Eagle River Democrat. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1893-1896, 1896-02-03
THE sQuARE-Bu1LT MAN.
Two Occasions on Which He Said s'WeH
General" to Wolseley.

Two Occasions ON Which He Said ''WeIl,
General" to Wolseley.
''War correspondents" exclaimed
Lord WoIseley. "Some of them are des-
perately brave, while others are anything
but heroes. The majority, | think, do
their duty we'll, even when it leads them
into tight places. By the way, talking
of tight places and war correspondents,
L remember an incident that may interest
you. 1t was at the beginning Of the
Ashantee campaign, just after our land
ing; a square-built little man came up
to me and said, speaking slowly and
with an unmistakable American accent:
General, allow me to introduce my
self; am the correspondent of the New
York Herald. l.
TOO busy to attend to him, I cut
him short with What can | do for you,
sir?'
He replied, imperturbably, with the
same eXasperating slowness, We'll, gen
eral, l want to be as near you as l can
if there is any ightin' to be seen
Captain So-andSo has charge of all
the arrangements concerning correspond
ents,' | rejoined, CURLY; you had better
see him. And with this l turned on my
heel and went about my business"
Il saw no more Of my correspondent
with the aggravating GOODNESS and slow
| ness Of speech for many a day. did
not even know whether he was accom-
panying the column or not.
PERSONALLY speaking, | was only in
danger once during the whole expedition.
1t was shortly before we entered Coo
massie l had pressed forward with the
advance troops, hoping to break the last
effort at resistance and have done with
the affair, when the enemy, utilizing the
heavy covert, came down and fairly sur
rounded us. For few minutes the posi-
ton was critical, and every man had to
fight, for the enen3yS fire was poured in
at close quarters. They pressed upon us
from all sides, lodging from tree to tree,
and continually edging closer, hoping
to get hand to hand. In the hottest of it
my attention was caught by man in
civilians clothes, who was some fifteen
or twenty yards in front of me, and who
was completely surrounded by the adj
vancing sayages. He seemed to pay no
heed to the danger he was in, but, kneel
ing on one knee, took aim, and fred
again and again, and / seemed to see
| that every time he fired black man fell.
| was fascinated by his danger and cool
ness. As our main body came up and
the sayages were driven back, [ went
forward to see that no harm came to my
civilian friend, who rose just as | reached
him. To my astonishment it was the cor
respondent of the New York Herald, and
he began again in the same slow, calm
way:
'F'Well, general
Again / interrupted him: You were
lucky to escape. Didn't you see that you
were surrounded"
well, general he began again, I
guess / was too much occupied by the
niggers in front to pay much attention
to those behind
THAT was eventually the simple truth.
Whatever men may say in the future
about Henry NJ. Stanley, no one that has
seen him in danger will deny that his
courage is of the first quality. | took a
liking to him on the spot, and we became
great friends; nor has anything occurred
since to alter my opinion of him. Sat
urdaY Record.