As Yuletide draws nigh, I will be posting material from my collection of wartime Christmas cards. I’m always interested in the juxtaposition of the festival of peace and good will in a bellicose setting.
Today’s cards are from the Boer War (1899-1902), a conflict that pitted the might of the British Empire against two independent republics of Dutch-descended settlers in southeast Africa. The British motives were rather squalid, the casus belli was contrived, and the war was conducted, at times, in a shameful way by both sides.
The dreadful pun on “Boer” is continued in this card which silhouettes President Paul Kruger of the Transvaal who went into European exile.
The British drew on troops from across the globe. Here is a unique “card” from an Australian trooper.
The late (and much lamented) critic D.G Meyers once composed a list of the best 25 debut novels. It is interesting to note how many famous writers began their careers with a bang — and never got any better. As I peruse the list, I would say that the world would have lost little if the great majority of these authors had never come up with a second book.
1. Samuel Richardson, Pamela (1740) 2. Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (1847) 3. Kingsley Amis, Lucky Jim (1954) 4. Joseph Heller, Catch-22 (1961) 5. Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man (1952) 6. William Golding, Lord of the Flies (1954) 7. Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers (1836–37) 8. J. D. Salinger, Catcher in the Rye (1951) 9. Margaret Mitchell, Gone With the Wind (1936) 10. Thomas Wolfe, Look Homeward, Angel (1929) 11. Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (1900) 12. Walker Percy, The Moviegoer (1961) 13. Ken Kesey, One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1962) 14. Thomas Pynchon, V. (1963) 15. Philip Roth, Goodbye, Columbus (1959) 16. John O’Hara, Appointment in Samarra (1934) 17. Marilynne Robinson, Housekeeping (1980) 18. Carson McCullers, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter (1940) 19. Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) 20. Flannery O’Connor, Wise Blood (1952) 21. John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces (1980) 22. Raymond Chandler, The Big Sleep (1939) 23. Henry Roth, Call It Sleep (1934) 24. Michael Chabon, The Mysteries of Pittsburgh (1988) 25. (tie) Erica Jong, Fear of Flying (1973) (tie) Donna Tartt, The Secret History (1982)
Few Canadians are aware of their country’s participation in African warfare. The exploits of Quebec voyageurs in conducting a British army up the Nile to fight against Islamic jihadists is virtually unknown, even in la belle province. The contribution of Royal Canadian Air Force squadrons in the battle against German and Italian forces North Africa during the Second World War is seldom acknowledged. And how many of my countrymen know of the Battle of Leliefontein?
There was great enthusiasm in Canada for the British efforts in the Boer War. The nation’s foreign policy was still largely decided in London and an imperial war was deemed by Canadians to be their fight too. Men rushed to enlist and battalions sailed from Quebec City to South Africa.
Among them were troops of the Royal Canadian Dragoons who were part of a force in November 1900 pursuing Boer units across the veldt near Leliefontein in the Transvaal. When the British commander realized he had overextended himself, the RCD were charged with covering his withdrawal. In the fighting that followed, the dragoons bought time for the retreat and saved the guns from capture. The British commanding officer Major-General Horace Smith-Dorrien commended their actions in his report to headquarters.
Sir: I have much pleasure in forwarding attached statements on the gallant behaviour of officers and non-commissioned officers of The Royal CanadianForces in the actions of 7th November, 1900 between Witkloof and Leliefontein on the Koomati River. I must in bringing them forward emphasize the fact that the behaviour of the whole Royal Canadian rear guard under Lieutenant-Colonel Lessard was so fine that it makes it most difficult to single out for special distinction. There is no doubt that men sacrificed themselves in the most gallant way to save the guns which they succeeded in doing.
Three Victoria Crosses (the Empire’s highest military decoration) were awarded to Canadians for the battle. The cap badge for the RCD is still a South African springbok.
No American contribution to religion has evoked as much turmoil, tragedy, and violence as the Church of Latter Day Saints, popularly called Mormonism. Its origins lie in the Burned-over district of upstate New York but the crises it precipitated occurred across the USA all the way to the Great Salt Lake of Utah.
Following the 1830 publication of the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith’s new revelations attracted a large number of converts as well as hostile attention from their Christian neighbours. Particularly provocative were the approval of polygamy and numerous theological novelties such as the appearance of Jesus Christ in the Americas.
Settlements of Mormons were established in Ohio and then Missouri where Smith prophesied the Second Coming and the founding of a new capital city. Alarm at the growth of a Mormon presence led to the establishment in 1836 of Caldwell County in the northwest of Missouri where they could come together in safety, but that hope proved illusory. Small-scale violence broke out, especially after Mormons expanded their presence into neighbouring counties. In 1838 these skirmishes broke out into what is known as the Mormon War.
In the summer of 1838 a Mormon preacher warned that his people would respond to any further attacks with violence. Sidney Rigdon’s “July 4th Oration” stated:
We take God and all the holy angels to witness this day, that we warn all men in the name of Jesus Christ, to come on us no more forever. For from this hour, we will bear it no more, our rights shall no more be trampled on with impunity. The man or the set of men, who attempts it, does it at the expense of their lives. And that mob that comes on us to disturb us; it shall be between us and them a war of extermination; for we will follow them till the last drop of their blood is spilled, or else they will have to exterminate us: for we will carry the seat of war to their own houses, and their own families, and one party or the other shall be utterly destroyed.—Remember it then all MEN.
A Mormon militia encountered forces of the Missouri state troops at the Battle of Crooked River on October 24 and though casualties on both sides were light, all thought of conciliation was abandoned. On October 27 Missouri governor Lilburn Boggs issued Executive Order 44, known as the Extermination Order:
Headquarters of the Militia, City of Jefferson, Oct. 27, 1838.
Gen. John B. Clark:
Sir: Since the order of this morning to you, directing you to cause four hundred mounted men to be raised within your division, I have received by Amos Reese, Esq., of Ray county, and Wiley C. Williams, Esq., one of my aids [sic], information of the most appalling character, which entirely changes the face of things, and places the Mormons in the attitude of an open and avowed defiance of the laws, and of having made war upon the people of this state. Your orders are, therefore, to hasten your operation with all possible speed. The Mormons must be treated as enemies, and must be exterminated or driven from the state if necessary for the public peace—their outrages are beyond all description. If you can increase your force, you are authorized to do so to any extent you may consider necessary. I have just issued orders to Maj. Gen. Willock, of Marion county, to raise five hundred men, and to march them to the northern part of Daviess, and there unite with Gen. Doniphan, of Clay, who has been ordered with five hundred men to proceed to the same point for the purpose of intercepting the retreat of the Mormons to the north. They have been directed to communicate with you by express, you can also communicate with them if you find it necessary. Instead therefore of proceeding as at first directed to reinstate the citizens of Daviess in their homes, you will proceed immediately to Richmond and then operate against the Mormons. Brig. Gen. Parks of Ray, has been ordered to have four hundred of his brigade in readiness to join you at Richmond. The whole force will be placed under your command.
I am very respectfully, yr obt st [your obedient servant], L. W. Boggs, Commander-in-Chief.
This proclamation was swiftly followed by a massacre of 18 Mormon prisoners at Haun’s Mill, despoiling of Mormon settlers, and a decision by Joseph Smith to migrate out of Missouri. Further violence and hardship would ensue.
In the autumn of 1813 the United States launched a two-pronged attack on the city of Montreal, hoping to control the St Lawrence River valley and end the British military control of Lower Canada. On this date, one of those columns under Major General Wade Hampton met defeat at the Battle of the Chateauguay.
Hampton was an experienced officer, a veteran of battles in the Revolutionary War and against a slave uprising; by 1813 he was one of the most senior generals in the American army. His orders were to lead a force of about 4,000 regulars and militia men from Lake Champlain, strike into Quebec and rendezvous with another column outside of Montreal. This plan suffered number of setbacks, not the least of which was the refusal of 1,400 New York militia to cross the border. To add to the confusion, his orders were countermanded by the American Secretary of War after his troops had been committed to battle, and local guides (either deliberately or mistakenly) gave unreliable advice stranding hundreds of his men in a forest. On October 26 Hampton’s main force encountered British, Canadian, and Mohawk units at a ford on the Chateauguay River.
The troops facing the American invasion were a curious mixture of British regulars, Quebec volunteers, other locals drafted for a year’s military service, and Mohawk warriors from Kahnawake. They were commanded by a Canadian colonel, Charles de Salaberry, a seigneur who had seen long service with the British army in the West Indies and in the Netherlands in the wars against Napoleon. In 1803 he killed a fellow officer in a duel.
Salaberry’s men were greatly outnumbered and possessed no artillery to counter the 10 American cannon but they had better intelligence of their foe’s movements and were well-entrenched. Unable to outflank the Canadians and unwilling to risk heavier casualties in a frontal attack, Hampton decided to withdraw. His retreat, and the defeat of the other American column at the Battle of Crysler’s Farm, meant an end to that year’s threat to Montreal.
Hampton retired shortly after the battle and returned to his South Carolina plantations where he was an owner of thousands of slaves. Salaberry became a folk hero in Quebec and was made a Companion of the Order of the Bath by the British government.
If anyone tries to tell you that the ancient Greeks were a people governed by reason and that rationality fled the world when Christianity began to dominate western civilization, refer them to the events described here by Xenophon in his Anabasis.
Xenophon, a young aristocratic Athenian and student of Socrates, joined a Spartan-led army in the pay of the Persian prince Cyrus the Younger who was attempting to seize the throne from his brother Artaxerxes II. When that attempt failed with the death of Cyrus and the murder of the Greek generals, Xenophon urged his fellow mercenaries to fight their way home rather than submit to the humiliating and dangerous terms offered by the Persians.
Xenophon in particular, having armed himself with a splendor becoming his present rank, endeavored to inspire sentiments of honor; and fortunately the favorable omen of sternutation occurred in the midst of his speech; on which the soldiers, all with one accord, worshipped Jupiter the Preserver, from whom the omen was reputed to proceed; and Xenophon breaking off his harangue, proposed a sacrifice to the god, desiring those who approved of the motion to hold up their hands: the show of hands being unanimous, the sacrifice was formally vowed, and a hymn sung; after which he resumed his discourse, and at great length set before the army, now full of hope and cheerfulness, the system which they must adopt to insure a safe and honorable return to their native country.
Thus, an inadvertent sneeze was perceived as having been sent from the gods, and was taken as an omen which helped Xenophon persuade the Greeks to follow his proposals. It should also be noted that when Xenophon had asked Socrates whether he should agree to serve against Artaxerxes, the philosopher did not use reasoned argument to come to a conclusion but recommended that his student consult the oracle at Delphi.
The Irish playwright and novelist Oscar Fingal O’Flahertie Wills Wilde was born on this date to a prosperous upper-middle class family in Dublin. After a brilliant apprenticeship at Oxford, Wilde launched himself into London society, becoming famous for his wit and barbed attacks on social conventions.
Though a loving father and husband, Wilde entered the demimonde of gay culture, taking his pleasure with lower-class boys and the corrupt son of aristocrats. These associations brought him down, robbed of his place in society and sentenced to two years hard labour in Reading Gaol. In De Profundis Wilde describes the humiliation of his journey to prison:
Everything about my tragedy has been hideous, mean, repellent, lacking instyle; our very dress makes us grotesque. We are the zanies of sorrow. Weare clowns whose hearts are broken. We are specially designed to appeal tothe sense of humour. On November 13th, 1895, I was brought down herefrom London. From two o’clock till half-past two on that day I had tostand on the centre platform of Clapham Junction in convict dress, andhandcuffed, for the world to look at. I had been taken out of the hospitalward without a moment’s notice being given to me. Of all possible objects Iwas the most grotesque. When people saw me they laughed. Each train as itcame up swelled the audience. Nothing could exceed their amusement.That was, of course, before they knew who I was. As soon as they had beeninformed they laughed still more. For half an hour I stood there in the greyNovember rain surrounded by a jeering mob.
For a year after that was done to me I wept every day at the same hourand for the same space of time. That is not such a tragic thing as possibly itsounds to you. To those who are in prison tears are a part of every day’sexperience. A day in prison on which one does not weep is a day on whichone’s heart is hard, not a day on which one’s heart is happy.
Proof that only the good die young or that more than the weight of years is necessary to keep a man from being a jerk, may be found in the career of Eugene Louis Gore Vidal. Born into a socially prominent family and given an expensive early education, Gore volunteered for military service after Pearl Harbour and spent an uneventful (if chilly) war in the Aleutian Islands.
Gore turned to novel writing after the war and caused a bit of a scandal with his third book Pillars of the City (1948) which treated male homosexuality in an nonjudgemental manner. That notoriety forced him for a time to write low-rent fiction under a pseudonym. He carved a successful career out of plodding high-brow historical fiction, writing accounts of the careers of Julian the Apostate. Aaron Burr, Abraham Lincoln, and William Randolph Hearst. Gore’s transsexual tale Myra Breckinridge was made into a dreadful film flop with Raquel Welch and Mae West.
Gore was not one to shy away from a microphone and became known as much for his caustic commentary as his writing. In one famous encounter he provoked the normally-urbane William F. Buckley into exclaiming “Now listen, you queer, stop calling me a crypto-Nazi or I’ll sock you in your goddam face, and you’ll stay plastered!” Gore’s jealousy of Truman Capote led to this remark: “My first impression as I wasn’t wearing my glasses was that it was a colourful ottoman. When I sat down on it, it squealed. It was Truman.” Backstage at the Dick Cavett Show, Gore slapped Norman Mailer in the face and Mailer responded by head-butting Gore.
Gore died in 20102, leaving behind these provocative quotes:
• “We should stop going around babbling about how we’re the greatest democracy on earth, when we’re not even a democracy. We are a sort of militarised republic.”
• “There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise.”
•”I never a miss a chance to have sex or appear on television.”
• “It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.”
• “A narcissist is someone better looking than you are.”
• “The four most beautiful words in our common language: ‘I told you so.'”
One of the greatest challenges that early Protestant reformers faced in persuading secular rulers of the value of the new religion was to assure kings that, despite their religious disobedience, they were perfectly harmless citizens. This was not always easy, given the way dissidents had claimed spiritual sanction for their violence in the German Peasant Rebellion.
Martin Luther wished to disassociate the evangelical cause from imputations of lawlessness and rebellion and return to the ideas held by the early Christians: obey superiors in all lawful commands but when ordered to perform any act against the will of God, refuse and suffer the legal consequences without murmur or complaint. Luther’s wish to deny the Catholic Church any coercive power tended to elevate the powers of the secular ruler; indeed Luther said that no one had spoken so highly of the magistracy since the days of the apostles as he had. The lot of Christians would ever be suffering and the cross; redress of oppression was to be sought only through prayer.
The early English reformers backed Luther on this point. William Tyndale, in his Obedience of a Christian Man, cited St. Paul’s words Romans 13 on obedience to the higher powers, castigated those who might suggest resistance and said that evil rulers were wholesome medicine, sent by God to chastise his people. In one remarkable passage he praises tyranny in comparison to the rule of a weak king:
It is better to pay the tenth than lose all. It is better to suffer one tyrant than many, and to suffer wrong of one man than of every man. Yea, and it is a better thing to have a tyrant unto thy king than a shadow; a passive king that doth nought himself, but suffereth others to do with him what they wi!, and to lead him whither they list. For a tyrant, though he do wrong unto the good, yet he punisheth the evil, and maketh all men obey, neither suffre any man to poll but himself only. A king that is soft as silk, and effeminate that is to say, turned into the nature of a woman,—what with his own lusts, which are the longing of a woman with child, so that he cannot resist them, and what with the wily tyranny of them that rule him, —shall be more grievous unto the realm than a right tyrant. Read the chronicles and thou shalt find it ever so.
Kings, added Tyndale, were above the law; they might do right or wrong as they willed and were accountable to no one but God.
But, woe to poor obedient Tyndale. Despite fleeing religious persecution in England for his translation of the Latin Bible into the vernacular, he was arrested and burnt at the stake in 1536. His last words were “Lord, open the King of England’s eyes.”
Paul Hiebert (1892-1987) was a University of Manitoba chemist who revealed a sly humour and a talent for exquisitely awful verse in publishing Sarah Binks, a faux biography of the “Sweet Songstress of Saskatchewan”. Born in Russia to a Mennonite family who migrated to Canada, Hiebert took degrees in philosophy and Gothic and Teutonic philology before doing a Ph.D. in chemistry and launching an academic career.
Hiebert imagined Willows, a Saskatchewan village of the early 20th century:
Half way between Oak Bluff and Quagmire in Saskatchewan lies the little town of North Willows. Its public buildings are unpretentious but pure in architectural style. A post office, two general stores, Charley Wong’s restaurant and billiard parlour, two United churches, the Commercial House (Lib.), the Clarendon Hotel (Cons.), a drug store, a consolidated school, and eighteen filling stations, make up the east side of Railroad Avenue, its chief commercial street. On the west side Railway Avenue is taken up by the depot, the lumber yard and four elevators. At right angles to Railway Avenue runs Post Office Street, so called because the post office was on this street before the last provincial election.
From Willows came Sarah Binks, spinster poetess whose hymns to the rural charms of her province live on in immortal ditties such as “Song to the Cow”, “Goose” and “Up from the Magma and Back Again”. These stanzas won her the much-coveted Wheat Pool Medal but, alas, the accompanying prize was a horse thermometer. In a tragic mishap while taking her own temperature, she bit down hard on a Scotch mint, cracking the thermometer and swallowing a fatal dose of mercury.
She was hailed at the unveiling of her monument with this tribute by the Honourable A.E. Windheaver:
“Despond not! I give you the words of your own great poetess, than whom there is no greater in this great Province of which I have the honour to be Minister of Grasshopper Control and Foreign Affairs. Despond not! Come drought, come rust, come high tariff and high freight rates and high cost of binder twine, I still say to you, as I have already said to the electors of Quagmire and Pelvis, that a Province that can produce a poet like your Sarah Binks under the type of government we have been having during the last four years, full of graft and maladministration and wasting the taxpayers’ money, and what about the roads, I want to say, that a Province that can produce such a poet may be down but it’s never out.”
