arply from his position as did I. That night
two armed men stood at our chamber door. One was stationed at each of
our bedroom windows. Another guarded the house entrance, and the
remainder of the guard were dispersed around the yard. Their guns were
loaded, and a bandolier of cartridges crossed their breasts. All this
to restrain a poor, broken man, who could not walk a dozen yards!

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 7: A volunteer.]

VII

ASH WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 19.--The dynamite explosion was something
terrific. Fifty-five tons exploded at one time, wounding 700 people,
killing 80, and leaving 1,500 homeless. It ripped a chasm in the earth
deep enough to hold an Atlantic steamer with all her rigging. The
Kaffirs thought the sun had burst. Betty says the noise of the report
was something awful. Little Jacky was digging in the garden at the
time. He returned to the house at once with a very troubled face. The
coachman coming from town an hour later told of the dreadful
catastrophe. Jacky took his aunt aside: 'Aunt Bet, I heard that great
big noise when I was diggin' and I thought I had dug up hell.'

The explosion was the result of neglect. For four days fifty-five and
a half tons of dynamite lay under a hot sun at the Netherlands
Railroad junction, left in charge of an inexperienced youth of twenty
who had 'forgotten to remove it' as was ordered the day before the
explosion occurred.

Fordsburg is populated by poor Dutch and Boers. With generous
disregard of recent conflicts, the Uitlanders at once gave help and
sympathy to the afflicted. Seven of the members on the Relief
Committee were Reformers; and Reformers' wives were among the first to
nurse the wounded. President Kruger came over to Johannesburg to visit
the scene of the accident. He visited the wounded at the Wanderers'
and hospital, and seemed greatly affected. He made a speech in which
he begged the sufferers to turn their eyes to the Great Healer, who
alone could comfort. He also said that he was gratified to hear that
the subscriptions in aid of the distressed had reached so high a
figure; 'Johannesburg had come nobly to the rescue, and he was glad to
know it.' He quoted the words of the Saviour, 'Blessed are the
merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.' In benefiting others he
declared they would benefit themselves.

FEBRUARY 23.--I am housed with my ill husband. Betty comes in and goes
out in constant service to the sufferers from the dynamite ex