Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, January 13, 1901, Page 15

January 1001 Sketches of Men Who Make War Heroes War correspondents have never been backward in saying what they thought albout soldiers and military administration; now comes a soldier who tells what he thicks of war correspondents, This is Colonel Lynch, colonel of the Second Irish brigade of the Boer army, who has an in- teresting article on “War Correspondents I Have Met,” in the current issue of Col- lier's Weekly. Colonel Lynch is a corre- spondent by profession, a soldier by inclina- tion. He joined the republican army as a correspondent, but laid down the pen for the sword and fought until Pretoria fell His article follows: The type of war correspondent is under going a certain change, consistent both with changes in the conduct of war operations and changes in journalism. The near proto- types of our present war correspondents difter as much from those of today as flan nibal from Baden-Powell. MacGahan, for instance, was a great man, an explorer and a statesman, Donovan was a veritable hero of romance, who finished a wonderful career in the mystery of an unknown death swallowed up in the eternal silence of the desert, Archibald Forbes was a great rider, something of a swashbuckler, not so “brainy” as the other two, but with a good sense of the broad issues of things. Nowadays the great journals of both hem- ispheres prefer to send men who have made reputations rather in the world of letters than in the moving accidents of flood and fell. War talk becomes more ‘‘gossipy, more full of personal detail, of impres- sions of everything that will commend it to that what properly Dewet got was tnis: ‘It was Lemmer's fight,” he sald, “but there before him., He let the English pass through a dry sluit, with a good part of their men and guns, his own nen being kept in concealment in the sluit, Then suddenly he attacked and the English were seized with a panic, and it was only a running fight after that. We killed and captured over 1,000 and only lost two men." 1 give the statement for what it i8 worth; but I would point out that even brave men unused to the country and unskilled in the art of war as it should be practiced might easily fall victims to a panic under such circumstances. That was seen at Magers- fontein, where one of the bravest regiments in the world ran like frightened sheep be- happened fore the sudden and murderous fire of Crenje’'s men hidden in their trenches. | v Pretorin, A most interesting episode of the war, and one which holds me in perpetual ad- miration, is Churchill's escape from Pre- toria. In the first brief account which I read it appeared that he left the State School prison at night, ciimped a wall when the sgentry's back was momentarily turned, walked through the streets without dis- guise, got through all the patrols, jumped on to the 11:10 goods train moving at full speed without attracting attention, hid under coal sacks, jumped from the train before dawn, remained sheltered in a wood all day with only a vulture for a com- panion, walked on at dusk, following the line, but with grand detours at the bridges and culverts, lived principally on chocolate for five days, lying up in daylight and ST WRECK OF THE BARK KATHERINE SUDDEN STORM AT CAPE NOME, Alaska. the ordinary reader of the newspaper, who sandwiches the enjoyment of a battle at his breakfast between the account of a sociely play and the successes of the latest Ameri can jockey in England. 1 often wonder whether, with the im- mense enterprise of our newspapurs and the enormous mass of literature provided in consequence, the boasted enlightenment of the public on great topics really occurs. KFor the news nearly always has such a decided bias according to the set of opin- ion and the very mass of reading necessary to form a judgment is so vast that the’ public eye becomes ‘‘blasted with excess of light.” Lhis is especially the case in such a mat- ter of hot discussion as the Boer war, where all the world is partisan and where prejudices and sympathies outweigh, by uinety-nine to one, good judgment and equity. Julian Ralph says all is black Richard Harding Davis says all is white. And they both make their statements 1o eloquently and with such an array of argu- ments that the average citizen generally opts for one or the other and follows him blindly. Out of the Ordinary. However, Lo come to the concrete. Mr. Winston Churchill is especially interesting to o both for his achievements and his promise. He is not a stereotyped char- acter; he is full of life; he has points; he gives play; he is abundant in human nature; he is a type of the winning young man of today. And to the amateur of types, or student of character, it is not essential that the type should conform to a rigid model, nor that the character should be capable of expression in a lapidary inscription, Churchill distinguished himself early in the war by being captured, and, later, still more by escaping. He had the courage and the wisdom to tell his countrymen that one Boer was equivalent in fighting power to five Englishmen, and he also said in the carly ge of the campaign ‘There has been a great deal too much surrendering in this wa There was a period when he seemed likely to become even a Boer sympathizer, but after his escape from Pretoria one of his first to the effect that the war should be conducted inexorably and un- compromisingly. Since his return to Lon- don he has taken up the cudgels on behalf of the Tenth Hussars and the First and Teuth Life Guards against Lord Rosslyn, who assured the public, on the authority of certain unnamed English officers, that these #’ crack regiments had taken to flight and had {deserted their guns at Sanna's Post, 11 I was told by one of the Boers who was ¥ipresent at Sanna’'s Post, and who certainly !"had no prejudice against the Household messages was ‘.'nu\ulry as distingulshed from any other, PHOTOCRAPHED AFTER GREAT walking by night, managed to board a tré bur, hid under coal ks again, and, in spite of the train being searched, arrived safe and sound at Koomatipoort after sixty hours of misery. It is true that the Boer authorities told me that they had let Churchill go, as they subsequently let George Lynch go, and they even designated the detective who had ar- ranged to have the door open for his es- and on the sixtu day in beyond Middle- cape; but then South Africa is a land of lie Kipling Is too great a man to be dealt with in a section of a small article. I will only say that my admiration for his genius—as revealed, for instance, in the “Jungle Book"-—suffers a rude shock when I peruse his latter-c heroic poems. “The Absent-Minded Beggar' is little better than doggerel, and its extraordinary popularity in England should again warn us of the im- possibility of obtaining a cool judgment on any aspect of this war from sources 80 steeped in prejudice. Kipling-seems to have developed a tone of remarkable trucu- lence in South Africa, and he advocates the most terrible measures, but I cannot think that this is serious. Kipling 1s good- hearted and sensitive; there is even a cer- B THE ILLUSTRATED BEE. Senator Tillman PROMINENT DEMOCRATS tain tone of decadence in his fiber, and It is in vain tuat be whips buuosell up to wury to persuade us that he i1s a sort of sccoud Weyler, or a wan of bluod and iron. 1hese ferocities are werely verbal and ar ustic, The real ruthan seldom boasts of Lis brutality. kven a soldier like Kitch- coer is not avid of the tame which should accrue to him in his projected campaign ol “pacification” in South Africa, for he veglns by sending away all the correspond- ents, 1 doubt greatly that he would be pleased to be accompanied even by such an admirer of torce as Kudyard Kipling. Doyle as a Cor ponaCnL, Almost as lamous as Kiplng as a literary yian 18 Conan Doyle, the creator ol Sneriock aolmes, aud still instrucuive is uis “ccount of walters al the front. Neither Rudyard Kipling nor Conan Doyle are war correspondents at all i the seuse that the term was formerly understood. They have collected most of their information and noted their impressions at the second line Conan Doyle's narrative is not only inter csting to the ordinary reader, but the good doctor takes in hand the military au thorities and reads them a few lessons on the organization of an army and the conduct of war. In doing he has been taxed in some quarters with presumption, but if a man speak logically and to the point it is absurd to cavil at the uniform or gown that he wears. Conan Doyle looked at the busi- ness with the eyes of common sense, and the operatious of the army he followed, guided by stereotyped rules, properly ob- solete for three-quarters of a century, were often so absurdly at variance with ordinary intelligence that his criticisms are all justi- fled. One of Conan Doyle's descriptions is worth quoting by way of contrast to that of Mr. Julian Ralph, which I shall subse- quently cite: t was only General Smith Dorrien’s brigade. I watched them, rugged, bearded, fierce-eyed infantry, struggling under a cloud of dust. Who could have conceived, who had seen the prim soldier in the time of peace, that he could so quickly transform himself into this grim, virile barbarian? Bulldog faces, hawk faces, hungry wolf faces, every sort of face except a weak one.” He speaks of them as “maned like lions” and compares them to American cowboys, All that makes a good picture and Conan Doyle's book 1is altogether, in my opinlon, one of the best published on the war. I would, however, express one caveat. He speaks of the war, some months ago, as being over. That is hardly consistent with more 850 FINE PHOTOGRAPHIC VIEW OF WAVES THAT SWEPT OVER CAPE NOME, DASHING OVER A S8COW AS THE SEA 1S SUBSIDING AFTER Alaska, Ww. J WHO PARTI Bryan Ex-Governor Hoyd Dr. A the Journals the cry of some of London jiugo for and their discontent with disbanding of the colonial troops or with Lord Roberts’ statement that not a man can be spared from South Africa Whims of Ralph, Julian Ralph has of late becn by pro-English and pro-Boers, it appeal and he defends himself valiantly and that by his fmpartiality he “will carn the disapproval of the microscopic-headed, insect-brained people.” This is sweeping and is very severe on myself good few Americans who were to admirers. Julian Ralph is such a individual, his intentions arc so the result is sometimes so contrary intentions that explanations should be dili- gently sought. 1 have been reading his later articles and dukes and duchesses and titled Cape papers and greater forces the prematury attachked well as a bus gental good and o hus ruerly people generally dance about his pages in 80 free and volatile a manner that 1 fear his judgment is obscured in conscequence He speaks of London as “'this vast clly where dukes and lords and countesses roan about.,” He mentions a room in Bloem fontein where “dukes and lords sit and toil with pens” and one can even feel the gusto with which he describes *‘Lord Roberts with his staff of famous noblemen.” now At Winston Churchill's lecture he 1s de- lighted with the rows of “‘dress suits and gay gowns." Now, my own acqualntances have ranged from princes Lo pugilists and 1 incline Lo like the pugi lists best, but that, I dare say, is “in sect-brained ' There must be a special gense in that admiration for aristocracy and noble dress suits and it must be very de lightful to the possessor. We, on the Boer side, could never enjoy the intoxication arising from contact with titles and this should always be accounted to us in miti gating our condemnation We were only among our equals, And s0 it happened, pos- s8ibly, that we took false views of things. In Cronje's fight at Paardeberg, for ex- ample, we beheld a heroic band of men holding out agalnst tenfold odds, pounded at day and night for a fortnight in one of the most terrific bombardments known to history, rained on, flooded out till the swollen watercourse carried hundreds of dead horses, dead oxen and many dead men on its stream; famished, yet fighting on till their ammunition had en expended, and ylelding finally to the inevitable with a dignity which brought an expression of admiration from Lord Roberts himself In THE GREAT STORM CIPATED IN THE JACKSONIAN BANQUET W, Riley Fdgar Howard AT OMAHA, JANUARY 7, 1001 Europe and America Cronje was called the Lion ot South Africa Mr. Ralph writes: 1 never dreamed that there were on earth such tithy, dirty, tangle-haired, wild-eyed men existent I were at home and saw one such man com ing down the street where 1 live 1 would turn back and warn my people to take in their linen off the line.” Compare these words with Ce desceription of the men he admired the more for the battle-stained marks that them. Mr. Ralph himsclf, thought, would Lardly care to a comparison. Doyle's admired, and travel-stained, distinguished in second make such Earn t Re Among those who have earncd reputation from South Africa, Mr. Richard Harding Davis should be placed in the front rank. 1 do not say It he advocates the side for which 1 fought, but because he has looked at facts on both sides, fuirly and squarely, and he has not been carried off his feet by the superficial aspect of things. He went out to South Africa Anglophile; he followed the operations ol Lord Roberts’ army, and then he procecded to the republics, where, with no reason to form a bias, he came to a deliberate judg mwent of the justice of the war and the character of the military operations One of the best types of war cor ent is George Lynch, who has recently added in China to the laurels gained in Cuba and South Africa. His art is a simple one. He gets to the very front and thence relates facts. There is a bluntness about his parratives which has been of detriment to bim, for they are not only true, but they read like truth. He saw the war on the English side; he was taken prisoner, and afterward released by the Boers; and he suld that the war was unjust. On his re turn to Durban his license was scinded. And that reminds me of the conditions ucder which modern war correspondents work with the English army. They are, in the first place, under the operation of the mutiny act. Only a limited number are allowed to accompany the army, and the officer commanding makes the selection. It is stipulated that the correspondent have A written permit every time he wishes to &> on the field of action or visit the ad vanced posts. The military censor, how- ever, furnishes news of what is transpiring The censor has the right to retain, ex punge, correct, or even append, what seems to him justifiable. These regulations are not 80 onerous they appear, for, gen- erlly speaking, the public wishes to hear only the bright side of their army's ex- ploits, and the correspondents are quite in accerdance with that view, Haution, the best because spond- a8 Young Kruger isa Hero An English clergyman has had the ex treme hardihood of relating an anecdote in @ Dublin paper that reflects great credit upon a near relative, a grandnephew, of Bogland's arch enemy, Paul Kruger, He wus staying at Glondalough with two friends, and while boating on the upper lake, under Camaderry mountain, noticed a sheep pitifully bleating on a ledge about 1,000 feet up the sheer cliff. The animal had been there for days and was in a state of seml-starvation The peasants about had resolved to shoot it and thus end its misery. Young Kruger, however, essayed its rescue, He tied a piece of tarred twine round the soles of his boots and climbed up the face of the precipice, much to the anxiety of his friends. The operation took him quite two hours, during which the slightest unsteadiness or wavering would have cost hfmn his life. Half-way up he houted down that he could not move fur her With a final effort, however, he gradually worked his way up, reached the animal and lowered it cautiously until he regained the His intrepid act excited intense admiration among the spectators. His task seemed utterly impossible and in any event was attended with terrible danger. Young Kruger was at the time a medical student at Edinburgh university, and on the decla- ration of war salled for South Africa, ho