Jasper County Democrat, Volume 2, Number 50, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 March 1900 — IN STEIN’S CAPITAL [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

IN STEIN’S CAPITAL

BRITISH TROOPS TAKE BLOEMFONTEIN. Lerdßoherta Cables the Loodoa War . Office that General French Has Reached and Occupied the Hand City of the Orange Free State. The British war office received a dispatch Tuesday moraine from Lord Hob. erfa announcing that Gen. French reached Bloemfontein and after a hard fight trith the Boers occupied two hills dose to the railway station and commanding the town. “There are 321 men wounded,” says Roberts’ dispatch, ‘riißl about sixty pr seventy were killed or are n}is*in|j. The' wounds are, as a rule. more sefiohs than usual, owing to the expanding beilptp which are freely used by the -Boera. A brother of President Steynwas made a prisoner." , Bloemfontein is not a naturally strong position and was made the Orange Free State capital without fegard to military importance or defease. It stands on a high plateau, exposed on all Aides and without the shadow.of a natural barrier to the west, whence the British were expected to advance. All around the town the country Is sterile and unfitted for agriculture. The soil is covered with bowlders, tnfty grass and low brush, which alone relieve the otherwise dead monotony of the plain. The booses of the dty are low and white and obscured by the trees, which have grown within the town from sprouted sprouts. Bloemfontein’s principal building is the capltol, which supports a lofty tower. This, together with a few spired churches and a few school buildings, is the only structure that is prominent from a distance. Normally, the population of the capital is only 4,000, a rather small •umber when the large area the town covers is taken into consideration. The only permanent fortifications of Bloemfontein are those on the east. The town is protected on that side by a long ridge, which rises 300 feet above the level of the plain. From this ridge mounts a kopje, or hill, upon which the Free Staters erected a fort several years ago, when they were in constant fear of danger from British aggression. This fort would not have been of moch service without long range gnns, and even these could not prevent the enemy from shelling the town on the west. in the execution of Lord Roberta’ change of plan, whereby the British

army was concentrated in the west, the Boers decided to remove their government to Winburg. Meanwhile they had constructed several lines of works outside of Bloemfontein to the west. The nature of these works was similar to those tbe Boers used in the long investment of Kimberley.

GENERAI. FRENCH.