New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-11-09
A WAR CORRESPONDENT.
FoRBEss BOYHOOD AND HIS LIFE AS A
WAR CORRESPONDENT

NJ the conventional autobiography. ana YET mas
come near telling the whole story OF MS Ire iIo'''
boyhood. In reading this volume one learns ""'
the author was the son OF a minister IN 'he ia'
north Of Scotland. and that his hrst eXper'e"Oe"
On war we're the disfguring but not fatal battles
of a primitive parish school. That school was an
ideal democracy where the only leadership wa.
that OF the strongest and where the tyra"t oi
one day was likely TO be the best whipped uhuei-
ling OF the next. The boys who hKeo ns"''"e
could ALWAYS have plenty OF 1t, and they were
rarely without bruises and black eyes. They also
felt the "dominie's tawse" with frequency
which Mr.. Forbes now recalls with show OF
satisfaction But they had absolutely no con-
cantion Of rank as understood by their elders
The son of the laird. though destined for GAIN
bridge and for social position in the future i0'
the present took his chances with the po!s iio''
the Manse the children Of the farmers, ana '"e
hard-headed offspring Of the laborers. Whlle most
Of the scholars were little chaps. there were al
WAYS a number of ful-grown men VINO were ie
newing some studies of their childhood anu o0
casonally a girl of twenty years VINO hao '"e
courage TO make up for failures in schooling
There was no bar to entrance into TINS niue
republic of letters except the meagre Zee OF 'ne
teacher; and a ditcher, the poorest man III 'ie
parish, perhaps met this difficulty In the case
of his twin children by sending them TO schooi
ON alternate DAYS. He paid for one. but both
had the benefit OF the school. The winter IRE
was kept Up by the peat which each scholar was
obliged TO bring from home. youngster VINO
failed In this duty was condemned Tor the oay
70 cold corner of the room.
The next glimpse one gets Of Mr.. Forbes's boy
hood is a little startling for IT belongs to story
OF bloodshed Crimes were rare In that country
parish Of North Scotland The common people
were Indifferent to the conventionaities respect
ing marriage. and that was the worst to be said
of them But murder there had been when
went unpublished. and that is why one sees Tor
moment an active boy Oh an old pony gong for
the mail and coming upon something when
stirred his curiosity very deeply. First, he found
in the road a broken gig which he knew well
ms the property OF the parish drunkard In the
clover field near lay the drunkard himself and
with him. as he alleged, the cause Of all his mis-
fortunes It was the daily duty Of the boy to go
for the Manse letter-bag in this way. ride Of a
mile to the postoffice and back But only this
once apparently. did he have anything Ike an
adventure worth telling. After much profanity
and some violence the cause OF disaster TO the
drunkard and the gig rose from the ground-a
square shoudered man. with hump on his pack
and a drag in his gait. neither of which were ex-
saw some human relics Of the Tasmanian con-
Wet camps. With this introduction to the parish
the bearded leather-colorei stranger settled
down as a laborer ard later as lonely dweller
on the moor But ne had come there with set
tied clan of vengeance. the story of which in de-
tail carries the reader 10 soldier life In India. TO
convict life in the South Sea, TO wretched mar
ried life in England and Scotland. That married
life was at or g the murderers ruin and his res
cue Without II he would have had no wrongs to
avenge; with It he silences the only witness OF
his crime. HIS wife him XII his rival. but
her testimony had to be excluded when her
identity was established. There are enc or two
other village tragedies. but the one Of the parish
murderer seems 20 have a special significance
There is not only the glimpse of the minister's
boy on his pony. but the whole atmosphere or
distant soldier life must have attracted the "a
fention Of a lad who TO begin life as a dra-
COON and 10 devote his most vigorous years TO
telling how other fought. After this hint OF
what was to come 1t is disappointing to find
nothing respecting Mr.. Forbess own life as
cavalry soldier beyond a stray allusion One
thing is given with certainty He learned TO ride
a horse so that the most vicious mount was in
different TO him. He also learned to endure
fatigue and pr.vation which many newspaper
men would shudder to undergo
His experiences a war correspondent belong
TO the romantic period Of the art. The utter nov
city Of the thing bad worn off In the eyes OF both
eolders and civilians. There were still those, Ike
Lord Wolseley in England and General Sherman
in the United States, who spoke of war CORE
spondents with bitterness. But. at least in the
case OF Lord WOlseley the author is reminded
that he did not fail to make of the men whom
he censured DR.. Russell in the Crimea and
more than one famous writer In the American
war had shown the value Of the correspondent
to the armies as well as to the public. Americans
had fully exploited also the methods for getting
news from battlefield promptly into print Mr..
Forbes makes specific note Of this fact. But in
Europe all this had to be rediscovered when the
war broke out between France and Germany. II
was in the hurry of seeing and writing and the
inventing Of devices for Fastening for outdoing
the mails that the romance of the correspondents
work was to be found.
The telegraph had been freely used In America
But European writer's were slow to take up the
idea In fact Mr.. Forbes shows that they had to
have an object-lesson from an American writer
and an American newspape'. The world MIS-
tory" he remarks. has no record of more des-
perate fighting than that which ragged the lveiohg
summer day on the plateau Of Mars-la-Tour Inc
accounts Of that bloody battle went TO England
by fied-post and mail train; yet the Saarbrucken
telegraph office, from which the embargo had
been taken off. within easy five hours
ride from the field. The battle OF Gravelotte.
fought on the next day bu. one, did at length get
itself described after a fashion over the wires,
but IL was no Englishman who accomplished this
cheap pioneer achievement. The credit thereof
accrues 10 an alert American journalist named
Hands who I believe. was a representative OF
The New York Tribune Whether when the long
strife was sullenly dying away in the darkness,
the spirit suddenly moved this quiet little man. or
whether he had prearranged the undertaking. l
do not know. nor DO l know whether he carried or
whether he sent his message 10 the Saarbricken
telegraph office. But this is certain that ii