The Montgomery advertiser. [volume] (Montgomery, Ala.) 1885-1982, 1902-08-03

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emirs and the hairy fighting men snapped
their teeth In the dust In dying and
spearmen fell to rise no more.
The troops were beaten on at last, but
Kitchener although defeated In this, his
first real battle. had broken his Egypuaa
soldiery to fighting and killing as Sports
men blood" a deer-hound. He got a Dull
let in the face as souvenir OF the occa-
sion. A few years ago, while he was eat
ing at table, the bullet suddenly worked
its way out and fell into his plate. He
lifted 1t out with fork, stared in disap-
prevail at his servant, who had too i've
ly an expression of surprise on his face.
and went on eating without saying
word.
within a year after Handful he led q
brigade Of Soudanese over the trenches
at Gemaizeh and incidentally over Os-
mans men who had incautiously occn-
pied them. In 1889 he again COMMANDED
q brigade. All this time he was gazing
at the soudan. studying 1t, laying his
plans to subdue 1t. He had profited by
all the experiences of others.
Game Of War Began.
Before he could move to conquer the
Soudan he had to conquer the khedive,
He did. The khedive said something IN
sulting about British officers Kitchener
rode up close to him and-the khedive
issued a general order praising the army
and particularly its British officers. Queen
Victoria made Kitchener a K. c. M. O..
at that time.
Then began the game OF war impress
sive, passionless, uncommunicatfve, drill
master. farrier. commissary and railroad
/ engineer by turns the silent man made
Il alo nj lotA n the
point. Many thousand instruments. bent
| by his supreme will toiled blindly for
/ him. not knowing whether they were
/ working for a hopelessly stupid victim OF
/ dull red tape or a man with a colossal
| scheme, and, what Is more. not daring
/ to try to know.
| A year passed by and still the army
| drilled and the engineers planned, and
| instead of gun-firing and sword clashing
the blows Of pickaxes and the scraping
| of spades made monotonous music day
| after day. Foot by foot, mile by mile. a
| railroad began to crawl away from camp
/ into the dim desert, sacred till then to
| Mahdist raids and retaliatory expeditions
i by British soldiers that were little more
| effective than raids. There were to be
| no raids with Kitchener.
His Slow but Irresistible March.
The march began. Day after day. week
/ after week. month after month the slow
progress went on Men worked all day
| to move trains and barges; they slept all
| night as securely as If they were in the
l heart of a 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 shop-keep-
| ing farming, land measuring, anything
i but war.
| And one morning, on September 2. 1898
| something happened in far place called
/ Omdurman, where there were gathered
| Ell eat hosts of brave ernirs and tall desert
lighters and women of the harem and
/ much treasure. And when the something
had done happened the field was white
| with jibbah clad corpses,' like meadow
dotted with snowdrifts
Unmoved by Triumph.
And that night Sirdar Kitchener rode
through the camp and he looked around
him as he had looked around him at drill
many years before. In that hard, un-
moved face was sign of neither triumph
or citation or relief or WEAKNESS His mer
cheered when they saw him, but even al
the cheers rang out they would die away
! for this grim, changeless, passionlesi
creature was no one to arouse wild out
bursts.
And so he passed through the crowd;
of England when he returned home. He
had aged a bit Twenty-Five years ir
Egypt, beaten by sands that cut the faces
of the pyramids. will mark even the fac'
of a Kitchener But in all else. in ex
preston in manner. in attitude. he wa'
the Kitchener who, as a subaltern, Sc
forth to measure the land of Canaan: anC
he received the plaudits of a nation al
he might have received the terse perfume
tory commentator of the official t.
whom he presented his maps of survey.
What NextP
Now that grim visaged war haiti
smoothed his wrinkled front" is ther'
anything left for Kitchener to do? Ac
cording to a very considerable per cent
age of the English public. *. of K" hal
still a big work before him. and this Il
nothing less than. in forceful Anglo-SaX
on, cleaning out the War ONCE" Thu
momentous job has proved too much fol
ks immediate cessors-Viseoun
wolseley and Earl Roberts John Bull
believes that he has now found the boz
who will tackle the situation without fea
|