Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-06-30
Mr.. MacGahan's characteristics as
War Correspondent.

Archibald Forbess letter IN the Daily
Nelcs: There was about him a certain happy
go-luckiness, which, while on occasions it ad-
vantaged him, was IN certain respects his
weak point. He was the very wIll-o-the-
wisp of war correspondents. At the COM
mencement of the late war he duly bought
wagon, horsed it satisfactorily, and furnished
it with coplous necessarles and some Injuries.
From the day he started from Sistova with
Gourko's column on the trans b lkan raid
till after the September attack on Plevna, he
never once saw this wagon. "Joseph" toiled
YEARLY from place to place IN search of his
meteor-ike master, but In vain. Joseph's
stock query, 'Have you seen Herr MacGahan"
became among us one of the few Jokes which
frightened the gloom of verv somber pc
Rod. How Joseph's master contrived to exist
nobody can exactly tell; the younger Skobel-
off, perhaps, contributed the larger share to-
ward his cratic existence. He became very
lean, but always contrlved to ''show good
front, y" and some streaks of hard luck never
daunted his frank, gallant cheerfulness. He
never was a man to inflict upon his readers
himself and his personal hardships and trials.
Nobody to read his letters and kilograms dur
ing the long, weary interval between the
September attack on Plevna and the final fall
of Osmln's improvised fortress, could gather
any hint that during that period the writer
had been four times down with malarial
fever. And down where and how? Not in
snug quarters; not even In a Bulgarian hut;
nay, not even under cover from rain and
snow. The man who was down with yeung
Skobeeff lay, like a dog, in a ditch Mac
8ahan battled with the fever in a sheltered
corner of the trench behind the pauement,
with soldiers standing on the banquette in
front of him, the Turkish shells and bullets
whistling over him, and the snow drizzle
dripping on him iT,ni IN" edges of Skobe-
leff's second great-c0St. Bnt the mans good
heart and even mind carried him through
everything. He had an equanimity that was
positively heroic. He never chafed; never
'griZzled," to use homely but expressive
word. | never knew him even little bit
down on his luck save once, and that was
when on pitch-dark night, at the Danube
bridge head, his horse strayed away while he
was negotiating access to the bridge, and he
lost not only the beast and his meager kit
for which he cared little, but also a long let
ter which he had written, and was conveying
to post at Bucharest, for which he cared much.
l have spoken of his equanimity-it was but
a phrase of his dauntless courage, that
dauntless courage which carried hum on
alone through the desert of Khiva, spite of
the obstacles which are by no means all re-
counted in his wonderful book. | have seen
him under heavy fire-his fault as a corre-
spondent, having correspondent RESPONSE
bility, was that he habiiually exposed him
self too recklessly to fire; and l have envied
HIM his matchless GOODNESS. For
a man who had. never been a SOL
der, and who had made no special
study of the art of war, his military percep-
ton amounted to intuition. Let me recount
the physical hindrances under which Mac,
Gahan distinguished himself so brilliantly in
the recent campaign. At Kischeneff, in the
early part OF April, he broke one of the bones
of his ankle when riding a young Cossack |
horse belonging to Prince Tserteleff. When |
l met him first on the platform of the rail- |
way station at Jassy, he was hmping along |
with this ankle inclosed in mask of plaster |
of paris. He was still lame when he started |
into Bulgaria with Gourko's column. At the |
entrance to the Hankioj pass his horse shipped |
to rise, found that one of the small bones of |
the same leg was broken. Most men would
have tried to make their way back - Tirnova
and accepted the invalid condition until
nended. MacGahan got himself hoisted on
the top of an ammunition cart. Later on the
same day the ammunition cart rolled over on
him, and bl used him sorely. But he strug-
gled on indomitably till Kezanlik was reached
and then had short spell of rest. But he
was in the saddle again long ere his broken
Done was properly set; and as fact he never
gave 1t time properly to set at all. Rather
han she out of it, he deliberately accepted
he prophesied fate of being lame for life;
md have no doubt that he died lame. He
vent through the campaign so great Grip
Die that he could not walk mile, and when
saw him last, at Christmas time, the lame
less had become chronic.