Omaha daily bee., 1902-06-22

ing for miles through gorgss, 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 sniping, no desultory,
heart-breaking 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 II they were in the
heart Of friendly country. To a world wait
ing for glorious deeds this was gall and
wormwood. Kitchener became a byword for
something that defed patience. This was
not war. This was shopkeeping, farming,
Misunderstanding, anything but war. And
Kitchener, the unlovely, who they say never
looked at woman with tenderness or seuti-
ment. heard the talk OF the world as IL
drifted to him IN his Nile camps. He
listened to it with that level. unspeaking
glance and sent war correspondents back
home with scant courtesy and less waste
OF time. That was his answer. In IL no
word was wasted.
And the Omdurman
And one morning, on September .. 1898
something happened in a far place called
"ANAS AANAC & u EaluEIE0
great hosts Of brave Emirs and tan desert
fighters and women of the harem and much
treasure. And when the something had
done happening the field was white with
tibbah 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 Gordon's head rolled. was hiding
The fierce osman Digna, the Sword Of the
Soudan, was fleeing with a handful of sur
viyors. Along the river mounted British
troops were cantering and spearing the
Dervishes who had escaped the bath Of fire.
The despised Egyptians troops, those same
men who once had been sheep before the
Dervish wolves, were guarding $1,000 sullen
desert jewellers, whose deserts were never
to know their fierce forays again.
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. unmoved
face was sign OF neither triumph or citation
or relief or WEAKNESS. His men cheered
when they saw him, but even as the cheers
rang out they would die away, for this
grim, changeless. passionless creature was
not one to arouse wild bursts.
And so he passed through the crowds OF
England when he returned home. He had
aged a 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 Kiteh-
ener who, as a subaltern, set forth "a
measure the land Of Canaan; and he re-
ceived the plaudits Of a nation as he might
have received the terse. perfunctory com
mendation Of the ohicial to whom he pre-.
scented his maps OF survey.
So. too. he went TO South Africa. Blu
there he met new men. men who wore uni,
forms for ''tun." went 10 the front FOL
fun" talked Of fighting as fun" Nov. Il
hard, earnest, stin lighting soldiers do no.
love Kitchener and enthuse over him 4
hardly was 20 be expected that dandiei
would. They didn't. Neither did Kiteh
ener over them. Within a month Englant
was flooded with letters that conveyed vail
OF disgust. Kitchener Is acting like al
overbearing bully Kitchener is maxim
himself hated everywhere" 'Ritchene
has offended every woman in Capetown.
Kitchener Is insulting volunteer omeerl
Of noble birth daily" To all Of Whicl