New-York tribune., 1899-01-08

It is from such man as this that one nat.
urally expects a campaign like that which Mr.
Stevens describes. The secret Of success was 10
move swiftly, keepin,; the line Of communlca-
tion intact. AS our aIthor puts It. Kitchener
turned a raid into an irresistible, certain con-
quest by superseding camels with the railway.
The narrative Of the campaign Is filed out
with personalities and with good-humored ac-
counts OF a correspondents tribulatiors. but ie
these are ignored seem 10 be following the
swift movement OF play The army passes
almost automatically from one stage to
other and the last chapter OF the record winds
up with the flourish that one looks for on the
stage or in a novel. For all its truth there u
something very like the picturesque effect Of
fiction in the tribute to the foe which Mr.. Steev-
ems pays at the conclusion Of his account Of the
battle of Omdurman:
And the Dervishes? The honor Of the fight
must still go with the men who died. Our men
were perfect. but the Dervishes were superb
beyond perfection. 1t was their largest. best
and bravest army that ever fought against
for Mahdism. and 1t died worthily Of the huge
empire that Mahdism won and kept so long
Their rifemen, mangled by every Kind OF death
and torment that man can devise. clung round
the black flag and the green, emptying their
DOOR rotten. homemade cartridges dauntiess-
y Their spcarmen charged death at every
minute hopeessly. Their horsemen led each
attack riding into the bullets till nothing was
left but three horses trotting up to our line,
heads down, saying For goodness sake, let u
in out of thisr' Not one rush. or two. or ten
but rush on rush, company on company never
stopping, though all their view that was not un-
shaken enemy was the bodies Of the men who
had rushed before them. A dusky line got up
and stormed forward 1t bent. broke up fell
apart and disappeared. Before the smoke had
cleared another line was bending and stormlng
forward in the same track.
1t was over The avenging squadrons or the
Egyptian cavalry swept over the neld The
Khafa and the Sheik- had gaIloped
back to Omdurman. Ali Wad Helu was borne
away on an angareb with bullet through his
thigh bone. Yakub lay dead under his broth
ers banner. From the green army there now
come only death-enamOured desperadoes, stroll
ling one by one toward the rifles pausing to
shake a spear, turning aside to recognize
corpse. then, caught by a sudden jet OF fury,
bounding forward. checking, sinking Imply to
the ground. Now under the black flag in a ring
of bodies stood only three men, facing the three
thousand Of the Third Brigade. They folded
their arms about the staff and gazed steadily
forward. Two fell. The last Dervish stood up
and filled his chest he shouted the name or htSN
God and hurled his spear. Then he stood quits'
still, waiting. 1t took him full; he quivereds
gave at the knees and topped with his head
on his arms and his face toward the legions
of his conquerors.
fashion. because from first to last, in both his
books, he Is in such glow over the patriotism
and capabilities Of his countrymen that one
hardly thinks Of asking him to take amabls
views Of the enemy. Every Englishman in
Egypt, IL we are to believe this fervd journal
ist, is simply and solely empire builder. rs
the cynically minded it might appear that an
occasional Englishman like an occasional