Post by BereniceUK on Apr 4, 2017 20:15:56 GMT
POSTMEN IN KHAKI.
BY A MAN FROM THE FRONT
News from South Africa is so meagre, that a contribution from one lately at the front is welcome.
A few days since, therefore (writes a reporter in the Daily Dispatch), I paid a visit to the comfortable little home of Sergeant Arthur Lee, of the 6th Battalion of the 4th Middlesex, who is now at 68, Westmoreland-street, London, S.W., having returned from South Africa not long ago. As I anticipated, he was able to tell me a most interesting story of his hardships during the present war.
Sergeant Lee, who has become the principal partner in Messrs. F. E. Lee and Son, the well-known practical gardeners of Latchmore-road, Battersea, has a military bearing and an out-spoken manner that comes from an acquaintance with the camp fire.
"It was," says Sergeant Lee,"in the early part of last year that my regiment was ordered to South Africa, and we landed in Capetown somewhere about the middle of February. To prevent the Boers interfering with the line of communications we were sent to an important junction called Piquetberg Road, in Cape Colony, about a hundred miles from Capetown. It may have been our misfortune but we saw little or no fighting ; but night and day, storm or sunshine, we had to be ever on the alert for the wily Boer. I had the hardest job in the regiment, for I
WAS REGIMENTAL POSTMAN,
and it was an ordinary occurence for me to start from my tent early in the morning and be on duty until long after nightfall.
"Piquetberg is about the most celebrated place in South Africa for rain : it falls in sheets. It was nothing for us to throw ourselves down soaked to the skin, and wake up the next morning in the same condition.
KHAKI IS NOT WATERPROOF
and rain runs through it like a sieve. Easter, 1900, I got a soaking that lasted several days, and I woke up one morning feeling as if every bone in my body was being torn asunder. I managed to crawl about, however, for when you know that hundreds of your comrades are perhaps suffering quite as badly, it makes you pull yourself together and keep quiet, although you may be ready to drop.
At last I got so bad that my hands and my feet began to swell, and then I knew that my old enemy had got a grip of me, and that I was in for a long spell of rheumatism. The Doctors at the Field Hospital decided that mine was a chronic case. I had a bad record in the matter of health for I had been invalided from the regiment and temporarily discharged two years before, owing to a very bad attack of rheumatism. Consequently I was now sent home as unfit for further duty. When I reached here, I was so full of pain that I found it impossible to get any sleep at night, and I could not raise a glass to my lips without trembling so that I upset the contents.
When I had been home about three months my wife one day suggested Dr. Williams' pink pills for pale people as she had heard of (some/many) bad cases of rheumatism that they had cured. I said I would try them, and by the time I had got to the end of my first box I was already slightly better. At the end of five weeks I had improved so much that I could not only eat and sleep better, but actually began to get about once more. In a few more weeks the swelling of my hands and feet had disappeared, and my crooked fingers got back to their proper shape. I never felt better in my life than I feel now. I am free from pain and well enough to go out to the front again if they want me."
There are many instances in this country of similar cures of rheumatism by Dr. Williams' pink pills, but the above typical case of a hero from South Africa is an illustration of the far-reaching influence of this world famous medicine. Even in the most remote countries of the world cures are being constantly reported, and these include cases of anæmia, consumption, eczema, rheumatism, and the other diseases which arise from one form or another of impoverished blood. By reason of their strengthening effect on the nerves, Dr. Williams' pink pills are also unrivalled as a tonic, and have cured debility, St. Vitus' dance, consumption, and paralysis. They may be obtained at two shillings and ninepence a box, or thirteen and nine for six boxes, from Dr. Williams' medicine company, Holborn Viaduct, London, and are sold by chemists. Mind you ask for Dr. Williams', however ; dishonest traders offering substitute pills under misleading titles should be avoided.
(Bootle Times, 27 April 1901)
BY A MAN FROM THE FRONT
News from South Africa is so meagre, that a contribution from one lately at the front is welcome.
A few days since, therefore (writes a reporter in the Daily Dispatch), I paid a visit to the comfortable little home of Sergeant Arthur Lee, of the 6th Battalion of the 4th Middlesex, who is now at 68, Westmoreland-street, London, S.W., having returned from South Africa not long ago. As I anticipated, he was able to tell me a most interesting story of his hardships during the present war.
Sergeant Lee, who has become the principal partner in Messrs. F. E. Lee and Son, the well-known practical gardeners of Latchmore-road, Battersea, has a military bearing and an out-spoken manner that comes from an acquaintance with the camp fire.
"It was," says Sergeant Lee,"in the early part of last year that my regiment was ordered to South Africa, and we landed in Capetown somewhere about the middle of February. To prevent the Boers interfering with the line of communications we were sent to an important junction called Piquetberg Road, in Cape Colony, about a hundred miles from Capetown. It may have been our misfortune but we saw little or no fighting ; but night and day, storm or sunshine, we had to be ever on the alert for the wily Boer. I had the hardest job in the regiment, for I
WAS REGIMENTAL POSTMAN,
and it was an ordinary occurence for me to start from my tent early in the morning and be on duty until long after nightfall.
"Piquetberg is about the most celebrated place in South Africa for rain : it falls in sheets. It was nothing for us to throw ourselves down soaked to the skin, and wake up the next morning in the same condition.
KHAKI IS NOT WATERPROOF
and rain runs through it like a sieve. Easter, 1900, I got a soaking that lasted several days, and I woke up one morning feeling as if every bone in my body was being torn asunder. I managed to crawl about, however, for when you know that hundreds of your comrades are perhaps suffering quite as badly, it makes you pull yourself together and keep quiet, although you may be ready to drop.
At last I got so bad that my hands and my feet began to swell, and then I knew that my old enemy had got a grip of me, and that I was in for a long spell of rheumatism. The Doctors at the Field Hospital decided that mine was a chronic case. I had a bad record in the matter of health for I had been invalided from the regiment and temporarily discharged two years before, owing to a very bad attack of rheumatism. Consequently I was now sent home as unfit for further duty. When I reached here, I was so full of pain that I found it impossible to get any sleep at night, and I could not raise a glass to my lips without trembling so that I upset the contents.
When I had been home about three months my wife one day suggested Dr. Williams' pink pills for pale people as she had heard of (some/many) bad cases of rheumatism that they had cured. I said I would try them, and by the time I had got to the end of my first box I was already slightly better. At the end of five weeks I had improved so much that I could not only eat and sleep better, but actually began to get about once more. In a few more weeks the swelling of my hands and feet had disappeared, and my crooked fingers got back to their proper shape. I never felt better in my life than I feel now. I am free from pain and well enough to go out to the front again if they want me."
There are many instances in this country of similar cures of rheumatism by Dr. Williams' pink pills, but the above typical case of a hero from South Africa is an illustration of the far-reaching influence of this world famous medicine. Even in the most remote countries of the world cures are being constantly reported, and these include cases of anæmia, consumption, eczema, rheumatism, and the other diseases which arise from one form or another of impoverished blood. By reason of their strengthening effect on the nerves, Dr. Williams' pink pills are also unrivalled as a tonic, and have cured debility, St. Vitus' dance, consumption, and paralysis. They may be obtained at two shillings and ninepence a box, or thirteen and nine for six boxes, from Dr. Williams' medicine company, Holborn Viaduct, London, and are sold by chemists. Mind you ask for Dr. Williams', however ; dishonest traders offering substitute pills under misleading titles should be avoided.
(Bootle Times, 27 April 1901)