general desire to hear him and to see him. In one who had attacked
Kitchener of Khartum, the men of Oldham expected to find a
stalwart veteran, bearded, and with a voice of command. When
they were introduced to a small red-haired boy with a lisp, they
refused to take him seriously. In England youth is an unpardonable
thing. Lately, Curzon, Churchill, Edward Grey, Hugh Cecil, and
others have made it less reprehensible. But, in spite of a vigorous
campaign, in which Lady Randolph took an active part, Oldham
decided it was not ready to accept young Churchill for a member.
Later he was Oldham's only claim to fame.

A week after he was defeated he sailed for South Africa, where
war with the Boers was imminent. He had resigned from his
regiment and went south as war correspondent for the _Morning
Post_.

Later in the war he held a commission as Lieutenant in the South
African Light Horse, a regiment of irregular cavalry, and on the
staffs of different generals acted as galloper and aide-de-camp. To
this combination of duties, which was in direct violation of a rule
of the War Office, his brother officers and his fellow
correspondents objected; but, as in each of his other campaigns he
had played this dual role, the press censors considered it a
traditional privilege, and winked at it. As a matter of record,
Churchill's soldiering never seemed to interfere with his writing,
nor, in a fight, did his duty to his paper ever prevent him from
mixing in as a belligerent.

War was declared October 9th, and only a month later, while
scouting in the armored train along the railroad line between