New-York tribune., 1878-06-24
A BRAVE JOURNALIST.
,ru or 1ouN A NACGAHAN.

rrNrRAr oHOURKo-DEATH AT THE Posi- of
DUTY.
iVpoN THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE IhIBOSh'I
LONDON june 11.-JOurnalism has lost one oI i'9
brightest ornaments. Mr.. MacGahaD's friends III
England heard of his illness and his death at tne
same moment; the announcement staring us all III
fbe face as we opened The Daily NeOs this mornins
The Constantnople correspondent of that Jourha,
Gives few details. Mr. MaeGahan had been III
since his arrival from San Stefano fortnight s'Ioo
Feverisb symptoms appeared last MOnuayi sPo'.o"
tvDbus declared itself Thursday; on FRIDAY
- boa an enileptic fit; on Saturday ne had
o,otber. n third on Sunday night destroyed
him He had been deliriOus since Thursday
Revond all doubt he has perished because he
would not leave the post Of duty, which nearly
everybody who was not kept there by military Or
6ers had Quilted long before. ] don't suppose 1t
ever occurred to MacGahan that the existence OF
an epidemic Of peculiarly violent and fatal typhua
might be a reason for going some where else. So long
as he had something to do at San Stefano he STAYED
with the same impertbrbable cooness ana admir-
able courage which he had shown in the front OF
battle, in the desert. in the Arctic seas, and
wherever duty called him.
The journal which he has served so brilliantly
md Loyalty does him full justice. 1t probably
seems to you in no way remarkable that it should
You have forgotten that The Times let Mowbray
years go 70 his grave without a word. The Daily
Nees is one of the few English papers that venture
from time to time to break through the rules of
what ls called anonymous journalism. 1t did not
wait for MacGahan's death to make a public
acknowledgment of his services He
known to Its readers by name, as Mr.. Arch-
bald Forbes is known, though the letters
and dispatches OF neither were ever signed
You will permit me to use still less reserve for Mac
Il ] vont fryy-
men to know all that can be known about him, and
10 remember him with the honor which is his due.
MaeGahan was born about 1S45, in Ohio. 1 hope
some Of hls old friends in America win publish the
particulars Of his early years know nothing of
him till be came to Europe in 1870. always
meant to ask him. but il not easy to get him to
talk about himself and put it off till too late.
The first time ever heard Of him was during the
Commune. Huntington told me the story later, but
the date Of it belongs to the closing days OF that
mad insurrection when its fate was sealed, and
when the leaders of it and their followers were
savage with desperation and rage. Two Of Mac
Gahan's acquaintances--I believe they were not
even friends-had fallen into the clutches Of the
most set up in the Place Vend6me-One of the milf
tary headquarters Of the rebels They were guilty
of nothing but they had been arrested for want OF
papers or from some infOrmality in their papers
MacGahan said he should go and get them
ont In vain he was warned against the
attempt 1t was almost as much a mans
life was worth at that moment to come
within hail Of Communist sentry. The Versailles
troops were laundering at the gates Of Paris men
were shot every hour for hesitatng to answer
challenge, or to enroll themselves in the Communist
ranks MacGahan knew 1t as well as anybody, but
he walked quietly into the Jaws of hell, surren-
dered himself to the first soldier he met insisted on
being taken before the commander of the post, de-
manded the release Of his friends and obtained it.
believe the officers granted it for other reason
than their admiration of the mans indOmitable
courage. 1 have heard HuntingtOn-whO was in
Paris at the time and knew well what the state of
things was-say that the risk that MacGahan ran
on hls memorable journey to Khiva was joke to
the risk he voluntarily encountered during that
enterprise in behalf of his two comrades The story
has never been published His biogTapher merely
says that at one period he was under arrest ana
narrowly escaped being executed.
won't dwell on the well-knOwn Khiva ride. His
book Campaigning ON the Oxus "-one of the best
books in the whole literature of trayel-has gwen
the world a spirited yet modest narrative of his
marvellous adventures and no abridgment Of them
can do him any justice. say marvellous, but they
are as truthful as they wonderful. He was then
in the service of The hesr- York Herald and when
be was asked why he pushed in defiance Of mili->
tary prohibition, in the face OF probable death by
starvation, OF murder By savage tribes or execu-
ton by the Russians themselves a spy if caught,
he answered simply that he had been ordered 10 go.
Ii was always so. What he had undertaken to do,
that he would do. He went through the Carlist
campaign in similar spirit; there too. carrying his
life in his hand, and passing from one camp to an
other in utter neglect of the cOmmOnesrules Of pTu
deOce There was not an atom Of bravadO or fool
hardness about him, nor the least love Of mere dis
play. He did what he thought his duty to his
employers required.
1t was in the Spring of 1876 that he first became
connected with The Daily NeUs Then il was that
he did that great service to an oppressed race and
TO humanity, which viii make bis name remembered
so long as Europe has history. The first stories of
the Bulgarian atrocities had been made public and
had been denied and sneered at by Mr.. Dlsraeh in
the House of Commons. MacGahan-then in the
East but not the author Of the repOrtswas ordered
by telegraph to make an investigation on the spot.
He started at once in company with his friend, Mr..
SCHUYLER whose report to our Government proved
how well he did his share Of the work. Let The
Dails Ners say how MacGahan perfOrmee his task:
There is need that we should reproduce now me
Details Of a Journey which has become historical Mr..
~ 9e2 By ss ssP eSa STsr f e ssW 6o d6
the confirmation Of the story in ruined villages and
burned hsrvestheds, but received from The people
Themselves wherever he went their account OF the
events He was able moreover, 70 test and compare
statements and thus 70 ger the whole story OF me sup
posed revolt Of the Bugarans aud OF the brutal meas
ures adopted for its Iepres5lon The result OF
hs careful inquiries. facilitated a. they hsa
been by his knowledge OF the SlayOnic languages,
a. well as those Of Western Europe, was gwen 70
the English public IN the Of letters Published IN
our c0umns Nothing like that correspondence 1ad
ever appeared before in English newspaper MT
AaeOahan's graphe description Of the scenes he saw
his powerful pOrraure OF persons as wen az places ms
VIVID reproduction OF conversations held VIII pfOpie OF
victims OF rhe Turkish barbaTgies brought the whole OF
TIE circumstances home 10 the public mind, as probably
lev distant events have ever been realized before There