Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-06-21

the bullet suddenly worked It's way out and
fell into hfs plate He lifted it out with
his fork stared in disapproval at his ser
want, who had too lively an expression of
surprise his face. and went eating
without saying word.
Revenge for HANDFUL
Within a year after Handful he led
brigade of Soudanese over the trenches at
Gemaizeh and incidentally over Osman's
men who had incautiously occupied them.
In 1889 he again commanded a brigade. All
this time he gazing at the Soudan,
studying it, laying his plans to subdue it.
He had profted by all the experiences of
others. AS intelligence officer with Stew
arts ili-starred desert column, he had noted
for future use the breakdown of the system
of communications.
1t was Kitchener who plunged into the
Korosko desert and in less than three weeks
came out not only alive (then feat in it
self, but with the information that he had
succeeded in establishing a chain of out
posts extending to the Red sea and guarded
by 2,ooO friendly Arabs.
1t was Kitchener whose native cavalry
sent the Dervishes to rout across the des-
ert and stopped all Arab invasion for a
year.
And It was Kitchener who in 1890 was
appointed sirdar.
And in 1898 the Soudan was CONQUERED
Before he could move to conquer the Sou
dan he had to conquer the khedive He
did. The khedive said something insult
Ing about British officers. Kitchener rode
up close to him and-the khedive issued a
general order praising the army and partic-
ularly its British officers. Queen Victoria
made Kitchener a K. c. NJ. G. that time
Then began the game of war. Inpassiye
passionless, uncommunicative. drillmaster,
farrier. commissary and railroad engineer
py turns, the silent man made plans and
LAID them to converge on one point. Many
r 1nv-tc hny,t l.;
WILL toiled blindy for him, not knowing
whether they We're 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 in
stead 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 retalatory expeditions by Brit
ish soldiers that were little more effective
than raids.
There were to be no raids Kitchener
He meant to take no army out and bring a
cut-up, starving, panic-stricken remnant
back. He meant to send no columns wind
ing for miles through gorges, while at their
rear the shouting followers of the prophet
were cutting out the wagon trains of sup
plies and ammunition. He meant to have
no rushed camps, no shipping, no desultory
heart-beaking fighting.
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 heart of
friendly country. To world waiting for
glorious deeds this was gall and NORWOOD
Kitchener became a byword for something
that defied patience. This was not war
Ihis was shopkeeping, farming, land meas
uring. anything but war. And Kitchener
W hn hoy cav
woman with tenderness or sentiment heard
the talk of the world 1t drifted to him
in his Nile camps. He listened to 1t with
that level unSpeaking glance, and sent war
correspondents back home with scant cour-
tesy and less waste of time. That was his
answer. In it no word was wasted.
And the Omdurman.
And one morning, en- September 2, 1898,
something happened in a far place called
Cmdurman, where there were gathered
great hosts Of brave emirs and tall desert
fighters and women Of the harem and much
treasure. And when the something had
done happening the field was white with
jibbah-clad corpses. like a meadow dotted
with snowdrifts." Khalifa Abdullah who
had boosted that morning that Kitchener's
head should roll before night where the
brave Gcrdons had rolled, was hiding. The
fierce Osman Digna, the Sword of the Sou
v.vors Along the river mounted British
troops were cantering and spearing the
Dervishes who had escaped the bath of
fire. The despised Egyptian troops those
same men who once had been sheep before
the Dervish wolves. were guarding fifteen
thousand sullen desert dwellers, whose
deserts were never to know their fierce
forays again.
And that night Sirdar Kitchener rode
through the camp and he looked around hin
as he had looked around him at drill many
years before. In that hard. unmoved face
was sign Of neither triumph or elation or
relief or WEAKNESS. His men cheered when
out they would die away, for this 81 i'm.
changeless, passionless creature was not
one to arouse wild outbursts.
And so he passed through the crowds OF
England when he returned home. He had
aged bit. Twenty-Five years in Egypt
beaten by sands that cut the faces of the
pyramids. Will mark even the face Of a
Kitchener. But in all else, in expression,
in manner, in attitude. he was the Kitch-
ener who, as a subaltern, set forth to meas
ure the land Of Canaan and he received the
piaudits Of nation as he might have re-
ceived the terse perfunctory commentator
of the official to whom he presented MS
maps of survey.
So, too, he went to South Africa But
there he met new men. men who wore uni
forms for fun went to the front for
fun" talked Of fighting as fun" Now II
hard. earnest. stin fighting soldiers do not
love Kitchener and enthuse over him, 1t
would. They didn't. Neither did k.tch-
ener over them. Within a month England
was flooded with letters that conveyed walls
of disgust Kitchener Is acting like an
| overbearing bully" Kitchener is making
himself hated everywhere" Kitchener