CAMPAIGNING MEMORIES.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7418, 9 December 1889, Page 2

CAMPAIGNING MEMORIES.

By David Christie Murray.

Amongst other familiar figures I recall, is thatPOf one Goldstein, a tailor and haberdasher in Adrianople. Goldstein had started in life a 9 a German, bub had come to be .* polyglot and citizen of the w0r1d , ,.? ;Sfe had been through the war, employed in I forget what capaoity by General Wyndham, and was currently known as Wyndham's Goldstein. IQ> reward for his services he was allowed to open a* canteen, and made what was for him quite a handsome little! competency out Qf it. With this he set up in business in Adrianople, and prospered mightily, so that when.l met him he was a merchant} of, great consideration. He was a fat round ball of a man, but surprisingly active forhis build and as full of light as & bulldog When the irregulars came up into the town they frightened everybody with the solitary of Old Gold, stein.. One day whilet the terror was .at -its height, and when nine out of every ten sleeps were 1 closed because of the , almost universal panic, one coffee-coloured bandy legged loysterer, with • hat three feet high and a leathern bellyband crammed fall of lethal weapons, swaggered into Goldstein's establishment and demanded to'" know th«r ■"■> price l of* something. He clutched at the article he wanted, and threw' : - out the' monosyllable "Katch," which means "How much!" Goldstein,, who himself stood.at -the receipt of custom, that morning, told Mm the price. The savage offered a quarter of the sum, bafc Goldstein iterated hie Original demand. Then the Ziebeck offered half with the same reau It. Finally he drew his :■ sword and flourished it over the counter' at the peaceful tradesman, threatening to have hie blood if the price were not abated. Thereupon the fat man unexpectedly vaulted the counter, seizing an iron yard measure in the act, and fell ujt»6n the savage With so rigorous an onslaught that he drove hi in from the shop, and in< the ! ehd cheV vtedt him the whole length of the bazaar. Onlookers at the scene* described it to mc as being indescribably comic. The man of war, laden with murderous, knives and the plitole. with which his tracestors had stormed Genoa, ran for his life and bellowedlike a bull calf, the pursy tailor following, yard measure in hand, panting!? threatening and cursing in half the languages of the Bast. I. asked the valiant tailor if the stbtfy vrer^trde,; answered,' "Dot vbsSO.T -."•..' : - ... ■:•.- ;

I There i* human nature «yen in the Zelbeck* I came acrbaa one fellow whom, I had very; good reason to believe, was steeped to the very lips ■Iα murderous outrage, and he was sitting on & door-step dissolved in fears. Beln« questioned ap to the reason of his distress, he pointed to a woman and a child in the near dlstancsi Hβ said, with n&imuvaise honte* that they reminded him of fitsiown wife , and child faraway in bis native mountains, and I have no dqnbfc that hs had a Very sincere affection for them and sup. posed himself to be doing good service to the Padisha in exterminating his Christian enemies. The absolute. contempt they entertained fop the Giaour, the outside infidel who has no part In the scheme of Mahomet, must be seen to be believed. My interpreter and I were siding one day into Phillipopolis when we passed a brae© of the ruffians, who scowled at us as they jogged by. , "Giadur varma?" saya'qne, •Is that» bhuiatianf w " Yar GiadurT , says the other, ♦• 16 Iβ a Christian 1" They turned in their saddles and spat after mo with an exerer&tion which I suppose I was none the lesa happy not to under* .stand/ ■'..-.■■' ■ ■ . • ' ■..■■;

They gave txs excellent fan sometimes, as when on the northern march .tore en. cdanfefea a body of theai who had looted "some Bulgarian village. One fellow had a sewing mecbiae on bis saddle before him, and exhibited that trophy with "grins o* I J<sy arid pride. J got my interpreter t» ask hMn If he knewat which end It went off, and at this query he hurled the' machine into a wayside pond and rode away as if to break his neck. Wβ came across a chum of his an hoar or two later ths aarae day. He, it appeared had been robbing a Greek Church, and for bis share of the loot had brought away a gilt candlestick eight or nln* feefr JoajJE. He invited mc to taste the metal to assure myself It was" gold, and was unshakable in his belief that It wa| solid* Eβ Was indeed so wedded to that oplnioii that* T hardly though It worth While to dispute the point with him. There was » third of the tribe who afforded for our observation quite a drama ot greed and canning and rage. He had .j robbed a Spanish Jew of his coat, and had done it in more wantonness, the garment j to all seeming being not worth a sixpence.' j But the Hebrew refused to be spoiled without a prdtest, and followed the toarch for days, scheming t& get his coat back, j If it had not been for this persistence the thief would probably have destroyed or thrown away che garment long before, for it was altogether worthless to him. At last, when he had worn oat beseeching? and menaces, the owner of the coat offered to pay for it, and day after day he followed, raising his price.every half hour or so, until the thief's suspicions were In the quiefc of the aighfc he made sfaricS" examination o* tke garmeat, and footed

that, the Itaine was staffed full o f HtM» In gold and illver, and the wetched paper corrency of the country Altogether I daresay he found £20 worth thfia bidden away, and having carefnijy extracted ie all, he sold the coat to t& rightful owner at an extravagant amir*. The misery and rage of that Jew beyond all description. He was a pict u 7 *sque old fellow, with a great sweeping tesasa of white moustache and beard, ano*t high peaked head of furrowed baldness I could not follow what he had to say, but he said it with a gusto 4nd intensity worthy of SalvinL I have no doubt in own mind that he was quite equal to the occasion, and that the sentiments fa! uttered weire In full accordance with"S« exigencies of the hourl

; The fund of story to be found in th e et perlence of war, whether tragic or JaueK able, Is practically inexhaustible, m> were worth anybody's reading I conto fill volumes out of the reminiscence*, of that one year. But I have no rown for volumes here, and can only for an hoat or two dip my hand Into the lucky W «! memory and bring out the thlagim grasped. I made acquaintance in Can stantinople with a gay, handsome* and light-hearted young K i an t ,«* had been in the Fourth KonigVDragbX and had fought through tbe tfrS German war. We stayed tog&fe m the Hysance Hotel in the GranS Roe dv Pera. Hβ was more than hatf** Englishman, but had been bred in Ha** burs, and all hie sympathies and JJ£ clivities were German. He was a brtel? harum-scarum fellow, and had adneti* to join the Polish Legion and to fielS theTurkagainstßuwia. Wegottobegoof friends, and one day I gave a little dS party at which he was one of tho invited I had asked for the same event™ a Freach officer of -cavalry, and when the C encountered it was impossible not to notice the- strange looks they cast upon «*£ other. Ordinarily each of them £Z bright and conversK, S bubbling over with high spirit*. Now they sat glum and silent, and as the dinner went on something of a child fell on us all. In the course of hatf *n h™ the truth came out. The young OelS officer had seen his only brother cuT2 at his side in a cavalry caw**,and"3 crossed swords with the man kat '&£ killed him. These two guests of tni ae had last met on the field of Graselofcte and Aqueauoao, two, an answer or two, resolved the whole business, and they both got up and treat away. There was no" ill hlood between them, but it was nofc easily possible to ah at the same table with a man who iiad slain an only brother, or with tbe man who cc brother you had slain. The dinati" party, which might have been a vety joy. fill affair indeed, languished badly, andw« had little to talk of or think of bub tfcy tragic and strange encounter

~: Now that I corae to look baok mfeo what I have written, it looks rather, yke Hamlet without the ghost.: The reism d'etre of che whole tbingisleft outbf ItTfti campaigning memories hardly, touch tb* campaign at aU. Suppose we have ofte peep at war before we part company, •* It was in the rainy and we wer* marching upon Plevna. AU the* officers', o\ every grade and every arm, Iα a< force ot 20,000 men, were gathered together Unthj ehllL of the morning upon a mlae#hilifcqa Below the hill to the left and to the reai lay the curving, muddy road by whichtmi march had led us, and a mile away to the front we saw the little village of Avianttea, with the morning mlstprfttty tlil&lj about it and above it. A straight ua. wavering coluinu of smoko rose out of ;th e mist, just at the crossing of the rivet, and we conjectured rightly that the had fired the bridge. Whether the eaemj still lurked in the village it was impcsisilij to determine without a reconnaissance and a mere handful of Cossacks, perhaps a score, were, sent ouc to,feel the way. Wt watched th6m from Avlihltza hill top a< they rode, now blurred by lemly ing cloud and driving rain, now lost to sighe altogether, and now with the burnished steel of their accoutrements glistening Iα answer to some scattering watery gleam from the morning sun, which struggled fitfully' against the' damp di9ebm£orif*'of the morning. At last the men disappeared In the river fog which wrapped the village and tae.atraiaed expectancy was brokoa by adull sound of firing a mfleawayossi?& sounded as though it were filtered through blankets to the ear. A' mfn ute later and our fellows came flying back again, flying for dear life, stretched at full length tipSa their horses, Circassian and Turkish Cossack fashion, and; firing backward a g * they rode. Here and there a horse )?ft a riderless, and here aad tilers «f*a unhorsed tan hie hardest heavy mad or turned to fire. Behind.the fiyinß handful came thrice Its nuaiteer 0{ Russian Cossacks, yelling like fienai/ati plying whip and spar. At the foot oftfae bill'Oiircayalry lay hidden bc&fndthet'fgiisg ground, and when flying trieadand tblldw. ingfoe were within 100 yavdfi.a.detachmenii of 100 or thereabouts set out full tiitCto meet them. The pursuers turned, bafc their onslaught had been co impetuous jiM unguarded that the forces were dtyosb mixed, and the'claah of steel on ateel w,a3 heard above the flying thunder" of the hoof beats and the thick..crackle of carbine fire from either- side, Then there were more horses canning loose, and every here and there horses dead upon the road, and from 6ns coign of perfect safety we could, see ,th» men crawling from the roadway to tba sodden fields. The hurryiag nifess of aof«e and smoke and fire swept onward toward* the village, and brie© again pursuit was turned to flight. A Eusslan cavalry iqrcs, fully four squadrons Ptrong, burst; from the village and swept the. Turks "befpre .them in a flight more wild than that o* Sheir predecessors; and again, as" & s ? neared the hill, the Torka hurled a heayit* .force than their own against them,' again the pursuers tm-aed.with.a wfeu« demoniac engine of fire and death behind and a thunder of hoofs tiiat seemed Jo shake the solid hill. They swept o» 5 3j • radDK, pace , towards Avlanitza,.' aa" the flying clatter the hoof beats mse* •upon the cobbled pathway of <wa» noisily audible* evea tW thick air, at a distance ol a ifiite.' 1 jwa? no more than a cavalsy ekW#»«; and the losses on either side coutttt* .barely ft m0w.. , . It was recorded. a» ¥£ merest affain of ontpostsi, but I never »» * pitched battle into which so n«e»* citement was crowded. Poor BondM«g who led the AmbuUnce Corns, and -wftj like so many of the good ftjlorf?> jgshared the fun and dancer and V n ™% of thai? time, ban lonjz amee J Ol great majority, slapped mo on the o»-* with an excited cry, and ftlioated tss? » beat fox hunting, From the merely sp-c tacuiar point of view, it was to s»y the most brilliant episode of the men came back victorious, ing the enemy In full flight, the rislDg sun had gathered foiee- faom to dispel the fog we saw tbewhite gfj the BussUns on a distant hill, *$*&$&% it were like snow. A eulky caanon now or two said their good-byes, *P4»h marched on to tlie relief of Hevaa »1W out striking another blow, -' /

Two draught horses, th® property oi l& ■ D. Clark*!, Green Hill, Observer, are in «nch a disabled that It i« believed that Iβ witt to kill thera f! One is a draughe a**Hgn and the other a draught gelding. A : . w. niKhteago the stallion broka into tbapa* dock where the gelding was running, s» foShwitb a pitched battle the mdsfi serious consequences te It each ahlma!. Next morning-thej or.j« wers Ulscoverod in a mofeb peculiar i<£ tion The gelding Was standing with o«» nHhe hiad hoofs of the entire to* em beaded inits £bdomeu. Th« JJ Btandltt«on three legs, but was an»WeK Saam dwiniE'to one of ita tbouldors bawj feom their straage posUton »nAh«*g| every care, bufc, ac has bftan atafea ft flfeawd that it will be tokflltlieffl.- ~ i./.l .a .-> .