Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1889-05-20

The story is current that James Gordon
Bennett has received information that
leads him to believe that General Gordon
Is not dead but is retained close prisoner
at khartoum. Acting upon this belief he
has organized small force and set out for
that city at most unusual season for
entering the Soudan The report is that
ransom has been demanded for the sur
render of General Gordon and that Ben
nett is prepared to meet it and has gone
to the Mahdi's capital to do so. Another
story is that the trip is undertaken on a
bet that man of brains and money can
safely enter and depart from the city. 1t
must be borne in mind that there has
never been given any positive evidence
that General Gordon was killed at the fall
of khartoum, except that of certain rifle
men who say that from distance, as they
fed, they saw the General fired upon. as
he was descending the steps of his home
that they saw him fall and that one of his
assailants severed the Generals head from
his body. But these men were at a dis
lance and may have been mistaken as TO
the identity. In the last entries of his
journal General Gordon records his be-
lief that his hour had come, and that unless
reli eff came speedily, the town would fall
and that he would receive no mercy at the
hands of the Mahdi. The troops of the
False Prophet were very solicitous to have
the news of the death of the gallant soldier
conveyed TO the English, and the Mahdi
himself took pains to impress the fact upon
messengers that Gordon was no more.
But the Mahdi, after the fall of Khartoum,
having no longer any reason to fear Cor
don, had no special reason for
putting him to death, and as he, like all
Arabs, was lover of money,
1t is not improbable that he contem-
plated securing a round sum for the return
of Gordon, after the story of his death had
sufficiently impressed the people of Eng
land. But the Mahdi died very soon after
the fall of Khartoum; his successor has not
claimed to be such except in military
sense, the religious mantle of the False
Prophet having as yet fallen upon no
shoulders, OF which the world has heard.
1t is possible, therefore. that Gordon is
alive, but is very remote possibility, for
On the other hand, the natural impulse of
the Mahdi's Lieutenant, on the fall OF
khartoum, would be to execute his pris-
onerS. The troops of the Mahdi took
prisoners only to butcher them; they were
never known to cucumber themselves with
captives. If then, it be true that Gordon
Is alive, it will be found that special and
very unusual orders were issued concern
ing his capture. All the probabilities are
that he is dead; that even il not killed at
the time, that he has not survived in that
inhospitable cline since 1885, as a close
prisoner. The result of Benefits trip into
Egypt, therefore, will be awaited with
much anxiety; if it is true that Khar-
toum is his objective destination, it is pos
sible that his fate may become shrouded in
as profound mystery as is that of Gordon.
For our part we do not believe that Ben
nett aims to reach Khartoum. 1t may be
however, that he will 60 into Egypt and
up the Nile, even at this season, sufficiently
far to safely communicate with the COM
mander of the rebel forces which the
Khedive dare not face, and that have
thus FAR defed Egypt and England com
bined.