The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1898-09-06
The Battle of Omdurman.

The murderous and blighting power
of the Dervishes has been dissipated
by the great victory of the British at
Omdurman. The Khalifa and his fan
atical followers have been driven from
this last stronghold in the Soudan.
Khartoum is once again in the occupa-
tion of an Anglo Egyptian force, and
the vast and fertile regions which it
commands in Central Africa will be
free from the curse of Mahdism. Khar-
toum has been in the hands of the
Mahdis followers since 1884. when the
heroic General Gordon was treacher-
ously slain. After the failure of
that expedition and death of Cor
don, the English government under the
leadership of Mr.. Gladstone decided to
withdraw from the Soudan altogether,
and confine the British administration
to Egypt proper. Mr. Gladstone's mo-
tives cannot be called in question; but
his policy involved the natives of Low
er Egypt and the Soudan in moral
death and material ruin. The Mahdi
became@ the temporal and spiritual
leader of the tribes on the lower
reaches of the Nile; he commanded
the Caravan routes of the Sahara, and
drew his supplies of fighting Dervishes,
slaves and material resources at the
point of the sword, bringing death,
ruin and desolation wherever he went
and wherever his influence extended.
The power of the religious fanatic who
raised the standard of revolt in 1882
in the Soudan, and from whose ex-
ample and teaching all subsequent
troubles have arisen in equatorial
Africa, has been retained by two or
more of his generals, the last to have
assumed the leadership of the Der
wishes being the Khalifa whom Cen
eral Sir Herbert Kitchener has just
defeated.
There have been vague conjectures
over the career and identity of the
Khalfa. Nothing certain, however,
has been ascertained about him. He
was known to be cruel, crafty, a volup-
tuous sybarite even among the Mahdis,
who were not particularly noted for
their abstemiousness or confluence. OF
course he ruled by the sword and that
alone. The most fertile regions on the
banks of the Nile were periodically
raided by his chiefs in search of
slaves. They were not content with
their human captures. They burned
and devasted every village or hut they
came across. Smoking hamlets and
vultures marked their path. No one
dared sow rice or corn because they
became an index to human life and led
to subsequent slave raids. The natives
of the Soudan, as only an Arab can
live on their little fiocks of goats and
lean cattle, pasturing them wherever
they can find days respite from their
pursuers. This has been practically
the history of the Soudan during the
last fifteen years-rapine irregularly
punctuated by massacre.
Mr.. Gladstone made a fatal mistake
when he ordered the evacuation of the
Soudan. There were of course many
severe reverses Of the Egyptian troops
but under the circumstances thi.
should have fortified him in the deter.
fllndtlOH 10 SuDuue the anarchy ina
was overtaking the country under thu
leadership of the Mahdi. But Mr.
Gladstone was as obstinate as a mule
when he became convinced that a GER
tain line of policy, was antagonistic t.
his preconceivbd lnotions. notions whicl
sometimes had no bearing on the sub
ject with which he had to deal. Thi
was especially the case when the con
tinuance of war or the possibility o
being drawn into one was involved
He was warned over and over again
that the Mahdi and his followers woulc
not be satisfied with their domination
of the Soudan, and that they woul,
probably attack Upper Egypt. AS
matter of fact the Dervishes did no
attack Upper Egypt. nor is 1t probabl
that under the prescience of tn
Khalifa they would have done so. Blu
the Egyptian government desired t