The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-09-24
THE SEED OF EMPIRE.
Gave Their Lives TO Securing Great
BritaIn's Indian Possessions.

This is a time when the building up Of
great American empire beyond the seas is
the topic of chief importance. An illus
tration of the cost and reward to a family
and lis individual members In the con-
struction of that vast empire under the
benign sway of Queen Victoria is afford
ed by the heirlooms in the possession of
an ex-British officer at present residing
in New York.
Seventy-hve years ago, while a major
IT. the British army himself a son of an
officer, was leading his regiment TO his
death on the fields of Waterloo, his young
son was receiving an education of fire
on the banks of the Sutley river in North
western India.
Thereafter for forty years of his life.
this Indian officer Michael White, served
England, 10 which country during that
long period he did not once return-in
those arduouS campaigns which reduced
Afghahistau to the position of a Vassal
state and brought the warlke Sikhs and
Marathas under the domination of the
British crown Out of a dozen memoir
able Indian battles. he was present at the
forcing Of the Khyber pass IN 1892; at
Moodkee. where he led the famous charge
OF the Third Kings own Light Dragons,
immortaliZed by CroftS In the latter's
royal academy picture of 1893 wounded
at Ferozeshah, where the Sikhs, throwing
themselves on the ground upon the adj
vance of The cavalry, hamstrung the lat
ter's horses as they passed over. and then,
with their long crooked blades, quickly
dispatched the fallen troopers. He fought
later at Sobraon. where his charger was
killed by a round shot; and upon that fatal
field of Chillianwallah where the British
lost $500 officers and men, he beheld one
OF his own sons cut down before his eyes.
For these services to the state he was
appointed in turn, an aide-de-camp to
Queen Victoria, a lieutenant general in
the army, colonel of the Seventh Regiment
Of Dragons and a knight commander OF
the Bath; returning home, at last a blind
old man. saddened by the loss of six sons,
whose lives as officers in the army, had
been given for the benefit OF their coun-
try-one killed at Chillianwallah, one dy-
ing Of wounds after Soojerat, two others
from the hardships of the Punjah cam
paign. and two from the effects of the
terrible privations endured in the trenches
before Sevastopol
And In return for the services OF these
four generations of soldiers, apart from
the ordinary pay Of officers which, In
the lower grades. Is so insufficient that
a private income Is an absolute necessity
to keep up the position. they received no
concessions, nor grants of land in the ter
ritores In which they had fought and
helped to conquer. only the crosses and
medals shown in the illustration and pos
slbly the inward satisfaction derived from
the knowledge Of having done their utmost
duty
This Is but one instance of the way in
which thousands of British lives have
been willingly given for the same great
purpose--the seed of empire" as Mr.
Kpling calls them. seed. too, Of the best
quality the nation could produce, given
without @ thought of the return 10 the
family and the Individual.
So as this seed has been sown on many
battlefield, In many a feYer-stricken
swamp and Jungle TO build up the British