The Waco daily examiner. [volume] (Waco, Tex.) 187?-1888, 1885-04-16
A Gigantic struggle.

A great many iiippant remarks are
made by people and papers in this
country and Europe, about the tardi-
ness of one or the other of the great !
powers now confronting each other
on the far away Afghan frontier. If
one will sit down calmly and look |
over the field, size up and compare
the interests at stake, the countries to
be affected, the men each power can
put in the field. the resources of each
aud the fighting spirit of the
two great aud war-like nations, one
does not wonder that Mr.. Gladstone
or De Giers, or both hesitate to On
gage III struggle which will light the
torch of war over fully one-half of the
civilized world. II is a stupenduous
effort, although Afghanistan may be as,
compared to the interests involved,
but mere speck. The pushing of the
Russian frontier line east few
leagues or the curtailmcut of the lines
of the Amer, are small circumstances
indeed when compared to the des-
truction of British power in the east,
aud its absorption by Russia. East
ern conquest is the very soul OF Rus
sian policy, it has ever been so, Her
ideas of increasing her territory have
never taken a sheer west, although both
Norway and Sweden lie invitingly
open to her. Apparently the tempta.
ton was never strong enough for her,
and she has set her face
steadily against it. She has made
numberless feints on Turkey and to-
ward the Mediterrean sea, but all can
now see that they were merely feints.
Her operations on the Black sea, in
front of Constantinople and in Egypt
have ever been feints, and made only
to test the temper of the powers along
the line where she proposed to oper-
ate when the time was ripe TO put on
; foot her great project, that which was
born before Peter the Great and
which will die only after the great
autocracy has crumbled into dust
, This purpose has been inherited from
. ancestors, who lived when a mere
. frozen principally along the lee
bound Neva was all there was of tina,
magnificent Russia which to-day, not.
withstanding the absolutism which
renders her hideous to free govern
ments, is the wonder and admiration
of the world. 1.-THE move on Afghan
u istan is a real one this magnificent
empire has determined to enter upon
r the task marked out for her for sc
many centuries, and it is an earnest
that she has resolved to cxpend hel
last man and last dollar or win sue
cess.
, She confronts a power fully hci
!, equal in all things, and vastly her su
perior in many. The eastern EN-
pire has not been mere dream
: with the pngnacious aud warlike
: islanders. II has been for two Who'll,
4 centuries a glorious reality. Hun
dreds of thousands OLIVES and million,
upon millions Of money have beer
freely expended in both its conquest
and its subsequent defense against DO
nestle discontcnts, US well ms foreign
foes. The British empire in Indi,
Il represents business and a CONNER
!. cial, as well a. an agricultural worth
y IN comparison to which actual Eng
i land, or even the three islands, SEEM
but poor jibe. She has as many
fighting men rs has Russia; she has
larger and better naval establishment
than Russia; she has the ear of civil
= cation, and many other valuable ad
u vantages over her northern competi
tor, and the fight will be the grandes
q ever yet waged on this globe, If onl,
a it is once joined in dead earnest Al
r hunanitarians we would pray tina
4 God turn aside the bloody purpose
h. but as men with a hu.nan idea of AL
4 vantage for our own dear land, we,
S pray that il might go on. In its pro
D gress we would gow rich beyond
r compare. and when both had ex
q hausted themselves we might steI
=, forward and give both England auC
;, Russia, as well as the rich land fol
:. which they contend, decided sheer
toward rcpublicanism, and the eleva
: ton of the masses of the citizenship OF