rs and men are drawn from two distinct
branches of society. The Boers in their normal state are independent
farmers differing only in wealth. One Boer might be the possessor of
perhaps ten farms and be worth a quarter of a million, while another
might be but a poor "bywoner" and not worth a hundred pence, yet the
two men would occupy the same rank in time of war.

Immediately martial law is promulgated the entire Boer adult male
population is amenable for military service. In the ranks of a
commando one finds men of every profession, from the advocate and
doctor to the blacksmith and plumber. From these ranks the officers
are chosen, and a man who one day is but an ordinary soldier might be
the next promoted to the rank of field-cornet or commandant, and might
possibly in a few days attain the position of a General.

The officer and the men that follow him have in most cases been drawn
from the same district, and they know one another personally. If,
therefore, a Boer falls in battle, whatever be his rank, his loss is
keenly felt by his comrades in arms, for they, having known him of
old, lose a personal friend by his death.

The Boer officers can be divided into two classes--the brave and the
cowardly. The brave officer fights whenever he gets the chance,
whereas his chicken-hearted brother always waits for orders and makes
elaborate plans to escape fighting. It is quite easy in the Boer Army
to succeed in the course adopted by the latter class, and it not
infrequently occurred that the Boers preferred this class of officer
to his more reckless comrade, for they argued--"We like to serve
under him because he will keep us out of danger." And just as the
officers could be divided so could the men.

In this campaign it was noticeable that during the last stages of the
struggle the younger officers replaced the older ones. Many of these
latter got tired of the War and surrendered to the British, others
were removed from their commands as being too old-fashioned in their
methods and incapable of adapting themselves to the altered
circumstances. Moreover, we found that the younger officers were more
industrious, more mischievous, and more reckless. Of course, when I
speak of the young Boer officers I do not intend to convey the idea of
children of seventeen to twenty years of age, such as I have sometimes
encountered among the junior officers of the British Army.

The life training of the burghers in horsemanship and mu