Dreary Work of Protecting Line.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume II, Issue 155, 29 May 1900, Page 3

Dreary Work of Protecting Line.

What a dismal fate it is, that of protecting linos, writes the war cot-rsgpondfciit of the Sydney Morning Herald. The camp is pitched close by a railway eiation, and all that has to be done i« to sent! out parties of uiftn to walk up and clown the rail lino, or to stand soutisiel through the long, weary day on some roc Icy hill, gazing dow'i on tho samo dull expanse 6f plain where no foe ever appears. All the life iind uiovement of the wa,c flow past them on the ra'lw.iy. Long fciains ol siv -uid thirty waggons of sulphas go clmkmg pas',, taking goods upto the ix.en at the lroafc ; opan trucks full of choerin" Tommies go flying bv to au accompaniment of " Scldlers of the Queen ; " hospital fci&ins of wounded come down from the front, tho lai'yo red crosses showing on the outside, and the pallid faces of the wounded looking out of the windows; or a few officers coining down fvoia tho front lo see about regiinsntnl mat lei s at tho bass, get out of the train tor a few mmufcjs sud say, '"Whatever aro you fellows doing at ♦his. plac« '? " Thay rely on the supply trains for their news, or on casual passers b; , such as veterinary officers who get out of tho train lor a d>»y or two to inspect the horses. They make a bold pretence that they are -really doing some woik. A stray Kaffir coiues along and says that there are plenty of Bpera on the neighhou-iug hills, and at once a parby in *>9nt oouti t hoping against hope that the news may prove to ha\ r e sorno g-aui of truth in it. It never has. No Boers have ever yet been discovered on Kaffil information, and the party returns despondent to its old haunts by the railway line. They uiaks as much of these little excursions as possible, and aie careful to impress upon passers-by that they are having quite a lively time of it, constantly on the move, rept-Uiiig Boer attacks.