The age-herald., 1898-10-29
KITCHENER,
 SIRDAR OF EGYPT
From the chicago NeMs.


 eron Highlanders, formerly the Seventy ninth of the Line, when it's First battalion was on duty in Egypt He was a Scotch- man, and sentimental. There was to be a battle on the morrow with those black sons of satan, the dervishes. So, in the darkness of the Egyptian night he whis- pered to his friend:
 "Ah, Tam, how many thousands there are at hame across the sea thinking O us the nicht!"
 "Richt. Sandy said his comrade, who was also Scotchman, but not sentimental, "an' how mony millions there are who dinna gi'e a ha'penny."
 Whatever the number before the fall of Omdurman there is no doubt about the millions that have been thinking of Sandy and his beloved commander-in-chief since Sir Horatio Herbert Kitchener, wearing the cross of a Knight of St. Michael and St. George, which will soon be a grand cross of this or another order, the sirdar of Egypt, and gallant officer and accom- plished gentleman is the foremost figure who rose to the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and bore the name his eldest son is mak- ing more and more illustrious.
 Sir Herbert was educated in the Royal Military Academy at Woolwich, the Eng fish West Point, and entered the Royal Engineers upon his coming of age. From 1874 until 1878 he was engaged upon that survey of the Holy Land which has been of such benefit to English biblical scholar ship. His success here led to his being employed upon similar mission in Cyprus for another four years. At the expiration of this time he embarked more definitely upon the career which has led him to his present eminence
 Sir Evelyn Wood was then performing the difficult feat of licking the Egyptian army into shape The task of raising these African troops to the efficiency re- quired by British officers was one of the most arduous ever entered upon. Lieuten- ant Kitchener was sent from his work in Cyprus to assist, his knowledge of Arabic making him valuable. Sir Evelyn looked at his long legs and determined to mako him trooper. So a major in the cavalry he became-and this is a long step from being a subaltern in the sappers.
 What Major Kitchener was distinguished for then he has been even more -listin- guished for later-the practice, sedulously cultivated, of offering his services for every difficult and half-impossible plan which was proposed. The quality which has won the American naval constructor Hobson his fine reputation Is the same as that which has set this Englisman at the head of the victorious Egyptians. His first work was one in which not more than four or five men of European blood have ever been successful, the impersonation of an oriental. Those who recall Rudyard Kiplng's character of Strickland in "The Bronckhurst Divorce Case" and one or two more of the "Plan Tales" know that this is Kipling's opinion also. Intelligence of the damage done the native soldiers by Arabi Pasha and his emisaries was needed, and Kitchener dressed himself in the cos- tune of an Arab and lived the life of an Arab until he knew everything that could be known. This, and one or two smaller matters made him the adjutant and right hand man of the commander-in-chief, Until 1884 Kitchener served in the cavalry, finding it necessary at first to keep a re- volver ready to hand for fear some of his own men might prove treacherous. At the end of that time, there was not man of them all who would not go cheerfully through fire and water for him. He fought through the Suakim campaign up into the Soudan from 1883 to 1885, and in 1886 became the governor of Suakim. This arduous post he filled with distinction for two years, becoming adjutant-general at the end of that time It was the inevitable step that made him sirdar. This term, by the way, is not Egyptian at all, but is the term applied in India to the chief of any thing in particular from sedan chair car- riers to house servants It means chief, m md ic tn Ina Tarn na6 yyIf accent on the last syllable
 Bonnet Burleigh, an English correspond ent who had the privilege of knowing Sir Herbert nearly fifteen years ago, and has been serving beside him in Egypt, draws a vivid picture of him, thus
 Years have rolled by since; and, al- though he is still relatively young man, the hot desert sun and African campaign ing have done for him what they have wrought upon many who are his juniors they have streaked his hair with gray But today, then, his tall sinewy form is unbent; he is as active as ever, observ- ant and of a somewhat silent disposition. In manner he is good-natured a listener rather than talker, but readily pronounce ing an opinion if it Is called for All his life he has been par excellence 'volun- teer' soldier-younteering again and again for one difficult and dangerous duty after another"
 His knowledge and early training as an engineer have been of the utmost service to himself, his soldiers and his country. The averaging of Gordon was not the light matter some thought it, both in this country and in England. It was, above all, needful that the communications should be put beyond the possibility of successful assault by the wild sons of the desert. A railway was the ideal means of transport and hardly to be thought of, so great were the obstacles to be surmounted. The Nile rapids interyened to prevent the use of a continuous water route. He brought Dongola under his keel by that most remarkable feat of railroad building from Sarras to Kosheh, covering the dis tance. to the enemys confusion AnS 'sst- ing rout, in less than four months. Then making certain that this did not present feasible solution for the greater 1Su-Sey south, he discarded 1t entirely, as having served it's purpose in the matter of Don- gola, and ordered a nasty survey for a line straight into the desert. almost 250 miles, without a drop of water, all the way from the Wady Halfa to Abu Hamed 1,I of tlnA