The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1899-01-25
Lord Kitchener OF KhartOum.

time England has taken on the task OF
civilizing the Soudan. AS in the
former instances (where the act was
merely tentative) the right man has |
been put upon the task to work it out. |
This time no foolish setimentaity will |
cause the government to stay his hand. |
And the man who has been given the |
contract with the power and confidence |
OF nation behind is Herbert, Lord |
Kitchener.
To realize just what Kitchener has
done you must go backward to 1888 and
before Sir Samuel Baker, the famous
Nile explorer and hunter, b d been
made Governor General. His brother,
Col. Valentine Baker, the man who al
lowed his brilliant career in England
to be ruined because he would not tell
what he might have told about fool of
girl, commanded the cavalry, what
here was of it. But Ell Teb, Wad FL
| Nejumi, the great Emir of the Soudan,
a born general, fought Bakers weak
legions aud massacred them. Al Obeid
and Shekau, 4th November, 1888, e.
! Nejumi fnished what had been left
over, defeated Hicks Pasha and killed
him, captured KhartoUm and killed
Gordon. 81 have made clean job II
it, wrote the baughty Emir, Lord of
the Soudan by force of his own good
right aud sword, to Osman Digna au-
uounciug the fall of Gen. Gordon's last
stronghold, Khsrtoum. Tue En-
glishman fought bravtly, but we were
too strong for him. / send you with
this his head"
For three years thereafter Egypt
was raided by the Mahdi's people at
their pleasure until Wsd Elm ejumi
was kile at Toski. In 1882, after try
iug many experiment 8, Mr.. Gadstone's
people stumbled upon the right at last.
They sent out an Irish captain of r ~
al Engineers to look the country over
and report in what manner it could be
best defended. The officers name was
Herbert Kitchener. Within the year
he had eighteen battalions of drilled
men, six of them being negroes from
the Soudan. A year before that they
were greasy, dirty Dervishes, brave
strong, lazy. Now they were clean,
with well-ftting Khsrkee uniforms, re.
specting their officers and fine shots.
How would they stand up against their
former tribesmen? The Sirdar, Hitch.
ener, the Egyptian word meaning gen
eral-in. chief, wanted to know about
this, 80 one lovely morning two days
before the New Year of 1896, the Sir
dar, Kitchener, risked his first really
great fight. He had eighteen battaliont
in line, about half Soudan negroes anC
Egyptian tellahs, the rest British cav
airy and infantry, with two batteries o.
, Maxim twelve-pounders (the mos
deadly breech loading field gun in the
world). The native battaliOns were
|, six companies, each differed, that il
i field officers and captains, by English
g men. The entire strength of the bat
q talon, rank and file, was 757 men
!; The first sergeants were white British
,; soldiers or Turks, but white men. Tht
.. rest of the outfit was the newly.var
y nished, year.ago savage from the Sou
!. dan, Kitchener's three brigades were
. commanded by skilful British colonies
. He must have felt very nervous as hs
D formed up his command, on smooth
level ground, mile from the rive!
! Nile, and there waited the Dervish at
tack. It was not long waiting. Nah
!, mud remembered how he had cleaned
up Baker and annihilated poor Gen
? Hicks. He wanted to do as much TO
this new man who did not seem t.
know who he was running up against.
81 am Lord of the Soudan, there i
Is none like me-" said the Khalifa, as h.
gave the order to advance. 1--WE will
- destroy these dogs of infdels as we di,
the others, from off the face of tn
earth" On they came. $4,000 strong
against Kitchener's 10, 900 untried men
The black battalions were brigade,
with the British, who were tried regi
y ments, the Camerons and Seafortl
Highlanders. On came the Dervishe
with their usual dash. The British
:. formed in line of battle, with the Max
inns in the intervals, and all the flank
. waited till their enemy reached the on
o. thousaud-yard distance. "Begin fiji
ing" rasped out the Colonel in Arabic
), The men were armed with the Martini
which shoots .480 grain bullet O
r. forty-five caliber with eighty-Ave grain
Il of powder. The battalions had had
; lot of target practice at 1000 yards
As the words of fire command wer
uttered, the battalions fred by CON
:. panies. Such hail of bullets Mahme
ID had never seen, and it was supplement,
to ed by fire of shrapnel-the best man
II. killing field artillery projectile in tn
Mt world-that tore the Dervish lines int
shreds. "Surely these can't be tn
J. nfidels 1 have twice beaten" said o.
81 man to Mahmud. "We will give ther
4 the edge of our sword" But the Del
3 e wish, utterly fearless Of death, coul
at never get nearer than 900 yards to tn
., British lines. That awful S.o consum
ed him, and after losing one-half hi
force, Osman Digna ordered the re
IS treat. "These are not men, they ar
81 devils" he said as Kitchener, with hi
10 Egyptians triumphant, went into cam
n and gathered his wounded
Kitchener was then about thirty-tw
~ years old. His face was that of mai
who neither asks for sympathy no
4. wants it; one who will win his way t
the front, no matter what was in hi
way. He has steady, blue-gray pas
sionless eyes, and heavy moustach
covers mouth that shuts close an
l. n.