The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-10-05

So 'ere's to you, FuZzyWuzzy. an your friends
If we admit lost some messmates we would 'elp
you to deplore;
But give an takes the gospel. an Well call the
bargain fair.
For if you ave lost more than US, you crumpled
up the square.
E PUSHES at the smoke when we. let drive.
An before we know, e's ackin' at our cad;
'Es all OF sand. an ginger when alive,
An 'es generally shanmin' when es dead
Els daisy, e's a duckv. 'es a lamb!
'E's a inja-rubber idiot on the spree,
Es the on'y thing that doesn't give damn
For regiment O. British infantree!
So 'ere's to you. Fuzzy-wuzzy, at. your 'ome in
You're pore benighted 'gatffen but frst-class
An 'ere's to you. Fuzzy-wuzzy, with your
'ayrick cad of air
You big, black boundin,, beggar-for you broke
-Kipling.
London Letter in New York Sun.
The real story of Omdurman is told for
the first time to-day, and history does not
contain a bloodier, more gruesome tale.
Battle is entirely misnomer when applied
to the slaughter of the twelve thousand or
fifteen thousand human beings who persisted
there. The best friends of the victors, the
stanchest advocates of the triumph of
civilization over barbarism cannot describe
it in less gloomy terms than as a necessary
the courage of fanaticism is superior to that
of civilization Courage rs perhaps the
wrong word to apply to the reckless brava-
do with which hordes of Dervishes rushed
to death which was as futile and as inevi-
table if they had flung themselves over
a precipice. Nevertheless, 1t is impossible
to withhold a tribute of admiration of their
savage valor which spared nothing in it's
sacrifice to Allah.
1t will require an effort to realize in read
ing the following extracts from the record
of this day Of carnage that one Is not deal
ing with one of Rider Haggard's bloody
chapters of African romance. The killing
is so wholesale the slaughter is so com
plete that it is difficult TO believe that it
is story of actuality at the end of the
nineteenth century. This is G. w. Steevens's
account in the Daily Mail of the first at
tack by the Dervishes upon the British and
Egyptian lines:
1T was now half past 6. The flags
seemed still very distant, the roar very
faint and the thud of our first gun was al
most startling 1t may have startled Them
too, but it startled them into life. The line
of flags swung forward and a mass of white
linen swung forward with it, too. They
came very fast and they came very straight;
and then presently they came no farther.
With a crash the bullets leaped out of the
British rifles 1t began with the Guards
and Manifestation volleys at 1900
yards; then as the Dervishes edged right
ward it ran along to the Highlanders, the
Lincolns and to Maxwells Brigade. The
British stood up in double rank behind their
zariba the blacks lay down in their shell
ter trench; both poured out death as fast as
they could load and press trigger. Shrap-
mel whistled and Maxims growled savagely.
From all the line came perpetual fire, fire,
fire, and shrieked forth in great gusts of
destruction. .,-4
'And the enemy? No white trooper would
have faced that torrent of death for five
minutes, but the Baggara and the blacks
came on. The torrents swept into them and
hurled them down in whole companies. You
saw a rigid line gather itself up and rush
on evenly; then before a shrapnel shell or a
Maxim the line suddenly quivered and
stopped. The line was yet unbroken, but
it was quite still. But other lines gathered
up again, again and yet again; they went
down and yet others rushed on. Some
times they came near enough to see single
figures quite plainly. One old man with a
white flag started with five comrades; all
uTOppoO, out he aiOH6 came DOuuulIS lot
ward to within two hundred yards of the
Fourteenth Sudanese Then he folded his
arms across his face and his limbs loosened
and he dropped sprawling to earth beside
his flag.
LAST AND GREATEST.
"It was the last day of Mahdism. and the
greatest They could never get near and
they refused to hold back. BY now the
ground hofora 11c NuaS I'll xrhito with Gaod
mems drapery. Rifles grew red hot; the
soldiers seized them by the sings and
dragged them back to the reserve to change
for cool ones. 1t was not a battle, but an
execution.
I'm the middle of it all you were sur
prised to find that we were. losing men.
The crash of our own fire was SO prodgious
that could not hear their bullets whistle;
yet they came and swooped down and found
victims. The Dervishes were firing at their
extreme range, and their bullets were many
of them almost spent, but as they always
fire high they often hit. So while you
might have thought you were at a shoot
of rabbits, you suddenly heard the sharp
cry, Bearer party there, quick and man
was being borne rearward. Few went
down, but there was steady trickle to
hospital Bullets may have been spent and
Captain Caldecott. of the Warwioks, was
che of the strongest men in the army, but
that helped him nothing when dropping
ball took him in the temple and came out
through the Jugu.ar He lay an hour I'M
conscious, then opened his eyes with For
God sake. give me Wateri' and died as he
drank. Most of all the two Highland bat
talions dropped men. The zariba behind
which they were unwisely posted obliged
them to stand, besides hampering them Goth
In fire and when it came to movement a
little clump OF enemy gathered in hole
in front of them, and by the time guns came
up to she'll them out the Camerons had
lest some twenty-five, and the Seafortns
above a dozen.
But loss on this scale, was not to be
considered beside the awful slaughter OF the
DervisheS. If they. Stlll came on our men
needed only time and ammunition and
strength TO point rifle to Kill them OIL TO
the very last man. Only by now-small
wonder-they were not coming on. They
were not driven back; they We're all killed
in coming on. One section of fire after an
other hushed, and by O'Clock the village
and the plain were still again. The last
shell had burst over the last visible group
of Dervishes; now there was nothing but
the unbending, grimly expectant line De-
fore Agaiga and the still carpet of White IN
front.
I'VE waited half an hour or so, and then
the sudden bugle called us to feet.
Advance it cried to Omdurman! added
we. Slowly the force broke. up and ex-
banded. The evident intention. was to
march in brigades in echelon-the Second
British leading along the river, the First
British on their right rear, then Maxwell 5,
Lewis's and Macdonald's, with Collinson
still supporting Lewis and Macdonald had
changed places, the latter being now outer
most and rearmCSt. ~ the 'iTre Few no.
ticed that. The moment the Dervish attack
had died down the Twenty-first Lancers
had slipped out, and pushed straight Tor
the Khalifas Is lrarffai ~