The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1900-12-29
WAR CORRESPONDENTS
Famous Boer Colonel Writer Discuss
es His Contemporaries.

/
says;
The type OF war correspondent is un-
dergoing a certain change, consistent
both with changes in the conduct of war
operations and changes in journalism
| The near prototypes of our present war
correspondents differ as much from
those of today as Hannibal from Baden
! Powell. MacGahan, for instance, was
a great man, an explorer and a states
man. Donovan was a Veritable hero OF
romance, who finished q wonderful
career in the mystery of an unknown
death-swallOWed up in the eternal sll-
ence of the desert. Archibald Forbes
was a great rider, something of a swash-
1 buckler. not so .'bFainy'' the other
/ two. but with a good sense Of the broad
/ issues of things.
Nowadays the great journals of both
| hemisDberes prefer to send men who
have made regulations rather in the
world of letters than in the moving ac-
/ cidentS of flood and fell. War talk be-
! comes more sfgossipy'' more full of per-
sonal detail, of impressions of everything
that viii commend It TO the ordinary
reader of the newspaper, who sand
! witches the enjoyment OF a battle at MS
| breakfast between the account OF a
society play and the successes OF the
latest American jockey in England
/ often wonder whether, with the i'm
| mense enterprise of our newspapers and
/ the enormous mass of literature pro-
/ vided in consequence, the boosted en-
1 lightenment of the public on great top
I always has such a decided bias accord
\ ing to the set of opinion, and the very
mass of reading necessary to form a
| Judgment is so vast that the pubic eye
| becomes ssblasted with excess of light.
This is especially the case in such
matter of hot discussion as the Boer
war, where all the world IS partisan,
and where preiudices and sympathles
outweigh by ninety-nine to one, good
judgment and equity Julian Ralph
says all is black. Richard Harding
/ - Ar1d
make their statements so eloquently and
with such an array of arguments, that
the average citizen generally optS Tor
one the other and follows MIN pllnoiy.
However, to come to the concrete. Mr.
Winston Churchill is especially interest
ing to me, both for his achievements
and his promise. He is not stereotyped
character. he is full OF life; ne mas
points: he gives play; he is abundant
in human nature; he IS a. type OF the
winning young man OF today ana 70
the amateur of types. or student OF
character, 1t is not essential tnal Inc
type should conform to a rigid modei,
nor that the character should be capaoie
of expression in a lapidary inscription
Churchill distinguished himself early IN
the war by being captured; and, later
still more by escaping He mad the couA
age and the wisdom TO tell his country
men that one Boer was equivalent IN
fighting power to i've EngIiShmen anu
he also said in the early stage OF the
campaign. There has been a great uesaA
too much surrender1ng IN TINS war
There was a period when he seemed
likely to become even a Roer sympa-
thfzer but after his escape from Fle-
toria one of his first messages was 10 th-
effect that the war should be conducted
inexorably and uncompromisingly Since
his return to London he has taken up
the cudgels on behalf of the Tenth Hus-
sars and the First and Tenth Lie
Guards against Lord Rosslyn, who as
sured the public, on the authority OF Ger
tain unnamed English officers, that these
crack regiments had taken TO flight ana
haG deserted their guns at Sauna POST
7 was told bv one of the Beers who
was present at Sanna's Post. and VINO
certainly had no prejudice against the
Household cavalry as distinguished from
any other, that what happened was TINS
1T was properly Lemmer's night, ne
said. but De Wet got there BEFORE hlln
He let the English pass through oiy
slut with a good part of their men ard
guns his own men being kept in con-
cealment in the SLUT. Then suddenly he
attacked and the English were seized
with panic, and it was only running
fight after that. We killed and captur-
ed over a thousand and only
lost two men" give the statement
for what it is worth; but would point
out that even brave men unused TO tne
country and unsxilled in the art or war
as it should be practiced, might easily
fall victims to a panic under such CIR
cumstances. That was seen at Mayors
fontein, where one of the bravest regi-
nents in the world ran like frightened
shaep before the sudden and murderous
fire of Cronje's men hidden in their
trenches.
A most interesting episode of the war.
and one which holds me in perpetual adj
mira ton, is Churchil1's escape from Pre-
tOria- In the first brief account which
Rad, it appeared that he left the state
school prison at night, climbed wall
when the sentry's back was momentarily
turned, walked through the streets with
out disguise. got through all the patrols
jumped on the 1910 goods train moving
at full speed without attracting attcn-
ton, hid under coal sacks, jumped from
the train before dawn, remained shelter |
ed in a wood all day with only a Vut-
tura for a cOmpanionswalked on at dusk. |
following the line, but with grand de- |
tours at the bridges and culverts, lived
principally on chocolate for five days.
lying up in daylight and walking by
night, and on the sixth day managed to |
board d train beyond Middleburg, hid
under coal sacks again, and, IN spite or
the train. being searched, arrived safe |
and sound at Koomatipoort after sixty |
hours of misery.
It is true that the Boer authorities
told me that they had let Churchill 90, |
as they subsequently let George Lynch /
go, and they even designated the detec-
tive who had arranged to have the door |
open for his escape; but then South At |
rica is a land of lies.
Kipling is too great a man to be dealt |
with in section Of a small article. /
genius-as revealed. for instance, in the /
jungle BoOk'-sufferS rude shock |
when peruse his latter day heroic poems.
THE. Absent Minded Beggar'' is little bet /
ter than doggerel and its extraordinary /
popularity in England should again warn /
US Of the fmpossibility of obtaining a cool |
judgment on any aspect of this war from /
sources so stepped in prejudice. Kipling
seems to have developed a tone of remark
able truculsnce in South Africa, and he
advocates the most terrible measures; but
I cannot think that this is serious Kip
ling is good hearted and sensitive: there is
even certain tone Of decadenee in his
fibre; and It is in vain that he whips him
self up to fury to persuade us that he is
a sort of second Weyler. or man of blood
and iron These ferocities are merely /
verbal and artistic The real ruffian sell
dom boasts Of his brutality. Even sol
der like Kitchener IS not avid of the fame /
Z