A WAR CORRESPONDENT'S REMINISCENCES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXV, Issue 243, 13 October 1891, Page 3

A WA R CORRESPONDENT'S REMINISCENCES.

Mr Archibald Forbes has given some extracts from his reminiscences in the Nineteenth Century, from which we take the following ;— At the battle of Djunis, which decided the Turko-Servian war of 1876, Mr Forbes was the only correspondent present ; and he was natujjally, anxious to mske the 'most of his goodtfuok. 'He'thereforia started off in a way which recalls the historic ride of D ' Ar tagnan from Paris td Befle-Ile-en*Mer :— - At five in, the afternoon, when I rode away from %het blazing hnta of Deligract, more than* iW v -mUes lay between me -and iriy point, the telegraph office at Semlin, the Hungarian town on the other side of the Save from Belgrade ; telegraphing was not permitted from the latter place. I had an order for post-horses along the road, and galloped hard for Paratchin, the nearest pose-station. When I got there the SKtmaster had horses, but. no vehicle, ow, if I had Bent a messenger this obßtaclewould hay stopped him, But it vraa apparent to me, being my own m9Baenger, that although I could not drive I might ride. True, the Servian posl-nage were not saddle-horses, bat sharp spurs and the handling o! an old dragoon might be relied on to make them travel somehow. All night long I rode that weary journey, changing horses every 15 miles, and forcing the vile hium along, at the best of their spped. Soon atfeY 'iibfen;.6f the following day, sore from head to foot,' I was clattering over the atones of the Belgrade main street, The field telegraph wires had conveyed but a ourt, fragment at y intimation of disaster; and all" Belgrade, feverish for farther news, roshed out into the street as 1 powdered along. Bat X bad ridden hard all night, not to gossip in Belgrade, bat to get to the Bemlin telegraph wire, and I never drew rein till I reached vie ferry. At Semlin, one long drink of beer, and then to the task of writing hour after hour against time the tidings wbioh I had carried down oountry. After X had written my Btory and put it on the wires, I lay down in my olothes and Blept 20 hoars without so muoh as turning. I had meant to start back for Deligrad on the evening of the day of my arrival at Bel* grade ; but fatigue caused me to lose 24 houre.- It seemed to me when Irecovertd from my chagrin at this delay that perhaps, after all, I was entitled to a good long sleep; for I had seen a battle that lasted six hours, ridden-liO miles, and written to the Daily News a telegraphic message four columns long— all in the space of 30 hours, .'-■ A BADQEBED CENSOR. In the Basso-Turkish War of 1875 a certain devoted and polyglot Colonel Haußenkampf was made censor of war correspondents' letters and telegrams. He did bis spiriting only when the letters readied head-quartets in print, and Beerna, on the whole, to have done it gently. Mr Forbes says of him ; — I always pitied the unfortunate Colonel Hauienkampx from the very bottom of my heart. He had to read all the letters published in all the newspapers of all the corresponded^, /and; I predioted for him either speedy suicide or Hopeless madness. But he remained alive and moderately sane, spite of f his "atduoaß, duty and of the task which, at the outset, devolved upon him of listening to every correspondent who made 'application for a permission. He wai fearttliy-badgered. One day 1 called en him at the headquarters to Ploesti, and found him seated in a bower in a garden, resolutely oonf routed by a man in a red beard and a tnreed suit. •• Mon Dieu I" exolaimed the oolonel, " will you oblige me by taking this man away and killing him / He is a Scotchman, and I don't understand the Scottish, language ; he knows none other than his native tongue. He comes here daily, and looms over me obstinately for an hour at a time, firing off at intervals the single word • Permission 1' and tendering me, asif be wtiuld hold a pistol to my head a letter in English from a person whom he oaUed the Duke of Argyll— a noble, I sup- > pose, of this wild man's country 1 " It is needless to say, since, the " wild man " was a Soot, that he achieved his permission and did very good work as a correspondent.