MacGAHAN'S SEVEN YEARS' WORK.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XII, Issue 4, 16 May 1884, Page 13

MacGAHAN'S SEVEN YEARS' WORK.

The Ohio Legislature has done a proper act in making provision for the return of the body of J. A. MacGaban, the famous American war correspondent, fiom the cemetery at Scutari, on the Bosphorus to the family burying plot in Perry County, Ohio. J. A. MacGaban was one of the brightest men in journalism ; but so modest was be that no one ever heard his many daring feats in the search for news from his own lips. He was at the Law school in Brussels when the FrancoPrussian war broke out in 1870, and he turned his eyes towards the field at once. After the war he made his memorable ride to Khiva the story of which lives in his admirable book, " Campaigning on the Oxus," Another turn of the wheel found him in Cuba, wheie he remained until the settlement of the troubles arising out of the Virriniui affair. Thence he hastened to England and sailed witlj Allan Young in the Pandora to the Artie regions, penetrating to Peel Strait. It was a voyage of great hazard. Allan Young was kttiehtedMacGahan published a book, " Under the Northern Lights. 11 ' MacGaban was sitting in his rooms in London one afternoon in the Spring of 1876. The first rumours of the massacres in Bulgaria were contained in a paper that was brought to him. He read the brief dispatch and acted on the impulse of the moment. He put on his hat and walked around to Bouverie street, and when he returned a quarter of an hour later he had closed a contract to go at once to Bulgaria for the Daily New*. MacGahan left the following evening In a month's time he bad put a new face on " the Eastern question •' Ths great struggle between Christian and Turk was no longer confined to " the petty quarrels of a few monks over a key and A silver star," as defined by Einglake, but assumed proportions that could be discerned in every dab and drawing-room of Imperial London Englishmen taw every morning staring them in the eyes »a their

most enterprising journal the legend: "Moslem Maltacrei in Bui. gana:" MacGaban had begun his ride, fie vSted Satak and o^^^^^' He held > theflguFe o* A$S Shib^TK^*^ ll^ l^^ 111 hlm the counterpart of Nina £«»£, Jt? . m d B J al e ftri * tt &}* ** the shambles at Batak and aT? n?,££ er # llaged toirn ! oried oafc for vengeance through his pen. «iM? r 5 tia A E T pe . rose in their oauie - The « Jingo Minister Htii* ? p * he . D « daaell^ but dared not laud a man or fire i single gun. Popular England repudiated « the unspeakable Turk " 1 * tbat politio En B land was forced to leave nnL &Ji?« i° h *l fate .\ MacGah an's otters forced that attitude upon Beaconsfield. The wily Premier rose in his place in the Commons and denounced the charges as fabrications intended to destroy X!Z a W°S tfngla , Q f 8 , old allv ' tbe ltek - Next he caused tel/. grams to be forwarded from Constantinople discrediting the DaUv Mw,' letters. But MacGahan rode onward and wrote* sheave TotT ot rhS;^S« rG . 0V ff r J? ment direoted Bugene Schuyler, American 2« g w«* ffa -l re: Rt Coptantinople, to visit the scenes of the atrocU I X w v- nd owything aa MacGahan described it and so reported SVh n Mbin B ton Government. 1q eTery hwnlet MacGahan said : The Czar will avenge thin. Courage, people ; hewill come." m, «:K "^h" more and the Russian army was mobilized at Kischeneff and the Czar reviewed it. Then the order to cross the Pruth came, as had been foretold. Attached to the staff of the Command, ing General, MacGaban rode through Bonmania and crossed the Danube amongst the first. Through the varying fortunes of the war, he wrote, rode, and laughed. Some of this worki fortunately preserved in permanent form, is equal to anything of its kind in our language. The assault of Scobeloff on the Gravitza redoubt, known as the battle of September 11, is a, masterpiece of writing. When Plevna fell and Ghourko crossed the Balkans MacGahan accompanied 2l?'i. » on? threw him > but he was at the hand-to-hand fight in the bhipka Pass and wrote of it in wordstnat breathed of fire and smoke, ibis accident lamed him for life, but did hot check his ardour nor quiet his pen. Adriandple next, and finally the spires and minarets of Constantinople J At San Stefano, a suburb of the capital on the Heaof Marmora, General Ignatiftff, drew the famous treaty of that name. MacGahan's digest pf that remarkable State paper, his comments thereupon and his predictions that it would not stand have become historical.

Before that treaty was torn up, poor MacGahan was stricken down with the spotted fever and died, June 9, 1878. General Skobe«7i. * 09C i en " Bhi P dated back to theKirgitz Steppe and the shores ot the Aral Sea, closed his eyes and was chief mourner at his grave. He was buried in the little Catholic cemetery at Scutari, on the Asian bank of the Bosphorus. The anniversary of his death is commemorated in every city and hamlet of Bulgaria, where services for the repose of his soul are said. When the Grand Duke Nicholas was informed of MacGahan's death, he said : " Too bad. He would have been Governor of Bulgaria." Such, in brief, is the story of seven years of this young correspondent's life. He died at the age of tbirty. Foryears the name of katour d Auvergne, " first grenadier of Ifrance, was called at nightfall in every regiment of the Imperial Grenadier Guard. When the name wa«j heard the first grenadier in the rank would answer: "Dead, on the battlefield!" So every writer, proud of this knight-errant of the newspaper, will salute the name of MacGahan and say, « Died gloriously." — Exchange.