Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1882-09-02
THE OTHER SIDE.
A Correspondents Account Of the
Alexandria Fight.
The True Inwardncss Of the situatiOn-The
British Surprised and Bcatsn at -
All Points-The Sailors Alone
Doing Their Duty.
GREAT EXCITEMENT IN IRELAND

pondent from we'll known Journalist now
representing one Of the London dailies at
the seat of war: ..f-.'.'.a
"Oa the Spot"
ALEXANDRIA, August 7, 1sG2.-Don't you
think that, when tire ret-e-t is sounded,
correspondent, acting on the KNOWLEDGE Oh
duties and the presence OF a newspaper
telegraph station in the rear, has right to
start early! Now give this subject your
professional attention and forward your
opinion, got a native servant. on Tues
day, and he was shot to-day. what does
that betide TO me? You see, he killed Eu-
ropeans in June, wes out OF town IN July
and was nv servant in August. Fo- which
of these offences dothey kill him? And ann
very much to blame? Ii so, how much.
and what had better do about it? And II
you think 1 can't ask question, amt you
wrong' What do you think about itT And
why? should go on with q lew moe OF
there are twelve heas disputing the right OF
way, and what do you think had better
do about it? Try to kill twelve feas, or let
them slide and write aletter? * terrlng
to my servant, call your attention to the
paper accompanying this mail. lie was
convicted yesterday and shot by hie OF
the Khedive's soldiers this morning. He
was always riddle to me; now he Is nd.
died himself / saw the shooting doae, ana
tied to saoe him, but in voin, and owe
the corpse five shillings, o. one weeks wa
ges. / have seen hall dozen men shot
and have been under fire twice.
Scared Both Timesf
Why, certainly. 6ot into last nights &C.
ton, and my chief anxiety was to get out
again. By reason of the rapidity Of my re-
a. ko Il hoo nthnr
with the news to London fully two hours.
In the paper they have probably Id this
to my immense individual enterprise. 1t
might as soon be called enterprise es any
thing else, l suppose. The term is pleas
anter lhan anxiety" isn't 1t? How docs
this strike you?
Seriously, we had pretty good fieht, and
we were whipped. Yes, whipped and
driven. Nobody can telegraph the facts.
The government revises all dispatches, and
nothing of this nature can co out. This
makes il hard on correspondent who IS
alive, and soft on The lazy ones There is
no use staying in the field after the firing
opens All you have got to do is to 60 and
cable another victory for the English, "and
il don't make any difference whether It is
true or not. 1t don't take much WORK -
do that, does it? Just wait till you hear
the guns and then announce your victory.
If this isn't a good scheme for the propaga-
ton of honesty and virtue and things, in
the press, never heard of one, that's all.
On this occasion We were
Whipped, and No Mistake.
Indeed, we were rather ignobly thrashed
Our men were drilling in the woods, and
had no idea of all attack, when Arabi's
force swooped down upon them. Our men
fell back after the first attack, and what
promised to be only little skirmish be-
came good fight. The country is merely
a neck of land, lying in reverse curve.
At both ends are the forces-Ours at one
end, Arabi's at the other. On each side OF
the neck lies lake. Our sailors, with two
9pounders and one 40.pounder, went out
to help the surprised parry as soon as it
had fallen back. They moved on a train,
forming the right Of our line. The left,
made up of infantry and mounted infantry,
went along the edge of the canal:
And, to approach the enemy, we had
only the canal on our left and the
railroad on our right 1t would seem to me
that either side attacking the other at this
point would be placed at decided dlsad-
vantage, and, perhaps, before this reaches
you the telegraph may bring you news that
will show you how strong the defensive side
is-whiChever one it may be at the time.
In either case it will be great odds against
the attacking party. 1t is exactly as tell
you about the beginning of this fight last
night. Our boys were drilling when the
ball was opened by Arabi's forces. They
were not FEELING the enemy at all, as the
correspondents claim. Who says so
Either Lies or Don't Know,
and possibly both l happened to be on
the canal and s.w it all. So l know what l
am talking about. Our right was supported
by the ironclad train, "a | have just said.
We advanced boldly enough, but our left
yves almost immediately turned and the ene-
cmy, using repeating rifles, soon drove us out
of range. may whisper gently that we were
mighty glad to go. After that we hid
rafting discharge of ertillery on both sides,
and at dark fell back to our own lines,
was speaking 70 Lieut.. Nyse few minutes
before he was shot, and l saw him die.
There was no surgeon on the field, and he
bled to death. / believe a tournignet
could have saved him, perhaps, or at least
prolonged his life. EuS my lead pencil
apply that kind oi treatment, and, while
we were using bdyonet TO twist handker-
chief, be passed away. We lost five killed
and had twenty wounded. The enemy took
no prisoners, | believe. but We captured
seven wounded men and seven deserters, l
got q piece OF she'll through my light panta-
looms. l am now clad l ..s1 ns1 ;nem TSi;;..:
loose, otherwise there would not have been
room for my leg and the shell too. The
reason We fell back at dark was that
Our Men wouId Not Stand
Gny longer, and don't blame them very
much. The enemy were firing six shells to
our one. They were in better position than
We, and perhaps in stronger force. Under
the circumstances, we retreated to our hills
and the engagement terminated. Glad OF
it? Well, your shouting young man. 1t
was not a creditable affair for our side,
though our naval force behaved splendidly.
BY the gods, they are fighters. 10 a man..
Bnt the soldiers of the 10th, 3Sth and Goth
acted like the most arrant towards. They
had to be fairly driven up by their officers,
who actually who actually whipped them
forward with the fiat sides of their swords.
1t was most diSgraceful.
- started this letter in pesce and ink.
but i am now writing at Ramleh withia
bad pencil and at the tail end of an alarm.
All of Saturdays fight was on this crooked
neck of land. At some parts of it the canal
crosses above the level of the lake. In that
same neck the first big fight will take place,
if Arab defends his position-which yeu
can bet he will. Arab means business, my
friend. Somehow, he has got notion that
this is not masquerade. He knows what
he is about, and he is doing some wonder.
fully coed work with his forces He has
big army, and it is rapidly becoming
mighty well drilled army, too. The men,
so far as can gather from interviews with
our prisoners,
Have Great Confidence in Him.
They are afraid of him, besides. He is
generally believed to have been inspired
by providence to defend his country. He
is DONG nothing bat defending it. His
army is we'll clothed, well fed and we'll
armed. Its Remington rifles are the very
devil on range and accuracy. Besides, the
Egyptians are becoming mighty goOd shots
They are tough and a2climatized, and they
can stand q great amount of fatigue under
this blazing son. Arabi's position is good
one il seems to me- The English position
is eqUsl.y good. OF courss, Alexandra
cannot be- retaken as long as the feet re-
msins. unGhed with the American ad-
miral q couple of weeks ago. He told me
the bomhariment was very simple affair
= The English ships said be, lust stayei
of out of range, and knocked skillets OF
blue hlazes out of the forts Easy, wasn't
it2 But what is yet to come won't be so
loft. We have no longer the advantage OF
Z 10 farfhest reaching guns and the fhicEAst