The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1879-12-21
ECHOES FROM ABROAD.
Further Details About the
Moscow Plot.
WESLEY'S "CATHEDRAL."
Irish Appeal for Europe's
Sympathy.
THE STORY OF YAKOOB KHAN.
From the London Daily telegraph

From the London Daily telegraph
Yakoob Khan the abdicated Ameer of Cabul.
rs lately announced. has left his fathers
capital for honorable exile in British India.
He is the latest the roll of Asiatc Princes
whose thrones have been shaken under them by
the misconduct of their subjects, betrayed into
fatal action by Russian perhdy. He is the last
of those discrowned rulers Who have sought in
the catholic clemency of British India
asylum from foes and from treacherous friends. 1t
is impossible at such time to withhold sympathy
from the generous Prince whose name is written
large in Afghan history. and who in his own person
proved that though honor banished from all
tha country and all the nation it still found place
in the heart of its King. In his youth
paladin such might satisfy even Eastern
romance. he snatched his fathers throne from
the hands of his rival, and startling the
cumbrous hosts of the enemy by q rapidity
which was foreign to Oriental warfare and mill
tary skill which until then had never guided
the Afghan arms. he flung himself upon the capital
he has just resigned. i'll order that he might make
his father king again. Then came dark interval of
treachery and renewed domestic strife. through
which the young warrior, the pet of those wild
Heratee regiments whose successors murdered the
gallant Cavagnar shines very Bayard Of Asiatic
war. To his generalship he added sagacty Of
statecraft that for while awed his fathers treacher
than lead in q disastrous civil war. he fed. How
he was coaxed back to Cabul, and then, by the
father whom he had served Loyalty and SO
calamity savagey imprisoned in spite of CRATE
full memories. in spite of solemn oaths history has
often told. But to that perfdy succeeded another,
where the victim was generous and trusting
friend. and. throwing himself into the Of
Russia, Shere Ali Khan challenged the power OF Brit
ish India, and doing forfeited his throne and his
Hfe-dying in passion of grief and fear. Mean
while Yakoob Khan had been called from his prison
to the throne. in the hope that the renown of his
youth and his capacity leader of his country
men might roll back ''the thin red line" beyond
the Afghan frontier hills. But it was too Late
and Yakoob Khan this at once, and signing the
Treaty of Gundamuk received in his capital the
British Embassy which his father, betrayed into OBJ
stinacy by Muscovite intrigue. had long refused
10 entertain. We need not with events fresh in
memory, do more than recall the murder of our
Envoy and his suite. the rapid and irresistble ad-
ance of General Roberts, the collapse of the hill
snens league the arrival of the Ameer Yakoop Khan
with his little son in the camp at Kushi, the stern
entry into Cabul and the sterner proclamation.
East. west; north and south Afghan resist.
attitude OF the victorious General, and then
Yakoob Khan sagacious to the last. only too well
that his reign in Afghanistan henceforGh i'm
possible. British army in the capital, and on
the frontier lowered enemies against whom with q
divided army he could not hope to contend. he
abdicsted the throne of Cabul and surrendered
forever the Palace Citadel OF the Bala Hissar
rest which in his own country was denied him, and
II honorable treatment and chivalrous sympathy
can alleviate for the gallant Prince the miseries Of
exile he may enter India confident that both will be
abun dainty extended to him.
HISTORIC MEMORIES.
Apart from the personal circumstances Of this
table abdicatlon there IS much in its historical
aspect to arrest attention and command u national
interest. Thrty-seven years ago attempted to
place Shah Shuja upon the throne of Cabul and the
road by which we twice marched upon the city and
twice returned from il is instinct with mem rable
TODAY liz
winding the cavacade OF Yakoob Khan the de-
scendant of that Prince who defeated our policy of
1872; Yakoob Khan whose own misfortunes empLa-
size the first article OF that policy that Aghsnstan
must be either friendly to India or subordinate
to 1t. With him are all the mobiles who shared
his declining fortunes in the gloomy interval
between the murder of Cavagnari aud the entry
round the ex-Ameer faithful and sympathzing
court The royal household much curtailed since
the late Amer fled with the palace into the
North. are with him. too. and strong escort of
honor accompanies him to guard his road from
post to post from Cabul to Peshawur. Starting
from the captive city the picturesque procession.
camels and camel carts, horsemen and palan uns,
will traverse the historic plain before the city
where the bridge, still standing. marks the spot
of Macnaghten's murder. and. passing the old
environments. the scene of such dreadful suf-
ferings when army retreated in 1912 will
thread their way through orchards and gardens.
bursting into promise with the dainty white and
pink of the blossoms of the almond and the peach.
Before them rise dreary defes. CHASTITY now
with memories of massacre. and the slow moving
cortege would reach the black Jagdaak gorge to
Gundam uk. where short six months ago Yakoob
Khan, then Ameer Of Cabul. shook our ENJOYS hand
and signed treaty of perpetual peace with British
India Proceeding by Jellalabad and through the
Khoord Khyber the royal exile will arrive at Dhakka,
and across the river see lying. half mile along the
level bank, Lapoora his mothers native city, whence
Shere Ali took his bride with festive pageant and
rejoicing. the lady-sster of the Khan of the
Mohmunds-who died soon after giving birth to the
heir to the Cabul throne very Yakoob Khan the
exiled Ameer. But the rise Of the Khyber Cliffs
the, slope up to tho Lundi khana Kota soon hides
Lapoora from view. and. with the desperate
notony of rock on either hand. the procession climbs
up and over the pass down into the levels through
which the Khyber hows to India The bones of his
fathers soldiers who fought at All Musjid, and IL
their flight were killed by the hillmen. still lie
bleaching at the bottom OF the precipices on
the right hand. and here. where the pass
widens into fields of snow. are the corpsos of
more than one Of the horsemen who slipped past
our intercepting brigade, and here found
dead when General Sir Samuel Browne advanced
after his victory upon Dhakka. The khy ber Pass is
half traversed, aud two days marching at the
rate 1t which the royal company will travel brings
them to Katakhooshta where the flying cavalry Of
Gholam Hyder Khan nearly escaped humiliation.
and, perhaps, on the same day. To Ali Musjid. In
the following of the Prince there will no doubt be
some who with the generals OF Shere Ali
that eventful day. and to right and left the rocky
hill sides now so strongly fortified will DO eloquent
with history. The path thence lies along the river
bed and up to the plateau, whence our forty
Founders played upon the astounded fort over the
frontier Of AshanstSp INTO the plains Of British
India. into the city of peshawur.
IL Is not known yet where Yakoob Khan will elect
to Reside but IL Is more than probable that with tho
singular OF LOOdhiana Will be his choice.
Here already living the descendants of that Shah
Shuja whom Yakoob Khan grandfather drove from
Cabul and who still cherished. against hope. tho
hope OF rcentering the Afghan capital its ruler.
Our special correspondent during the Afghan war
visited them. and his words NAV be apuy quoted
here 1.-THE grandson of Shah Shuja took farewell
of me at the doorway of the house. We have
shown you poor hospitality said he. but
are only beggars here, and subssting on the
generosity OF the English government. Perhaps
who knows but Allah. and he Is great2-if you visit
as again, six months hence. We may be able show
fOlt he n Npl
nsctly has passed since then. and instead of tho
,randson Of Shah Shuja reignng In Cabul tho
lrandson of Dost Mohammed has come to share his
xile with him in Loodhiana. BY the tank with its
oImal fountains. and the potted marigolds
,rimly arranged along the parapets. whore
shah Shuja's descendants used to have their
carpets spread In the pleasant December days.
and, listening to the twinkling of the thin
cithara, talk the hopes OF crown, there will
be another chair tor another royal exile from
Cabul; but the future will form subject for