The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1884-02-20
Chinese Gordon.
From the Pail Mall Gazette. |


there has surely but seldom been so sud-
den an alienation in human fortunes.
But yesterday not Minister would even
do General Gordon the honor of asking
his counsel. To-day he is the master of
the situation, the virtual Sovereign of the
Soudan, the man upon whose success or
failure the fortunes of the Ministry may
depend.
Slightly built, somewhat below the
average height, General Gordon's most
remarkable characteristic at first sight is
child-like simplicity of speech and man
ners. notwithstanding his fifty years,
his face is almost boyish in its youthful
ness, his step is as light and his move
ments as 1.-the as the leopard. Although
he is still excitable and vehement those
who know him best say that he has under
much frmer control those volcanic fires
which blazed out with fercest fury in
his younger days; as, for instance, when
he hunted LII Hung Chang, revolver in
hand, from house to house day after day
In order to Stay the man who had dlshon-
ored and massacred the prisoners whom
he had pledged his word to save. But
there is that in his face at times even
now that contrasts strangely with the
sweetness of his smile or the radiance
which lights up his face when discoursing
on his favorite author land the choice
texts of Thomas-aKempiss Imitation"
which for the present seems to have SUI
perseded his old favorite, Watson on
Contentment. This" said he, holding
small copy of the limitation" in his
hand, is my book. And although
never shall be able to attain to hun
dredth part OF the perfection of that
saint, | strive towards 1.-THE ideal is
here" General Gordon carries with him
the sanity ideal of the cloister into the
rough realities OF the camp. His selfess
humility and absolute abnegation was
broken only now and then by morbid
horror of publicity or praise "No gilt"
he would exclaim imperiously, rubbing
brightly polished freiron as he spoke,
" No gilt, mind no gilt. Say what is to
be said, but no praise. Remember" he
added, with smile, lit is the superior
who praise his inferior, an observation
which, taken by itself, conveys curious
ly false impression of the motive of his
distaste of laudation. In all my career, ="
he once wrote, " can lay no claim to
cleverness, discretion, or wisdom. Ny
success has been due to a series of Called
by the world) hukes. When one knows
the little one does Of oneself, and any one
praises you, |, at any rate, have rising
In the gorge which is suppressed You
lie. Do not send me your paper with
anything written about me-" he said on
parting; I do not want to see it, or to
have anything to do with it. These
things are not in my hands, and mind,
do not forget, no gilt!'
In Gordon the tenderness of a woman,
the gentleness of child, the ready SYM
pathy with all the sorrows and sufferngs
OF others, are combined with an iron will
and certain hardness" which is indis-
pensable to a ruler OF men. II have a
conviction, he wrote on first entering the
Soudan, that, God willing l shall do
much in this country. The main point
is to be just and straightforward, to hear
no one or no ones sayings, to avoid all
regeneration or twisting, even if you
lose by it, and to be hard to all if they do
not obey you" This capacity of hardness
has been put to severe proof. He has
shot and hanged without mercy both in
China and In Africa, and if need should
arise he will shoot and hang again, with
imperturbable resolution. The incident
In his Chinese campaign, where he sum-
marlly executed mutineer in the pre-
sence OF the regiment, reads almost like
a reproduction of one of the most striking
scenes in Cromwells history, when he
shot dead the mutinous Leveller who re,
fused to obey an order. In the Soudan
ne was to slavedealers, pashas and other
evll-doers an incarnate terror. On his
fleet camel, accompanied only by a single
guide, he sped from province to province
like an angel of wrath descending like a
thunderbolt upon all who withstood his
will. Yet even while the rage of the
Berserker flashed in his eye, infinite com
passion for the weak, the helpless, and
the oppressed trembled in his voice.
Again and again he refers in his letters
In tones of pity and affection to the poor
people Of the Soudan. In Gen. Gordon 8
eyes, as everyone is aware who has read
Mr.. Berkeley Hills edition OF his letters
from Central Africa, the blacks of the
Soudan are immeasurably superior in
every way to the Egyptian Government.
All the misery in those parts, he used to
declare, is due to these Arab and Circas-
sian pashas and authorities. Il would
not stay day for these wretched crea-
lures, but would give my life for these
poor blacks" The people who annexed
the Seudan, he maintained, stood in quite
as much need of civilization as those they