Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-11-03


way by merit alone. He had neither
money nor powerful friends. but the
maps and reports he sent back to
| London were models of their kind. In
I1SSO, he was made British vice consul
at Erzeroum, and it is safe to guess
that his reports to the foreign office
did not deal with commerce only.
England has always kept watchful
eye upon the Turk and Kitchener was
good watcher But this work was
not his work; he was born soldier
| and he was determined to see service.
His chance came in 1888.
After the bombardment of Alex
andria, England had to recognize the
Egyptian army. Kitchener was among
those who volunteered and was one
of the twenty-siX men chosen for the
work of raising a force of 5000 men
for the defense of Egypt The Fellah
does not come of fighting race and
the Job seemed hopeless. Capt. Kitch-
ener was told to lick the cavalry in
to shape and was attached to the in
telligence department. He proved
that the Fellah was like a bicycle,
incapable of standing up alone, but
very useful in the hands Of skilled
master In ten weeks after the ar
rival of the first batch of raw recruits,
$500 men went through the ceremo-
nial prade movements as practiced
by the British guards in Hyde park
and they did it with unusual preci-
sion.
For fourteen years Kitchener serv-
ed in Egypt. He was with the Cor
don relief expedition in 1884, and
stayed on the job till the hero of
Khartoum had been avenged and a
cathedral raised over the spot where
he fell. At Handoub, he was Sc
verely wounded by bullet that shat
tered his jaw and buried itself In his
neck, and he was invalided back to
England. In 1883 he returned to
Egypt as adjutant general to head
the first brigade of Soudanese troops
at Toski where he lead the final
charge. Time and again he was
mentioned in dispatches From gov
ernor- general of the Red Sea littoral
and commandant of Suakim. he was
made chief of police at Carlo, and on
Lord Cromer's recommendation, was
promoted to be siridar in 1892. He
was a colonel then.
The Slaughter Of the Dervishes.
Four years later, he began his con-
quest of the Soudan. The Dongola
expedition won him the rank of ma
jor-general, and the next year, 1897,
he started to avenge Gordon's death.
His first step was railroad from
Cairo to Khartoum. 1t had to cross
the desert from Halfa to Abu Hamed,
go miles of sand. Experts scoffed
at the idea: it was absurd; the entire
carrying capacity of the train would
be taken up by the water supply
necessary for the locomotive. But
Kitchener built on, and as he built
he bored, and with true Kitchener
luck lie SlIuSh "dlcl III 'iiS SS'tNAS
just where he needed it. The i'm
possible was accomplished. kitch-
ener knew how TO choose his tools
tools is the right word-they really
were tools rather than men, but
splendid men withal, who toiled, and
slaved for him through the God-for-
saken sand-swept wastes. One day
saw $500 yards of railroad surveyed,
embarked and laid, and the work was
finished on October 81, 1897.
In April of the following year,
Kitchener won the battle OF the
Atbara. and on September 2, caught
up with the Mahdi's forces at Omdur-
man and sealed his former victory
and the Khalifa's doom. Gordon was
avenged. After the fight was won,
he cut off the Dervishes' retreat. and
as they huddled into a hollow around
their standards, he played his ma
chine guns upon them, killing about
Is, 900. He wiped out the last trace
of Mahdism. The Mahdi's tomb was
the great shrine of the Dervishes.
Kitchener demolished the tomb, the
holy place. and scattered the mummy
so that no part of the body could be
got for re-enshrinment to be focus
of future trouble. He just tore the
Mahdi up by the roots, and gave
peace to Egypt.