A Woman's Part in a Revolution eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 158 pages of information about A Woman's Part in a Revolution.

A Woman's Part in a Revolution eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 158 pages of information about A Woman's Part in a Revolution.

Kind Mrs. Heath came to me, and, putting her arms about my shoulders, led me gently back into the bedroom, ’Mrs. Heath, will you please tell my sister-in-law that I am alone?’ and Betty knew what had happened and came to me at once.  Some time later Mr. John Stroyan brought a note from my husband:—­

     Johannesburg Jail—­2 A.M.

     ’We are well—­a couple of dozen—­waiting for the train to
     Pretoria.  Don’t worry.

     ‘Yours, J.H.H.’

Then nature came to my relief.  My overtaxed nerves refused to bear any more—­they were paralysed.  I threw myself across the foot of my little boy’s bed, and lay like a dead woman until the morning broke....

Many days afterward I heard further details of the arrest.  Some of the incidences were amusing, as was the polite borrowing and making use of Mr. King’s carriage—­he being one of the Reformers—­for conveyance of the prisoners to the gaol.  At the Rand Club there was so large a collection of Reformers, that the carriages, even over-crowded, could not carry them all.  Lieuts. de Korte and Pietersen, the officers in charge, said in the most friendly manner, ’Very well, gentlemen, some of you must wait until we can come back for you.’  And they did wait.  Colonel Rhodes was taken from his own home; roused from his bed, he stood brushing his hair with martial precision, and expressing to the officer his regret at putting him to the trouble of waiting while he dressed, Mr. Seymour Fort meanwhile packing his valise.  ’Fort, old man, put in some books,’ said the Colonel, who is a great reader; ’all the books you can find;’ and Mr. Fort threw in book after book—­big ones and little ones; and for this lavish provision the poor Colonel paid dearly some hours later, in company with several husbands, whose wives in excess of tenderness had provided them with every known toilette luxury filled into silver-topped cut crystal bottles.  The sight of these afflicted men carrying their heavy burdens from the station to the prison at Pretoria was both amusing and dramatic.  At times their speech reached the epic.

The sad side was poor Sam Jameson, crippled and broken with rheumatism—­a seriously ill man—­accompanied to the very prison gates by his ever-faithful wife; and the second lot of Reformers, sent to Pretoria the following morning, met with an experience which some of them have never since been able to speak of without turning white.  By the hour of their arrival the whole country round about Pretoria knew of their coming, and a large and violent mob was gathered at the railroad station to receive them.  Through some misadventure, an inadequate guard was detailed to march them to the gaol.  The prisoners were set upon by the mob, reviled, stoned, and spat upon, the officers in charge trampling them under their horses’ hoofs, in their vain and excited endeavours to protect them.  The poor prisoners reached the jail in a full run, bruised and breathless, but thankful

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A Woman's Part in a Revolution from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.