The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-02-28 00:00:00

ELECTRICITY AND COALS.

Mr. T. A. Edison, of Menloe-park, New York, has
always been rather conspicuous for the speculative
boldness of his ideas, and if he had not actually done
some very marvellous inventive feats he might be
regarded—or disregarded—as a mere dreamer of
dreams. Too many of his dreams have been falfilled,
however, to permit of his being deemed unworthy of
the most serious attention, however apparently w'id
may he his scientific forecasts. He has just given, in
the New York Tribune, expression to one which
certainly looks to be very wild indeed. As every-
body knows, an enormous amount of capital and
ingenuity has been devoted to the creation and
perfecting of machinery for the generation
of electricity. Mr. Edison now ventures on the pre-
diction that many now living will probably see the
time when all this machinery will be unnecessary,
and when electrical energy will be derived directly
from coal, which is stored up solar heat and light.
The motion of certain French and German scientists,
that solar light and heat may by-and-bye be trans-
formed directly into electricity, the New York
prophet scouts as mere wild chimera, or, at any rate,
as something too remote and untrustworthy to be
within the limits of practical science; but that the
transformation will before very long be effected
directly from the coal he believes to be a "certain
fact."

A deaf mute used the new audiphone. "Can you
pay me that five dollars r —these were the first words
he heard. "I prefer to remain in my original con-
dition," he said, sternly, and threw the audiphone out
of the window.

_ln Irish soldier was quartered in a petty French
town which had a very pretentious gate. A grocer,
dilating on its grandeur, asked him what the Irish
would say if they possessed it. "Faith, they'd say,"
was his reply, "we'll kape the big gate shut, or the
dirty little —ill be after running out of it."


THE NARRATIVE OF THE WAR.
DARING AND SUCCESSFUL MILITARY
TACTICS.
The close of last week was remarkable, after the
receipt of the news of General Stewart's death, for a
rapid succession of eventful incidents in the Soudan,
as well as considerable activity at home. The latter,
including the despatch of reinforcements, is dealt
with in another column. A touching account was
given by the special correspondent of the Daily News
of the funeral obsequies to the late Sir Herbert
Stewart. He said: "We buried him in the little
British graveyard near the Gakdul Wells. It was the
most impressive scene anyone ever went through.
We formed a procession in the valley, headed by the
firing party and the band of the Royal Sussex. The
pall-bearers were Majors Hon. C. Byng and Gould,
Lieutenants Lord, Browning, Douglas, and Lawson,
and Captain Rhodes. Colonel Talbot read the sere
vice. I looked up once. It is no exaggeration to say
that everyone round the place had utterly broken
down. I have lost the kindest, best friend man ever
had, and England, I honestly think, one of her best
officers. It was a most trying time for him, that
march out from El Gubat ; butt the doctors say
nothing could possibly have saved him from the first.
I fully believe them. The 19th Hussars made- a
forced march to try and be in time for the funeral,
but arrived iust too late. This morning they came
and asked to be allowed to do the stonework round
the grave, and have been working all day."
From Korti on Saturday it was reported that two
hundred and twenty-six of the late General Gordon's
black troops, together with their wives and children,
who came from Khartoum by steamer to El Gubat
previous to the fall of the former place, have arrived
here, and were encamped at Ambukol. The sanitary
condition of Korti was perfectly satisfactory. It was
likely, however, that the overpowering heat approach-
ing would necessitate the selection of another camp
further north, as tent life would then be impossible.
A gratifying item of news on Saturday also was from
Sydney, to the effect that the Patriotic Fund for
the equipment of a New South Wales Contingent, for
service in the Soudan, amounted to £15,000, the prepa-
dons for the departure of the contingent being nearly
completed. The popular enthusiasm continued un-
abated, and the day of embarkation was to be observed
as a public holiday.
The Alexandrian organ Na gara states that the
traitor Faragh Pasha, who betrayed General Gordon,
had been promised 150,000 thalers by the Mandi,
but only received 60,000. Having made complaints,
he was forthwith hanged. At Khartoum the Mandi
captured 21 Krupp guns, a vast quantity of powder,
and 15,000 Remington rifles.
On Sunday a special morning edition or the Daily
Telegraph was published containing a despatch with
news of General Buller's force, and recording a daring
strategic movement of Major Wardrop. The despatch
was dated Korti, Feb. 21 (5.50 p.m.), from Gakdul,
Feb. 19, and after stating that the enemy had re-
tired from his position near the Abu Klee, Wells on
tne afternoon of the 17th February, that we hold
them, and that our loss amounted to 25 wounded and
four killed, continued: "About noon on the 17th
General Buller commenced a systematic shelling of
the Arab lines. Presently two fortunate, well-aimed
shots inflicted considerable damage upon the troops
of the Mandi. One of these burst over the heads of
a number of men gathered around a four-pounder
howitzer, which they '.aad dragged to the top of the hill
east of the fart held by the sailors; and the second did
execution in carrying away the wheel of a gun
carriage. Meanwhile, Lord Charles Beresford, with
the Gardners, worked upon the enemy at every
opportunity; and at the same time the Mounted
Infantry, wader Captain l'igot, while protecting the
water parties, kept up a heavy fire from an advanced
point in the Wady, and thus took off those of the
enemy's skirmishers who had crept nearest to our
lines. The honours of the day, however, fell to
Major Wardrop. With four Hussars out of the eight
who had been left behind, he and Lieutenant Tudway,
of the Mounted Infantry, stole up the Wady in the
direction of Stewart's zereba, keeping well under cover
of the hills and maintaining touch all the while of
Buller's left. Moving cautiously in this way, the little
force crept round the enemy's right. Seeing there
were only a few hundred riflemen upon the hills
without any reserve of spearrnen, Wardrop sent
volleys at 800 yards' range into the enemy s flank,
leaving a man at the spot to continue the firing as
rapidly as possible, but without showing kimself above
the sky-line. Wardrop then descended and galloped
with his men to the next hill, still further behind
the enemy's right, and from here he repeated the
tactics I have just described. This done, he pushed
on to a third hill, again carrying out the same
.plan.
His procedure was based on the belief that the Arabs
would not stand if taken in the rear. And so it
proved. The appearance of the men and the firing
from so many different quarters completely surprised
the Mandists, and threw them into something like a
panic. They evidently thought that bodies of fresh
British troops were arriving, and, having no horse-
men at hand, they began at about 2.30 to make off
for Metemmeh. By three o'clock their firing had
ceased, and the main body of the enemy had disap-
peared, taking with them their guns and dead and
wounded. A few mounted Arabs, acting as scouts,
remained on watch two or three miles off. It is pro-
bable that the enemy's loss exceeded ours.
The whole affair may have been a reconnai-
sauce in force on the enemy's part; but the Khar-
toum cartridge cases and the wearing of the
Mahcli's uniform showed that a contingent, at any
rate, of the force opposed to us was from the south.
During the afternoon and night of the 17th, and
morning of the 18th there were no further signs of
the enemy. The convoy of the Guards and the West
Kent Regiments, with camels, starts to-morrow (20th)
for Abu Klea. Upon their arrival Gen. Buller will
probably move to Gakdul. If the transport service
had been adequate, he would have advanced upon
Berber. lathe absence, however, of sufficient trans-
port, the campaign here may be said to be closed for
the present season, unless the Government insist upon
another forward movement, or the enemy press us."

The news to hand on Tuesday contained more prac-
tical information than incidents of an exciting cha-
racter. Telegraphing from Abu Klea (via °Korti,
Feb. 23, 12.45 p.m.), Feb. 20, the special corre-
spondent of the Daily Chronicle, who has elected "to
share the lot of General Buller," and who is the only
correspondent who remains at the advanced post,
continues the history of the advance force after
Major Wardrop's daring strategy of the 18th. During
nearly. the whole of the day following (the corre-
spondent says) nothing was seen of the enemy, but
towards sundown a few appeared on the top of a
ridge some 2000 yards distant from the British main
camp. They were, however, promptly dispersed by
three well-aimed shells. Also during the course Of
the day reinforcements, consisting of some com-
panies of the Royal Sussex and the Light
amel Corps, reached the camp, bringing
with them some prisoners they had captured
near Abu Klea. These prisoners were examined
separately, their combined statements not presenting
any serious discrepancies. They declare that there is
no strong force of rebels near the British camp at
Abu Klea, but that there are 600 fighting men from
Metemmeh in a camp some two miles distant. They
agree in stating that none of the Mandi's Khartoum
forces have yet reached Meternmeh, and the men
who harassed our troops on the 16th and 17th were
all from the last-named place. The prisoners further
state that they had formed part of the Soudanese con-
tingent of Hicks Pasha's army, but saved their lives
by deserting to the enemy.

It will be remembered that for some unaccountame
reason several of the reports of the great battle at the
Abu Rica Wells on Jan. 17 written by the special
correspondents of the London daily papers were not
permitted to be sent. Now, however, they have come
to hand by post, and they contain matter which is
sufficiently interesting to reproduce. The report of
the engagement from the pen of Mr. Charles
Williams, the clever correspondent of the Daily
Chronicle, was published in that journal on Wednes-
day morning. In the course of his graphic account
he thus records how the square was broken, and how
Colonel Burnaby was killed: "At twenty minutes to
ten the brigadier took horse, and going between the
Guards in the centre and the Heavies on the left,
ordered an advance, giving at the same time the sig-
nificant caution, When the men are ordered to close
they must always close on their left,' this being the
line of retreat and also the line which enabled
the column to keep along the edge of the wady upon
the high ground. For nearly an hour the enemy
retired, gradually as it seemed dissolving in the long
grass of the wady, but keeping up a good body at the
same time in front. Our men had formed square,
the Heavies on the face next the wady, the Guards in
front, the Naval Brigade and Sussex on the left of the
Heavies, and the Mounted Infantry on the other
faces, the camels and field hospital and the ammu-
nition reserves being in the centre. All at once there
came a rush up two narrow gullies leading from the
wady, where the face of the square was necessarily
a little irregular from the contour of the ground, and
the Heavies, instead of remaining steady as infantry
would have done, followed their cavalry instincts and
rushed out to meet the ghazis, who came on at
great speed, brandishing spears, hurling jave-
lins, and wielding huge double-handed swords.
All the valour of the Heavies was of no avail
once they had broken their formation, and they were
forced back upon the Naval Brigade with the Gardner
gun, and upon the right of the Sussex, who had
naturally closed up towards the gap. The conse-
quence was that a breach was made in the angle of
the square, and one of the ghazis even got so far in
as to try to set fire, with a torch he had ready, to
the battery ammunition. Despite the great efforts of
Colonel Burnaby, Captain Verner (Sir C. Wilson's
staff officer), and others, the Heavies were being
massacred, when Burnaby fell with two wounds
in the head, Verner was forced to the ground,
and his life saved by Major Carmichael, of
the sth Lancers, whose dead body fell across
him, as well as those of three ghazis. Mean-
while the Guards, whose line was as steady
as a rock, faced about, delivered a counter attack,
rescued the Heavies, and drove the Mandi's ghazis
out of the square, when they were severely punished,
though they did some terrible execution in return.
General Stewart now moved on about 120 yards to
more level ground, and then at him again came the


sable warriors, nothing daunted by their first repulse.
This time, too, they did much execution, but not so
much as before, and the fire from the face of the
square was nearly enough to drive them back pell-mell
into the long grass, where the guns did heavy work
among them for a mile and more. Fully 500 bodies
lay on the scene of the first struggle—rider and horse
and camel and foot soldier, friend and foe, in one
red ruin blent. Had water been as plentiful as
blood, the force would not have suffered un-
told agonies of thirst. But no water was to be had.
The moans of the wounded menforwaterwere piteous
in the extreme, and there was hardly a drop to give
them. But good doctor Ferguson, the Chief of the
Medical Stoff—a harder working and better man for
his position there is not in the army—with his col-
leagues, achieved wonders, and before three o'clock all
were ready for the advance, the wounded being
carried on camel litters and on stretchers to the wells,
which were occupied without further opposition
beyond a few shots from flying natives. At night
volunteers were called upon to go back for the convoy,
and the position round the wells was held till this
morning, foodless, if not waterless, the night again
being bitterly cold. But meanwhile some parties
of the enemy had got round our rear, and made
an attack upon the convoy in the zareba at our former
position. They took nothing by their motion except
the loss of nearly a hundred men, and then the re-
mainder began streaming out of the wady and over
the hills in the direction of Berber. Had there been
one regiment of cavalry we might have exterminated
or taken prisoners these fellows, who to the last main-
tained a defiant appearance. They jumped out of
the long grass and closed syith individual soldiers for
hours after the fight was over, and two of them in
ginizi's uniform excited admiration by the cool way in
which they walked off at about 600 to 1000 yards
away, regarding not at all the attempts to pct
them. Dropping shots went on for hours, but
ceased when we got to the wells, and were not re-
newed during the night. To-day there is not a rign
of any of the enemy, but two or three who have
given themselves up or been found wounded in the
grass and been duly tended. We march at
once for a position six miles nearer the Nile, and
hope to reach the river once more to-morrow night.
No time remains for more details of the fight. But I
must tell the last of poor Colonel Burnaby. When he
fell, his head was raised by Private Wood, of the
Grenadier Guards. This good fellow, seeing the case was
hopeless, said, Oh, Colonel, I fear I can say no more
than "God bless you." The dying man, his life-
blood running out in a stream from his jugular vein,
opened his eyes, smiled, gave a gentle pressure of the
hand, and passed away, having temptea fate once too
often. Of others than he the same may, alas be
said. Our men have been buried this morning by a
party of the 19th Hussars. May the Soudan soil he
lightly on their brave breasts In a postcript Mr.
Williams adds "It has, I regret to say, been defini-
tively ascertained that the order Which resulted in the
break of the square at Abu Klea, and the heavy :OSB
of life in the Heavy Camel Corps, was given by Colonel
Burnaby, who had no position in the regiment, and
was merely acting as a staff officer. He ordered the
men to leave their positions, and he then ordered them
back, but unfortunately too late for the square, for
the Heavies, and for himself."

The telegrams from Korti on Feb. 24th state that
"a grand durbar was held here to-day, on the occa-
sion of the investiture of the Mudir of Dongola with
the insignia of the Order of St. Michael and St.
George by Lord Wolseley. The brevet of installation
was read by an interpreter in the Arabic language,
after which Lord Wolseley placed the collar of the
Order round the Mudir's neck. The Mudir de-
livered a short speech, in which he begged his lord-
ship to convey to the Queen his thanks for the dis-
tinction conferred upon him by her Majesty. The
chief sheikhs of the Kababhish, Homaveir, and
Sowarab tribes, with their followers, were present.
The West Kent Regiment formed a guard of honour,
and were accompanied by their band, who played a
selection of music at the conclusion of the ceremony.
The latest intelligence from Abu Klea states that the
wounded are doing well, including Captains
Walsh and Paget, who were wounded by the fire
of the rebels on the 16th inst." A telegram from
Cario, dated Feb. ,24, says: "The following letter
from General Gordon addressed to a friend in Cario,
and dated Khartoum, Dec. 14, was received to-day:
All is up. I expect a catastrophe in ten days' time.
It would not have been so if our people had kept me
4etter informed as to their intentions. My adieu to
all.—C. G. GORDON." It is remarked that the scrap
of paper received by Lord Wolseley from General
Gordon, with the words " Khartoum all right," bore
the same date as the above letter."