The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-03-30
you much when I called ON New Years


Later, thistledowns of conversation
between Colonel wogack and the Brit
ish attache, Captain de Boulay We're
waited across the board.
What is that heard in London
years ago?'' asked Wogack; some song
in the theaters, running like this:
HE might have been a Rooshan,
Or Dutchman or Prooshan,
Or else Italian.
But in spite of all temptations
To belong to other nations
He remains an Englishman."
"Oh, come now said Captain de Bou-
lay, that was a mere music hall alb
Surdity." .Of course" replied Wogack,
and the twain toasted each other and
the eternal amity of Russia and Great
Britain until the bottle was dry and
an undressing sleep came to both.
Are they facing each other today be-
hind shotted guns at Tientsin?
A month passed. We had crossed the
Gulf of Pechili to invade Shantung. At
sunrise the Japanese skirmishers had
been attacked as they pressed along the
Shantung littoral toward Wei-hai-Wei.
The advance brigade commanded by
Yamaguchi was hurried forward and
l and my comrade, Cowen of the Lon
don Times. had been caught in press
of cavalry and artillery which was
dashing up a quilted water-course to-
wards the sound of firing. That day
was long to be remembered. though
many of it's details are now lost to me
in sort of phantaSmagoria of flame
and uproar. One scene appears clearly
and that is Wogack and the Vicompte
Debrie, whom the ladies at the Grand
Hotel after the war called "Fromage
Debrie" calmly walking towards the
rear. 1t seemed a queer thing for mill
tary attaches to do, but somebody said
afterwards that the MarshaPs head
quarters had just got something to eat
and word had been sent to the foreign
ers. One could hardly blame them. 1t
was twenty-four hours before Cowen
and I got bite and how we did it
shows the straits to which all hands
were put.
Some Chinese entrenchments were
being assaulted and on ridge over
looking the scene sat Marshal Oyama,
Lieutenant General Sakuma and poor
old General Odera who was to die the
next morning. Cowen saw them eating
from basket and turned a wolfish eye
that way when the Generals threw
fragments down the slope.
II haven't the gall to go and ask them
for something" sid he, have your"
mo, but perhaps i can fix it," said l.
and, walking along the ridge to a point
opposite the Marshal 1 waited until he
saw me, then made a rush for one of
the discarded fragments, which proved
to be frozen yam, and hurried to
Cowen, holding it high like prize. We
munched the scrap ravenously. Pretty
soon a staff officer appeared and said:
His Excellency would be pleased to
know if you gentlemen are hungry. If
so he would like to present you with
all the food he has left There was
the basket of yams and we only took
half-astonished, meanwhile, as Warren
Hastings said about his thefts in India,
'at our own moderation
Three years passed. The beautiful
lounging room of the Palace Hotel at
San Francisco had few occupants, but
as I entered, on business bent a tall
gentleman arose and said: MY dear
friend, how are your" It was Wogack
in a stylish cutaway and. Derby hat.
II am going around the world" he ex-
planned. II am on furlough. Do you
know you used to excite my curiosity
about Honolulu, SO stopped off there"
How did you like the placer"
We'll, the mosquitoes nearly ate me
up. They are worse than those on the
Amur river. But the girls! Heavens.
but they were-what do you call them? ?
yes. peaches. Peaches is the Ameri-
can word" Just then some one sig
nailed the Colonel from the elevator
passage and as looked up 4 recognized
a beautiful California woman, who Of
ten came with her mother to sit at the
Colone1's table in Louis Eppinger's hos
telry at Yokohama Wogack bowed
himself 5away and have never seen
him since.
Now, he is Major General Wogack,
holding the Russian line at Tfentsin
and in whose hands, for some days past
have rested the issues Of peace and
war. He could, by giving one order.
start the greatest struggle since
the tumultuous days of the First Ma
poleon.