SOME "FIGHTING MAC" STORIES.

Wanganui Chronicle, Issue 15000, 15 May 1900, Page 3

SOME "FIGHTING MAC" STORIES.

THE ANECDOTAL SIDE OF A WON-

DERFUL CAREER.

'. "Fighting Mac". is' once more at the head .of the Highlanders. It was a sore disappointment to him when he had to "lie up" in th.- field hospital, where the doctors found him by no means an ideal patient so consuming- was his anxiety to return io the firing Hue. . 7 " It would' take n more serious -wound thau the one he .-ontr.icted to keep MajorGenera U Macdonald m bed wheu Iherc is fighting afoot, and he did not remain idle -a moment longer than his medical attendants considered necessary. Much has been written about "Fighting Mac" during the past fcwweeks.'-biit more yet remains to be told of the most romantic career of any mau at present in the British Army. ' A BOY "GENERAL." When Macdonald- Wxts a youngster he ilived on a modest crofter farm in Ross-shire -witli his father, and attended and- worried the master of the parish school. He stuck to his lessons, and he took an active part in those boyish violences that are dear to the heart of the schoolboy. It is a common thing to-day for "armies" from rival schools to meet for the joy of punching one another or throwing stoned.

Young Hector Macdonald took a keen delight in this pastime. He was tbe "general" of his school brigade, and many were the thrashings he gave and received ; many, too, tho hidings he got from schoolmaster and parents for his conduct.. Hector Macdonald was by no means a bad-tempered boy. Quite tho contrary. He was goodnatured, and never missed an opportunity of thrashing a school bully if ever one was cantankerous or oppressing timid lads. But Hector had an absolute relish' for a fight, and never missed an opportunity to be in a row when there was one.

LEARNING DRILL IN THE BEDROOM.

"I want to be a sojer" was Macdonald's youthful remark to querists on the subject of his. career. His parents did not mean that he shonld be, and' sent him to a draper's, shop instead." That just suited the boy. He had to go into lodgings, and a fellow lodger was an old soldier. The fellow lodger was good-hearted, and took an interest in the boy's desire to know a soldier's duties ; but it must have been no joke to be dragged out of bed, as frequently happened, at four or five o'clock on a cold winter's morning to see whether the lad remembered when a company was in column by the right or in line.

THE DRAPERY TRADEABANDONED

Hector Macdonald, however, was now iin ay from his mother's apron strings, and he let people know it. JHe also let them know that he was not going to be in a draper's shop all his life. Exactly how the quarrel came with his employer is not known. It may have been, as one story goes, that one position being vacant and he not getting promotion, he left thc draper's in disgust and went home, where Lis reception was a particularly cool one. Hector was supposed to. be fairly started in life, and there were a number of other chi'dren to be thought of besides him. Anyway, Hector's object in returning home may hai e been misunderstood at first, but he speedi^made his meaning plain. He announced that he was going for a soldier, and ho went, taking, as tome of his neighbours thought, and as a good many other narrow-in'inded people onoe thought, the nearest road to ruin by enlistment. "JUST YOU BIDE A WEE." Proud of his uniform, and possessed of tho small taint of vanity we all have, whether we admit it or not, Hector Macdponald not very long after he bad enlisted came to show his feathers to his native people. To au old nurse who upraided him, and asked him why he enlisted, he said: — "Maybe the Army's not such a bad place as ye think. Ye needn't always be a common soldier." To his mother, who had a deep prejudice against the Army, be said : "Just you bide a wee. The Army is all right. I shall be a good lad, mother, and you'l' see I'll make my way." FROM THE RANKS. Eventually Macdonald went to India, fought gallantly through the Afghan war of 1879-80, got mentioned over and over, again in despatches for doing deeds of skill and daring, and from being a humble private he became corporal and sergeant, aud within ten years of his enlistment lie was, for his Afghan services, raised to thc rank of lieutenant in his own regiment. His brother officers thought so much of bim that they presented bim • with his sword. In one of tliese Afghan engagements Macdonald, then a colour-sergeant, took thirty Gordon Highlanders, and wading and swimming across a river, fired at all the way,, afterwards captured a hill and defeated a body of Afghans just about forty times as strong. Tlie Afghans, as we know to our cost, are brave soldiers.

Macdonald on this occasion just staggered tbem by thc audacity of bis movement, and before they had recovered from their surprise at an attack which was almost an impertinence, he had captured their f osition and ee^t thrift flj'ipg.