The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-09-09
MADE HIMSELF AN EXPERT.
How Spenser Wilkinson Rose from
 Obscurity to Eninence.

BroOklyn EaGle.
 Writing in The Brooklyn Eagle, Julian Ralph has this to say of Spencer Wiikin- son, the famous war expert:
 His may or may not be familiar name in America, but he is power Tn Eng. land and his career shows the force or the advice to jurnalists, which remem. Der that Chester Lord of The sun once contributed to, a Christmas number oI the Journalist In sentence 1t was this: Master a special subject; write for the press as specialist as an au- thority upon some one tning. SpemIidd. y,,id. dle age, was well educated and comIor: tably nurtured but in early mannooo was constrained to make his own way: I am net quite certain, but think ne studied for the law. At any rate ne came upon the press and in time became the dramatic critic of The Morning PosL the newspaper of the aristocracy; He is today saiaried and ranked as dramatic critic and pursues the work of such wlLn keen pleasure and marked aplnty: n time, through an interest n the SuogsGiII gSsiI and also because he saw that the held in England was wholly unoccupieo' .h ne began to study military suoJects-tne arTnaments of the nations, the army sysss tems of the great powers. the progress or military invention and methods, the ies- sons learned in the later wars or Europe. When he felt competent to begin 70 Write skirts of these subjects, he did so. and offered his articles to his editor-in-cmei: I do not do harm by revealing at tnis late day. the fact that these aIucaes s,ttor n,ee and no one encouraged MT. Winunson 70 continue in his chosen field; But notninK daunted him. He saw Engiand fac'ns an at any day to fight with one or more of them. He saw the absence or all srue military knowledge in the nation ana or stinct in the army itself. He saw that the hest military journal in England no
 more compared with the alert, proho!nno and complete military chroniciees t esS Uh Ranl<
 (N. J)Register compares with Ihe brooH At lyn Eagle. He knew that England must wale>up; that some one must wake ,Ils, nSr
 up: that she must create modern army; throw out the sporting gentleman anu
 put in the military profession. e..
 His articles grew longer ana more ire auent. his scope oroaosr' yn,. ms one could
 say that war was made for one man since Napoleon used to make wars TOT
 himself-one can now say tnat ,,,s, Ine so,s. SoeI
 at least it seems as if 1t were got up TOT
 Englands education in a school m whlch
 Mir. Wilkinson hlds the chiet pro,ess.sor- s.s'.I..
 expert" in an English speaking country
 before, but MT. Wilkinson, who staye1 at home and viewed the whole feld or
 the war and studied all the armies , on
 both sides and read all the official bul-
 ietins and newspaper correspondence' pe came a true expert" There Will never napers will not employ the most skilled men they can find to stay at home ana report the operations in the field with noea ntine there is no other such export
 as this one in either England or Amer; lea. He has twenty wars of study anc experience to the better Of any man tne
 scholarly and scholarly looking. slender, bearded man, with piercing eyes, but a gentle low voice and manner as moo1 [ attended not long ago some members of the Government were present, notably
 a high oficial connected with the the, sStar Var a tiTe I noticed that he kept his eyes on MT. Wilkinson. At last he said: T must go and talk to Wilkinson | am anxious to know what. he thinks about
 no" 'iineS JULIAN RALPH.