Fairhaven herald. [volume] (Fairhaven, Wash.) 1890-????, 1891-07-28


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 noun
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 quiveripg maze of digging complex
ity, suddenly evolved and widened like the
fierce, quick rending open of some vast
scroll, and there were Zigzag hurrylngs 10
and fro and IA surgng heavenward OF a
torrent of noises-noises OF men ana 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, reunltlng
and dividing; noises that rattle; noises that
clanked; noises that doomed or shrilled or
Numbered or qrayered, and one well
known noise that at regular Intervals, was
dominant over all as of a mighty flood OF
blanks 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 i 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
I been attacked aud that behind those boil
e ing smoke pillows, somewhere and some
, how. though exactly how and where /
q could not tell, men, Infatuated into beasts,
, were graphing and struggling each man,
/ with every sinew on the strain, honestly
r striving to kill his fellow
/ And now we were in the midst of hol
T. low square Of our soldiery, yet how we
Z came there | cannot recall, though | re
member-trivial enough as it was-that
the water Of the Jelffe made my clothes
Z. heavy and clingng and uncomfortable
Il remember this, although a mortal fear sat
!. upon me Of being shot down by some OF
p our own frenzied soldiers And then came
s. that awful rib cracking pressure, as from
Il some outward, unseen cause, the square
" was thrown back upon itself.
+ The smell Of sweat Of horses and men,
4 the odor of the powder smoke, the blind
of inc. suffocating, supplying clouds of dust
ct the horrible fear-greater than all others
of being pushed down beneath those thou
n sands Of trampling feet, the terrible pltcl
ia of excitement that sickens and Weakens
~ the momentary consciousness-vanshl
he as soon as felt-that this was what mel
n called "war," and that we were eXperienc
ing the stern reality of what we mad s.
ut often read
re- 1t was not inspiring, not thrilling; ther
i'd was no romance, no poetry about IT. ther
ne was nothing in il but the hideous jar, on
If. against the other, of men drunk with tn
IN blood lust that eighteen hundred years ha
at not auenched, and all its 50 called sublin
as ity and glory faded out Of sight at th
zee magic Of its real presence.
ire Hooked at Bah Azzoun, he was stand
nd ing at the gunwae Of the scow-someho'
Nc. we were back on the scow again-wlth a
mr. uploaded pistol in his hand. He wa
me watching the battle on the bank. II
i'm nostrils uuiyered, and he shifted his fe'
I'm exactly like an excited thoroughbred. u
,st n sudden a trooper of the Eleventh Cuira
no. siers came spinning round and round OF
10. of the brown Of BATTLE gulping up bloc
If and pitched Wheeling, face downwar
,cb into the soft ooze where the river hcked
,ad the bank. raising rudy bubbles in u
10 sane az he blew his life breath in gas
des into it, and raking it into gridiron pa
TO terms as ms quNerIhs' Olue i"s0i' N'0'
me into fists.
bia Instantly aftCrward came mighty ru
nth across the river beneath our very bow
Forty odd cuirassiCrs burst into II, Il
lowed by eighty or a hundred kabyles.
bus can recall Just how the horse hoois rattl
1aL ON tho saucer ike cakes Of dry mud a
are flung them up in countless fragments
r,a hind them. They were a fine sight, tho
Kabyles, with their fierce, red horses, Tn
not dazzling white bournous, their long, tn
,o n murderous rife barrels, laundering a
IONS splashing past, while from the whole mi
,tri of them, from under the shadow OK eve
white haik, from every black bearded
il a was rolling their war cry Allah Allan
Allah"
"a What long dormant recollectlons STIR
-, {, Pail Azzouu at this old battle sho
- Asbe faced them now he was no lon
o.. the cold, cynical bOuleyardier OF the mo
,a a. inc. He looked rs be must have Tool
when he played-a siXteeu-ycar-old DO
,,.o, about the feet Of the horses in his tath'
ro,y black tent. lie saw the long lines OF
lin. douars of his native home; he saw
,,as. camels and the caravan crawling tow
7 7bis the sunset, he saw the women grind
, tho meal. he saw his father, the bearded sh'
az he saw the Arab horsemen riding dow
tI,ey battle; he saw the palm broad scar POI
n seo and the blue yataghans. lie was no Ion
a,,es the Parisien, the product OF ciyilizatlo
a." the trace problem" In an instant OF I
. ;ho ali the long years OF culture and educal
~ were as a garment stripped away. Y
- more he stood and stepped the kah
a., and with these recollections his long
stago gotten native speech came rushing 70
n caiI tongue, and in one long, shrill, exul
Clan CRY he answered his countrymen In I
;, tbe own language, "Allah-il-Allah, Mol
,ction med ressoul AllahV
l. the He passed me at a bound, leaped I
'otion the scow upon the back of q riderless he
ere and mingling with the band OF the
,aoin- byles, sped out Of sight.
"a na. And that was the last ever saw oil
y for Azzoun -Argonaut.
rgun- "who Was Shot Last Week ~
ely oil In 1851 Mokelumue Hill was enc Of
rman- worst camps in California who wa
form last week." was the first question ask
IL the the miners when they came in troI