The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1900-03-09
ACTED LIKE A tonic,
Fierce Fighting in South Africa
Has an Exhilarating Effect.
ENGLAND CHEERFUL.
Wiling to Take Punishm mi When
Tnere is Som thing to
Show for 1t.

London, Feb. 24.-The fierce fighting
that has made the week memorable in
the history of Great Britain has, in spite
of heavy casualties that accompanied it,
acted as an eXhilarating tonic upon the
nation. 1t is almost with cheerfulness
that the people of Great Britain are tax
ing their punishment. for now there is
something to show for it, in pleasing
contrast to the weeks of waiting and srs-
pense that scarcely ever passed without
largely adding to the death roll and never
seemed to bring Great Britains forces
nearer to the goal. Hand in hand with
the relief of Kimberley and the daily ex-
pected relief of LadySmith has come the
relief of London. With the fate of those
beleaguered places off their minds. with
the national honor free once more to take
don has evolved itself from the deprcss-
ing gloom that for months overhung it.
There is now talk of balls, dinners and
entertaining, there are brighter looks in
the faces of the crowds that throng the
streets and even the women seem to
have brought out gayer gowns. There is
and Little Bobs'' is the hero Of the thu,
hour even at this stage of the war, which
can scarcely be considered much more
than initial from the British point of
view. He would be granted every honor
IN the peoples power to give if only pub
nc opinion and gratitude became opera
tive.
Praise for "Bobs."
Above every man and every other cir
cumstance he stands out from those grim
happenings in South Africa clothed in
the halo of victory. Loudly he is hailed
hn Evvi,, 70
said that the pluck and brains that made
Great Britain victorious in the Crimea,
i'll India and Afghanistan had passed
away from her. The circumstances of
his hurried departure when he subordi-
mated the greatest personal sorrow to the
needs of the country, his feats Oh the bat
tlefield of old. his tremendous personal
magnetism and his surprising kindness
and simplicity are all brought into rapid
review by means OF conversation or the
newspapers before the average English
man until it is small wonder that the
hero Of Kandahar has reached that pin
nacle where his country would deny him
nothing. Gen. Kitchener's automatic
way Of doing things and his hardness of
heart have been so much paraded before
the public since he first achieved great
ness that he has lost much Of his popu-
larity, and, while he possesses the nation,
al confidence to an almost unequaled ex-
tent, it is patent that the nation as a
ties fell to "Bobs" than to his iron
will chief of staff.
Lack of System in War Office.
A curious instance of the utter lack of
system that prevails in the British war
Office occurred this week. Immediately
after the Queens proclamation appealing
to the patriotism of her old soldiers and
asking them to re-enlist under the gov
crnment's new plan to strengthen the
army, was published. there tlocked to
headquarters large numbers of men anx-
ious to answer the Queens request.
They were all turned away because the
instructions regarding the acceptance of
such offers nor formulated any specific
plan for putting into action the general
proposals adopted by Parliament The
criticism current is that either the
Queens letter was premature or the war
office was dilatory. The latter is gener.
ally accepted as correct, and not without
bitter comment.
Death Of an Extraordinary Man.
The death of Joseph Cowen, local mine
owner, member of Parliament and pro-
prietor of the Newcastle Chronicle, has
removed one of the most remarkable fig
ures in Elnglish life and one of the most
extraordinary men in Europe. His whole
life and personality teemed with vivid
contrasts. He was a millionaire, yet
dressed in slOuchy clothes, and as bril-
liant an orator as ever held the House
Of Commons in breathless attention, yet
he spoke with a Northumberland burr. A
supporter of Lord Beaconstield in his
schemes for imperial expansion, Mr..
Cowen was the friend Of every consipra-
tor from Moscow to Madrid, and financed
revolutions from his own pocket as readi-
ly as other millionaires buy steam yachts.
Some of Governs Exploits.
At the risk of his life and through bat
talions Of spies, he carried secret instruc-
tiOns to agents in Italy from that arch
conspirator Mazzini. 1t was at Mr..
Governs house that Orsini, who threw a
bomb at the carriage of Napoleon III.
and was guillotined for so doing, spent
weeks prior to the preparation Of the
deed. With such an acknowledgements
ic tendency, Mr.. Cowen was, naturally,
a home ruler, yet none was more potent
or more often quoted in arguments fur
nished in favor of the present war than
the sentences penned by Mr.. Cowen
shortly before his death, when he de-
clared that Great Britain was fighting
to prevent men Of British blood from
being treated as helots." Many years
ago he retired from active politics, owing
to his Independent ideas, devoting his at
tention to his paper, the Newcastle
Chronicle, which welded almost as much
political influence in the north country
as Mr.. Cowen did when men pointed to
him in the House of Commons as the
| next Liberal prime minister. He lived
as a recluse, yet directed his brick-mak.
ing business until it has become one OF
The most profitable in the country. In
Northumberland they say Mr.. Cowen
had gypsy blood and they thus account
ed for all that was cratic in his career
DIR. ]. j. Henna, native of Porto
Rico, now in Washington, says that