The Dallas daily herald. [volume] (Dallas, Tex.) 1873-1887, 1885-02-16
GEN. GORDON.
HIS LAST SOLEMN MESSAGES.
A Review of the situation-The Hero at
Bay-Why Stewart went to Berbsr
mo Deryish Dance for
Him : Better Death.

The New York Herald of the 9th inst.
published the following. There is pa
thos sublime in Che mention, now that
the death of Gordon and the massacre
of his adherents Is established:
On the 18th of April, 1884, General
Gordon, being besieged at Khartoum,
telegraphed as follows to the English
government:
AS far as can understand the stu
alton is this: You state your intention
of not sending any relief up here or to
Berber, and you refuse me Zebehr. l
consider myself free to act according to
circumstances. shall hold on here as
long as can, and II can suppress the
rebellion, l shall do so. If [ can not.
shall retire to the Equator, and leave
you the indellible disgrace of abandon
ing the garn ons.
On the 18th of January, 1886, Sir
Charles Wilson, one of Lord Wolselev's
officers, steamed up the NiIe to withiH
mile or two of Khartoum. He had no
sooner reached the confluence of the
Blue Nile and the White Nile than the
Arabs opened fire upon him from the
fortihcationH on the banks. The palace
where Gordon held out so long was de-
serted. The flag round which tho bull
let's had rained for year, had disap-
peared. All was silent in the city which
had risen from the marsh in the days of
Mehemet Ali.
Too late The grand expedition had
breasted the rapids in vain. The wha-
lers and the Canadian boatmen, the
timed provisions, the marmalade, the
Guardsmen pulling at the oar, and tho
Jacktars riding the camels, the battles
with Arabs in the desert, the thirats,
the pri,ations, the groans of the diving,
all the pomp and circumstance Of in
glorious war, had gone for nothing. The
enemy had entered Khartoum on tho
10Th Il January. Lord WOlseley ard his
men we're two days too late.
And nine months before Gen. Gordon
had telegraphed to his government:
l shall hold on here as
long as | can, and if l can
suppress the rebellion, shall do no. III
cannot, shall retire to the Equator,
and leave you the indelible disgrace OF
abandoning the garrisons.
Where is Grodon now? VIII he be
forced despite his latter vow, ats walk
about as deVriSh with sandalled
feetH Did the Mahdi accept him ut his
word shat %. WI will never be Ia
ken aliveY Poor, brave man Hero O f |
invincibe courage, of idomitable will, |
who conducted the boldest siege of our
time, living for months among traitors,
and barbarians, preserving discipline,
suppressing revolts, making sorties, re-
pellDg the enemy, breaking their
bridges, mining their earth-works, rum
ming steames5 through their lines,
knowing that his government had
turned down their thumbs" but pla-
cling still his simple faith in the proyi.
denoe who had never deserted him; a
warrior ofantique fOrtitude, the lion of
Khartoum, for whose safety the wishes
OF the world go out in this, the sorest
hour his peril
The interest in the fate of Gordon
stretches lar beyond the confines of
England, aud during the entire prog
ress of Lord Wolseley's expedition for
eign nations have chaied at delays and
mismanagement which IN other cir
cumstances would have concerned
them llttle. There was road by which
hhartoum could have been reached i'm
month. from Suakim on the Red Sea
TO Berber on the Nile there stretched
ZOO miles OF desert; not an inviting
march, perhaps; not well supplied with
water, not free from dangerous deGles,
not closely shaded from the sun, not
unmarked by omlnous milestOues of
dead camels and "houses of silenca.n
yet without GASES, where the snn
tree OF the Arabs bloom; not without
the sound OF birds and the ripple of
running streams; not without such IA
elites OF travel that tourists choose the
route by preference, and camels trav
erse IT in nine days.
Nevertheless, though every hour was
precious, though Gordon was CONTRACT
ing his forces in Khartoum, though the
Msbui WAS daily growing bolder,
tnouHh experts like Sir Samuel Baker
anu tne press OF almost the whole world
showed the feasibility of the ronte
from Suskim, Lord Wolseley deter.
mined to sail up the Nile, with his wba.
lers M ms boatmen, and after months
Oh ulincult toll, after stimulA-
ting the endurance of his troona
with offers of pecuniary rewards. he
found himself ON the brink of the
Bayudah Desert, in valley or solitude
rs sterile as the worst passes of tina
road from Suakim, in an arid waste
spahuoneu 10 gazelles and mountain
mares, where the sand was blown over
the stone-heaped graves of Arabs, and |
the mirage OF transparent Lake.
tempted thirst stricken travellers 10
their death. W
Through this desert Sir Herbert
stewart was sent TO relieve Khnrtonm
The rest We know. The encounters M
Abu' klea and the Shabakat wells were
the only encounters that Lord Wolse.
Icy would have had to face, If he had
marched directly from the Red Sea
sau they would have bsen, repealed
enootuaily between Suakim as
ana Berber as they were repelled he-
tween Gakdul and Metempeh. Tho |
privalions OF the march would probn. |
oly nave been the same. The list of |
the Killed and wounded would proba. |
Diy nave been the same. The triumnhs
Tor The commanders would urobnhIv /
nave been the same. Everything would |
nave been the same save one. MI
LORD Woseley had marched from |
suakim to Berber he would have |
IWescheu MS goal two months ago, aud |
Anattoum would have been relieved.
ASH Is, any of the three forces into |
which Lord Wolseley has divided hls |
expedition IL liable TO humiliation. To |
capture khartoum he must now undor- |
take adiiicult siege. He has placed Tho
government which sent him To Epvnt
IN position Of such peril, that eyen
Lord Edmund Fitzmaurice, ono of ia |
principle members, does not hide from
our London orresd0ndent that a crisis is
~ maui anu ~ ~ not Improbable that ho !
mas sacrificed the life of one of the
oravest men in Chrlstendom-of tho
man who sent this message from Khar-
teum:
do not see the fun of being caught
mere 10 walk about the s,reets for wears
~ uervish, with saudalled feet, and
wv viii never be taken alive.
-
He Put II In Writing.
a gentleman writes that one of the