Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1891-09-04
A Newspaper Knight Errant.

Ihayc called the special correspondent
the knight errant Of the newspaper. Let
me prove it. The greatest, nobless OF
item all was j. a. MacGahan, of Khiva
and San Stefano. He was an American,
born in Perry County, Ohio. l can
sketch his career ina few brief sentences;
lie was at law school in Brussels when
the Franco. Prussian war burst upon Eu-
rope, in 1870. Having had some ex-
pcrience as writer for the press, he en-
tered the field at once. Danger and
suffering was bis, though he did not
achieve renown in that brief campaign.
He then made his memorable ride to
Khiva, and wrote the best book on Cen
tIal Asia known to our language. An
other turn of the wheel found him in
Cuba describing the Yirginius complica-
tions. There l first met him. Thence
he returned TO England, aud sailed with
Captain Young in the Pandora to tse
Arctic regions, making the last search
undertaken for the lost crew of Sir John
Franklin's expedition. MacGahan re-
turned TO London in the spring Of 1876
in time to read in the newspapers briet
dispatches from Turkey recounting the
reported atrocities of the Bashi- Bazouks.
He determined at once to 60 to Bulgaria.
In a months time, he had put new face
on the eastern Question" The great
trouble between Christian and Turk was
no longer confined to "the petty quarrel
Of few monks over 1 key and a silver
STAR" as defined by the late Mr.. King
lake, but assumed proportions that could
be dscerncd in every club and in every
drawing room Of Imperial London. Mac
Gahan had begun his memorable ride,
the results of which will endure as long
as Christianity He visitel Bltak and -
painted in cold type what he saw. He
caused the shrieks Of the dying girls in
the pillaged towns of Bulgaria to be
heard throughout Christian Europe. A
Tory ministry, stanch in its fidelity to
the "unspcakablc Turk, sent its fleet to
the DardanelIes, but dared not land
man or fire single gun. Popular Eng
land repudiated its old ally. And Mac
Gahan rode onward and wrote shcavc5 of
letters. In every hamlet he passed
through he SAID "The Gar will avenge
this! Courage, people, he will come!'
From that time history was made as
by a cyclone. The Russian hosts weIe
modified at Kischenef, and the Car OF
oil the Russias reviewed them. Then
the order tc cross the Pruth was given,
as MacGahan ha foretold; our knight
Errant rode with the advanced guard.
Through the changing fortune of the
war, grave and gay, he passed. Much
of his work, now preserved in perma-
nent form, is the best of its kind in our
language. The assault of SkobeleG on
the Gravitza redoubt was immortalized
by MacGahan's pen. When PleYna fell,
our hero was in the van during the mad
rush toward the Bosphorus. The tri-
umphant advance was never checked until
the spires and minarets OF Constantine
plc were in sight. Bulgaria was re-
deemed, the power of the Turk in Eu-
rope was broken, the aggrandizcmcnt of
Russia was complete-and all because J.
A. MacGahan had lived and striyeD.
At San Stcfano, a suburb of the capi-
tai. on the Sea Of Marwora, our hero
died Of fever. SkobelcG, whose friend
ship dated back to the Kirgitz Stcppc
and the Khivan conquest, closed his eyes
and was chief mourner at his grave.
To-day on the anniversary of his death,
prayers for the repose of his soul are
said in every hamlet throughout Bulga-
ria. His service to the newspaper and
TO the civilized world extended over less
than eight years, but he accomplished
for the public the work OF lifetime
Journalist.