Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1890-11-09
CHAPTER II.

Then he brought the lances down, then the
bugles blew.
When we went to Kandahar. ridin' two an
Ridin', ridin', ridin', two an two,
Ta-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra-ra,
All the way to Kandabar ridin' two an two.
Bdrrdck-Room Ballad.
"I'm not angry with the British public,
but L do wish we had a few thousand of
them scattered among these rocks. They
wouldn't be in such hurry to get at their
morning papers then. Can't you imagine
the regulation householder = Lover of
Justice, Constant Reader, Pater-iamilias,
and all that lot-frizzling on not gravel?"
with blue veil over his head, and his
clothes in strips. Has any man here a
needle?" I've got piece of sugar-sack."
"Pll lend you packing-needle for six
square inches of it, then. Both my knees
are worn through"
"Why not six square acres, while you're
about it? But lend me the needle, and I'll
see what 1 can do with the selvage. I don't
think there's enough to protect my royal
body from the cold blast as it is. What are
you doing with that everlasting sketch-book
of yours, Dick?"
Study of our special correspondent re-
pairing his wardrobe, said Dick, grayely,
as the other man kicked off pair of sorely
worn riding breeches and began to fit a
! square of coarse canvas over the most obvl-
Gus open space. He grunted disconsolately
as the vastness of the void developed itself.
Sugar bags, indeedl Hill YOU pilot-man
there! Lend me all the sails of that whale
boat
A fez-crowned head bobbed up in the
stern-sheets, divided itself into exact halves
with one flashing grin, and bobbed down
again. The man of the battered breeches,
| clad only in Norfolk jacket and gray
flannel shirt, went on with bis clumsy sew
ing, while Dick chuckled over his sketch.
Some 20 whaIeboats were nuzzling a sand
| bank which was dotted with English
soldiery of half dozen corps, bathing or
| washitg their clothes. A heap of boatroll-
ers, commissariat boxes, sugar bags, and
| -four, and smalI-arm-ammunition-
showed where one OF the whaleboats had
been compelled to unload hastily; and
regimental carpenter was swearing aloud as
he tried, on a wholly insufficient allowance
of white lead. to plaster up the sun-parched
| gaming seams OF the boat herself.
First the boomin' rudder snaps" said
he to the world in general; "then the mast
goes; an then, s. 'elp me, when she can't do
! nothin' else, she opens 'erselt out like
cock-eyed Chinese lotus"
Exactly the case with nv breeches, who
ever you are" said the tailor, without look
| ing up. "Dick, wonder when shall see
a decen. shop again."
! There was no answer save the incessant
angry murmur of the Nile as it raced round
a basalt-walled bend aud formed across a
rock ridge half mile up stneam. 1t was
as though the brown weight of the river
would drive the white men back to their own
| country. The indescribable scent of Nile
mud in the air told that the stream was fall
ing and that the next few miles would be no
| Light thing for the whale boats to overpass.
The desert ran down almost TO the banks,
where, among gray, red and black hillocks,
a camel corps was encamped. No man dared
even for day lose touch of the slow-moving
/ boats; there had been no fighting for weeks
past and throughout all that time the Nile
had never spared them. Rapid had followed
rapid, rock rock, and island group island
group, till the rank and file had long since
lost all count of direction and very nearly
of time. They were moving somewhere,
they did not know why, to do something,
, thev did not know what. Before them lay
; the Nile, and at the other end of it was one
Gordon. fighting for dear life, in q town
called Khartoum. There were columns Of
British troops in the desert, or in one OF
the MANY deserts; there were columns on the
river, there were yet more columns waiting
to embark on the river; there were fresh
drafts waiting at Assiut and Assuan; there
were lies and rumors running over the face
of the hopeless land from Suakim TO the
Sixth Cataract, and men supposed generally
that there must be some one in authority to
direct the general scheme of the many move
5 ments. The duty OF that particular river
column was to keep the whaleboats a1oat il
S A. - he vii
, layers crops when the gangs "tracked" the
boats with lines thrown from midstream, tC
get as much sleep and food as possible, and
above all, to press on without delay in tht
the teeth OF the churning Nile.
With the soldiers sweated and toiled thu
correspondents of the newspapers, and thel
we're almost as ignorant as their compsn
ions. But it was above all things necessary
that England at breakfast should b.
!; amused and thrilled and interested, whethe
q Gordon lived or died, or half the British
4 army went to pieces in the sands. Th
Soudan campaign was picturesque on
and lent itself to vivid word painting. Nov
e and again "Suecal" managed to get slail
which was not altogether disadvantag
> to the paper that employed him-and NOR
r often the hand-to-hand nature of the fight
ing allowed of miraculous escapes whic
: were worth telegraphing home at Is penc
I the word. There were many correspondent
e with MANY corps and columns-from th
e veterans who had followed on the heels &
the cavalry that occupied Cairo in 1885,
e what time Arab Pasha called himself King
d who had seen the first miserable work roun
Suakim, when the sentries were cut u
- nightly and the scrub swarmed with spear
o to Youngsters jerked into the business at tn
end OF telegraph wire to take the place @
- their betters killed or invalided.
Y Among the senlors-those who knew ever
l SHIFT and change in the perplexing postal a.
n rangements, the value of the seediest, weed
lest Egyptian garron offered for sale in Cair
ot or Alexandria, who could talk telegrap
N clerk into amiability and soothe the ruffie
10 vanity of newly-appointed staff offics
It when press regulations became burdenson
was the man in the flannel shirt, tn
black-browed Torpenhow. He represente
sr the Central Southern Syndicate in the can
palgn, as be had represented it in the Egyl
le tian war and elsewhere. The syndicate di
IS not concern itself greatly with criticisms
le attack and the like. 1t supplied the masse
Is and all it demanded was picturesquene
" and abundance of detail. There is more jo
D. in England over one soldier who insubord
er nately steps out OF a square to rescue a con
rade than over 20 generals shaving even
badness over the gross details of transpo
IS and commissariat.
Dr. He had met at Suakim Q young man, 81
ting on the edge of recently-abandoned r
Of doubt about the size Of hat box, sketchin
D. a clump of shell-torn bodies on the grav
Dr. plain.
" "What are you for7" said Torpenho,