Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1898-12-19
BRITAIN'S BEST GENERAL
SIR H. HERBERT KITCHENER HAS HAD
AN ADVENTUROUS CAREER,

Striking Incidents in the Life of This Re-
narkable Irishman-Having Crushed
the Dervishes His Grateful Country is
showering Honors Upon Him.
Like Wellington, Wolseley and
Roberts, Major General Horatio Her.
bert Kitchener is an Irishman, having
been born in the Kingdom of Kerry"
some forty-seven years ago. He is
tall, standing full six feet in his stock
ing feet, and dark skinned-which
latter is but natural after twenty years
of service in Africa. Finding his COM
mission in the Royal Engineers too
peaceful, he fought as volunteer in
the two great European wars of recent
times-against the Prussians with
General Chanzy's army of the Loire,
and against the Czar's soldiers in the
Balkans. under Baker Pasha. But
most of his service has been in the
East, where he first went in charge of
party of surveyors in Palestine.
Here he began to acquire his re-
markable knowledge of Oriental lam
guages and tribes, of which many
stories are told. For example, at one
of his army's camps on the Nile, two
Arab date sellers were arrested as sus-
pected spies, and confined in the guard
tent. Shortly afterward a third Arab
prisoner was hastily bundled into the
tent. An animated iabbering ensued
between the three, and in few min
utes, much to the astonishment of the
sentry, the latest arrival drew aside
the doorway and stepped out, remark
ing: "All right sentry; I'm going to
the General"
1t was Kitchener. Again, only a
few minutes passed when an orderly
hurried up, and spade was handed
to each of the two Arabs, who were
marched outside the lines, dug their
graves, and were shot. They were
two dangerous spies and Kitchener
| had detected them.
Probably because he has thus been
a wanderer on the face of the earth
a modern Ulysses, who has very liter
ally "seen many men and known their
minds"-perhaps also because he has
been terribly busy man from his
early youth, Sir Herbert has never
married. In his forty eighth year he
is still bachelor. But perhaps mar
riage will come in the near future with
all the other desirable things that his
grateful country is preparing for him.
1t is stated in some quarters that his
honors for Omdurman will include a
heavy money grant, in addition to a
peerage.
Kitchener began his career by very
slow steps, taking twelve years to gain
his Captaincy in the engineers. But
directly his chance came his GOODNESS
and self.command, his indomitable
energy, and his miraculous capacity
for hard work marked him out as a
man of action. The turning point in
his career came when General Sir
Evelyn Wood undertook the reorgan-
ization of the Egyptian Army. He
took service under Wood in 1881, and
in 1885 his marvellous knowledge of
the native mind and language brought
him to the front He was sent ahead
of Sir Garnet Wolseey TO deal with
the native chiefs and officials whose
attitude was uncertain. The follow
ing picturesque account of him when
engaged on this ticklish mission was
written by an enthusiastic admirer of
the Sirdar soon after the victory of
Atbara:
"The first tim I saw Kitchener he
was alone and unarm ed among the
semi-hostile Arabs, endeavoring to
| persuade them that their interests
would bo best served if they took part
with British and Egyptian forces
against the dervish rebellion. It was
a strange sight to see this tall, slim,
blne-eyed Irishman armed only with
illimitable self-confidence and fearless
ness, arguing with, and sometimes
threatening, the powerful chiefs who,
for aught he knew, might have been
sworn allies of the tribe that had just
murdered Colonel Donald Stewart and
Consul Power not many miles further
up the Nile.
when persuasive reasoning failed,
he did not shrink from telling
these people what their punishment
would be when the White Emir and
his legions came upon them, meaning
Lord Wolseley with the British
battalions that were then toiling slowly
up the Cataract. Those brave words,
in which there was no doubt touch
of boastfulness pardonable in the cir
cumstances, frequently gave rise to
angry murmurs and sullen looks, but
they were met by the glance of eyes
that would not have quailed if looking
at grim death-eyes that in such
moments glow so curiously that the
light in them seems fixed as if sud-
denly frozen"
1t was Sir Herbert Kitchener who
went ahead of Sir Herbert Stewards
column with two native guides in the
first dash for the wells of Gakoni.
Near there notorious robber leader,
who had accompanied the Mahdists in
their merciless raids, was surprised
and chased by Nineteenth Hussar
scouts. He and his few followers
would probably have escaped if Kitch-
ener, who was well mounted, had not
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