El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-06-18

7 PuI the Two scotch cOiOneIS prove that
/ the soldiers desire 10 figure in the
/ special dispatches OF a war correspond
! ent was born simultaneously with the
! IlrSt war dispatch. The first war cor
/ respondent was John Robinson, who
went TO the Continent in 1907 10 re-
port the NapOleOnic wars for the Lon
don Times. In this phase, the battle of
/ aterIoo is intensely modern.
News OF Defeat Slow.
! One may leave Waterloo now at noon
! and be in London at midnight, by trav-
| cling with special speed. London diI
! not know of the battle of Waterloo
for four days. the Times printing a dis
! patch on June p, which was followed
| the next day by the publication of the
/ Duke of Wellingtons official report
| The news Of the defeat of great Ma
| poieon first became known in America
/ on July 81, when the Boston Daily Ad-
! VerriSer announced: "A gentleman has
| just arrived from a vessel which he
left IN the harbOr bringing London
dates to June a." and then followed
n reproduction of the Duke OF Yelling
tons report Of the battle The news
went from Boston 70 New York by stage
| and first was printed in the American
metropolis more than six weeks after
the battle had taken place. In this
phase, Waterloo seems to belong to an
| cient history
The visitor to the battlefield Of Wa
terloo today. unless he be a military
| expert, cannot but feel a sense of dis
appointment To be such a great battle
/ Waterloo was fought upon such an
| aosurdly small field. There was six
| miles Of battle line at Gettysburg Fifty
| miles Of Japanese received with fire the
! advance Of nearly million Russians
in Manchuria- It is hardly a mile from
one enl of the field of Waterloo to an
other II the muSkets and the cannon
| had been stilled. it would have been
possible for Napoleon. at La Belle ALI
ance. TO have conversed with the great
i duke near the farm Of La Haye Sainte
| across the two shallow valleys inter
| vening- The best musket known in those
days could not be depended upon to do
execution at a distance of more than
ESQ yards. Armies had TO get close to-
gether If they fought at all, and, as
| they did come close together. there was
always q great deal of hand-to-hand
fighting.
This made il necessary for the troops
to be kept in compact formation One
knows these things, and one remem-
bers that there were not more than
10000 troops, all told, engaged in this
battle. and yet he is not prepared TO
find the great field of Waterloo thea
ter too small for respectable skirmish
e
Trolley Car Carries Visitors
Visitors 10 the battlefield, and they
are numerous, go out from Brussels by
the trolley car, or over a beautiful road
through the beech forest by motor car
The village of Waterloo is little changed
perhaps by the ravages of a century,
and IL Is today as cOlOrless and I'M
interesting as it was 90 years ago 1t
saw nothing of the battle, and its name
nj nv he
accident that the Duke of Wellington,
on the night Of the battle, here found
an inn in which TO rest himself, and
from which he wrote the report of his
victory over the great Frenchman.
The inn in which Wellington slept
and the house in which Victor Hugo
lived when gathering material for his
celebrated account of the battle are
the only show places in the village.
BY the way, ii is interesting to re-
call that this great battle is known by
three different names. English speak
ing people call il Waterloo, Germans
call it the Battle of La Belle Alliance
and the French refer to it as the Battle
of Mont ST. Jean.
Sunken Road Gone.
On his arrival at the field the first
thing one asks to see is the famous
suaken road where so many brave
French cavalrymen persisted. 1t is not
taken away and the ground leveled by
honest but misguided Dutchmen who
used the earth TO erect a pyramid in !
honor of William, Prince of Orange
who was wounded in the battle This :
pyramid OF sOdded earth. surmounted |
b. the Dutch lion, is the most imposing |
feature OF the landscape of the field |
There ara but two other monuments
One is a marble shaft marking the DO /
sitiOn of the HanOvernians which was /
erected soon after the battle. The other |
is the monument to Napoleon.
The memorial to Napoleon marks the !
spot where Napoleon stood when the I
Old Guard made its final effort in his I
behalf 1t is a bronze eagle, falling TO /
earth with wing broken, transfixed
by an arrow.
Battlefield Now Farming Land
The field OF Waterloo lies peaceful !
under its carpet of wheat and rye but
the marks of the dread conflict are not /
HougeoumOnt still stands. and there are
the broken marble terraces of the !
burned chateau, there is the well which
was filled with the blood of English |
defenders, there is the sanctuary Of |
flames dared not 10 go The gates
of HougoumOnt are filled with bullets,
the marks of fire are still upon the
stones and brick of the walls, and be-
fore the garden stand the few sur
vivors OF q veteran forest, still nursing
in their hearts a heavy weight of Eng
lish lead and French steel
Monday-Origin of Famous Phrases |