WHEN DISOBEDIENCE HAS SPELT FAME.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 7569, 29 November 1902, Page 2

WHEN DISOBEDIENCE HAS SPELT FAME.

SfSen Wxo "Would Probably Nover Hay* Been, Hoard of if Tliey Sad Not Disobeyed. Orders. j (Pearson's Weekly.") / i . . " Poor old Jameson !" cried the late Cecj^ | Rhodes, on hearing that the impulsive . and hot-headed doctor had actually started on I his memorable raid. "We have been friends for twentyyears, and now he's -gome and upset my apple-caxfc." .' The remark was apposite and true..*. Dr Jameson most certainly did, by an 'act of flagrant disobedience such as has raiely to be recorded of [a chief Administrator 'and an officer, upset, for the time being, at all events, the Rhodesian apple-cart ! But he did something ihore. On the day that he crossed the Transvaal frontier with his troops and. his guns, he hewed for himself a niche in the Temple of Fame. But for the raid, he Avould have lfce<i and died a plain subordinate official in the service of the Chartered Company. His very name, even, would have remained utterly unknown to the bulk of his fellow-countrymen. Whereas, now, no historian x ca-n. ever write the story of South Africa without recording therein tho parb played by Leander Starr Jameson. Every tourist who visits the beautiful collegiate church, commonly called a chapel, of Roslin, near Edinburgh, is shown, as a matter of course, the famous " Prentice Pillar.' >: The youth who wrought this marvellous piece of workmanship achieved, so the story runs, immortality conjointly with his own death, by an act of flagrant, though, under the circumstances, PARDONABLE DISOBEDIENCE. The builder of the chapel in- question went, it io said, to Rome, in order to steal thence a series of designs, which, blended together, should enable him/to produce one column of surpassing excellence. - This column had been already hewn in the rough, previous to his s-etting out on his journey,, and he left it in charge of his chief apprentice, with strict instructions that it was on no account to be touched until his return. The youth, however, conscious of his own genius, set to \vork, in defiance of his master's injunctions, and completed the pillar as it remains to this day — a perfect specimen of medieval Gothic tracery, standing out conspicuously where everything is beautiful. He* had just- finished his work, and was standing back a little way, lost in admiration of it, when his master entered. The old man was an artist in his way, and a single glance was sufficient to convince him that, not only had the pillar been completed, but that the work had been done in such a fashion as rendered any attempt at rivalry OUT OF THE QUESTION. One instant he paused, lost an admiration. Then chagrin, quickly changing to: insane passion, took possession of his soul ; and, seizing a mason's hammer which lay handy, hs crept stealthily behind the still unconscious youth, and struck him dead. Lord Wolseley might never have risento be Commander-in-Chief of the British Army had it not been for an act of disobedience well nigh unparalleled in those days. It was during the Indian Mutiny, in the fierce fighting which preceded the se- 1 cond relief of Lucknow. A mess-house I

commanding our line* waa field by th« rebels. Beyond that lay the strong fort of Moti-Mahai. It was necessary that the former should be occupied, and at the point of tha bayonet, and young Wolseley, then a captain in the 90th Foot, was selected by Sit Colin Campbell for tbe task. " But mind,'' ran his parting injunctions', "no advancing beyond your goal I don't want tp hazard bringing on a general engagement." Wolsely premised anything Sad «**ry* thing, and then, at the head of ibis company, swept through ahd bter th* mess* house like a whirlwind, leaving • IMla heap of dusky bodies behind him, end. under a terrific fire, scaled the sttfctlk b*#* tioti of the Moti-Mahal ftnd DROVE OUT TflS DJ*eNDEKS. Sir Colin was oatvfttfdl-f fkiricfts, and! gave the presumptions younf officer « terrible quarter of an hour the following morning at Orderly tUtOia. But a fw* months later .the offender found h4macl( gazetted to a majorat* out of hfe -WftflW "turn"; and, for the res* *f his life, h« was constantly befriended lafiber ihe earn* indirect fashion by the- grim old warrior* who, not long after the incident Areooaded above,, WiiftSeU broke ftW&y fftttti all precedent by leading in pereon, sword ia hand, the. last despefcate irlisn of his- decimated troops oh the mttfineeflfr* stronghold. (Not a few Victoria Cfo-ssei hfcv« been; Von by atas of more, or Urn diftct dis* obedience, 'but peThape titee fittst «trikin| instance in point is afforded by the tarn of' Private Timothy O'flea. Hi* deed ***hie& gained him the decoration, too, was at the time unique in toctthe* di£etti«n> ia thai it Was sot petfoTmed lit war* tdtnej nor ih the presence of an ene&y. Oi* JUrie 19, 1866, on. * r&illMy siding ali Danville. Station, near Qtleh*c, * caT loaded with several tons of -powder and ammunition caught fire. The risk seemed so terrible, and ihe certainty of a tbrianfc" andi immediate explosion so startiingly AaMarent, that an order was issued . forbidding anyone to approach mthih a thOtisMidl yards of the conflagration', and a detachment of the Rifle Brigade, then statibtied in the Citadel, was told off to see that th* order was obeyed. ■*■ A O'Heat was one of the detacla&ehfc, and<j despite the remonstrances of his sergeant, and the warning cries of bis -horror-strickert oomrodes, who naturally imagined that he was rushing straight to a swift and! inevitable death; he suddenly bolted out of tha ranks and across the intervening . space. Arrived at the blazing car, he •mashed i» the locked door with a coupling pit; and, eventually, with buckets of water procured from /near-by ditch, he succeeded in EXTINGTHSHIKO THE fetAMBS. Perhaps, however, the most striking /ifta stance of disobedience bringing tb the disobedient one » worlds-wide and deathless fame, is afforded by the case Of.Livingstone. We, of this geaieration, art* so usm to regarding the discoverer "of the Zambesi as an explorer pure and simple, -that it is apt to be overlooked at times that hi& premier object in journeying into the -mterio-f of Africa was a religious on*. Livingstone was sent out originally by* the Londoil Missionary Society to presob the gospel to the heathen, 'and had lie been built as other men he would doubtless have » settled down in Mabotoa^wbich was the territory assigned to hint-^nadie hunsrif b« comfortable as he could under {he circumstanced, and contented himself thereafter with transmitting home to his employers the usuai annual tale of more or less doubtful "conversions." But he wis not built as were other men* He thought and acted f or himself . Amd bj* had not 'been twelve months in the coontij' 1 before he came to the. condnsioaa that h-Q proper sphere of work was pioneering* opening up and starting nAw gfotond* Jirathefl than preaching. So he ply-ngfcd boldljl ' north into the nnkno****. The London Misrionary ßop^f, as per* haps was only to be expetite&v eajpostfelatH ed ; and, on their -flftissioaary proving obdurate, recalled fcini. Ho ditobeyed thd summons, going on and ony pei>eftrafci»g inn to regions never before vifited by nMMfcel men., acquiring for Britain knowledge which she was «oon to ufcUise in buildtaig up a nertr empire, andl making lor Msalelt a name and fame that «h*H laat as 10-og Mi the world endurei. •__ ' mmmm+mmmmimmmmmimmmmm