Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 21, Number 8, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 October 1899 — BOER WAR IS BEGUN. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

BOER WAR IS BEGUN.

BURGHERS CROSS FRONTIER s AND SEIZE A TRAIN. Thia !■ Declared to Be the Outbreak of Hostilities—Diplomatic Relations Be* tween the Two Governments Broken Off—Telegraph Lines Cut. The Boer war in South Africa has begun.’ According to information from Pretoria by way of London Wednesday the understanding that a state of war already existed was given official confirmation by a proclamation issued by Sir Alfred Milner. The proclamation declares that ail persons aiding or abetting the enemy will be guilty of high treason. The limited cable service between London and South African ports was so congested with official dispatches Wednesday night that little news matter could be handled. While no word had been received up to a late hour Thursday morning that actual fighting had begun in the Transvaal, it was taken for granted that war had begun. It was known that Conyngham Greene, the British agent, had left Pretoria. The first act of war was reported in a dispatch to the London Telegraph. It told of the Boers having seized railroad property belonging to the English colony. The British patrol was stoned by the burghers between Ladysmith and the Orange Free State border. Intense excitement prevailed in Cape Town Wednesday as a result of the Boers’ move, which seemed to make war certain. Orange Free State burghers were reported to have already entered Natal, crossing the frontier thirty-seven miles below Newcastle, which the Boers, advancing from the north and west, were expected to occupy. Transvaal troops of the commanders north of the Buffalo river were reported on the move. The British first-class cruiser Powerful, Captain Lambton, arrived at Cape Town, having 500 infantry on board. Many of the Cape Dutch left to join the Boers. England’s reply to the Boers’ ultima--turn was short and dignified, merely acknowledging the receipt of the Transvaal’s note. It was delivered at Pretoria Wednesday. All London seemed to be carried away by the war spirit Patriotic airs at the theaters caused the wildest enthusiasm. Soldiers on the streets* were cheered as heroes. The staid members of the Stock Exchange unfurled the union jack and the royal standard, and sang national airs like a crowd of schoolboys. Several London papers printed New York and Washington dispatches to the effect that America’s sympathies are with Eng-

land, and also the statement that English subjects in the Transvaal are to be looked after by American consuls. It was reported in London Wednesday that a body of Orange Free State Boers had crossed th£ Natal border at Gundy Leugh Pass. This is one of the less Important passes over the Drakensberg and lies twenty-seven miles west of Glencoe and about thirty southwest of Newcastle. Also that a party of Orange Free State Boers had been detected by carbineer scouts in Natal territory, near Berg. Seeing that they had been observed they immediately retreated. Commandant Ben Viljoen, in command of the Orange Free State artillery, began a march to Albertina, the first railway station beyond Van Reenens* Pass, in the Orange Free State.

LAING’S NEK, THE PASS ON THE TRANSVAAL BORDER.

HANDING OUT AMMUNITION TO THE BOERS.