The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1891-04-16


a-ra-ra-ra,
Al the way TO Kandahar. ridin' two an two.
-Barrack Room Ballad.
sT'm not angry with the British public,
but 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, Paterfamilias,
and all that 1ot-frizzling on hot gravel?"
ssWith a blue veil over his head, and his
clothes in strips. Has any man here a
needle? I've got a piece. of sugar sack" Il
sIl lend you a packing needle for six
square inches of it, then. Both my. knees
are worn through IA .~et-.1 Fl
"Why not six. square acres, while you're
about it? But lend me the needle and I'll
see what I can do with the se1vage. 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, gravely, as
the other man kicked off a pair Of sorely
worn riding breeches and began to fit a
square Of coarse canvas over the most OBJ
Vious open space. He grunted disconsolate-
ly as the yastness of the void developed it.
self
Sugar bags, indeed! HI! you pilot man
there! Lend me all the sails Of that whale
boat"
a fez-croWned head bobbed up i'll 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 his clumsy sewing, while Dick
ohGekIed oyer his sketch. ass4.gasa
1 Some twenty whaleboats were nuzzling
sand bank which was dotted with English
soldiery of half a dozen corps, bathing or
washing their clothes. A heap Of boat roll
ers. conmissariat boxes, sugar bags, and
-four and small-arm ammunition cases show
ed where one of the Whaleboats had been
compelled to unload hastily; and regl-
mental carpenter was swearing aloud as he
tried, on wholly insufficient allowance of
white lead, to plaster up the sun-parched
gaping seams Of the boat herself.
, ''F'irst the bloomin' rudder snaps, said he
to the world in general; then the mast
goes; an then, s. clip me, when she cantdo
hothih' else, she opens 'erself out like a
-cock-eyed Chinese lotus. = ss@g=
Exactly the case. with nv breeehes,. VINO
ever you are, said the tailor without look
ing up. ''Dick wonder when shall see
decent shop again,
r There was. no answer save the lncessant
angry fltlrmt1f of the Nile as it raced fouho
a Basa1t=Walled bend and foamed across
rock ridge half milesup stream. 1t was as
though the brown weight of, the river would
drive the white men back to their own
country. The indescribable weight of the
Nile mud in the air told that the1strearn was
falling, and that the next few miles would
be no light thing fer the whalehoats to oyer
pass The desert ran down almost to the
banks, where, sIaoag gray. RED, ard black
hillockse q camGlG0rps was encamped. NO
man dared even for a day Lose touch of the
slow-moving boats there had been no fight
ing for weeks past and throughout alt that
time the Nile had never spared them. Rapid
had followed rapid, rock rock, and island
island. till the rank and file had long since
LOST ali count Of direction and very nearly of
time They were moving Somewhere, they
did not know why, to do something, they
did not know what Before them lay
the Nile. and at the other end Of it was
one Gordon, fighting for the dear life, in q
town called khart0um. 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 wait
ing to embark on the river there were fresh
drafts waiting at AssiUt and Assuan; there
were lies and runors running over the
face of the hopeless land from Suakim to the
Sixth. Cataract. and men supposed generally
tnat there must be some one in authority to
direct the general scheme of the many move
ments. The duty Of that particular river
column was to keep the Whaleboats afloat in
j the water, to avoid trampling on the yil-
layers crops when the gangs ''trackedt' the
boats with lines thrown from midstream, to
gel as much sleep and food as was possible,
and. aboye all, to press on without delay in
: the teeth oflthe schurnings Nile. ~,
# With the soldiers sweated and toiled the
correspondents of theneWspapeIs3 and they
were almost as ignorant as. their .compan-
ions. But it was above all things necessary
that ENGLAND at breakfast should be amused
and. thrilled and interested, whether Cor
don lived or died, ior. half the British army
went. to pieces in the sands. The Souda1
campaign was picturesque one and lent It
self to vivid word painting. Now and again
a Special" managed to get slain-whicf
was not altogether a disadvantage to the
paper that employed him-and more Otter
/. the hand-to-hand nature of the fighting al
lowed of miraculous escapes which were
worth telegraphing home at eighteen-penct
the word. There were many correspond
ents with many corps and columns from
the veterans who had followed on the heels
of the cavalry that occupied Cairo in '82
what time Arab Pasha called himself King
who had seen. the first miserable wori
round Suakim when the .sentries were cat
up nightly and the scrub sWarmed with
spears, to Youngsters .ierked into the bust
ness at the end Of a telegraph wire to take
the places their betters- killed or invalided
Among the seniors-those who knew every
" Shift and change in the perple2ing posta
..rran gernentS, the. vaIue Of the ,seediest
i E5eeaiest Egyptian gaggen. Offered for salem
q Cairo or Alexandria, who could talk a .tele
graph clerk into aIniabIlity, and soothe tn
ruffied vanity of a newly appointed stat
officer when press regulations became bur
densome-Was .the,man in the.1 ftanne4ls shirt