he; "you may have all ~;.. job want." ' ... Twenty minutes later more wounded Men. crawling to the rear began again * "'fc cross my path and beg for water. * c "_; *Hease, sir, could you give me a little water?' r "Thatman oyer there hashadoue foot '•torn away. Could you spare him a drink of water?" % .."Hello! How are you wounded? jMOan I do anything for you ?" " Give me some water, sir, for God's '' ; «ke; that*s all I want." *''... We have learned what war is, and - more about the Boer than we knew a 1 month ago; but, above all, we have * learned the value of water.