Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 January 1915 — FOUND THINGS HAD CHANGED [ARTICLE]

FOUND THINGS HAD CHANGED

Auto Made It Impossible'for De Weft to Repeat Famous Deeds on the Veldt.

Christian De Wet was the most pioturesque, resourceful and elusive figure on the Boer side of the South African war a dozen years ago. The efforts of the British forces to "round him up” were futile for many months. He and his followers were always turning up in the most unexpected ways and places. His maneuvers, his stratagems, were deemed real additions to the "art of war” in the cavalry branch, or rather in the handling of "mounted infantry,” to be technically correct.

Hence when General De Wet went into insurrection against the Union of South Africa and on the side of England’s foes there was general expectation of a gamesome time. Whatever the effect, if any, on the final outcome of the war of his operations, it was expected that De Wet would supply the material for a lot of "stories,” as amusing to neutral readers as they were exasperating to his military opponents. But the event proved that De Wet had not reckoned with the new factor that has come into war since he ranged the veldt a dozen years ago.

He and his followers rode and raided with all his old skill and invention. The difference was that they never had a chance to rest. They had horses in plenty, they knew the country like the backs of their hands, but no matter how fast or skillfully they rode they-could never really get away from their foes. Though their horses wearied and died, behind them the motor cars of their foes, the horses of steel that fed on gasoline, kept remorselessly chugging on. The Herald has before suggested this should be termed “The Automobile War.” The running down of De Wet, the unequaled horseman of the veldt, emphasizes the merit of the suggestion—Chicago Herald.