The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1902-07-18

heart of friendly country To world
waiting for glorious deeds this was gall
and wormwood. Kitchener became by
word for something that defied patience.
This was not war. This was shopkeeping.
farming, land measuring-anything but
war. And Kitchener heard the talk OF the
world as it drifted to him In his Nile
camps. He listened to it with that level,
unspeaking glance, and sent war CORE
spondents back home with scant courtesy
and less waste OF time. That was his an
swer. In 1t no word was wasted
Field of Blood at Omdurman.
One morning, on September 2, 1885,
something happened in far place called
.Omdurman. where there were gathered
great hosts of brave emirs and tall desert
fighters and women Of the harem and
much treasure. When the something had
done happening the field was white with
jibbah clad corpses, like meadow dotted
with snow drifts" Kahlfa Abdullah who
has boosted that morning that Kitchener's
head should roll before night where the
brave Gordon's had rolled. was hiding.
The fierce Osman Digna. the sword Of the
Soudan. was fleeing with handful Of
survivors. Along the river mounted Brit
ish troops were spearing the dervishes
who had escaped the bath Of fire The
despised Egyptian troops, those same men
who once had been sheep before the der
wish wolves, were guarding 5000 sullen
desert jewellers, whose deserts were never
to know their fierce forays again.
That night Sirdar Kitchener rode
through the camp and he looked around
him as he had looked around him ut
drill many years before. In that hard
unmoved face was sign Of neither triumph
or elation or relief or WEAKNESS. His men
cheered when they saw him, but even as
~ ~i&N ~
for this grim, changeless, passionless
creature was not one to arouse wild out
bursts.
And so he passed through the crowds
of England when he returned home He
ha daged q bit. Twenty-Five years in
Egypt beaten by sands that cut the
faces of tho pyramids. will mark even
the face of a Kitchener.
He received the plaudits of nation as
he might have received the terse, per-
functory commentator of the official to
whom he presented his maps Of survey
Back to Africa.
Sc. too. he went to South Africa But
there he met new men, men who wore
uniforms for fun" went to the front
for fun" talked of fighting as "fun"
Now. IL hard earnest, stiff fighting SOL
diers do not love Kitchener and enthuse
over him, it hardly was to be expected
that handles would. They didn't Mel
Their did Kitchener over them. Within a
month England was flooded with letters
that conveyed walls of disgust. "Kitch-
ener is acting like an overbearing bully"
Kitchener is making himself hated ev-
erywhere." Kitchener has offended ev-
cry woman in Cape Town" Kitchener
is insulting volunteer officers of noble
birth daily To all of which Kitchener
answered with-silence. 1t was noted
that the walls grew fewer. however. But
that was NANNY because the walters
were being sent home as fast as ships
could carry them. Some of them were
sent to less comfortable places by the
grim, homely sirdar They were sent to
battle. Many of them died. He never
showed by any sign that he was sorry or
glad or relieved or Indifferent. Just that
level glance and that entire silence,
Kitchener Is making :. failure Of It,"
rang the dispatches. Silence. Kitchener
is TO be superseded" Silence. "Kitch-
ener is desrairing of winning out" ST.
lence. another appalling defeat for our
arms" Silence.
When he broke that silence it was gen.
orally with a dispatch: Send me more
men"
1t was the march on Omdurman over
again. Silence and work and then-the
end