The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, October 16, 1898, Page 19

THE SAN FRANCISCO CALL, UNDAY, OCTOREB 16, 1898. 19 HOW GENERAL KITCHENER PREPARED mimstLr FOR HIS GREAT WORK N TE SOUDAN His early adventures with the- Dervishes, his daring attempt to rescue ‘‘Chinese’’ Gordon penned up In Khartoum and why he issued his famous order, “Kill all woundzd Dervishes.” BY HERBERT V. G. MORRELL, Who Served With Him < r-in-law of Sir Walter Mievelle, a Pasha. = o— A THE CHARGE OF THE 2IST LANCERS AT OMDURMAN, September 2, 1898. From a sketch made by Lieutenant Angus McNell, Seaforth Highlanders, for the Illustrated London News. al Sir Herb Kitchener, then a brevet-major, up th ile in 1884 to rescue Ge: staff interpreters was Herbert G. Health Department in Cairo who is on qis ay back to oud ives an intere of Kitchener was a junior r and first disg the qualities, destined to an epochal character. 2 first time I saw Major Kitch- 1In the ne! 100d of Gezhi . Morrell, was in a of the Abdin e governed cts in all undis- sway, pr up the subsidy Tewfik the po! sely, was an all around good fellow and fond of the Engli On the had ar- ranged to i in com- memoration of the t campaign un- der Sir Gener: Graham, V. C, in e expedition I This cam- s considered a victorious o; h the heat was so terrible that we could not pursue man Digna to the h and did not bring him to a last stand. It was made up of Englishmen en- ncipal troops being s and the Forty-sec- , known as the “Black which had cap- other 1s a bronze one, with the -Kheber engraved on fit. ived mine and was look- the corner of the plazza, e said: “Young man, lal. You ought to be Widow don’t forget \w a very dapper look- terested me considera- 11 the others were 1 where the cer- g pl , or else in light conversation with the 1 best soc y in Cairo -this man was studying a I-thumbed little Arabic volume which contained se 1 from the Koran. At that time he had much the same personal appaerance as now. He was about five feet ten inches in height, proportioned, lithe and of won- rful endurance. His heavy dark iche concealed a firm mouth and juare chin and_small plercing k eyes attracted one and made you 1 to know more of him. was but 17 years old then, but abic well, and in a few mo- Kitchener, who intro- to me, began to converse language. It is most unusual Englishman to speak this it is difficult and few can ses to it or have the per- ue the study of it. advantage of living in inople for a number of years, her I went with my father, 8 ma- the Dragoon Guards, who became an Mackan Bey, or full colonel, y. He and I ndria at the same time , who came from India s broke out in Egypt in Al Kitchene when hostilit 1882. Kitchener was connected wita the Intelligence Department ana told me in our first conver ion that he bad been studying Ara for a year., He could then read and write it fluently. He was very proficient in Hindostanee also and soon picked dialects, e the D « On several occasions ‘when working the pyr: are situated, Jor Kitc - either prome and down In front of a pyramid with his hands behind his back or sitting down absorbed in a book. At otheép times I saw him at the Boulac Museum poring over old parchments and hand- ling the relics of Rameses II, for whom he enter a high respect. From 2 know that Kitchener is a well posted Egyptian scholar, for what he learns he dc not forget. It was while talking in the museum to some brother officers that an Arab run- ner came with the news that Hicks Pasha and his command had been be- trayed by the guides and assassinated “Poor begg muttered Kitchener, with an oath. “It was a death trap, When will the English Government learn that we are not fighting fanatics, but men who have a species of thirst for death. It will take an expedition Perfected in drill and with a tropical commissariat to do any good with such an enemy.” The next expedition General Baker. It was made up of local troops most deficient in carriage and arms. Most of the men had not fired a shot in years. I remember the eve before they started when General Baker and some of his staff were sitting on the veranda of Shepard’s Hotel in Cairo talking of the expedition. Major Kitch- ener was there also and while the oth- ers talked very sanguinely he main- tained absolute nce. In the compan was an E 8] Hebrew, Mr. Ornstein, heid in hii?l;‘“e!}: teem there and since knighted by the Queen. “I will h, to disagree with you there, géneral,” he said to Baker after one of the latter's happy prophe. cies. “For all the good that your expe- dition of native troops will do, you might_as well remain sitting on this veranda.” z “I do not expect to see any of them return allve,” observed Kitchener in a low tone to Mr. Ornstein. History tells how Baker's command was all cut up and the native troops became panic- stricken. Generdl Baker, with his pri- vate secretary alone, escaped to the Government boat at Suakim, the prin- cipal port in the Soudan littoral, After this failure came the exped led by 8ir Gerald Graham, in '»\l"l)h';l“l{gr" Morrell took part as staff interpreter. It returned with its mission only half accomplished, and all 'S were then in the spring of 138, turned toward Khartoum, where that brave martyr, General Gordon, was besieged by the S ged by the “Kitchener was a great admirer of Gordon,” Mr. Morrell continued, “and could not conceal his anger at Glad- stone for his treatment of the hero, which he characterized as “rude and unkind.” He, Kitchener, was looked up to as the most capable man to lead the expe- dition to rescue Gordon, though there were many officers on the spot superior fo him in rank. No one general had supreme command, because Wolseley, Graham and the other well-known leaders had cleared out, so the Intelli- gence Department had the organizing of the affair. Kitchener had by this time made him self invaluable to the department. He was thoroughly acquainted with the customs of the Arabs and had made personal friends with many powerful h was that of THE END OF MAHDISM: THE DEAD YAKUB AND HIS FOLLOWERS BESIDE THE KHALIFA’'S BLACK FLAG. From a Sketch by a Correspondent of the Illustrated London News. The Finest Heroic Display in the Dervish Ranks Was Made by the Khalifa's Brother, the Emir Yakub, Who With His Followers Gathered in a Dense Mass Round Their Standard and Proudly Faced the Leaden Hail. of His Wounded Bodyguard Raised Themselves and Fired at Our Men. Witnessed the Death of His Old Enemy and Captor, Yakub, Who Recognized Him. “The local Governors were mostly rich Turks,” said Mr. Morrell. ‘“They were nominated from Constantinople and their subjects were held in abso- lute servitude. Slavery flourished, too, and knowing the English had forbidden this, the Turks were loth to allow a white man in their homes. ““With Kitchener it was different. He was welcomed always with a broad smile, and it is the same to-day. When Kitchener enters an Arab tent he is very careful to observe all the pro- prieties and speak the figurative flow- ing language peculiar to the Arabians. ‘‘He first salams respectfully and then says: ‘Salam allakum’ (‘With you be God.") The Shdik answers with an in- clination of his head: “Allakum el salam’ (‘God be with you.") What the Arabs consider as a great joke on Kitchener, and a saying that always calls for a laugh at the expense of the general, 18 another of these amenities which, translated, means: ‘May you be the sire of many sons.’ General Kitch- ener is unmarried and will probably remain a bachelor all his life, so that the Arabs consider it about the funniest thing possible to greet Kitchener with this legend. “Kitchener then had charge prac- tically of the Gordon relief expedition, and if he had had his own way Gordon might have been saved. We reached Khartoum just about seventy hours after the massacre, and Kitchener was 80 sorry and enraged over this that he almost shed tears.” ‘“We got away from Cairo in April, 1884. The other expeditions had made their way through the Soudan, but Kitchener planned to go up the Nile in order to reach Khartoum more readily. For this purpgse we were provided with canoes specially built in Canada and paddled by Canadian frontiers- men. The canoes varied from twenty feet to sixty feet in length and had turned up ends after the style of the e They Were Promptly Despatched. As Yakub Expired, Several Slatin Pasha Indian boats. The largest ones were twelve feet wide and they could accom- modate forty men beside the paddlers. “Along the banks of the Nile followed the commissariat, the heavy baggage and the horses. .The Tenth Hussars and Egyptian cavalry Kitchener pick- ed out especially for the expedition and camels he used to transport the com- missariat. “It was in providing unusually good rations for the men that Kitchener made his first hit, and his determina- tion to have the men well fed in a hot tropical climate is responsible in great part for his wonderful success. He is always as careful of his commissariat as though the camels were carrying precious stones. * “Every morning at 10 o’clock he is out to see to the details of giving out the stores, and any sergeant who makes a complaint about food always receives a hearing. Kitchener laid in a supply of things which we had never been treat- ed to before. He got tinned beef made in Chicago, cheese, condensed milk, curry and rice, and all along the route bought fresh vegetables. Every man received one pound and a half of bread and one pound of meat a day, coffee for dinner and tea at night. If some big chap swore he hadn’'t enough Kitchener would give orders to ‘feed him more. “Kitchener was still a brevet major, out the soldiers looked upon him as a general, and he attracted more atten- tion than any other officer. It was my duty to go ahead with the guides and interview the Sheiks. The job was full of danger, and hardly a day passed that Major Kitchener did not appear in our company and ride along He had two horses then, both full-blooded Arabians. He called the smaller one Said and a heavy roadster he named Mohammed. He gave them these names, as he frankly explained to us, in order to make himself popular with the Sheiks. His reputation soon spread on account of this consideration which he showed for the natives, and he was the guest of honor whenever we enter- ed a Sheik's tent. The seats in these tents run around three sides. In the center sits the Sheik and the one whem he intends to honor is seated just to the right. It was an eye-opener to most of the men to see Kitchener squatted on the divan chatting in Arable. “He is also popular with these chaps because he is inordinately fond of smoking lacome or the cigarette called Turkish Delight. One hardly ever sees Kitchener without a cigarette in his mouth. He is also fond of smoking the nargileh or Turkish pipe, and never re- fuses the proffered bowl. It is an old proverb that when salt is eaten with an Arab you are his friend for life, and Kitchener never refused to make friends in this way, although ordinarily he eats but little. He says the less he eats the better he works, and I certainly never saw a soldier who could endure so much. Rarely on an expedition does he sleep more than five or six hours out of twenty-four, and the rest of the time he can be continually in the saddle without showing fatigue.” One of the most strikingly interest- ing incidents of this march related by the interpreter to illustrate Kitchener’s unusual characteristics was the follow- ing: When the expedition got as far as Assouan a quarrel broke out among the natives in the commissariat depart- ment. This was made up of two dis- tinct camel corps, one from Aden, con- sisting of Somalis, the fine breed of Arabs who live in Aden; the other of Egyptians from Cairo and Alexandria. At the first encampment bad blood broke out. The contention as to who were the most proficient in camel driv- ing was heightened by the alleged pref- erence which was shown to the Aden- ites by the English. Finally the So- malis challenged the Egyptians to a fair fight to see who were the most valiant. “The Egyptians refused the contest. I was one of the interpreters who re- ported the matter to Captain Wilson, in charge of the commissary. The next morning Major Kitchener himself came into the camp and ordered the Teme- dar (head groomsman) of the Adenites and the Sheik of the Egyptians to pre- sent themselves. He heard the two sides of the grievance, and then, turn- ing quickly, commanded the Shelk and twenty of the foremost Egyptians to be bastinadoed for cowardice. There was the greatest excitement in camp, but no one dared to revolt when those piercing eyes followed up the order. About twenty of those who refused to fight were tied on boards and rattan canes given to as many of the Aden- ities, and, to use the interpreter’s exact. bastinadoed language, “They jolly well the Egyptians’ feet off.” Some of them were so belabored that they could not walk for weeks, their feet being cut and swollen, but it stamped out all coward- ice in the army.” Kitchener is a martinet in the ob- servance of rules and is severe in pun- ishing. He comes down rather heavily on drunkenness, and for this reason has made himself to a certain extent unpopular with some of his soldiers. Rogers, his body servant, is a tee- totaler, which is an exceedingly rare thing to find i the ranks of Tommy Atkins. “Kitchener's cure for drunk- enness” is a by-word among his men. Once taken it is never forgotten. The culprit is togged out in fuil marching equipment, which is a matter of sixty pounds, and is then compelled to carry in each hand a bag of shot weighing fifty pounds. A sergeant and a guard are put over the victim to see that he does not stop walking or drop the shot. A man is sometimes kept at this “shot drill” for six hours. Another severity which called down unpleasant comments on Kitchener was his order “Kill the wounded Dervishes.” England heard of this with horror, but the British soldiers were loud in their praises. Kitchener had seen how these Dervishes, after being wounded, would lie quiet on the battlefield, concealing in their clothes a pistol or scimitar-shaped knife. When the ambulance corps’and surgeons came out on the field to give ald to the wounded enemy these fel- lows would wriggle out through the heaps of slain and give a last thrust or put a bullet in a nurse or doctor. At other times they would hamstring a horse, and in this way disabled nearly the whole “Black Watch.” Kitchener’'s order is carried out to this day. It was the soldiers’ only pratection. “There were 8000 men in that first ex- pedition,” continued Mr. Morrell, “and they moved along like clockwork. The Canadians were expert at shooting the rapids, and could have made splendid time. But our orders from London were to proceed at eight and ten ‘miles a day. Kitchener was for pushing for- ward in spite of orders. ‘God,’ he would exclaim, ‘poor Gordon will be murdered just because of a lot of fogheads at home.” Every day or two a runner would reach camp after making his way through the Mahdi’s army In dis- guise and tell us that Gordon's provis- fons were almost gone and that he could hold out but a few days. Kitch- ener had figured out almost to the hour when we would reach Khartoum at the rate we were traveling, and decided that we would get there too late. But he was only a junior officer, and his counsels to push forward did not pre- vail “The men were all with him, though they could never quite understand him. At one time he would tear along on his Said, cursing the slow motion of the army, and at other times he would ride along 'hardly paying any attention to his horse, and intently reading the Koran or some volunme of the ancient Persian and Arabian poets. He knows the Koran so well that he can quote it to the Sheiks with more fluency than the Arabs themselves. “Finally we were getting near Khar- toum and hopes of saving Gordon be- gan to rise. They were suddenly dashed to earth, though, by the arrival of a Greek named Lycurgus, who was car- ried into camp almost dead. He brought a message from Gordon and Frank Power, correspondent of the London Times, to ‘Come quick for God's sake.” It was then too late, though, for the Greek had just got clear of the Mahdi's lines when the Dervishes broke into Khartoum and began the massacre. We« reached there two days later, only to find the city deluged in blood. Had Kitchener had his way we could have saved n."” A [}