The San Francisco call., 1896-09-27


proved by practical test that only the
metest rotten husk of Mahdism remains
In Equator Africa.
II the Dervishes could make stand
anywhere it would be at Dongola, but
their earlier pretenses of resistance were
quite tatuous, and at the final pinch they
ran like rabbits without a show of fight.
rms contrast with their extraordinary de-
Votlon and ferocity of dozen years ago is
as remarkable in its way as is the evolu-
tlon IN the same period OF the native
Egyptian troops from a cowardly rabble to
splendid soldiery.
II considerations of expense were not OF
hrst importance, there would seem to be
nothing to prevent the Sirdar from going
to Khartoum, Omdurman or wherever
else he pleases on the road to Uganda
This grave expansion of what Is TO all in
tents British territory would in ordinary
times create O lively international hub
bub, but the crisis at the gate of the Oar
danelles Is too exciting to allow even this
to make a diversion.
One or two OF the Paris papers cry out
that the moment is opportune for forcing
England's hand on the whole subject OF
the Nile, but not even in Cbauvinist quar-
ters is there any sympathetic response
1t is understood that bigger things even
than Egypt are at stake. The news OF the
Khedive's strange secret visit to Paris, too,
curiosity and apprehension III England:
Now it is only mentioned as personal
item, without hint that II may possibly
be important Il Is impossible to believe
that he could have left Egypt landed at
MarseiIles and stayed a week in Paris
without the knowledge OF the English For
eign Office, still less does one suppose the
French authorities ignorant of his pres
ence. No information, however, as to
whom he has seen or what the objects of
his Journey may be is obtainable.
British poets have clearly fallen upon evil
days. 1t has become an open secret that Al
fred Austin is practically under an inj juuc-
tion to preserve silence. Sir Edwin Arnold
recently burst forth IN long, exuberant
ode on the Queens reign having exceeded
in length ali others in English history,
and ne sold it unconditionally TO the man
who manages a publication called the
Salon.
This person, however. has other strings
to his bow, and be used the poem as
center-piece for big page collection OF
advertisements for cigars, carpets, sewing
machines, etc., which he published on
Thursday in every London daily. Sir
Edwin denounces this publicly as a lite
rary outrage, which perhaps it is, but the
cynical metropolitan press is inclined 10
Tiew the conjunction "a remarkably ap-
propriate. The Queen herself tor some
to resent the popular impulse 10 celebrate
this anniversary of her ascent to the
throne as a unique event, but despite ali
the cold water which the court could
throw the date was seized on everywhere,
not only here but in the far-off colonies,
as an occasion for demonstrations of loyal
interest and devotion of such impressive
volume in the aggregate that her Majesty
was forced to make kind of grudgiEg ac-
RnOWled0meQt OF her thanks.
A quaint reason was given me by
relative OF one of her court ladies a while
ago for this royal Sinking of the celebra-
ton. 1t was to the effect that the Queen,
at heart vehement Jacobite, holds the
elder pretender to have been truly
KING of England as James III, and she
feels that as he survived his father sixty
four years his reign was longer than hers
has been. ! give this as it was given to
me, with no,comment, save that numerous
other fads about the Stuarts, which the
Queen undoubtedly cherishes, are not a
whit less singular.
Both here and in Germany the report
that Bismarck's views on bimetallism are
treated as of importance by any section
of the American people is received in
mirthful spirit. Bismarcks hopeless ig-
norance on all financial questions made
him the butt OF two generations of his
parliamentary associates whenever he
thes subjects used to be filled with
maddened retorts to men who criticized
him. While it was true, he would say
that as a nobIeman he had not been
trained in the small tricks OF trade and
money-counting, yet he had the En-
peroI behind him, and that was more i'm
portant than any so-called economy
principle.
His stupid high tariffs, his commercial
wars with his neighborS. his grotesquely
unequal systems of domestic taxation,
have done more toward making the Social
Democrats the largest single party in Ger
many than ali other causes combined. He
knows no more to-day about the silver
question than Secretary Carlisle does
about the family arrangements regulating
the Saxe-Alten burg succession, and no
one in Europe, not even among his most
heated partisans, would dream of regard
ing him as an authority on that or any
other fiscal question under the sun.
1t is reported as on authority that at the
November consistory Arch bishop Walsh
of Dublin and the Dominican, Father Gas
quet, will be made Cardinals. The latter
prelate is one OF the best of the English
Catholic writer's. He has a charming per.
sonality as well, though his achievements
seem hardly in the line of the red hat.
As for DR.. Walsh, l printed six years
ago in these dispatches extracts from
Monsignor Persicos private reports from
Ireland to the Vatican, which came to me
by way of Cardinal Manning's household
and in which Monsignor Perslco repeatedly
declared that DR.. Walsh was lacking in
spiritual qualities and that he paid too
much attention to politics and too little
to the souls of himself and his flock This
was about the only opinion OF Monsignor
Persico which Rome really had as its
own, and it will be very interesting to
see ii it has been altered. 1t must be ad-
mitted, though, that Iatterly, in fact ever
since he committed the fatal blunder of
assisting Dillon and O. Brien to seize and
wreck the Freeman's Journal, DR.. Walsh
has been as silent as a mouse in Irish
politics.
AS l predicted last week the pretense
that there was any chance of extraditing
Carney and Haines has been openly aban-
doned ana the show of trying to get lyman
has lapsed into empty humbug. The two
former may get harshly handled in Bel
gium if Holland hands them over, but so
far as England and Scotland Yard are
concerned their sensational arrest, like
Tynan's, was mere piece of reclame. All
that Is substantial is the fact that Ivory
will go into penal servitude. So far as
can be seen Ivory's scoundreIly associates
got his money, sent him to the post of
danger, and then either they or some of
!. II