Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1900-03-01
"B0BS" Is Zero OF THE HOUR
This Week Has Been a Memoir
able One In England.
IN SPITE OF HEAVY CASUALTIES
The Fierce Fighting Has Acted
as Tonic.
With the Fate OF Kimberley and Ladysmith
on Its Mind, London Has Evolved ITSELF
From the Depressing Gloom That for Sew
ersl Months Had Been OyerhanginE 1t.

Copyrighted, 1900, by The Associated Press.
London, Eng, Feb. "a. The fierce
fighting that has made this week
memorable in the history of Great
Britain has, in spite Of the heavy
casualties that accompanied it, acted
MS an exhilarating tonic upon the
nation. 1t is almost with cheerfulness
that the people Of Great Britain are
taking their punishment, for now there
is something to show for it ID pleasing
contrast to the weeks of waiting and
suspense that scarcely ever passed with
out largely adding to the death roll,
and never seemed to bring Great
Britain's forces nearer to the goal.
Hand in hand with the relief of Kim
berley and the daily expected relief of
Ladysmith has come the relief Of
London. With the fate Of those be-
leaguered places off its mind, with the
national honor free once more to take
its chances on fair fighting field,
London has evolved itself from the de-
pressing gloom that for months over
hung it. There is now talk of balls,
dinners and entertainments; there are
brighter looks en- the faces of the
crowds that throng the streets, and
even the women seem to have brought
out gayer gowns. There is to be some
thing of season after all, and Little
Bobs'' is the hero of 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 oe granted every honor in the
peoples power to give, if only public
opinion and gratitude became operative.
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 greatness
that he has lost much of his popularity.
and, while he possesses the national
confidence to an almost unequalled
extent, it is patent that the nation, as
IA whole, would rather that the oppor-
tunities fell to "Bobs'' than to his
iron willed chief of staff.
The death Of Joseph Cowen, a coal
mine owner, member of Parliament and
proprietor OF the Newcastle Chronicle,
has removed one of the most remark
able figures in English life, and one Of
the most extraordinary men in Europe.
His whole life and personality teemed
with vivid contrasts. He was a mil
lionaire, yet dressed in slouchy clothes,
and as brilliant an orator as ever held
the House Of Commons breathless at.
tention, yet of small stature and awls-
ward gait, and he spoke with North.
umbeiland burr. A supper ter of Lord
Beaconsfield in his widest schemes for
imperial expansion, yet Mr.. Cowen was
the friend of every eonspirator from
Moscow to Madrid, and financed revo-
buttons from his own pocket as readily
as other millionaires buy steam yachts.
At the risk Of his life. and through
battalions OF spies, he carried secret
instructions to agents in Italy from the
arch conspirator Maszini. 1t was at
Mr.. Governs house that Orsini, who
threw a bomb at the carriage of Ma
poleon Ill, and was guillotined for SO
doing, spent weeks prior to the perpe-
tratiop of the deed. With such an in
tensely democratic tendency, Mr.. Oowen
was naturally a Home Ruler, yet none
was more potent or more often quoted
in Arguments furnished in favor of the
present war than the sentences penned
by Mr.. Cowen shortly before his death,
when he declared that Great Britain
was fighting TO prevent men OF British
blood from being treated as Holots -
Many years ago, he retired from active
politics, owing to his independent ideas,
devoting his attention 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 recluse, yet
directed his brick-making business
until 1T had become one of the most
profitable in the country. In North
umberlaud, they say MIR. Coweu had
gypsy blood, and they thus account for
all that was erratic IN his career.