like rats into their holes
at the dreaded sound? And all this fear and horror to be borne upon an
empty stomach, for the horrors of partial starvation were added to the
constant fear of a violent death. Mothers had to see their babies die
because there was no milk or other suitable nourishment; a baby cannot
live on horse and mule flesh. There was hardly a coloured baby left
alive; and that one statement accounts for whole lifetimes of misery and
suffering.

It was not until the Boers had mounted their 6-inch gun on the 8th of
February that the panic began. People had got used to the smaller
shells, which could often be dodged; besides, the enemy did not fire so
many of them. But when the big gun began its seventy rounds a day people
lost their self-command and began to dig and scratch in the earth for
shelter. Thousands went down the mines and sat all day in the bowels of
the earth. Men walking in the streets jumped if a mule kicked an iron
plate; they screamed when the signal was given; they broke and ran and
burrowed into shelter. Yet so fast do some men anchor themselves to
routine that many kept their offices open and did business--all the
while, however, with one eye on the paper and the other glancing through
the door or window; ever with one ear turned to the speaker and the
other noting the rustle of paper stirred by the breeze and the hum of
wind under the door.

That only twenty people were killed is no fact at all in connection with
the panic; what really matters is that seventy times a day something
happened which might have killed a dozen people.

I have only to add, in case I am accused of exaggerating the state of
terror, that the people who went through this ordeal have not
necessarily the clearest conception of it. I came out of the safe outer
world and saw their faces and eyes, and, if I had not heard a word, I
should have known.

One other thing. A despatch sent by me to _The Manchester Guardian_
contained this sentence complimentary to the De Beers Company: "The
condition of the town would have been deplorable but for the relief
administration of the De Beers Company."

That sentence was not made, but suggested by my good friend the censor;
and it will serve to indicate how great was the bowing down before the
house of De Beers. I wish to disavow any compliment I may have appeared
to pay that company in my telegram, for I think they did their bare
duty. What they did was to provide a ration o