The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1903-11-22
N''''N0 - o''N XtNc5SSliNsr hIsBRoTHER

seemed cruel and merciless. He ruled
with an iron hand. but he had to rule
an iron people.
Travellers who entered his kingdom
through the Khyber Pass saw, swing
ing a hundred feet above their heads,
from precipitous rock, an iron
cage containing a skeleton. 1t was
the skeleton of bandit who had rob-
bed and murdered wayfarers in that
pass. Abdur Rahman caught him, put
him in the cage, and swung him over
the rock to die miserably of hunger
and thirsty. Cruel, no doubt, but after
that his section of the Khyber Pass
became as safe as Fifth avenue New
York.
In such a spirit he and his son,
Habibullah administered the law until
they tanned the Afghans, suppressng
a hundred rebellions in the process
Then they were able to make the laws
milder, and introduce education, civili-
cation and Western arts and indus
tries, until to-day Afghanistan is far
and away the most progressive and
enlightened of all Moslem States-the
only Moslem State, in fact, which is
going ahead as Japan went ahead, IN
stead of falling to decay.
From his youth upward Habibullah
has been a brave, enlightened, hard
working, patriotic prince. Abdur
Rahman was a stalwart believer in
the strenuous life. He taught, by pre-
cept and example, that luxury and
pleasure were unworthy of a prince.
Hunting, fighting, judging the people,
governing justly and working un-
ceasingly for the good of his country
these were the things which he taught
Habibullah from his childhood.
The pupil was apt When he was
child of 10, Abdur Rahman left him
to govern Kabul while he went out to
war. The child went among the chiefs
and the people, clear-eyed, fearless,
commanding, and issued his orders and
his rebukes as if he were in truth a
king. He said to man, do this!" and
is was done; or, "Go!" and the man
went.
Some years later Abdur Rahman was
obliged to go to Turkestan for two
years to put down a rebellion. Dur
ing that period he left Habibullah,
then a young man, at Kabul as regent.
While the father was fighting in the
field, the son ruled the country with
perfect justice and wisdom. One day
he had the chance to show the stuff
of which he was made.
AS he was sitting in judgment in
his palace, listening patiently to the
long winded plants of rival suitors, a
dozen Hazara officers suddenly rushed
into his presence. They were hot,
dusty, bloodstained, and their clothing
were torn into rags. They reported
that their battalion had broken out
into mutiny and killed some of it's off,
GERS, while they themselves had barely
escaped with their lives.
Hasten, o Prince!" they concluded.
Escape while there is time! Those
sons of dogs are even now marching
upon the palace to STAY you"
Habibullah calmy lighted a ciga-
rette. II hasten, yes he added-''to
meet them" And as soon as his horse
could be brought, he galloped alone
down the road by which the mutineers
were advancing.
When they saw him they shouted
in savage triumph and levelled their
rifles at his head. Two or three shots
were fired, but other men knocked UP
the guns and the bullets passed over
the Princes head.
Undaunted, he galloped into the
midst of the mutineers, refined his
steed up on it's launches, and sternly