Omaha daily bee., 1910-03-06
ROOSEVELT AND KHARTOUM
famous City on the Nile Whittier the
Ex-President is Sailing.
OUTPOST OF AFRICAN LIFE
The Tragic Fate Of Chinese Gordon
and the Coming Of the AvenE-
- with the NAH
ats Forces.

II is a city OF wonderful memories and
perhaps Of wonderful promise .vhich
Colonel Roosevelt Is now approachi,e-the
city Of Khartoum. capital OF the Egyptian
soudan, objective of General Kitchener's
triumphant advance In 1898, place Of
Chinese Gordon's death In 1886 at the hands
Of the Mahdi, home OF Gordon college, Cor
don statue and companion dervish city to
! Omdurman. Just across the Nile the
former Rough Rider viii be sure to go with
the greatest curiosity imaginable. to Kerr
reri plains, where on the morning OF Sep
/ TENDER 2, 1898, occurred the bloodiest bat
tie In the history OF modern warfare.
Here the British and Egyptian forces I'M
der Slrdar Kitchener met the followers Of
the Mahdi under the KhRlifa. Kitchener
had about 1900 men; there we're $1,000
dervishes, the finest fighting natives Of
Africa In. a battle which lasted hardly
four hours the machine guns and Lee
Metfords killed 1900 dervi-hes and Wounds
between 1900 and 1900. The British and
Egyptian casualties we're only forty-eight
killed and 4s wounded. THU was Chinese
Gordon avenged. the power OF the Mahdi
broken forever and the march Of civlliza-
tion from Cairo to Cape Town relieved OF
it's last serious native obstruction.
Omdurman is three miles from Khar-
toum and seven due south from Kerrerl
plains. It's population number about $4,000,
but Il is big enough IN area to sccommo
date nearly ten times that lumber. Indeed,
in the days Of its e%arthworks, fifteen years
ago, It contained at times as many as
400. 900 persons. The Inhabitants are almost
entirely S~oudanese, Arab and Abyssinian,
with a scattering OF Greek.
The New KhRrtOum.
The new Khartoum. on the other hand,
is the fairest city In central Africa. After
the plans Of Kitchener's engineers, It has
been laid out along the lines of a collec-
ton OF union jacks. 1t is said that Kitch-
ener himself roughly drew on the sand of
the Khartoum beach his idea for the re-
building Of Gordon's city.
In the center of the town Is government
palace, surrounded by a spacious gar
den with groves Of stately palms and other
fine trees. Along broad avenues shaded
with palms are other government buildings,
clubs, a mosque, a BEAUTIFUL hotel, CON
gRlates and residences. The site of Cor
aOn's death on January 26. 1ss5-after tina
marvellous siege Of S21 days-is marked by
a noble statue showing the hero Of the
Soudei mounted on a camel.
And near by Is a great rectangular
'N-kE heh1 ~ a1NaANg 1bAhOh AlEAAlOIAdl
college, founded by Kitchener. Here the
youth Of the Soudan are given instruction
in many branches OF learning. Especial
emphasis is placed on technical courses.
and in these the S~oudanese have shown
themselves wonderfully quick to learn.
Khartoum is today the great connecting
link between Egypt on the north and the
great still unsettled Wild country to the
south. Southwark beyond Khartoum there
is nothing until you get to the outpost
which Colonel Roosevelt recently reached,
Gondokoro, a former slave depot. Go be-
yond that and you arc in the recesses Of
the jungle, in Uganda, and therein you
must travel a long time before you come
to any save savage habitations. The rail-
road. after it leaves Khartoum. bends to
the eastward, passing Just north Of the
Uganda border and emerging at Nairobi,
thence continuing to the coast.
Since those memorable DAYS when
Kitchener marched from the Atbara to
Khartoum the development of the Egypt
ian Sudan has been steady. The number
of settlements has been markedly in
creased, the great Sudanese tribes have
taken to farming and quiet pursuits, the
banks Of the lower Nile are being utilized
more and more for agriculture, the Abys-
sinians are quiet, thanks TO numerous
British posts and the lesson Of Kerreri
plains, and civilization is slowly but surely
even OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES peace and in
dustry to one of the last and bloodiest
frontiers of the world.
A dozen years ago sucn a Journey as
Colonel Roosevelt is just completing would
have been entirely out Of the question.
From suakim on the Red sea to allab
on the Abyssinian frontier, far southwest
to Ell flasher, relgned unbeaten the hordos
OF the Mahd, several hundred thousand
strong. They had slain Gordon and his
garrison and in a great series Of battles
beaten the A~byssinians.
Conquest of the sudan.
'Tn the summer Of 1886" as Winston
Churchill has written in THE River War"
N"when all the troops had retreated to
FHYady Halfa and all the Sudan garrisons
had been massacred. the British people
averted their eyes in shame and vexation
from the valley Of the Nile. A long sue
CessiOn OF disasters had reached their dis
| graceful elimination"
It was not until 1896 that the English
finally got under way to effect the recon-
quest of the Sudan. Before" according
TO Mr.. Bennett Burleigh, author Of the
--KhaEtoum Campaign" there had been,
an Mr.. Gladstone after all appropriately
htermed them, military operations but not
a state OF war" In the spring OF 1892 GEN
eIul Kitchener became the sirdar or com
rnandeT~h-chief of the khediYal forces. Six
years later he had sufficiently reorganized
ktha Egyptian army. to begin the long de-
1aFed southern advance into the Sudan.
Tbs principal engagements which oc-
SurTed In 1897 were those at Abu Hamed
and Berber, the last campaign running
into the early part of 1895. On each oc-
SASiun the dervishes proved no match for
TIN well equipped British forces. They
were routed with much slaughter. The
principal battle which preceded Omdurman
was AtbaTa- Here on April 8, Mahmud,
enc Of the khalifa's chief l~ieutenants, with
100 men, attacked the British forces and
was sisnaIy DEBATED. Mahmud was cap
cured and his army was practically wiped
out over 5000 were killed on the field
of battle; scarcely 1000 escaped. From that
day the British army was all eagerness to
get 10 KhRrtoum.
II was a months march from Atbara to
omdurman across the desert, following
closely the line Of the Nile. Nearly $500
strong the British and Egyptian forces
left the scene OF their spring victory, and,
deSu8ee many invitations arrfvad onIy &,