, 1884-02-02

enough but were not always ready to face
their desperate antagonists. Gordon, in
h is mild way, would tIke one or other Of
t heSe by the arm and lead him into the
thick of he fire. He always Went unarm.
ed himself. even when foremost in the
breach. He never recognised danger; to
him a shower of bullets was no more than
a haitStOrm. He carried one weapon to
direct his troops = he had bat a LITTLE cane,
and this soon won for itself the name OF
'GOrd0n's magic wand Of victory His
Chinese followers, seeing him always
vic Glorious, always foremost in the fight,
concluded it was his wand that insured
him protection. The idea encouraged the
ever victorious army greatly, ANA was Of
more service to the young commander thai
all the arms he could have borne"
Gordon left China in 1854, and returned
to England. H was still only captain of
Engineers. Yet he had led several thou
sand men with cOnSummtte skill, and it was
not denied that he had won great victories.
Having thus outStripped all laws OF Seliori-
ty, having commanded armies and saved
an Empire when he should, according to
rule, have been still engaged in IN lStprinG
the lntrlcacieS Of ratification, it neceSSa-
rily followed that it WAS not an easy mat
ter to provide him with suitable work on
his return. With the best possible intpn.
tons the young nero was given Il consular
appointment on the Danube, whence he
was summoned in 1874 to Egypt by the
late hhedlve. The new task assigned to
HIM was III some respects more difficult
than that intluSted to him in China, for
whereas in the Far East he had only to
VanQuiSh an enemy whose forces were re-
vealed, he had 10 deal in the ~Oudpn with
IihpDItinc which yvArA oblV nlytillI-
known, while he had to reconcile as we'll
as he could instructions that were imcon-
patlble with the facts OF the position. 1t
was to his credit that, working on a re-
duced pay and Without any desire for
tame, he devoted all his powers to the per
Torrance OF his work, and constituting
him self The champion of distressed human
ltN, spared 40 effort TO put an end to the
suffering and infamous lot of the dark
skinned races over whom he was called to
exercise authority. During five years he Ia
bouredi this caUSe wi huntaggiu@z zeal, and
when he resigned the powers with which
the Khedive had intIuSt1d him it was adj
mltted that he had net merely put a stop
to the worst evils Of HE traffic in slaves,
but that he had prepared the way for
the emancipation OF the Sogdaucse in 1889
should the Egyptian Government Of that
day possess the forces and the will to
make good its bond. So far as his career
has yet run, Chinese Gordon, vino is now
a major-general in the Royal Engineers,
will be remembered for two episodes, the
tapping Rebellion and the Govelnorship
of the Soudan. His biographer shows
that his private life has been the counter
part of his public career. Devotion to
duty has been his motto throughout, and
II his extreme dislike To be praised and his
over anxiety to hide himself and his deeds
from the world have been sometimes mis-.
understood, they are the natural accom-
panimentS Of his simple out lofty clIarac.
ter. The age of heroes has long gone by.
but SO long as Chinese Gordon is with Us
there will be a living type of the quail les
which were, and must always be, heroic.