The Topeka state journal., 1900-02-24
Man OF The HOUR
''Little BObs'' is the Popular
Idol in London.
Has Relieved the Capital as Well
as Kimberley.
CAN BREATHE AGAIN.
Tension OF Public Feeling Has
Been Greatly Relaxed.
The Sirdar Lost Sight of in the
JubilatiOn.

JuDIlatlOn.
copyrighted. 1900, by Associated Press.)
London, Feb. 24.-The fierce fighting
that has made the week memorable in
the history of Great Britain, in spite
of the heavy casualties that accompan-
led it acted as an exhiIarating 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
1t in pleasing contrast to the weeks of
waiting and suspense that scarcely
ever passed without largely adding to
the death roll and never seemed to
bring Great Britain's forces to the goal.
Hand in hand with the relief of Kim
berley and the daily expected relief of
Ladysmith has come the relief of Lon
don. With the fate of those beleaguered
places no longer in doubt and the ma
tional honor free once more to take it's
chances on fair fighting field, London
has evolved itself from the depressing
gloom that Tor 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 have
seemed to bring out gayer gowns
There is to be something of season
after all, and Little Bobs'' is the hero
Of the hour. He would be granted every
honor in the peoples power to give if
only public opinion and gratitude be-
came operative. Above every other
man and every other circumstance he
stands out from those grim happenings
in South Africa clothed in the halo of
victory. Loudly he is hailed as giving
the living lie to those who said that
the pluck and brains that made Great
Britain victorious in the Crimea, in
India and in Afghanistan had passed
away from her. The circumstance of
his hurried departure when he subor-
dinated personal sorrow to the needs
of country, his deeds on the battlefelds
of old, his tremendous personal mag
netism and his superior 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 Khandar 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 grea tness /
that he has lost much of his popularity,
and while he possesses the national con-
fidence to almost an unequalled extent
it is patent that the nation as a whole
would rather that the opportunities fell
to ''Bobs'' than to his iron-wilIed chief
of staff.
A curious instance of the utter lack
war Office occurred this week Imme-
diateIy after the queens proclamation
appealing to the patriotism of her old
soldiers and asking them to re-enlistt
under the governments new plan to
strengthen the army was published
there flocked to headquarters large
numbers of men anxious to answer the
queens request. They were all turned
away because the war Office has not
yet issued any detailed instructions re-
nor formulated any specific plan for
putting into action the general propos-
ais adopted by parliament The criti-
cism current is that either the queen s |
letter was premature or the war office
was dilatory. The latter is generally ac
cepted as correct, and not without
bitter comment.
NOTED MAN GONE
The death of Joseph Cowen, the 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 person
ality teemed with vivid contrasts. He
was a millionaire yet dressed in slouchy
clothes. and as brilliant an orator as
ever held the house of commons breath
less attention, yet of small stature and
awkward gait, and he spoke with
Northumbrian burr. A supporter of
imperial expansion, yet Mr.. Cowen was
the friend of every consDirator from
Moscow to Madrid, and financed revo-
lutions from his own pocket as readily
as other millionaires buy steam yachts.
At the risk of his life and through bat
talions of spies, he carried secret in
structions to agents in Italy from that
arch conspirator Mazzini. 1t was at
Mr. Governs house that Orsini who
threw q bomb at the carriage of Ma
poleon III, and was guillotined for so
doing, spent weeks prior to the perpe-
tration of the deed. With such an in
tensely democratic tendency Mr.. Cowen
was naturally a home ruler, yet none
was more potent than the sentenced
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
helots."
Many years ago he retired from ac-
tive politics, owing to his independent
ideas, devoting his attention to his
paper, the Newcastle Chronicle, which
welded almost as much political in
fiuence 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 making
most profitable in the country. In
Northumberland they say Mr. Cowen
had Gypsy blood, and they thus ac-
count for all that was erratici in his
career.
Preparations For Keeley Funeral
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