The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-02-20

characteristics Of SkObeleIIs cast III d cooler mold. They worked admirably together, Kouropatkin imparting cool ness and calculation to Skobeleff, and skobelen fire and enthusiasm to Kouro- patkin. We are desolate now that Skobelef is gone but it is a consolation that we have still got Kouropatkin. He is now the Skobeleff of Russia
 During the first few days succeeding skobeleT's death strong and angry feeling prevailed in Russia against the government. It was the dead hero's merits had never properly appreciated by the state, and I encountered various officers at Moscow who were persuaded he had been poisoned. To appease the army the emperor felt that he could not do better than summon Kouro- patkin from central Asia and give him high appointment at home. Since then he has been treated as a favorite at court, and if fe has secured little notoriety abroad it is simply because he has always devoted himself to his profession and let politics alone. Skobeleff had in him all the elements of a great statesman, as well as those of a great general. His political influence was becoming positively embarrassing to the ezars ministers when he died. Kouropatkin has never sought to form a party in Russia-he is quite content to be a great general, and nothing more''
 The judgment was pronounced away back in 1885, It does not hold good now. Gen Kouropatkin is now the unchal- lenged head of the war party in Russia. He believes in pushing Russian troops to the uttermost ends of Asia. In the movements toward the Indian frontiers. which have alarmed England in recent years; in the absorption of Manchuria, and in the threatened attacks on Corea, his hand is plainly to be seen by any one Familiar with Russian politics.
 Before becoming minister of war, Kouropatkin commanded the Russian army. He would probably command 1t again in the field in any campaign that amounted to national emergency, for he is unquestionably Russia's greatest general. He is the idol of the army for Skobeleff is a name to conjure with in the Russian service, and he was Sxobeleffs S right hand man in four cam paigns-the Russo Turkish war, the Khivan expedition and the Kbokandese and Merv campaigns.
 One of Kouropatkin's strongest sup porters to-day is the same Gen. Amen koff who admired his march through the desert to join Skobefeff before Geok Tepe. Gen Annenkoff made a great reputation by building strategic rail- ways in Central Asia and his was the vast scheme for trans-Siberian line to the Pacific. He first outlined that plan in detail during a visit to Paris in 1891 Many so-called practical men laughed at him then, but his ideas have since produced the greatest railroad in the world, at an admitted cost of G55, 900 900 and perhaps a great deal more.
 Annenkoff is one of skobeleR's men, like Kouropatkin. No general is thought much of in the Russian. army unless he is able to say. I was with s;kobeleff at Plevna," or T fought in Turkestan under Skobeleff.' . There is hardly single prominent general in the service who is not one of Skobeleff' s men, That great commander showed unerring judgment in picking his sub ordinates. The unknown subalterns whom he chose for his staff officers and the captains and colonels to whom he intrusted the command of small armies have since become, almost without ex- ception, famous generals.
 Michael Annenkoff was born in 1888, ] and received his first commission in the Russian army in 1883. He is an older < veteran than Kouropatkin. for he i served as staff captain during the i Polish insurrection, and rose to the rank os colonel at the remarkably early age of 2S. He was with the Germans during the -Prussian war as Russian at 1 tache, and acted as one of Skobeleff's s chies staff officers in the Merv cam paign.
 ] Gen Annenkoff has played leading part in the intrigues against England on the Indian frontier, and is credited with having at least 50 specific schemes for conquering India pigeonholed in his desk. "I question whether there is a single British officer who has such a good collection of English and foreign books on India as have pulled about in the library of Gen Annenkoff,'' said an l Englishman who became friendly with him while travelling in Central Asia.
 b Another well known Russian soldier, I who might be expected to play a lead- I ing part III time of war, is Gen Qbrub- { hoff. lie is the hero of a hundred I desperate fights in the successive l Central Asian campaigns, and enjoys a l greater reputation for personal cour- age than probably any other Russian I general. During the siege of Geok Tepe | Obrubcheff was sent out by Skobeleff one night to reconnoiter the position of the enemy. He refused to take any soldiers with him. as the other officers detailed for that duty used to do, but I went alone disguised in Turcoman cos tune. He penetrated to one of the campfires of the Turcomans, under heath the walls of the fortress, and sat
 down and calmly ate supper with them, introducing himself as man from an- other branch of the tribe who had been separated from his comrades. From the talk around the eampfires he learned all he wanted to know, and he was about to retire unobtrusively when a Turco- man who had known him as a, Russian officer before the war, strolled up to the campfire and, recognized him. Almost before the Turcoman could denounce him Obrubcheff sprang to his feet, I drew his sword, rushed to the nearest