San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-09-02


tions, be they of tribe or town or tenure
Yet do not believe this to be the last, the
highest, the noblest form of patriotism
No." said Bah AZZoun, this DEVELOPMENT
shall go on, ever expanding, ever mount
ing, until, carried upon its topmost crest
we attain to that height from which we
can look down upon the world As our coun-
try, humanity a. our countrymen, and he
shall be the best patriot who is the least
patriotic
"Ah-h, fichtre" exclaimed Santander
listlessly, throwing cushion at Bah Az
zoun's head, Eva te coucher It's too hot
to theoriZe; you're either a great philoso-
pher Bah. or a large sized"-he looked at
him over the rim of his glass before con-
cluding-'idiot."
But Bah AZzoun had gone on talking in
the meanwhile and now finished with
land so you must not blame me if, looking
upon them" The meant the Arabs land
theirs in this light, find this African
campaign sorry business for France to be
engaged ina vast and powerful govern
ment terrorizing into submission a horde
of half starved fanatics" he yawned, "all
of which is very bad-very bad-bah! give
me some more kouscoussow."
We were aroused by the sudden stop
page of the scow
A detachment of "Zephyrs," near us
upon the right bank, scrambled together
in a hollow square. A battalion of Cou-
louglis, with haiks and bOurnous ripping,
scuttled by us at a gallop, and the Twenty
third Chasseurs IL Afrique in the front line
halted at carry" on the crest of sand
ridge, which hid the horizon from sight;
the still, hot air of the Sahara was sud-
denly pervaded with something that reused
us to our feet in an instant. Santander
whipped out his ever ready sketch book
and began blocking in the landscape and
the position of the troops, while Thevenot
snatched his note book and "stylograph."
OF the scene which now gathered upon
us can, in respect to time, place or rela-
tive succession of detail, remember moth
ing, only out of that dark chaos can res
cue few detached and fragmentary i'm
pressions-all the more vivid, neverthe-
less, from their isolation, all the more dis
tinct from the gray blue of the background
against which they trace themselves.
Instantly, somewhere disquietingly near,
an event, or rather a whirl of events that
rushed and writhed themselves together
into quivering maze of dizzying complex
ity. suddenly evolved and widened like the
fierce, quick rending open of some vast
scroll, and there were ZigZag hurryings to
and fro and surging heavenward of a
torrent of nOises-nOises of men and noises
of feet, noises Of horses and noises of arms
noises that hustled fiercely upward above
the brown mass and closed together in the
desert air blending or joining one with
another, joining and separating, reuniting
and dividing; noises that rattle; noises that
clanked, noises that doomed or shrilled or
Numbered or Quavered, and one well
known noise that, at regular intervals, was
dominant over all as of a mighty flood of
planks and boards falling from some vast
height upon the earth beneath. And then
came sight of blue-gray tremulous curtains
but whether of smoke or dust ! could
not say-tumbling and billowing. bellying
out with the hot tempest breath of the
battle demon that ragged within and whose
outermOst fringes were torn by serrated
files of flashing steel and wavering ranks
of red.
And this was all at first knew we had
been attacked and that behind those boil
ing smoke pillows, somewhere and some
how, though exactly how and where |
could not tell, men, infatuated into beasts,
were graphing and struggling, each man,
with every snew on the strain, honestly
striving to kill his fellow.
And now we were in the midst of ho
low square Of our sOldiery yet how we
came there | cannot recall though | re-
member--trivial enough as it was-that
the water of the JelIlie made my clothes
heavy and chngiug aud uncomfortable
remember this, although a mortal fear sat
upon me of being shot down by some of
our own frenzied soldiers. And then came
that awful rib cracking pressure, as from
some outward, unseen cause, the square
was thrown back upon itself.
The smell of sweat, of horses and men,
the odOr Of the powder smoke, the blind
ing, aunocating, SUPPLYING clouds of dust,
the horrible fear-greater than all others
Of being pushed down be"eaLh those thou
sands of trampling feet, the terrible pitch
of excitement chat siCkens and weakens,
the mOmentary cOnsCiOusness-vanishin
a. soon as fclt-that this was what men
called war" and that we were eXperienc.
ing the stern reality of what we had so
often read
1t was not inspiring, not thrilling; there
was no romance, no poetry about it; there
was nothing in it but the hideous jar, one
against tie other, of men drunk with the
blood lust that eighteen hundred years had
not quenched, and all Its so called sublim.
ity and glory faded out of sight at the |
magic of it's real presence.
looked at Bah Azzoun, he was stand |
ing ut the gunwale of the scow-somehow |
we were back on the scow again-with an |
pistol in his hand He was |
the battle on the bank. His |
nostrils quivered, and he shifted his feet |
exactly like an excited thorough bred. On
a sudden trooper of the Eleventh Cuiras-
siers came spinning round and round out
of the brown of battle, gulping up blood,
and nitched MhnaZinn fncn dnMnMard. |