about with great energy. The women were wonderfully patient, I
thought, and firm in their adherence to the cause. This in some cases
was but vaguely understood, but there was a general belief that there
was 'goin' to be some fighten,' which was sure to make us all better
off. I heard but one complaint, and that from a hulking slouch of a
man who had sneaked in from duty to take a nap on the foot of his sick
wife's pallet. He complained of the food, showing me the remains of
dainties given out to the sick woman, and _which he had helped her to
eat_. The woman looked up at me with haggard eyes: 'It ain't the
vittles, but the pain that's worrying me, ma'am.'

A touching sight were the yelping dogs of every breed, family pets
tethered to the fence outside. All canteens are closed by order of the
Reform Committee as a precautionary measure, and where there was doubt
of these precautions being observed, the liquors were bought and
thrown away.

Hundreds of varying rumours are afloat, which rush and swirl along
until lost in distorting eddies.

This afternoon a horseman went through the town distributing a
Proclamation from the High Commissioner, Sir Hercules Robinson:--


PROCLAMATION BY

_His Excellency the Right Hon. Sir Hercules George Robinson,
Bart., Member of Her Majesty's Most Hon. Privy Council,
K.C.B., of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and
St. George, Governor, Commander-in-Chief of Her Majesty's