The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-02-20
RUSSIA'S MILITARY LEADERS
THEY FOUGHT WITH sKoBE-
 LEFE.

LEEE.
 Generals Homeopathic, Annsnke1f, Ob-
 rubchefT, BobrikoR aud Others Who
 Have Learned War In A Hard, Cruel
 school.
 The late Archibald Forbes. war cor respondent, was fond of telling how he met skobeleff. the Russian general, after one of the fiercest of the many de- sperate fights before Plevna. T was sittI Ing in my tent writing a dispatch, said Forbes, 'when the flap was sudden ly drawn aside and in ssalked the most terrible and overlapping object have ever seen in my life. It was skobeleff, whom knew well, but had to look twice before I recognized him. His smart generals uniform was torn into shreds and stained with blood and gunpowder from head to foot. His sword, which he held in his hand, was simply smothered in blood, and great drops of it fel on the floor of the tent as he greeted me. There was a terrible gash across the top of his forehead, and his eyes still blazed with the fierce ex- citement of the hand-to-hand fight which he had just had with hundreds of Turks
 While he stood there telling me about the battle, his favorite captain Kouro- patkin, came up and called him away to 1 decide about the disposition of some of the prisoners. Kouropatkin lookedseven more like a god of war fresh from the scene of carnage. He was bleeding from half dozen wounds but he stood as steady as a rock when he saluted Skobeleff. The latter suggested that he had better go into the hospital but he curtly replied: No, general. There is work to be done
 T heard afterward that skobeleff and Kouropatkin had fought side by side throughout that bloody day, and had slain the Turks literally by dozens. Their exploits formed the theme of many a story told beside the campfires of both armies throughout the cam paign.'
 Capt Kouropatkin, who was the right hand man of Skobeleff all through the l Russo-Turkish war as well as in the | fight at Plevna, is now Gen. Kouropat- | kin, the czar's minister of war, and the most noted of all the Russian fighting men. He was trained in harder school i than most modern generals, and went through enough perils to satisfy the
 biggest glutton for adventure. After one of the bloody fights in the Shipka pass he was left for dead upon the field. All night he lay there, sore wounded and unconscious. It was in the bitter cold of a Balkan night and he might have frozen te death had he not been almost entirely covered by the body of a dying Turk, who had fallen across him after he sank to the ground with l the agony of his wound In the morning Kouropatl1in recovered con- seriousness, crawled from underneath
 the Turk, and made his way slowly and painfully to the Russian camp where his comrades received him as if he were a ghost. Kouropatkin became the hero of the Russian army second only to his great leader. Skobeleff, by his bravery and fine generalship at the capture of Geok Tepe in 1882.
 When the Russians, baked in their dreams Of winning Constantinople by the Berlin congress. were making their great swoop through central Asia to the gates of Herat, Lord Salisbury told the | British public not to be alarmed for the safety of India. They will not be able to conquer the Turcomans,' he declared l The Turcoman barrier will last for our lifetime at least.' Gen Tergoukas- | off, the Russian commander in central Asia, disagreed with Lord Salisbury.
 He told the czar that the Turcomans
 might be conquered by three years hard fighting. That is too long, said the
 czar. He recalled Tergoukasoff and sent Skobeleff to command the troops.
 Skobeleff promptly secured Kouropatkin for his chief lieutenant, and together
 they performed in few weeks the task which the British premier had de-
 clared would take a lifetime.
 l Geok Tepe, the great stronghold of l the Turcomans. was carried by assault after a months siege The brunt of the attack fell on Kouropatlkin, who commanded a body of light troops from lTurkestan. It was great victory, but lit sullied the reputation of both the i Russian leaders. They ordered their troops to give no quarter to the Tur- comans of either sex, and all the hor- TOTS usual when such orders are given l were perpetrated. Spectators say that even when the Turcomans fled in a disorderly mob across the desert, men,
 women and children mingled together, no mercy was shown to them Artillery and cavalry followed in their rear and an end to the pursuit. In that few I hours chase 1000 pursuing Russians slaughtered 5000 fugitives. while over 5000 were massacred in the fortified camp of Geok Tepe.
 The whole country was covered with corpses," said Samuel Gourovitch, who Iacted as interpreter in the Russian forces. "The morning after the battle they lay in rows like freshly hay,
 as they had been swept down by the l mitrailleurs and artillery. Hundreds of
 women were sabered, and I myself saw babies bayoneted or slashed to pieces. l The troops mad with drink and the lust of fighting, were allowed to plunder and kill for three days after the as- sault.
 I This is the single great blot on Gen Kouropatkin's record. It is true that l he was not in supreme command, but | his Turkestan troops played the lead ling part on the slaughter. He is a great