Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-03-19
RUSSIA.
THEATER BURNED.

ST. PETERSBURG March 1S.-A fire broke
out this evening in the Winter Lividia The
alter during the performance. So far as known,
no lives were lost.
NEW POLAR STATION ESTABLISHED.
The car has allotted the Geographical
Society a subsidy of 20,O00r. for a second
Russian polar station in Nova Zembla. 1t
is expected that Lieutenant Ardrieff will
command the station.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF GEN. sKoBELEFF.
General Skobeleff supplies striking illus
tration of the doctrine of heredity. He is a
soldier born of soldiers. Not only is his
father general of distinguished ability, but
his grandfather rose by sheer force of fight
ing capacity from the ranks to first rank as a
general in the Caucasus. From his youth
upward Michael Dimitrievitch has been a
man of war. When only eighteen he took
so energetic part in some disturbances at
the university that his attendance at that
seat of learning was snmmarily dispensed
With, but not before he had acquired a mas
terry of several languages ami an omniverous
appetite for reading. There are few better
read men in Europe than the general who
made himself the idol of the Russian army
before he was three-a and thirty. Wherever
he went he carried his books with
him. and read, for instance the account of
the M assacre of Cabul in 1912, when sitting
in his garden at Bokhara, not knowing but
that the next day he might have to share the
fate of Ephinstone. How he has found time
to read amid the exciting life he has led is
mystery which Lieutenant Greene does not
profess to solve. After his dismissal from
the university he was sent with a regiment OF
the guards TO assist in suppressing Polish in
surrection. That was in 1868, when he was
eighteen. Skoheleff returned with his regi-
ment to St. Petersburg, but soon sickened of
the sybaritism which ID 10 vogue with guards
men elsewhere than in London. He could
not stand the idle life of the "fine gentlemen
of the guard" and he left their society for the
Staff College about the time the Prussians
We're winning the battle OF Sadowa. Alter two
years diligent study he was sent off with
captains commission to the Caucasus-where
his grandfather had gained his laurels-
the year before the Franco-Prussian war
broke out. He was then youngster of four
and-twenty. The first two or three years
were passed in guerrilla war in the noun
taius-a service useful but uneventful. In
1873, when this upward career may properly
be said to begin, he was transferred TO Turk
estan, and took part in the famous eIpedi-
ton to khiva as lieutensnt-colonel OF a Cos
sack regiment He displayed such daring and
enterprise that when Khiya was captured he
was dispatched with couple of nomads to
explore the desert region through which the
on the robber khanate of the steppes, but
from which il had recoiled in dismay, after
half its members b ad died of want of water.
Skobeiefi, having discharged his difficult mis-
sion with brilliant success, was decorated,
promoted to a colonelcy, and attached to
General Kauiman's staff. In 1875 he gained
his maior-generalship in the first expedition
against Khokand, and in 1876 he conquered
that province at the head of 1000 men, and
was made governor OF the tract OF 10000
square miles, which he had added to the
Russian empire. AS soon as the natives were
defeated he waged such vigorous war on
peculating contractors that they accused him
of defalcations, and got him reported to the
emperor as being ZOO, DOOR. short in his ac-
counts. Skobelef posted up to the capital,
demanded an investigation, displayed his
vouchers, and, after IN exhaustive investiga-
ton received certificate that his accounts
were all in order in every particular. No
sooner had this been settled than the Russo
Turkish war broke out, and Skobeleff
marched off to Bulgaria without a command.
General Skobelef is a Russian of the Rue
slams. His life has hitherto had only one
serious cloud, due to an alliance with one
who was as cosmopolitan as he was Muscovite,
and it no longer exists. As his recent speech
shows, he ID singularly undiplomatic, ELUSIVE
| and enthusiastic. Five years ago he used to
| horrify English correspondents in Bulgaria
by discussing plans for the invasion of India,
| and he fully shares the national resentment
against the interference of the Congress OF
Berlin. He has a great career before him,
| but if NJ. Aksakof was to ask him to sacri-
| fee his life as a volunteer in the ranks oil
the insurgents of the Hezegovina he would
| go to death without hesitation to advance the
| interests of the cause. 1t is not often that
such enthusiasm is linked to "stupendous
military genius" which leads Lieutenant
Greene to declare that should Skobelef live
twenty years more che will be commander
| in-chief in the next war about the Eastern
question, and history will then speak of him
az one of FIVE great soldiers of the century
side by side with Napoleon, Wellington
| Grant and Moltke" That may be; but al
present General Skobelef would deserve bet
ter of his country if he were to endeavor to
emulate the .aciturnity of Grant or the pru'
| dent reserve of Moltke.