Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1873-06-05
KlIIYA,
The Departure OF the Last Column
of the Russian Expedition.

The Departure Oh the Lhst COtun
of the Russian Expedition.
A special correspondent of the Lon
don Daily Telegraph with the Khivan
expedition writes as follows to the jour
nal he represents. The curtain has risen
at length upon the last act Of the khivan
tragedy. Just after have finished this
letter the last Of the five columns will be
leaving Fort Alexandrovski, on the Man
gishlak peninsula. There are few more
picturesque sights (as those who have
seen it will readily own) than the march
of a Russian army through the eastern
deserts. The short square, wiry grena-
der, his sunburnt face looking doubly
dark beside the white cap and light linen
tunic; the gaunt, sinewy Cossack on his
untiring little horse, with his restless eye
glancing wickedly from under the high
sheepskin cap; the hook-nosed, green
eyed, vulture.like Kirghis, with his
shaggy coat thrown loosely over his
broad shoulders; the endless files of
camels, with arched neck and long,
noiseless stride, melting away into
the dull, brassy yellow of the ever
lasting desert; the black shadows
of nan and beast standing out In
the bistering glare, sharp and clear
as photograph; and, over all, the clear,
bright merciless sky. But, in the pres
ent case, the natural interest of such an
expedition is heightened by circum-
stances. This handful Of men are on
their way to pass the widest and most
perilous wastes of Central Asia, in the
face of an active and implacable en-
emy. They are bound on the same en-
terprise upon which thousands of their
brethren perished miserably thirty-three
years ago. They are marching to res
cue their own countrymen from the
bondage of the unbeliever. They are
deliberately cutting themselves of from
all communication with Europe, and
plunging into the unknown like the di-
YER in the malestrom. For months to
come their sole link with the living
world will be the scanty tidings borne by
the few couriers who may contrlye to
make good their way to Tashken!tt,
across the dreary sands of the KILL
Koum Desert. All communication with
the Caucasus is already severed, and
for all who march under the ban
ner of the Double Eagle the word
is now Forward There is no re-
turningl" 1t is precisely in such
s;tuations as these that the Russian sol
der appears to the best advantage. The
headlong elan of the southern races is,
indeed, wholly wanting to him; but be-
meath that sallow, exprsssionless mask
there turks a dogged frmness, o quiet,
uncomplaining endurance, power OF
obedience even to the death, worthy OF a
Roman legi0uary. The men who marched
across the Turkoman steppes IN the
6ercest heat of summer, who stormed
Kitab in the teeth of a superior terce,
who won the field of Adjar one against
five. who struggled through the Hooded
Zer.Atfshan under the fire of Bokhariote
cannon-sHch men are not to be de-
spised. | have seen the Turkish lines
man tested by every extreme OF suffering,
by wounds, by weariness, by Munger, oy
disease. / have seen him sustain all
through a long and arduous campaign as
became a chosen servant of the Prophet
but / am still in doubt whether, in all
that constitutes a soldier, his natural
enemy may not safely bear comparison
even with him.
THE IgsUF