The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-09-19
SIRDAR HERO OF SUDAN
FROM CAIRO TO KHARTUM WITH
GALLANT GEN. KITCHENER.
Commander of the AngIo-Egyptian
Forces Has Set the World to Talk
ing OF His Achievement.
New York Herald.


such as the gallant lads who lay in the
trenches before Santiago scarce dreamed of.
Our war is over; but even at this moment.
in the far off Sudan, a handful of brave
Britons are battling in a hand-to-hand en-
counter with an enemy far more fierce. far
more desperate in their fanatacism than the
combined armies of Spain The slogan of
our warriors in Cuba was Remember the
Maine" In the Sudan the cry is 'Remem-
Der Gordon" 1t is long story, this tale
of the Sudan, this tale of desert waste
whose parched lips are continually quenched
with human blood only to dry again in
feverish greed for more. 1t is a story full
of horror, full of mysticism and full of such
herolsm as the civilized world seldom wots
of. 1t is a story which blends the savagery
OF Mohammedanism with the sublimity OF
British daring, the sort of daring that
counts duty paramount to all else in the
world, the sort of daring that makes heroes
Of men and makes history
1t is long story, and one which. in the
understanding of it, must necessarily lose
much in the course of it's condensation. To
the Englishman who knows all about it it
may be an old story-that is, all but the
most recent developments. But to the aver
age American readers of newspapers, in
whose columns the foreign news must of
necessity be subjected to that process
known technically boiling down." the
complete story in miniature of the British
invasion of the Sudan, eliminating just
now in noble victory, must come as a
contrast to our own recently ended war,
with comparisons which must suggest them
selves.
And Kitchener! We have been so full of
Dewey, and Schley, and Sampson not to
mention Hobson and our own lionized
Roosevelt that we really haven't paid
much attention to Kitchener Some may
even ask Who is Kitchener" And it is
with no idea of allowing our own war vet
Grams TO suffer by comparison that I an
hounce Kitchener as the greatest general
OF the present. This is not treason He
mas Surmounted obstacles in the burning
sands of the Sudan such as might drive a
SEatter to distraction The swamps Of Cuba
INFESTED Nile. Our troops have died by the
scores MS have died by the hundreds. And
tney We're natives, most of them
lie has built railroads across the desert,
Tor he, like the lamented Gordon, is an en-
glneer. 1t is no exaggeration to say that
ne builds railroads literally while you
wait. And 1t is interesting to note that
lhere IS an American locomotive running
ever there. He has mounted his guns on
Gamels, and they constitute his artillery.
He has taken his improvised gunboats up
seemingly insurmountable rapids Thou
sands of black soldiers have literally hauled
them through the torrents with stout ropes
and chains No such feat of warfare
has ever before been accomplished.
He has at his back a mongrel force of
hghtlng men. The officers are young Brit
ems who have won their spurs in the Egyp-
tan army. Some of the men are Anglo
Egyptian soldiers, some are Arabs, and
some are black Sudanese, eager to fight
and utterly fearless under fire, battling
against their own people because they have
been brought to realize that in the end
there is but one result.
TO AVENGE GORDON.
Up the Nile. by land and by water, this
intrepid commander has gone with his
forces, conquering obstacles that seemed in
surmountable, fighting his way inch by inch
against bloodthirsty Dervishes and more
deadly fevers, gasping for breath and reek-
ing with sweat, with the thermometer at
1870 degrees in the shade. Kitchener is this
mans name, this man who is now before
Khartum, and who has ever before him.
as an incentive to reclaim the honor of his
government, the pitifully tragic death of
Chlnese Gordon. 1t is only right, even in
this country, which knows no rank, save
that designated by, shoulder straps, to give
him his full title-Sir Horatio Herbert
Kitchener, X. G. M. G., sirdar of the Egyp-
tian army, with the local rank of major gen
eral Sirdar is equivalent to comma nder-in-
chief, and he is the idol of the English peo-
pie. He has accomplished more than you
probably know, unless you are Briton, and
then, of course, you know all about it, You
would be poor Briton if you didn't
And he is a young man, is Kitchener
young as men go who achieve fame. He is
little past fOrty-SeVen now, but he has
lived every day of his life. And to him has
been intrusted the mission of bringing the
s sudan 70 realization OF British rule But
there is another incentive in this awful cam
paign, an incentive which involves the
avenging of the hero Gordon, and the wiping
out of a national stain of dishonor The
a M
blood" Black in ignorance, black in crime,
black in the hue of it's people, the Eastern
Sudan has for years defied invasion. The
choicest blood in Europe has been poured
upon its soil, millions of the treasured
wealth of the civilized world have been ex-
pended upon 1t, and it has licked both up
without lsaving a trace, as the arid sands
of the Sahara desert would absorb goblet
of water
Under nominal dependence to Egypt. its
leaders spit upon the name of the Khedive.
Menaced constantly by the arms of Eng
land, Turkey, Belgium and France, ii has
as constantly beaten back it's foes ard to-
day it is virtually as Independent as it was
before the first white man set foot within
it's borders. No other country has sue
cessfully resisted the march of civilization.
But 1t must yield sooner or later. That is
inevitable. and the hopes of civilization are
ccntered in Kitchener and his mongreI
army of blacks and whites, fighting togeth-
er, side by side, as though born of the same
race. Tommy Atkins has come to have
high regard for "Fuzzy-W dzzy," as Rud-
yard kiplipg has set forth in one of his in
imitable poems
The Sudan is vague region, according to
maps and surveys. 1t begins somewhere
an indetermnate distance in the middle of
the continent-and extends eastward to
AbySSinia. It's northern boundary is the
Libyan desert. Its southern line is almost
as indeterminate as its western 1t is vast
in area, resources and population. It's peo-
PIE. black and Arab. are for the most part
MohammedanS, though in its depths all
sorts of religions are practiced and fol-
lowed.
There are many tribes in its boundaries
ternecine quarrels. Before the advent Of
the white man each tribe maintained a
quasi independence. Now all are united
or at least those in the eastern part by a
common cause.
1t has been said that the Sudan was un-
country occupies peculiar position in the
world. She is nominally a dependency of
Turkey. AS q matter of fact. she is con-
trolled by England, though all the nations
land holds the trump card in Egypt, how
ever, it is but natural that the little island
should play the most conspicuous European
part in the drama of the Sudan.
HOW IT ALL STARTED.
The main trouble arose over the Khe-
dives. who were, to an extent free agents.
Turkish and Circassian merchants were
the pioneers among the tradesmen of the
Sudan. And it was through their atrocities
that the trouble began finally. They
cheated lied robbed and committed other
aggressions until the tribes rose against
them and drove them into Egypt proper
1t was at this time that Egypt called upon
England for aid. And England sent in re-
Spouse a soldier whose memory the whole