St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1915-11-17
A TRAGIC RETREAT
Mhen the AfghanS Lured the Brit
iSh Into the Jaws of Death.
THE EVACUATION OF KABUL.

| OnOSr Fleo9e OF SaTery Only Oue
Man, Except Few Prisoners Taken
Escaped Massacre.
In this Wondrous day of wire and
wireless we learn, half across the
world, the events of the day almost in
simultaneously, and the very elements
carry abroad the news. 1t is more
than romance; it is miracle, but mir
acle that may Danish forever from the
pages of the future historian and ro-
mancer one of the most dramatic fig
nreS of the past-the messenger bring
ing first news from the battlefield.
Long even before Pheidippides of
Marathon ran to Athens from the i'm
mortal battlefield, cried ''Victory!'
and fell dead the messenger held a
place in myth and chronicle that he
has maintained for centuries. Some
times he is merely the swifteSt rider
or runner, sometimes a hero of the
fight. chosen as an honor to bear glad
tdingS; sometimes hard pressed ref
ugee, sometimes even a lone survivor.
| Lady Elizabeth Thompson Butler,
the distinguished woman painter Of
wartime scenes, Of which 1.-The Roll
Call" is most famous, once illustrated
In less known painting one Of the
most tragic episodes in the history Of
modern England-the arrival OF DR..
William BrydOn at Jalalabad, Jan. 13,
1912. Her terrible little picture shows
the young Scotch surgeon, daZed, des-
perate, exhausted, clinging half con-
scious to his wearied horse as the walls
of the city loom in sight.
He had come from Kabul, through
the mountains, in midwinter, one Of a
retreating army of British and native
tendants and camp followers. With
them at first were also nine English
women, wives of officers, including
FlOrentia, Lady Sale, wife of Sir Rob-
ert Sale, the commander at Jalalabad,
and his daughter. There were also
fourteen children. A long, intricate
and hideOus series of blunders, treach-
cries and murders had brought the
tremendously outnumbered British in
Kabul to the point where evacuation
Of the city and acceptance Of prom
Ised safe conduct to Jalalabad SEEM
ed to their leaders the best that could
be hoped for. and the retreat began.
But the Afghans did not keep their
word. and soon there were no leaders.
Before the march was half over many
were slain and conditions were so
hopeless that the others yielded to
proposal to surrender the commanding
general himself, General Elphinstone,
together with the women and chill
dren, into the care of the Afghan chief,
Akbar Khan, as hostages, but not I'M
til the Kurd Kabul was passed.
The gorge Of the Kurd Kabul is a
Eve mile ravine between high noun
tains, so narrow, lofty and grim that
in winter the sun scarcely reaches its
depths. That January it was deep in
snow, the rocks were glazed with ice,
and upon every mountain slope, in ev-
cry crevasse, behind every bowlder.
lurked the fanatic Afghan tribesmen,
with their long guns and long knives.
Weary, crowded, half crippled by frost,
the confused and formless masses
struggling through the gloomy canyon
soon lost all semblance of an army,
as the slaughter soon lost all SEM
blance of battle. It became simply the
massacre of a rabble, and the snow
grew red.
Three thousand men," says the his
torian Sir ]. W. Kaye. fell under the
fire of the enemy or dropped down
paralyzed and exhausted to be slaugh-
tered by Afghan knives. And amid
these fearful scenes of carnage,
through a shower of matchbox balls,
rode English ladies on horseback or in
camel papniers, sometimes vafnly en-
deavoring to keep their children be-
meath their eyes and then losing them
In the confusion and bewilderment of
the desolating march"
After the general became a captive
with the women the rout and slaughter
increased in horror. The Jugdulluk
pass succeeded the Kurd Kabul; a
dark, steep, winding track ascending
high among frowning crags, and bar
ricaded at its narrowest point. 1t was
trap. The fugitives were caught
beyond escape A mere handful emery
ed alive.
Within sixteen miles of Jalalabad
only six of these remained. Before
those sixteen miles were covered five
of the six had been killed by stray
Cling marauders.
DR.. Brydon alone, one man out of
10000, reached the goal and bore the
awful news.
Later. when England awoke and
avenged. the women and children and
few prisoners were rescued. DR..
BrydOn himself lived to share and sur
vive the famous siege Of Lucknow. an
other terrible episode in his country's
history. but one as honorable and in
spring as the retreat from Kabul was
humiliating and disastrous.-Youth's