food nor shelter.  These matters were taken in hand on Tuesday morning, and before nightfall some 2,000 men had been supplied with arms; the Maxims had been brought in and placed in position on the hills surrounding the town; various corps had been formed; a commencement had been made in the throwing-up of earthworks around the town; and food-supplies and such field equipment as could be got together had been provided for the men.  As regards the town, the Government police having disappeared, it was necessary to take energetic steps to prevent actual chaos reigning.  Ex-Chief Detective Trimble was appointed to organize a police force, and the work was admirably done.  Before nightfall the Reform Committee’s police had taken entire charge of the town, and from this time until the withdrawal of the Committee’s police after the laying down of arms, perfect order was maintained—­indeed, the town has never before or since been so efficiently controlled as during this period.

Numbers of the mines stopped work.  In some cases the miners remained to protect the companies’ property; in other cases the men came in and volunteered to carry arms in defence of the town.  One of the most serious difficulties with which the Committee had to deal was that of supplying arms.  There were under 3,000 rifles, and during the few days when the excitement was at its highest no less than 20,000 men came forward as volunteers and demanded to be armed.  Not unnaturally a great deal of feeling was roused among these men against the Committee on account of their inability to arm them.  It was believed for a long time that the Committee was wholly responsible for the incursion by Dr. Jameson; that they had precipitated matters without regard to the safety of the unarmed population, and had actually courted civil war with a paltry equipment of some 3,000 rifles.  For several days a huge crowd surrounded the Committee’s offices clamouring for guns.  It is difficult to say what the feeling would have been and what would have been done had it been known then that there were less than 3,000 rifles.  Not more than a dozen men knew the actual number, and they decided to take the responsibility of withholding this information, for they realized that panic and riot might ensue if it were known, whilst the only hope for a successful issue now lay in Johannesburg presenting a bold, confident, and united front.

All the well-known medical men in the town came forward at once, and organized and equipped an ambulance corps which within the day was in perfect working order.

Perhaps the most arduous task of all was that of the Commissariat Department, who were called upon to supply at a few hours’ notice the men bearing arms in various positions outside the town and the various depots within the town which were organized for the relief of those who had flocked in unprovided for.  It would have been impossible, except in a community where the great majority of men had been trained by