not to yield to despair.

On the fifteenth of May more than a thousand women assembled in the
Government Buildings at Pretoria for the purpose of deciding upon a course
of action in the grave crisis which confronted the Republic. It was the
gravest assemblage that was ever gathered together in that city--a
veritable concourse of Spartan mothers. There was little speech, for the
hearts of all were heavy, and tears were more plentiful than words, but
the result of the meeting was the best testimonial of its value.

It was determined to ask the Government to send to the front all the men
who were employed in the Commissariat, the Red Cross, schools, post and
telegraph offices, and to fill the vacancies thus created with women. A
memorial, signed by Mrs. H.S. Bosman, Mrs. General Louis Botha, Mrs. F.
Eloff, Mrs. P.M. Botha, and Mrs. F.W. Reitz, was adopted for transmission
to the Government asking for permission to make such changes in the
commissariat and other departments, and ending with these two significant
clauses:--

1.--A message of encouragement will be sent to our burghers who are at the
front, beseeching them to present a determined stand against the enemy in
the defence of our sacred cause, and pointing out to those who are losing
heart the terrible consequences which will follow should they prove weak
and wanting in courage at the present crisis in our affairs.

2.--The women throughout the whole State are requested to provide
themselves with weapons, in the first instance to be employed in
self-defence, and secondly so that they may be in a position to place
themselves entirely at the disposition of the Government.

The last request was rather superfluous in view of the fact that the
majority of the women in the Transvaal were already provided with arms.
There was hardly a Boer homestead which was not provided with enough
rifles for all the members of the family, and there were but few women who
were not adepts in the use of firearms. In Pretoria a woman's shooting
club was organised at the outset of the war, and among the best shots were
the Misses Eloff, the President's grand-daughters; Mrs. Van Alphen, the
wife of the Postmaster-General, and Mrs. Reitz, the wife of the State
Secretary. The object of the organisation was to train the members in the
use of the rifle so that they might defend the city against the enemy. The
club members took great pride in the fact that Mrs. Paul Kruger was the
President