THE HONGKONG
KITCHENER,
A CHARACTER SKETCH,
ני
By T. P, O'Connor, M. P,, In "Collier's."
white
mule bad
TELEGRAPH
EXTRA
HONGKONG, SATURDAY, JANUARY 16, 1915,
othere. This soldier buys more land, improves it,selle it at sa ad- vantage; in short, he makes order out of chaos and makes money where his predecessors had lost their all. To some extent, but of course on a mightier scale, his son might be described as an im- provif order, the instinct to
me; and the effect of this per- THE STORM OF VAILLY. fect tranquillity produces an ex- raordinary result on those who work with him. They ale do their work sasily, tranquilly, and without feeling it.
A German Captain's Story.
A vivid battle picture is taken,
THE IMMORTAL PAGES.
French Soldier's Death In Singapore.
A great soldier certainly; bat perhaps a greater organiser than his landlord. He has the in anything oleo. This in
suprame quality, and for that by Ranter from the Lohalsiger soldier from Brittany died in A few days ago a little French quality there is necessary, above It is from the pen of Dr. Ludwig
Arabic.
1.
usual.
In the Trenches,
... But ive minutes after,
sudden inspiration, tikes the
M. Meunier Surauf, member. of Parliament for: Morbihan, writes to a friend a very interest- ing letter, from which the follow- ing passages have been taken:
Hi My dear Corfeo, We are in the region of S. just in
annonade with or without result. time to time, there is, a vi front “Boches.” From violent improve, the irresistible impulse to mako material changes for the all things, a clear, penetrating Munzinger, a captain in German Singapore. He was too far Then hot shooting which killa benefit of those ho governs. He brain. How dosen't form any line regiment.
gons when he was brought to the only those at whom it does not is reaseless in_work for the im-visions—as «Napoleon used to For six weeks, he writes, we General Elospital here, and the aim. Then a complete silenos. prvement of Egypt since he went complain of some of his marshals. had been talking and writing in and affectionate attention of the trenches and spend their time
kill of the doctors, the devoted
The soldiers who live in the there; he has drained the delta At school he was celebrated for our tranches. Vailly lay bolo sisters could not save him. But region and will add millions of his knowledge of mathematics, in the valley of the Aiene, a bare
observing each other, get used to acres to the cultivable land of and especially for his phenomenal kilometre away, hidden from our all the time he remained there, that sort of life. Tito days are Egypt. You should see the rapidity in dealing with figures, view by the edge of the heights however, he kept the hope of long, and to make them shorter.
light in the and it was not accident that eo along which the British, en going to France: "I want to
wo try to find some pastime. chener, one has to get rid of the never quite grasped the Arab na-eyes and hear the swell in the truly a scientific mind found its trenching themselves since the 80; I want to join all my com- give you an example, the veracity
Firat, in sladying Lord Kit Arabic language, and possibly enthusiastio
of which I can vouch for: legendary Kitchener, and try to tare. Lord Kitchener is the cadi vice as he talks of seeing land natural plans in the engineers. A middle of September, had made rader" he said anxiously to s reconstruct the real man. The under the tree. The mayor or open to the toil of man which, mathematician, an engineer, the whole ridge into a veritable friend who esme to visit him
three days before his death. A bare passes between two trenches (German and French; Bilent Sphinx; the emotionless the citizens of the little Arab for centuries, had lain derelict in manol science, a great accountant, fortress.
these things he has been in all One night in the middle of Poor little Pinvideo I. He will
two volleys are fired at him. It machine; the barah and heartless village can come to him, and the morass and onder water. commander; all these picturesque old soldier, and even the fellah. The Young Soldier Who Learned his enterprises. It was these Dotober they were withdrawn, were his Brittany again, he falls, and one Frenchman (that is qualities that enabled him to presumably to West Flanders, will not fight and fall gloriously in his nature) xanho out to go phrases which bave been applied aloo; and they will find Lord Kit- to Lord Kitchener, sometimes by choner ready to listen and to talk Lord Kitchener we know to the which brought Cairo almost into Franch troops.
20and take it. White flag of the I attribute something of the make that astounding railway and their places were taken by on the battlefield like
many of the colonial regiments, Germano who scream; "Tabiol graphic friends and sometimes by to them in their own tongas, to fact that, though English by touch with the Caliph, who, with Soon came word that we were but by his sufferings bravely sup Tabac Our soldiers under viralent foes, are absolutely mis enter with gusto into the pottiest blood, he spent the first years of his predecessor, the Mahdi, and to attack and take Vailly: Then ported, he will have contributed stand, the Germans will allow us leading.
details of their daily and squalid Lord Kitchener doubtless, like livas, and ready also to apply the his life in wandering over the with his tragically potens ally, the came an order for the making of ỉ his part to the renovation and to take the here on condition
bills and looking down on the hangry and all-devouting desert, sape and storming positions as redemption of France.
we give them some tobacco. One all great men of eation, can keep remedy to such grievances or to set-tossed shores of County Kerry. had heaten back so many other close to the enemy as possible. A "Rescape" from the Mousquet of our soldiers reaches the place his own counsel; but the silent supply such wants as commend Tast tast which enabled him to attempts to reach and to beat We grabbed day and night
From Brittany too war the where she høre lies, takes it with Sphinx" when met at a dinner themselves to his judgment.
With eyes as big as plates, the French sailor of the Mousquetaim, leaving on the spot a big party is eager to talk, and talka As an illustration of his scoss-settle the issue with Marcband, him.
the French explorer, at Fashoda,
Of all the pictures I have Frenchmen watched our mole Cingapore on bis way to Saigon; has he come back to the treaches, who passed the other day through parcel of “nosferlati." Scarcely admirably, with a certain direct- sibility, let me repeat a delicious suggests, some of the lessons in seen of Kitchener's stirring like activity. ness and ferseness as of a man of story which delighted all Egypt. the soft answer which Ireland can career, the one I like best is that On October 29, about noon,
small, a blue-eyed and mild-look." than a boobe" goes out in his sotion, but not without imagina- An old peasant came out of the teach. You remember how, when of him at Wady Halle when he they must have realised with ing young man, but determined tion, and with great insight, depths of the land all the it was possible that a collision had changed it into a miniature horror that we had been getting and resolute like all those from cura and takes his tobacco, When he is in the intimacy of his way to Cairo to see the great between him and Marchand might Crewe. "Rarely impatient," writes something ready for them; for
his country, ..............I was shot own room at night and with only Kitchener, with the complaint mean a war between England and one of his biographers of him at now a heavy hail of iron began aid he, when asked to give biang begins more violently than through the leg a two places," by way of compensation, the fir a friend or two, he can talk the that his whole evening through; and no- been stolen. The whole officiel France, Lord Kitchener sent some that station, "never unreasonable, to pour down upon them and con-
impressions, "and thrown back on Another anecdote. The silence body thinks of interrupting the machinery was interrupted for a fresh vegetables and champagne he moved among his workshops cued for twenty hours.
to the daring French explorer, and about the line, satisfying With the dawn I conducted the deck, unconscious, when in the valley becomes too opptesn stream of interesting reminiscence while, and the old fellah went who had gone through the han? himself that all was proceeding my company to the storming suddenly I felt ignited fragments ive. Everybody is sick and and shrewd comment.
back with his white mule. You cao fancy how that story was re-ger, thirst, and hardship of the with economy and despatch. The position. They went forward of tent falling over me; my sited. Oas of our soldiers, with The Humanity of the Man of peated in every fallah cabin in desert for months. Marchand had sympathy of common labour won with a merry earnestness, first ia olothes would have been soon ge.
the land, and how the devotion to go from Fashoda all the same, him the affection of the subalterns. to the esp, and then on again. of And: Barciadly I took them kept" of an officer lying in a The emotionless machine has to Kitchener and trust in his
but he went with no personal Nowhere in the Sudan was he As they entered the cap many a
corner of the trench. Immediate as a matter of fact, plenty of justice and in his sympathy weat
grievanos.
better known than on the railroad. silent handshake was exchanged. picked up by the sailors of the ly from the enemy's side, shots are emotion, though well under trampet-tongued among this race, Kitchener's greatness, I trace lieved in.
If I look for the roots of Lord Nowhere was he so ardently be
The ground is uneven, and the Emden, and high tims was it fired, coming regularly, one alter restraint; and the barsh and downtrodden and neglected al- them to intense ambition to gase
first rush forward breaks the too, so much my wound had ex- the other, as in our champ de
hausted my forces, that "I was tir" at Gouedic. heartless commander is consider most from the beginning of time. ceed, to make the most of his op-
The Essentials of Personality.
aressing of the companies.
already sinking!
Tae ato to subordinates-acarcely He Jests at No-one's Expense.
Thus Kitchener made war; as
only thing I managed to save," Bays a harsh word-aever uitera
"He is always learning," sald portunities above all, to the in-
aman of business and of science, A harsh comment behind any au intimate of his to me once.
Cessant desire to work and fill bringing the railway into desert
added he emiling, "was my pipe. I thought I should keep some- body's back, and often has dis Unlike some men who begin by every hour of his days with some warfare and not merely men and
thing like a 'souvenir' if over 1 tinguished himself from more ex impressing everybody that they thing done. He is sent as a
gane; and doing it all at the of a strong, fierce, dominant went back to Nantes." cited subordinates, not by the know everything, including the youngster to Palestine; through cheapest cost, for he did not nature were really brought out rigour, but by the great humanity, very business of the man who ap- peril to life, through great priva apend on this campaign all the into greater relief by that strange sacrifice of your life!
• Go, and make the of his judgment and action. This proaches them, Lord Kitchener on, through heart-breaking money that had been voted to smile. The smile, as is passed The following is the exact and man without emotion has, in its quietly, lietens carefully,
drudgery, be purauss his work him:
over the forehead, seemed to complete translation of a letter reality, a rean and abiding asks questions, and thanks his until he has completed a map of But when I have said all these bring out into even greater pro-written by a young girl from sympathy with those Esetern visitor for all he has learned from all western Palestine to the things about Kitchener, I feel that minence the bulging forehead Lorraine, a letter which has been people among whom his life ba3 him. A student Lord Kitchener amazement and delight of his I have not yet brought home to forehead that has what looks like "cites a l'ordre du jour, and been mainly, spent; he has had to began; a student he will remain employers. And he values this the reader the marvellous power cushions of fish or bans just read at the front before the slay many of them, but they were to the end of his days.
experience so largely because he of the man; he still remains, par above the eyes. The smile gave troops the oppressors, and it was to sa70 There is yet another popolar learns Arabic, and, above all, be tially at least, unexplained, What an additional glitter to the eyes; the oppressed. He speaks their mistake about Lord Kitchener: learns the Arabic character. One can I do in order to make you it seemed to impart a more deadly My dear Edwardi
Moyen-Vio. language, understands their na- that grimness which is undoubted of the chroniclere of his career realise him, except to fall back on curl to the heavy and monstacked. makes the apt observation that, the familiar word, personality? mouth. Through it all the face ture, sympathises with their
ly there has been supposed to mean wronge, is indulgent to their absence of all humour. His friends while the baton of the marshal is. It is a thing you can never ex seemed strangely familiar to me. weaknesses; and works incessantly will tell you that the sense of in every French soldier's knap plain about any man; the best I could not make out why, but in for their spiritual and materialbumour is never absent; that sack, Kitchener found his coronet indication you can have or give the end it all at once struck me
instinctively and inevitably be in the Arab grammar. But how of it is to see the great personality it was the typical face of the Irish This man, who has fought such sees the humorous side of every would have devoted the leisure Napoleon went down at twenty
many soldiers or men of any class in association with other men. Resident Magistrate." tremendous and historio battles thing-even in the moat
I have met Lord Kitchener and confronted great odds, is yet serious situations. It is that hours of a fiercely active task like six-and after a reputation only since I wrote these lines, and I a man who prefera a deal to a
humour that has Kitchoner's in Palestine to the as a street fighter to take the think they give, on the whole, a fase you that. Jean had received of sense struggle: and, though be can be carried him through; without it study of one of the most difficult command in Italy from out of the too harsh impression of his ap- the oroge of "la Legion d'hon-Naturally, at the first night- so stern, has yet a diplomatic tact he would have found his career
of languages?
haude of soldiers that had grown pearance. He has all the atera near." You must win the same boxes tinkle, and we jump to our attack of the Germans, the that gets him and his country out and his life impossible. With
Hard work, patience, and the grey on victorious battle fields; strength I have described in these decoration. of difficult hours. The nature, this sanse of humour there is the utilisation of every second of and they prepared for him a hot lines; but when you meet him in They have taken everything But sometimes, on a dark doubtless, is complex, and stern love of a joke at a friend's easy learar-these are the chief secrete man looked at them with those and he looks genial, talks freely,
time, the eagerness always to reception. But when the little private life, the expression softens, from us. determination and tenacity are expense. "Bat," said an intimate part of it; but there is also the of bis on this point, "I never of Lord Kitchener's enormous awful eyes of his, he tamed them candid in the expression of his war, eight have already died. finng from the opposite sides, From eleven who went to the the tins, which bringe violent. night, a hare, in passing, rings other side, which is much forgot heard him atter a joke that could success in life. But the man who as quickly as though he bad been view; in short, is the very reverse My dear little brother, do your French and Boches" being ten-especially by that class of leave a sting."
a lion tamer. And so with Kit of that grim, silent Sphinx which daty, that is the writers who have to describej
cheder.
thing we equally on their guard against the only thi he has been reputed to be.
ank of you. human character · as rigidly
"The Smile Without Mirth.
God has given you your life;
Gay surprise, symmetrical and unnaturally har
I have reread a description I| The Quality of Greatness,
he has a right to take it back monione.
wrote of him many years ago. I
from you. C'est maman qui and a little change in it now; Lord Kitchener is the authent l'a dit"
elevation:
Iron,
No Trouble to Reach Him.
Ad Illuminating Bit of Blography.
What, then, is the real Kit choner what lies at the root of his nature; what is the explan-
works himself is ineffective in great thinga unless he has the gift to choose the men who orn work for him and with him. This choice of subordinates is one of Lord Kitchener's greatest powers,
is
off and it was in that state I was
$1
Charles and Lucien's death; I have fuard the news of Eugene is grievously wounded. As for Louis and Joan, they are also dead. Ross has disappeared. Mamma cries. She asya you mast, be courageous, and wants you to go and avenge them.
from var trench a shovel is raised. The kepi isshot through. Tuen
up, making the well-known movement of the flag indicating you have hit the target You may well imagine the joy and abouts of laughter of our soldiers. That is the only way they can keep in good humour and health.
Another trick they have im
agined so as not to let them iron wires and the stakes, they salves be surprised. Besides the have found what they call the warning balls. The process con sists in putting, so far as possible. from the trenches," des boites de Biage
(the boites de eige meat); compeitions take place to are empty tine of preserved
3
see which one will throw his the
furthest.
more than five hundred boxes, In some trenches, you can find
turown away a long distance in I hope your chiefs will not re- front of aw,
gans.
That cold and penetrating eye ation of the extraordinary things te nearly always has had the here is what I said, premising that io Great Man, even though he be it. (It is mamms who said ure lucky enough to have with
4.
Tell our people they may be proud of their "gars" (boys). They valiantly do their duty. We
drious, Here is one who does us en aqmonier" from S more than his duty. simply admirable, like all the He is oshet prieste, I must say -Singa
Fres Press
pore
of his makes it impossible to he has done and is doing? I go right man in the right place. I had seen him as he heard the not the legendary creature that We kiss you with all our heart, imagino anybody taking any back first to his father as a light And hie men return his confidence debate in the House of Commons fanciful chroniclers have made although we would be eo pleased liberties with Lord Kitchener; thrown on his career. A retired because he gives them absolute of which he was the subject: him. You feel his greatness; it to see you before you go. The yet one of his greatest qualition, offer, English by birth, a visitor confidence. He never thinks of at once useful and charming, is to Ireland almost by accident, asking a subordinate whether he several times during the debate, as with something like an aureole, the Jaudon has been killed. "I noticed that he smiled surrounds him wherever he goes russians are here. The son of his accessibility. Aoybody who with but a comparatively small bas done the job he has given Somehow or other the grim face He is a tremendous driving force, Tasy have plundered everything. has anything to say to him can fortune, he suddenly sees an an him; he takes that for granted, never looked to me grimmer than and he does it all so tranquilly, so I came from Gerbeviller which approach him; anybody who ta nouncement of the sale of a large knowing his man; and he never when this smile passed soross it civilly, and with such little effort is completely destroyed, the anything to teach him will find a gate in the County of Kerry at worries his subordinates. The large, strong mouth, heavy, that his subordinates often don't cowards I ready and grateful learner. This the low price which followed the Mathematician, Soldier, covered with the typical military see the thing in process of being sacrifice de ta vie make the Of late there has been extreme is one of the secrets of his extra-devastation of the famine of 1846,
Go, my little brother, fais le
Cold. and brush-like moustache; the Kitchener orders, and lo! the ordinary success and universal | He settles down on the estate; This is one of the reasons why, strong, square jaw the tremend thing is done. It is fortunate for sacrifice of your life!) we are cou-week along the Trans-Siberian cold in Southern Siberia, and last popularity in Egypt Lord he at once sets to improving it, to though he works so terrifically, he ously heavy brows; the strange, our nation that the great office on fident in seeing you again, Cromer was a great Egyptian draining it, fencing is, doing all never is tired, never worried. He glittering eyes; and even the red- which so much of our safety and something like a pro atiment Line in the region of Irkutak, the ruler, and his services are imper- the things which are natural to a site down at his deck st the War brick complexion--the complex ropule depend in this solemn tells us to be hopeful. We kigs ishable and gigantic; but Lord real farmer, but which were all Office for about ten hours a day: ion that told so many tales of hard hour of struggle should have as you wish all our heart. Adien or raordinarily low level of 56.3
temperature dropped to the ex Cromer was the stern, solitary neglected under the indolent and but he eite thore calmly isn't rides for many hundreds of miles its head a man who comes to it an revoir 81 Dieu le permes! degrees below tro, Centigrade, and inaccessible bureauorat who wasteful rale of that unfortunate ringing at hella and shouting deder blazing Egyptian san worked innumerable hours every olsas of old Irish landlord who down pipes; he does it all so through wild and trackless from the divine and unerring
with the stamp of absolute fitness C'est poor nons et pour la Francs, 100.8 degrees Fahrenheit of day at his desk, never learned the wrecked himself and so many quietly that it seems mere pas Egyptian sands; all the features hand of Na
*** Songe a ton frere et au grande frost, or 68 8 degrees below zero pare on foi
Fahrenheit.
Engineer, Accountant,
for