Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 36, Number 108, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 September 1904 — HEROISM OF A BOER BOY. [ARTICLE]

HEROISM OF A BOER BOY.

Faces Death Ratlier Than Reveal the Whereabouts of His Companions. Major Seely, I). S. 0., tells a pathetic story sis a little Boer lad who preferred to die rather than give any Information likely to result in the capture of his fellow countrymen. On one occasion during the war, Major Seely said, he was Instructed to get some volunteers and try to capture a commandant at a farmhouse some 20 miles away. He got the men ready and they set out. It was a rather desperate enterprise, but they got to the farmhouse all right, only to find, however, that the elusive Boer had cleared out in an unknown direction. “It was vitally important that the British force should get some information, for it became a question perhaps of the Boers catching them and not they catching the Boer commandant. At the farmhouse they saw a goodlooking Boer boy nnd some yoeinen. Major Seely asked the boy If the commandant had been there, and he said in Dutch, taken by surprise, “Yes.” “Where has he gone?” was the next question, and the boy became suspicious and answered, ‘I don’t know.’ “I decided then,” continued Major Seely, “to do a thing for which I hope I may be forgiven, because my men's lives were in danger. I threatened the boy with death if he would not di»close the whereabouts of the general. He still refused, and I put him against a wall and said I would have him shot.' At the same time I whispered to my men, 'For heaven’s sake, don't shoot.’ “The boy still refused, although I could see he believed I was going to have him shot. I ordered the men to ‘present.’ Every rifle was leveled at the boy. ‘Now,’ I said, 'before I give the word which way has the general! gone?’ “I remember the loot In the boy’s face—a look such as I have never seen' before but once. He was transfigured before me. Something greater almost than anything human shone from his eyes. He threw back his head and said in Dutch, ‘I will not say.’ Thera was nothing for It,” concluded the jor, “but to shake hands with the boy and go away." A man likes to think that others think he is better than he la.