The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-03-19
A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE.
THE DEATH OF ssISKANDER SA-
 HE'S, GRANDSON

Carved His Career with His sword,
 but Kept che Respse, of All.
 There died in Delhi the other day a man whose name brings back one of the most exciting chapters of Anglo-Indian history. MT. James Skinner, whose death is reported. was the grandson of Colonel James Skinner, c. B., the half caste who carved out with a sword a career in his native land, and did not lose the respect of either natives or Eu- ropeans in doing it. It is tribute to his valor and his virtues that he who belonged to the despised Europeans gained such hold alike on his mothers and his fathers race. 'Iskander Sahib' the Mahrattas called him, his namebe- ing pronounced "Iskinner," and then affectionately altered to "Iskander," in proud comparison with Alexander the Great. in compliment to his valor.
 James Skinner was the son of a Scotch lieutenant in the service of the honorable East India company, who formed a connection with Rajpat lady, the daughter of a landowner who was taken prisoner in one of our wars. There were six children, but the liason ended tragically when James Skinner was boy of twelve. His father deci- ded that his three daughters should be sent to school as Europeans. Their mother committed suicide in despair at this violation of the honor of a Rajput- ami, but the girls were befriended by the European community, and all married officers in the company's service.
 Lieutenant Slxinner's means were small, his family was brought up mea- gerly and James Skinner who was the second son, was apprenticed to printer in Calcutta when he was seventeen. He stayed three days in the composing room and then ran away His godfath- er, a British officer, took an interest in his military ambitions, and procured him the rank of ensign in the native army of the Maharajah Scindia, which was then under the command of the fla nous Savoyard, General De Boigne, and off1cered by mixed crowd of adventur- CTS from all the nations of Europe. Skinner soon distinguished himself by defending the rear during a retreat in OAlC Ql CC1lQid WQlc diiO NCACl al I CA ron, the Frenchman, who succeeded De Boigne, made him a lieutenant. Tn all the desperate fighting between Seindial and Holkar, Skinner. who was chiefly employed under gallant, but melo- dramatic Hanoverian officer named Pohlmann, bore his part. At one point we find him with his horsemen riding down battery of artillery, sabering the gunners and taking the guns.
 At another the fortune of war changes, and he Is almost overwhelmed by charge of ten thousand wild Rat thore cavalry only saving his life by taking refuge under a. tumbril. Then. after the batte of Jaipur, we find him with an eye on the loot always a weakness of the soldier of fortune The defeated rajah's pavlionsthe most beautiful thing I ever saw he says was radiant with embroidery mad crimson velvet. Entering everything that met his eye was of gold or silver. "Opening one of the rajahs baskets I found two golden idols with diamond eyes which I immediately secured in my bosom:" Among the other trinkets he carried off was brass fish, which he found the Mahratta general very anxious to relieve him of. He gave sit up, and then learned that it was the fish of dignities," the imperial design of honor bestowed by the king of Delhi upon the rajah. But 'Iskander Sahib'' held fast to the golden idols with dia- inond eyes, and received a handsome additional present for giving up the brass fish.
 Not long after he was attacked in a. minor campaign near Tonk by an over whelming force. His men began to bolt and at last he was left with one field piece and about three hundred stall warts. Again and again the enemy's cavalry charged, and at last Skinner was felled by matchlock bullet in the thigh and all his faithful men cut down. It was a. m. next day when Skinner regained his senses. He had been stripped of all but his pantaloons, round him were dead and wounded na- tive officers, the latter moaning for wa ter and feebly throwing stones to keep off the jackals, which were already tearing the dead with their obscene claws. On one side of him was a su- bahdar with his leg shot off at the knee, on the other jemsdar with a pike thrust through the body All one hot day they lay there pnable to move. All one long night they watched in the cold light of the moon tht death agonies Of the weakest.
 At last on the second morning there came an old man and a woman with basket and a pot of water, giving to every wounded man piece of bread and a drink of water. Then came a poignant scene. The subahdar was a high caste Rajput, the woman was Chumar Gone of the lowest castes), and he would receive neither water nor bread from her. Skinner, whose own mother had told him of the fidelity of the Rajput to their caste tried in vain to alter his determination. The suban- dar replied that he had only few hour more of suffering to endure, and that he preferred to die unpolluted. It is pleasant to add that the subahdar lived after all for a neighboring rajah sent for the wounded and gave them food and water. Skinner afterward found out the poor outcast Woman's name and sent her thousand rupees.
 At last the Mahrattas declared war against England, and Perron, who had been in communication with Napoleon I. in the hope of establishing a French empire in India, dismissed all the Eng