diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:18:52 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:18:52 -0700 |
| commit | baa78e90e72cd0a000c2f0a5c2ca3fbf4d55d529 (patch) | |
| tree | 9138e9bf8806a2f0497a39737a922283a1d9593c | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 52451 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-h/25795-h.htm | 1566 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-h/images/kitchener.jpg | bin | 0 -> 23425 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/c001.jpg | bin | 0 -> 1085219 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/f001.jpg | bin | 0 -> 86398 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/f002.jpg | bin | 0 -> 13551 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/f003.jpg | bin | 0 -> 32243 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p001.jpg | bin | 0 -> 93807 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p002.jpg | bin | 0 -> 118460 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p003.jpg | bin | 0 -> 117084 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p004.jpg | bin | 0 -> 117814 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p005.jpg | bin | 0 -> 127286 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p006.jpg | bin | 0 -> 116766 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p007.jpg | bin | 0 -> 126532 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p008.jpg | bin | 0 -> 112112 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p009.jpg | bin | 0 -> 124231 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p010.jpg | bin | 0 -> 116678 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p011.jpg | bin | 0 -> 117002 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p012.jpg | bin | 0 -> 114901 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p013.jpg | bin | 0 -> 120405 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p014.jpg | bin | 0 -> 112704 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p015.jpg | bin | 0 -> 116599 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p016.jpg | bin | 0 -> 107934 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p017.jpg | bin | 0 -> 120972 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p018.jpg | bin | 0 -> 121270 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p019.jpg | bin | 0 -> 125349 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p020.jpg | bin | 0 -> 111808 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p021.jpg | bin | 0 -> 117724 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p022.jpg | bin | 0 -> 107680 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p023.jpg | bin | 0 -> 110523 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p024.jpg | bin | 0 -> 118194 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p025.jpg | bin | 0 -> 121835 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p026.jpg | bin | 0 -> 120456 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p027.jpg | bin | 0 -> 128473 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p028.jpg | bin | 0 -> 111548 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p029.jpg | bin | 0 -> 114318 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p030.jpg | bin | 0 -> 119729 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p031.jpg | bin | 0 -> 126013 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795-page-images/p032.jpg | bin | 0 -> 37555 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795.txt | 1177 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 25795.zip | bin | 0 -> 27159 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
44 files changed, 2759 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/25795-h.zip b/25795-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3c9a683 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-h.zip diff --git a/25795-h/25795-h.htm b/25795-h/25795-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..be7ba46 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-h/25795-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,1566 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en" xml:lang="en"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Lord Kitchener, by G. K. Chesterton + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p {margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + text-indent: 1em; + } + + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 {text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + + h2 {padding-top: 2em;} + + hr {width: 15%; + margin-top: 0em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + height: 1px; + border: 0; + background-color: black; + color: black; + } + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + p.printed {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + font-size: smaller; + padding-top: 2em;} + + p.publisher {margin-top: 4em; + text-align: center; + margin-bottom: 3em; + text-indent: 0em; + line-height: 200%; + padding-top: 4em; + } + + img {border-style: none; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + right: 1%; + font-size: x-small; + text-align: right; + font-weight: normal; + font-style: normal; + letter-spacing: 0ex; + text-indent: 0em; + } + + a:link {text-decoration: none; + color: #104E8B; + background-color: inherit; + } + + a:visited {text-decoration: none; + color: #8B0000; + background-color: inherit; + } + + a:hover {text-decoration: underline;} + + a:active {text-decoration: underline;} + + .center {text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em;} + + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .caption {font-style: italic; + text-indent: 0em; + font-size: 70%;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; + text-align: center; + text-indent: 0em; + } + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lord Kitchener, by G. K. Chesterton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lord Kitchener + +Author: G. K. Chesterton + +Release Date: June 15, 2008 [EBook #25795] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD KITCHENER *** + + + + +Produced by Irma Spehar and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<h1>LORD KITCHENER</h1> + +<p class="center" style="padding-top: 4em; font-size: 110%">BY</p> + +<p class="center" style="font-size: 140%">G. K. CHESTERTON</p> + +<p class="publisher"><span class="smcap">London</span><br /> + +1917</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 307px;"> +<img src="images/kitchener.jpg" width="307" height="400" alt="Lord Kitchener" title="Lord Kitchener" /> +<span class="caption">Photo by Elliott & Fry, Ltd., London.</span> +</div> + + + +<h2><a name="LORD_KITCHENER" id="LORD_KITCHENER"></a>LORD KITCHENER<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[1]</a></span></h2> + +<hr /> + +<p style="text-indent: 0em"><span class="smcap">Horatio Herbert Kitchener</span> was Irish by +birth but English by extraction, being born in +County Kerry, the son of an English colonel. The +fanciful might see in this first and accidental fact +the presence of this simple and practical man +amid the more mystical western problems and +dreams which were very distant from his mind, an +element which clings to all his career and gives it an +unconscious poetry. He had many qualities of the +epic hero, and especially this—that he was the last +man in the world to be the epic poet. There is +something almost provocative to superstition in the +way in which he stands at every turn as the symbol +of the special trials and the modern transfiguration +of England; from this moment when he was born +among the peasants of Ireland to the moment +when he died upon the sea, seeking at the other end +of the world the other great peasant civilisation of +Russia. Yet at each of these symbolic moments +he is, if not as unconscious as a symbol, then as +silent as a symbol; he is speechless and supremely +significant, like an ensign or a flag. The superficial +picturesqueness of his life, at least, lies very much +in this—that he was like a hero condemned by fate +to act an allegory.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[2]</a></span></p> + +<p>We find this, for instance, in one of the very first +and perhaps one of the most picturesque of all the +facts that are recorded or reported of him. As a +youth, tall, very shy and quiet, he was only notable +for intellectual interests of the soberest and most +methodical sort, especially for the close study of +mathematics. This also, incidentally, was typical +enough, for his work in Egypt and the Soudan, by +which his fame was established, was based wholly +upon such calculations. It was not merely +mathematical but literally geometrical. His work +bore the same relation to Gordon's that a rigid +mathematical diagram bears to a rough pencil +sketch on which it is based. Yet the student thus +bent on the strictest side of his profession, studying +it at Woolwich and entering the Engineers as the +most severely scientific branch of the army, had as +a first experience of war something so romantic that +it has been counted incredible, yet something so +relevant to the great reality of to-day that it might +have been made up centuries after his death, as a +myth is made up about a god. He happened to be +in France in the most tragic hour that France has +ever known or, please God, will ever know. She +was bearing alone the weight of that alien tyranny, +of that hopeless and almost lifeless violence, which +the other nations have since found to be the worst of +all the terrors which God tolerates in this world. She +trod that winepress alone; and of the peoples there +were none to help her. In 1870 the Prussian had +already encircled Paris, and General Chanzy was +fighting against enormous odds to push northwards<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[3]</a></span> +to its relief, when his army was joined by the young +and silent traveller from England. All that was in +Kitchener's mind or motives will perhaps never be +known. France was still something of an ideal of +civilisation for many of the more generous English +gentry. Prussia was never really an ideal for anybody, +even the Prussians, and mere success, which could +not make her an ideal, had not yet calamitously made +her a model. There was in it also, no doubt, a +touch of the schoolboy who runs away to sea—that +touch of the schoolboy without the sense of +which the staidest Englishman will always be +inexplicable. But considered historically there is +something strangely moving about the incident—the +fact that Kitchener was a French soldier almost +before he was an English one. As Hannibal was +dedicated in boyhood to war against the eagles of +Rome, Kitchener was dedicated, almost in boyhood, +to war against the eagles of Germany. Romance +came to this realist, whether by impulse or by +accident, like a wind from without, as first love +will come to the woman-hater. He was already, +both by fate and choice, something more than he +had meant to be. The mathematician, we might +almost say the calculating boy, was already gambling +in the highest lottery which led to the highest +and most historic loss. The engineer devoted to +discipline was already a free lance, because already +a knight-errant.</p> + +<p>He returned to England to continue his comparatively +humdrum order of advancement; and the +next call that came to him was of a strangely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[4]</a></span> +different and yet also of a strangely significant kind. +The Palestine Exploration Fund sent him with +another officer to conduct topographical and antiquarian +investigations in a country where practical +exertions are always relieved against a curiously +incongruous background—as if they were setting up +telegraph-posts through the Garden of Eden or +opening a railway station at the New Jerusalem. +But the contrast between antiquity and modernity +was not the only one; there was still the sort of +contrast that can be a collision. Kitchener was +almost immediately to come in contact with what +was to be, in various aspects, the problem of his +life—the modern fanaticisms of the Near East. +There is an English proverb which asks whether +the mountain goes to Mahomet or he to the +mountain, and it may be a question whether his +religion be the cause or the effect of a certain +spirit, vivid and yet strangely negative, which dwells +in such deserts. Walking among the olives of Gaza +or looking on the Philistine plain, such travellers +may well feel that they are treading on cold +volcanoes, as empty as the mountains of the moon. +But the mountain of Mahomet is not yet an extinct +volcano.</p> + +<p>Kitchener, in these first days of seemingly mild +and minute duties, was early aware of it. At Safed, +in the Galilean hills, his small party had found +itself surrounded by an Arab mob, stricken suddenly +mad with emotions unintelligible to the political +mobs of the West. He was himself wounded, +but, defending himself as best he could with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[5]</a></span> +walking-stick, not only saved his own life but that +of his fellow-officer, Lieutenant Conder, who had +been beaten to the earth with an Arab club. He +continued his work indeed with prosaic pertinacity, +and developed in the survey of the Holy Land all +that almost secretive enthusiasm for detail which +lasted all his life. Of the most famous English +guide-book he made the characteristic remark, +“Where Murray has seven names I have a hundred +and sixteen.” Most men, in speaking or writing of +such a thing, would certainly have said “a hundred.” +It is characteristic of his type that he did not even +think in round numbers. But there was in him, +parallel to this almost arithmetical passion, another +quality which is, in a double sense, the secret of his +life. For it was the cause of at least half his +success; and yet he very successfully concealed it—especially +from his admirers.</p> + +<p>The paradox of all this part of his life lies in +this—that, destined as he was to be the greatest +enemy of Mahomedanism, he was quite exceptionally +a friend of Mahomedans. He had been first received +in that land, so to speak, with a blow on the head +with a club; he was destined to break the sword of +the last Arab conqueror, to wreck his holy city and +treat all the religious traditions of it with a deliberate +desecration which has often been held oppressive +and was undoubtedly ruthless. Yet with the individual +Moslem he had a sort of natural brotherhood +which has never been explained. Had it been shown +by a soldier of the Crusades, it would have been +called witchcraft. In this, as in many other cases,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[6]</a></span> +the advance of a larger enlightenment prevents us +from calling it anything. There was mixed with it, +no doubt, the deep Moslem admiration for mere +masculinity, which has probably by its exaggeration +permitted the Moslem subordination of women. +But Kitchener (who was himself accused, rightly +or wrongly, of a disdain for women) must have +himself contributed some other element to the +strangest of international sympathies. Whatever +it was, it must be constantly kept in mind as +running parallel to his scientific industry and +particularity; for it was these two powers, used +systematically for many years before the event, that +prepared the ground for the overthrow of that wild +papacy and wandering empire which so long hung +in the desert, like a mirage to mislead and to +destroy.</p> + +<p>Kitchener was called away in 1878 to similar +surveying duties in Cyprus, and afterwards in +Anatolia, where the same faculty obtained him a +<i>firman</i>, making him safe in all the Holy Cities +of Islam. He also dealt much with the Turkish +fugitives fleeing from the Russian guns to Erzerum—whither, +so long after, the guns were to follow. +But it is with his later summons to Egypt that +we feel he has returned to the theatre of the great +things of his life. It is not necessary in this rough +sketch to discuss the rights and wrongs or the +general international origin of the British occupation +of Egypt; the degree of praise or blame to be +given to the Khedive, who was the nominal ruler, +or to Arabi, the Nationalist leader, who for a time<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[7]</a></span> +seized the chief power in his place. Kitchener's +services in the operations by which Arabi was +defeated were confined to some reconnaissance +work immediately preceding the bombardment of +Alexandria; and the problem with which his own +personality became identified was not that of the +Government of Egypt, but of the more barbaric +power beyond, by which Egypt, and any powers +ruling it, came to be increasingly imperilled. And +what advanced him rapidly to posts of real responsibility +in the new politics of the country was the +knowledge he already had of wilder men and more +mysterious forces than could be found in Egyptian +courts or even Egyptian camps. It was the combination, +of which we have already spoken, of detailed +experience and almost eccentric sympathy. In +practice it was his knowledge of Arabic, and still +more his knowledge of Arabs.</p> + +<p>There is in Islam a paradox which is perhaps a +permanent menace. The great creed born in the +desert creates a kind of ecstasy out of the very +emptiness of its own land, and even, one may say, +out of the emptiness of its own theology. It affirms, +with no little sublimity, something that is not merely +the singleness but rather the solitude of God. +There is the same extreme simplification in the +solitary figure of the Prophet; and yet this isolation +perpetually reacts into its own opposite. A void +is made in the heart of Islam which has to be +filled up again and again by a mere repetition of the +revolution that founded it. There are no sacraments; +the only thing that can happen is a sort of apocalypse,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[8]</a></span> +as unique as the end of the world; so the +apocalypse can only be repeated and the world +end again and again. There are no priests; and yet +this equality can only breed a multitude of lawless +prophets almost as numerous as priests. The very +dogma that there is only one Mahomet produces an +endless procession of Mahomets. Of these the +mightiest in modern times were the man whose +name was Ahmed, and whose more famous title +was the Mahdi; and his more ferocious successor +Abdullahi, who was generally known as the Khalifa. +These great fanatics, or great creators of fanaticism, +succeeded in making a militarism almost as famous +and formidable as that of the Turkish Empire on +whose frontiers it hovered, and in spreading a reign +of terror such as can seldom be organised except +by civilisation. With Napoleonic suddenness and +success the Mahdist hordes had fallen on the army +of Hicks Pasha, when it left its camp at Omdurman, +on the Nile opposite Khartoum, and had cut it to +pieces in a fashion incredible. They had established +at Omdurman their Holy City, the Rome of their +nomadic Roman Empire. Towards that terrible +place many adventurous men, like poor Hicks, had +gone and were destined to go. The sands that +encircled it were like that entrance to the lion's +cavern in the fable, towards which many footprints +pointed, and from which none returned.</p> + +<p>The last of these was Gordon, that romantic and +even eccentric figure of whom so much might be +said. Perhaps the most essential thing to say of +him here is that fortune once again played the artist<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[9]</a></span> +in sending such a man, at once as the leader and +the herald of a man like Kitchener; to show the +way and to make the occasion; to be a sacrifice +and a signal for vengeance. Whatever else there +was about Gordon, there was about him the air not +only of a hero, but of the hero of a tragedy. Something +Oriental in his own mysticism, something +most of his countrymen would have called moonshine, +something perverse in his courage, something +childish and beautiful in that perversity, marked him +out as the man who walks to doom—the man who in +a hundred poems or fables goes up to a city to be +crucified. He had gone to Khartoum to arrange the +withdrawal of the troops from the Soudan, the Government +having decided, if possible, to live at peace with +the new Mahdist dictatorship; and he went through +the deserts almost as solitary as a bird, on a journey +as lonely as his end. He was cut off and besieged in +Khartoum by the Mahdist armies, and fell with the +falling city. Long before his end he had been +in touch with Kitchener, now of the Egyptian +Intelligence Department, and weaving very carefully +a vast net of diplomacy and strategy in which the +slayers of Gordon were to be taken at last.</p> + +<p>A well-known English journalist, Bennet +Burleigh, wandering near Dongola, fell into conversation +with an Arab who spoke excellent English, +and who, with a hospitality highly improper in a +Moslem, produced two bottles of claret for his +entertainment. The name of this Arab was +Kitchener; and the two bottles were all he had. +The journalist obtained, along with the claret, his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[10]</a></span> +first glimpse of the great and extraordinary schemes +with which Kitchener was already working to +avenge the comrade who had fallen in Khartoum. +This part of the work was as personal as that of a +private detective plotting against a private murderer +in a modern detective story. Kitchener had learned +to speak the Arab tongue not only freely but +sociably. He wore the Arab dress and fell into the +Arab type of courtesy so effectively that even his +blue northern eyes did not betray him. Above all, +he sympathised with the Arab character; and in +a thousand places sprinkled over the map of +North-East Africa he made friends for himself and +therefore enemies for the Mahdi. This was the +first and superficially the most individual of +the converging plans which were to checkmate +the desert empire; and its effects were very far-reaching. +Again and again, in subsequent years, +when the missionaries of the Mahdist religion +pushed northward, they found themselves entangled +among tribes which the English power had not so +much conquered as converted. The legend of the +great Prophet encountered something more elusive +than laws or military plans; it encountered another +legend—an influence which also carried the echoes +of the voice of a man. The Ababdeh Arabs, it was +said, made a chain across the desert, which the new +and awful faith could not pass. The Mudir of +Dongola was on the point of joining the ever-victorious +Prophet of Omdurman. Kitchener, clad +as an Arab, went out almost alone to speak with +him. What passed, perhaps, we can never tell; but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[11]</a></span> +before his guest had even left him the Mudir flew +to arms, fell upon the Prophet's hosts at Korti, and +drove them before him.</p> + +<p>The second and superficially more solid process +of preparation is much better known. It was the +education of the native Egyptian army. It is not +necessary to swallow all the natural jingoism of +English journalism in order to see something truly +historic about the English officer's work with the +Fellaheen, or native race of Egypt. For centuries +they had lain as level as the slime of the Nile, and +all the conquerors in the chronicles of men had +passed over them like a pavement. Though professing +the challenging creed of the Moslems, they +seem to have reached something like the pessimist +patience of the Hindoos. To have turned this slime +once more into a human river, to have lifted this +pavement once more into a human rampart or +barricade, is not a small thing, nor a thing that +could possibly be done even by mere power, still +less by mere money—and this Kitchener and his +English companions certainly did. There must have +been something much more than a mere cynical +severity in “organisation” in the man who did it. +There must be something more than a mere commercial +common-sense in the nation in whose name +it was done. It is easy enough, with sufficient +dulness and greed of detail, to “organise” anything +or anybody. It is easy enough to make people +obey a bugle (or a factory hooter) as the Prussian +soldiers obey a bugle. But it is no such trumpet +that makes possible the resurrection of the dead.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[12]</a></span></p> + +<p>The success of this second of the three +converging designs of Kitchener, the making of +a new Egyptian army, was soon seen in the +expedition against Dongola. It had been foreshadowed +in a successful defence of Suakin, in +which Kitchener was wounded; a defence against +Osman Digna, perhaps the first of the Mahdist +generals whose own strongholds were eventually +stormed at Gemaizeh; and in the victory at Toski, +where fell the great warrior Wad el Njume, whose +strategy had struck down both Hicks and Gordon. +But the turn of the tide was Dongola. In 1892 +General, now Lord Grenfell, who had been Sirdar, +or Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Army, and +ordered the advance at Toski, retired and left his +post vacant. The great public servant known +latterly as Lord Cromer had long had his eye on +Kitchener and the part he had played, even as a +young lieutenant, in the new military formation of the +Fellaheen. He was now put at the head of the whole +new army; and the first work that fell to him was +leading the new expedition. In three days after the +order was received the force started at nightfall and +marched southward into the night. The detail is +something more than picturesque; for on all +accounts of that formidable attack on the Mahdi's +power a quality of darkness rests like a kind of cloud. +It was, for one thing, a surprise attack and a very +secret one, so that the cloud was as practical as a +cloak; but it was also the re-entrance of a territory +which an instinct has led the English to call the +Dark Continent even under its blazing noon. There<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[13]</a></span> +vast distances alone made a veil like that of darkness, +and there the lives of Gordon and Hicks and +hundreds more had been swallowed up in an ancient +silence. Perhaps we cannot guess to-day, after +the colder completion of Kitchener's work, +what it meant for those who went on that +nocturnal march; who crept up in two lines, one +along the river and the other along an abandoned +railway track, moving through the black night; and +in the black night encamped, and waited for the +rising of the moon. Anyhow, the tale told of it +strikes this note, especially in one touch of what can +only be called a terrible triviality. I mean the +reference to the new noise heard just before day-break, +revealing the nearness of the enemy: the +dreadful drum of Islam, calling for prayer to an +awful God—a God not to be worshipped by the +changing and sometimes cheerful notes of harp or +organ, but only by the drum that maddens by +mere repetition.</p> + +<p>But the third of Kitchener's lines of approach +remains to consider. The surprise attack, which +captured the riverside village of Firket, had eventually +led, in spite of storms that warred on the +advance like armies, and in one place practically +wiped out a brigade, to the fall of Dongola itself. +But Dongola was not the high place of the enemy; +it was not there that Gordon died or that Abdullahi +was still alive. Far away up the dark river were the +twin cities of the tragedy, the city of the murder and +the city of the murderer. It was in relation to this +fixed point of fact that Kitchener's next proceeding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[14]</a></span> +is seen to be supremely characteristic. He was so +anxious to do one thing that he was cautious about +doing it. He was more concerned to obtain a success +than to appear to deserve it; he did not want a +moral victory, but a mathematical certainty. So far +from following up the dash in the dark, upon Firket +or Dongola, with more romantic risks, he decided +not to advance on the Mahdi's host a minute faster +than men could follow him building a railway. +He created behind him a colossal causeway of +communications, going out alone into wastes where +there was and had been no other mortal trace +or track. The engineering genius of Girouard, +a Canadian, designed and developed it with +what was, considering the nature of the task, +brilliant rapidity; but by the standards of desert +warfare it must have seemed that Kitchener and his +English made war as slowly as grass grows or +orchards bear fruit. The horsemen of Araby, darting +to and fro like swallows, must have felt as if they +were menaced by the advance of a giant snail. But +it was a snail that left a shining track unknown to +those sands; for the first time since Rome decayed +something was being made there that could remain. +The effect of this growing road, one might almost +say this living road, began to be felt. Mahmoud, +the Mahdist military leader, fell back from Berber, +and gathered his hosts more closely round the +sacred city on the Nile. Kitchener, making another +night march up the Atbara river, stormed the Arab +camp and took Mahmoud prisoner. Then at last +he moved finally up the western bank of the Nile<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[15]</a></span> +and came in sight of Omdurman. It is somewhat +of a disproportion to dwell on the fight that followed +and the fall of the great city. The fighting had +been done already, and more than half of it was +working; fighting a long fight against the centuries, +against ages of sloth and the great sleep of the +desert, where there had been nothing but visions, +and against a racial decline that men had accepted +as a doom. On the following Sunday a memorial +service for Charles Gordon was held in the place +where he was slain.</p> + +<p>The fact that Kitchener fought with rails as much +as with guns rather fixed from this time forward the +fashionable view of his character. He was talked +of as if he were himself made of metal, with a head +filled not only with calculations but with clockwork. +This is symbolically true, in so far as it means that +he was by temper what he was by trade, an engineer. +He had conquered the Mahdi, where many had +failed to do so. But what he had chiefly conquered +was the desert—a great and greedy giant. He +brought Cairo to Khartoum; we might say that +he brought London or Liverpool with him to +the gates of the strange city of Omdurman. Some +parts of his action supported, even regrettably, the +reputation of rigidity. But if any admirer had, in +this hour of triumph, been staring at him as at a +stone sphinx of inflexible fate, that admirer would +have been very much puzzled by the next passage of +his life. Kitchener was something much more than +a machine; for in the mind, as much as in the body, +flexibility is far more masculine than inflexibility.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[16]</a></span></p> + +<p>A situation developed almost instantly after his +victory in which he was to show that he was a +diplomatist as well as a soldier. At Fashoda, a +little farther up the Nile, he found something more +surprising, and perhaps more romantic, than the +wildest dervish of the desert solitudes. A French +officer, and one of the most valiant and distinguished +of French officers, Major Marchand, had penetrated +to the place with the pertinacity of a great explorer, +and seemed prepared to hold it with all the unselfish +arrogance of a patriot. It is said that the +Frenchman not only welcomed Kitchener in the +name of France, but invited him, with courteous +irony, to partake of vegetables grown on the spot, +a symbol of stable occupation. The story, if it be +true, is admirably French; for it reveals at once +the wit and the peasant. But the humour of the +Englishman was worthily equal to the wit of the +Frenchman; and it was humour of that sane sort +which we call good humour. Political papers in +pacific England and France raved and ranted over +the crisis, responsible journals howled with jingoism; +but through it all, until the moment when the +French agreed to retire, the two most placable and +even sociable figures were the two grim tropical +travellers and soldiers who faced each other on the +burning sands of Fashoda. As we see them facing +each other, we have again the vague sense of a +sign or a parable which runs through this story. +For they were to meet again long afterwards as +allies, when both were leading their countrymen +against the great enemy in the Great War.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[17]</a></span></p> + +<p>Something of the same shadow of prophecy is +perhaps the deepest memory left by the last war +of Kitchener before the greatest. After further +activities in Egypt and the Soudan, of which the +attempt to educate the Fellaheen by the Gordon +Memorial College was the most remarkable, he was +abruptly summoned to South Africa to be the right +hand of Lord Roberts in the war then being waged +against the Boers. He conducted the opening of +the determining battle of Paardeberg, and was +typically systematic in covering the half-conquered +country with a system of block-houses and enclosures +like a diagram of geometry. But to-day, and for +many reasons, Englishmen will think first of the +last scene of that war. When Botha and the +Boer Generals surrendered to Kitchener, there +was the same goodwill among the soldiers to +contrast with the ill-will of the journalists. Botha +also became almost a friend; and Botha also +was to be in the far future an ally, smiting the +German in Africa as Kitchener smote him in Europe. +There was the same hint of prophecy about the war +that ended at Vereeniging as about that other war +that so nearly began at Fashoda. It seemed almost +as if God were pitting his heroes against each other +in tournament, before they all rode together against +the heathen pouring upon them out of Germany.</p> + +<p>It is with that name of Germany that this mere +skeleton of the facts must end. After the South +African War Kitchener had been made Commander-in-Chief +in India, where he effected several vital +changes, notably the emancipation of that office<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[18]</a></span> +from the veto of the Military Member of the +Council of the Viceroy, and where he showed once +more, in his dealings with the Sepoys, that +obscure yet powerful sympathy with the mysterious +intellect of the East. Thence he had been again +shifted to Egypt; but the next summons that came +to him swallowed up all these things. A short time +after war broke out with Germany he was made +Minister of War, and held that post until the dark +season when he set out on a mission to Russia, which +never reached its goal. But when his ship went +down he had already done a work and registered a +change in England, with some words about which +this sketch may well conclude. Journalistic attacks +were indeed made upon him, but in writing for a +foreign reader I pass them by. In such a place I +will not say even of the meanest of Englishmen what +they were not ashamed to say of one of the greatest. +In his new work he was not only a very great man, +but one dealing with very great things; and perhaps +his most historic moment was when he broke his +customary silence about the deeper emotions of life, +and became the mouthpiece of the national horror +at the German fashion of fighting, which he declared +to have left a stain upon the whole profession of arms. +For, by a movement unusually and unconsciously +dramatic, he chose that moment to salute across the +long stretch of years the comparative chivalry and +nobility of his dead enemies of the Soudan, and to +announce that in the heart of Europe, in learned +academies and ordered government offices, there +had appeared a lunacy so cruel and unclean that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[19]</a></span> +the maddest dervish dead in the desert had a right +to disdain it where he lay.</p> + +<p>Kitchener, like other Englishmen of his type, +made his name outside England and even outside +Europe. But it was in England, and after his return +to England, that he did what will perhaps make his +name most permanent in history. That return to +England was indeed as symbolic as his last and tragic +journey to Russia. Both will stand as symbols of +the deepest things which are moving mankind in +the Great War. In truth the whole of that great +European movement which we call the cause of the +Allies is in itself a homeward journey. It is a return +to native and historic ideals, after an exile in +the howling wilderness of the political pessimism +and cynicism of Prussia. After his great adventures +in Africa and Asia, the Englishman has re-discovered +Europe; and in the very act of discovering Europe, +the Englishman has at last discovered England. +The revelation of the forces still really to be found +in England itself, when all is said that can possibly +or plausibly be said against English commercialism +and selfishness, was the last work of Lord Kitchener. +He was the embodiment of an enormous experience +which has passed through Imperialism and reached +patriotism. He had been the supreme figure of +that strange and sprawling England which lies +beyond England; which carries the habits of +English clubs and hotels into the solitudes of the +Nile or up the passes of the Himalayas, and is +infinitely ignorant of things infinitely nearer home. +For this type of Englishman Cairo was nearer than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[20]</a></span> +Calais. Yet the typical figure which we associated +with such places as Cairo was destined before he died +to open again the ancient gate of Calais and lead in a +new and noble fashion the return of England to +Europe. The great change for which his countrymen +will probably remember him longest was what +we should call in England the revolution of the New +Armies.</p> + +<p>It is almost impossible to express how great a +revolution it was so as to convey its dimensions to +the citizens of any other great European country +where military service has long been the rule and +not the exception, where the people itself is only +the army in mufti. In its mere aspect to the eye it +was something like an invasion by a strange race. +The English professional soldier of our youth had been +conspicuous not only by his red coat but by his rarity. +When rare things become common they do not become +commonplace. The memory of their singularity is +still strong enough to give them rather the +appearance of a prodigy, as anyone can realise +by imagining an army of hunchbacks or a city of +one-eyed men. The English soldier had indeed +been respected as a patriotic symbol, but rather +as a priest or a prince can be a symbol, as being +the exception and not the rule. A child was taken +to see the soldier outside Buckingham Palace almost +as he was taken to see the King driving out of +Buckingham Palace. Hence the first effect of the +enlargement of the armies was something almost +like a fairy-tale—almost as if the streets were +crowded with kings, walking about and wearing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[21]</a></span> +crowns of gold. This merely optical vision of the +revolution was but the first impression of a reality +equally vast and new. The first levies which came +to be called popularly Kitchener's Army, because +of the energy and inspiration with which he set +himself to their organisation, consisted entirely of +volunteers. It was not till long after the whole +face of England had been transformed by this +mobilisation that the Government resorted to compulsion +to bring in a mere margin of men. Save +for the personality of Kitchener, the new militarism +of England came wholly and freely from the English. +While it was as universal as a tax, it was as spontaneous +as a riot. But it is obvious that to produce +so large and novel an effect out of the mere psychology +of a nation, apart from its organisation, was +something which required tact as well as decision: +and it is this which illustrated a side of the English +general's character without which he may be, and +indeed has been, wholly misunderstood.</p> + +<p>It is of the nature of national heroes of Kitchener's +type that their admirers are unjust to them. They +would have been better appreciated if they had been +less praised. When a soldier is turned into an idol +there seems an unfortunate tendency to turn him +into a wooden idol, like the wooden figure of +Hindenburg erected by the ridiculous authorities +of Berlin. In a more moderate and metaphorical +sense there has been an unfortunate tendency to +represent Kitchener as strong by merely representing +him as stiff—to suggest that he was made +of wood and not of steel. There are two maxims,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[22]</a></span> +which have been, I believe, the mottoes of two +English families, both of which are boasts but each +the contrary of the other. The first runs, “You +can break me, but you cannot bend me”; and the +second, “You can bend me, but you cannot break +me.” With all respect to whoever may have borne +it, the first is the boast of the barbarian and therefore +of the Prussian; the second is the boast +of the Christian and the civilised man—that he is +free and flexible, yet always returns to his true +position, like a tempered sword. Now too much of +the eulogy on a man like Kitchener tended to +praise him not as a sword but as a poker. +He happened to rise into his first fame at a time +when much of the English Press and governing +class was still entirely duped by Germany, and to +some extent judged everything by a Bismarckian +test of blood and iron. It tended to neglect the +very real disadvantages, even in practical life, which +lie upon the man of blood and iron, as compared +with the man of blood and bone. It is one grave +disadvantage, for instance, that if a man made of +iron were to break his bones, they would not heal. +In other words, the Prussian Empire, with all its +perfections and efficiencies, has one notable defect—that +it is a dead thing. It does not draw its life +from any primary human religion or poetry; it does +not grow again from within. And being a dead +thing, it suffers also from having no nerves to give +warning or reaction; it reads no danger signals; +it has no premonitions; about its own spiritual +doom its sentinels are deaf and all its spies<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[23]</a></span> +are blind. On the other hand, the British Empire, +with all its blunders and bad anomalies, to which I +am the last person to be blind, has one noticeable +advantage—that it is a living thing. It is not that +it makes no mistakes, but it knows it has made +them, as the living hand knows when it has touched +hot iron. That is exactly what a hand of iron would +not know; and that is exactly the error in the +German ideal of a hand of iron. No candid critic +of England can read its history fairly and fail to see +a certain flexibility and self-modification; illiberal +policies followed by liberal ones; men failing in +something and succeeding in something else; men +sent to do one thing and being wise enough to do +another; the human power of the living hand to +draw back. As it happens, Kitchener was extraordinarily +English in this lively and vital moderation. +And it is to be feared that the more German idealisation +of him, in the largely unenlightened England +before the war, has already done some harm to +his reputation, and in missing what was particularly +English has missed what was particularly +interesting.</p> + +<p>Lord Kitchener was personally a somewhat silent +man; and his social conventions were those of the +ordinary English officer, especially the officer who +has lived among Orientals—conventions which in +any case tend in the direction of silence. He also +really had, and to an extent of which some people +complained, a certain English embarrassment about +making all his purposes clear, especially before +they were clear to himself. He probably liked to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[24]</a></span> +think a thing out in his own way and therefore at +his own time, which was not always the time at +which people thought they had a right to question +him. In this way it is true of him, as of such +another strong man as the Irish patriot Parnell, that +his very simplicity had an effect of secrecy. But it is +a complete error about him, as it was a complete error +about Parnell, to suppose that he took the Prussian +pose of disdaining and disregarding everybody; +that he settled everything in solitary egoism; that he +was a Superman too self-sufficing to listen to friends +and too philosophical to listen to reason. It will be +noted that every crisis of his life that is lit up by +history contradicts the colours of this picture. He +could not only take counsel with his friends, but he +was abnormally successful in taking counsel with +his foes. It is notable that whenever he came in +personal contact with a great captain actually or +potentially in arms against him, the result was not a +mere collision but a mutual comprehension. He +established the friendliest relations with the chivalrous +and adventurous Marchand, standing on the deadly +debatable land of Fashoda. He established equally +friendly relations with the Boer generals, gathered +under the dark cloud of national disappointment +and defeat. In all such instances, so far as +his individuality could count, it is clear that +he acted as a moderate and, in the universal +sense, as a liberal. The results and the records +of those who met him in such hours are quite +sufficient to prove that he did not leave the +impression of a Prussian arrogance. If he was silent,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[25]</a></span> +his silence must have been more friendly, I had +almost said more convivial, than many men's +conversation. But on the larger platform of the +European War, this quiet but unique gift of open-mindedness +and intellectual hospitality was destined +to do two very decisive things, which may profoundly +affect history. In the first he dealt with the more +democratic and even revolutionary elements in +England; and in the second he represents a very +real change that has passed over the English +traditions about Russia.</p> + +<p>Personally, as has already been noted, Lord +Kitchener never was and never pretended to be anything +more or less than the good military man, and by +the time of the Great War he was already an elderly +military man. The type has much the same standards +and traditions in all European countries; but in +England it is, if anything, a little more traditional, +for the very reason that the army has been something +separate, professional, and relatively small—a +sort of club. The military man was all the more +military because the nation was not military. Such +a man is inevitably conservative in his views, +conventional in his manners, and simplifies the +problem of patriotism to a single-eyed obedience. +When he took over the business of raising the first +levies for the present war he was confronted with +the problem of the English Trades Unions—the very +last problem in the world which one could reasonably +expect such a man to understand. And yet he did +understand it; he was perhaps the only person in +the governing class who did. If it be hard to explain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[26]</a></span> +to the richer classes in England, it is almost +impossible to explain to any classes in any other +country, because the English situation is largely +unique. There is the same difficulty as we have +already found in describing how vast and even violent +a transformation scene the growth of the great army +appeared; it has been almost impossible to describe +it to the chief conscript countries, which take a great +army for granted. The key to the parallel problem +of the Trades Unions is simply this—that England +is the only European country that is practically +industrial and nothing else. Trades Unions can +never play such a part in countries where the masses +live on the land; such masses always have some +status and support—yes, even if they are serfs. +The status of the English workman is not in the +earth; it is, so to speak, in the air—in a scaffolding +of artificial abstractions, a framework of rules and +rights, of verbal bargains or paper resolutions. If +he loses this, he becomes nothing so human +or homely as a slave. Rather he becomes a +wild beast, a sort of wandering vermin with no +place in the state at all. It would be necessary +to explain this, and a great deal more which +cannot possibly be explained here, before we +could measure the enormity of the enigma facing +the British official who had to propose to the English +the practical suspension of the Trades Unions. To +this must be added the fact that the Unions, already +national institutions, had just lately been in a ferment +with new and violent doctrines: Syndicalists had +invoked them as the future seats of government;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[27]</a></span> +historical speculators had seen in them the return to +the great Christian Guilds of the Middle Ages; a +more revolutionary Press had appeared to champion +them; gigantic strikes had split the country in every +direction. Anyone would have said that under these +circumstances the very virtues and attainments of +Kitchener would at least make it fairly certain that +he would quarrel with the Trades Unions. It soon +became apparent that the one man who was not +going to quarrel with the Trades Unions was +Kitchener. Politicians and parliamentary leaders, supposed +actually to be elected by the working classes, +were regarded, rightly or wrongly, with implacable +suspicion. The elderly and old-fashioned Anglo-Egyptian +militarist, with his doctrine and discipline +of the barrack-room and the drumhead court-martial, +was never regarded by the workers with a shade +of suspicion. They simply took him at his word, +and the leader of the most turbulent Trades Union +element paid to him after his death the simplest +tribute in the plainest and most popular language—“He +was a straight man.” I am so antiquated as +to think it a better epitaph than the fashionable +phrase about a strong man. Some silent indescribable +geniality of fairness in the man once +more prevailed against the possibility of passionate +misunderstandings, as it had prevailed against +the international nervousness of the atmosphere +of Fashoda or the tragic border feud of the +Boers. I suspect that it lay largely in the +fact that this great Englishman was sufficiently +English to guess one thing missed by many more<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[28]</a></span> +sophisticated people—that the English Trades +Unions are very English. For good or evil, they +are national; they have very little in common +with the more international Socialism of the Continent, +and nothing whatever in common with the +pedantic Socialism of Prussia. Understanding his +countrymen by instinct, he did not make a parade +of efficiency; for the English dislike the symbols of +dictatorship much more than dictatorship. They +hate the crown and sceptre of the tyrant much more +than his tyranny. They have a national tradition +which allows of far too much inequality so long as it +is softened with a certain camaraderie, and in which +even snobs only remember the coronet of a nobleman +on condition that he shall himself seem to forget it.</p> + +<p>The other matter is much more important. +Though the reverse of vivacious, Kitchener was +very vital; and he had one unique mark of vitality—that +he had not stopped growing. “An oak should +not be transplanted at sixty,” said the great orator +Grattan when he was transferred from the Parliament +of Dublin to the Parliament of Westminster. +Kitchener was sixty-four when he turned his face +westward to the problem of his own country. There +clung to him already all the traditional attributes of +the oak—its toughness, its angularity, its closeness +of grain and ruggedness of outline—when he was +uprooted from the Arabian sands and replanted in +the remote western island. Yet the oak not only +grew green again and put forth new leaves; it was +almost as if, as in a legend, it could put forth a new +kind of leaves. Kitchener, with all his taciturnity,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[29]</a></span> +really began to put forth a new order of ideas. If +a change of opinions is unusual in an elderly man, +it is almost unknown in an elderly military man. +If the hardening of time was felt even by the +poetic and emotional Grattan, it would not +have been strange if the hardening had been +quite hopeless in the rigid and reticent Kitchener. +Yet it was not hopeless; and the fact became +the spring of much of the national hope. The +grizzled martinet from India and Egypt showed +a certain power which is in nearly all great men, but +of which St. Paul has become the traditional type—the +power of being a great convert as well as a great +crusader. It is the real power of re-forming an +opinion, which is the very opposite of that mere +formlessness which we call fickleness. Nor is the +comparison to such an example as St. Paul +altogether historically disproportionate; for the point +upon which this very typical Englishman changed +his mind was a point which is now the pivot of the +whole future and perhaps of the very existence of +Christendom. For many such Englishmen it might +almost be called the discovery of Christendom. It +can be called with greater precision, and indeed with +almost complete precision, the discovery of Russia.</p> + +<p>Military bureaucratic systems everywhere have +too much tendency to work upon one idea, and +there was a time when the military and bureaucratic +system of the British in the East worked on the +idea of the fear of Russia. It is needless here to +explain that sentiment, and useless to explain it +away. It was partly a mere tradition from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[30]</a></span> +natural jingoism of the Crimean War; it was partly +in itself a tribute to the epic majesty of the Russian +march across mysterious Asia to the legendary +Chinese Wall. The point here is that it existed; +and where there exists such an idea in such +military rulers, they very seldom alter their idea. +But Kitchener did alter his idea. Not in mere +military obedience, but in genuine human reasonableness, +he came late in life to see the Russian as the +friend and the Prussian as the enemy. In the +inevitable division of British ministerial councils +about the distribution of British aid and attention +he was the one man who stood most enthusiastically, +one might say stubbornly, for the supreme importance +of munitioning the magnificent Russian defence. +He mystified all the English pessimists, in what +seemed to them the blackest hour of pessimism, by +announcing that Germany had “shot her bolt”; +that she had already lost her chance, not by any of +the Allied attacks, but by the stupendous skill and +valour of that Russian retreat, which was more +triumphant than any attack. It is this discovery that +marks an epoch; for that great deliverance was not +only the victory of Russia, but very specially the +victory of the Russians. Never before was there +such a war of men against guns—as awful and +inspiring to watch as a war of men against demons. +Perhaps the duel of a man with a modern gun is +more like that between a man and an enormous +dragon; nor is there anything on the weaker side +save the ultimate and almost metaphysical truth, +that a man can make a gun and a gun cannot make<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[31]</a></span> +a man. It is the man—the Russian soldier and +peasant himself—who has emerged like the hero of +an epic, and who is now secure for ever from the +sophisticated scandal-mongering and the cultured +ignorance of the West.</p> + +<p>And it is this that lends an epic and almost +primeval symbolism to the tragedy of Kitchener's end. +Somehow the very fact that it was incomplete as an +action makes it more complete as an allegory. +English in his very limitations, English in his late +emancipation from them, he was setting forth on an +eastward journey different indeed from the many +eastward journeys of his life. There are many such +noble tragedies of travel in the records of his +country; it was so, silently without a trace, that the +track of Franklin faded in the polar snows or the +track of Gordon in the desert sands. But this was +an adventure new for such adventurous men—the +finding not of strange foes but of friends yet +stranger. Many men of his blood and type—simple, +strenuous, somewhat prosaic—had threaded their way +through some dark continent to add some treasure +or territory to the English name. He was seeking +what for us his countrymen has long been a dark +continent—but which contains a much more noble +treasure. The glory of a great people, long hidden +from the English by accidents and by lies, lay before +him at his journey's end. That journey was never +ended. It remains like a mighty bridge, the +mightier for being broken, pointing across a chasm, +and promising a mightier thoroughfare between the +east and west. In that waste of seas beyond the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[32]</a></span> +last northern islets where his ship went down one +might fancy his spirit standing, a figure frustrated +yet prophetic and pointing to the East, whence are +the light of the world and the reunion of Christian +men.</p> + +<p class="printed"> +<i>Printed in Great Britain by</i> <span class="smcap">The Field & Queen (Horace Cox) Ltd.</span>,<br /> +<i>Bream's Buildings, London, E.C. 4</i>.<br /></p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lord Kitchener, by G. K. Chesterton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD KITCHENER *** + +***** This file should be named 25795-h.htm or 25795-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/7/9/25795/ + +Produced by Irma Spehar and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/25795-h/images/kitchener.jpg b/25795-h/images/kitchener.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e2c0835 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-h/images/kitchener.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/c001.jpg b/25795-page-images/c001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1077774 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/c001.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/f001.jpg b/25795-page-images/f001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d61964f --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/f001.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/f002.jpg b/25795-page-images/f002.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1ad7992 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/f002.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/f003.jpg b/25795-page-images/f003.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..6d9db5a --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/f003.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p001.jpg b/25795-page-images/p001.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..862e621 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p001.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p002.jpg b/25795-page-images/p002.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..03cccfd --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p002.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p003.jpg b/25795-page-images/p003.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1dfbb28 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p003.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p004.jpg b/25795-page-images/p004.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4321235 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p004.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p005.jpg b/25795-page-images/p005.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9783894 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p005.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p006.jpg b/25795-page-images/p006.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..59ad30d --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p006.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p007.jpg b/25795-page-images/p007.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..e36f937 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p007.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p008.jpg b/25795-page-images/p008.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..14a0b22 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p008.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p009.jpg b/25795-page-images/p009.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..370afc9 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p009.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p010.jpg b/25795-page-images/p010.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc497aa --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p010.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p011.jpg b/25795-page-images/p011.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..13a6cba --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p011.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p012.jpg b/25795-page-images/p012.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..298286d --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p012.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p013.jpg b/25795-page-images/p013.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1edcd79 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p013.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p014.jpg b/25795-page-images/p014.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..98b86ad --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p014.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p015.jpg b/25795-page-images/p015.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..da06a16 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p015.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p016.jpg b/25795-page-images/p016.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7c2cb7b --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p016.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p017.jpg b/25795-page-images/p017.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..933b0e2 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p017.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p018.jpg b/25795-page-images/p018.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1824dc8 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p018.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p019.jpg b/25795-page-images/p019.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..883853f --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p019.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p020.jpg b/25795-page-images/p020.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2bdaf87 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p020.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p021.jpg b/25795-page-images/p021.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..003af57 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p021.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p022.jpg b/25795-page-images/p022.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..cc9e488 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p022.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p023.jpg b/25795-page-images/p023.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9b26655 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p023.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p024.jpg b/25795-page-images/p024.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..a9e0c1a --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p024.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p025.jpg b/25795-page-images/p025.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0bfb1aa --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p025.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p026.jpg b/25795-page-images/p026.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..774daa2 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p026.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p027.jpg b/25795-page-images/p027.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..5a5927e --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p027.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p028.jpg b/25795-page-images/p028.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4cf3a1d --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p028.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p029.jpg b/25795-page-images/p029.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bd3b970 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p029.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p030.jpg b/25795-page-images/p030.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..acb9638 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p030.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p031.jpg b/25795-page-images/p031.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..9a1b60a --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p031.jpg diff --git a/25795-page-images/p032.jpg b/25795-page-images/p032.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..754af06 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795-page-images/p032.jpg diff --git a/25795.txt b/25795.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..b3dd973 --- /dev/null +++ b/25795.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1177 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Lord Kitchener, by G. K. Chesterton + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Lord Kitchener + +Author: G. K. Chesterton + +Release Date: June 15, 2008 [EBook #25795] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD KITCHENER *** + + + + +Produced by Irma Spehar and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + + + + + LORD KITCHENER + + BY + + G. K. CHESTERTON + + LONDON + + 1917 + + + + +[Illustration: LORD KITCHENER + +By G. K. Chesterton + +_Photo by Elliott & Fry, Ltd., London._] + + + + + LORD KITCHENER + + +Horatio Herbert Kitchener was Irish by birth but English by +extraction, being born in County Kerry, the son of an English colonel. +The fanciful might see in this first and accidental fact the presence +of this simple and practical man amid the more mystical western +problems and dreams which were very distant from his mind, an element +which clings to all his career and gives it an unconscious poetry. He +had many qualities of the epic hero, and especially this--that he was +the last man in the world to be the epic poet. There is something +almost provocative to superstition in the way in which he stands at +every turn as the symbol of the special trials and the modern +transfiguration of England; from this moment when he was born among +the peasants of Ireland to the moment when he died upon the sea, +seeking at the other end of the world the other great peasant +civilisation of Russia. Yet at each of these symbolic moments he is, +if not as unconscious as a symbol, then as silent as a symbol; he is +speechless and supremely significant, like an ensign or a flag. The +superficial picturesqueness of his life, at least, lies very much in +this--that he was like a hero condemned by fate to act an allegory. + +We find this, for instance, in one of the very first and perhaps one +of the most picturesque of all the facts that are recorded or reported +of him. As a youth, tall, very shy and quiet, he was only notable for +intellectual interests of the soberest and most methodical sort, +especially for the close study of mathematics. This also, +incidentally, was typical enough, for his work in Egypt and the +Soudan, by which his fame was established, was based wholly upon such +calculations. It was not merely mathematical but literally +geometrical. His work bore the same relation to Gordon's that a rigid +mathematical diagram bears to a rough pencil sketch on which it is +based. Yet the student thus bent on the strictest side of his +profession, studying it at Woolwich and entering the Engineers as the +most severely scientific branch of the army, had as a first experience +of war something so romantic that it has been counted incredible, yet +something so relevant to the great reality of to-day that it might +have been made up centuries after his death, as a myth is made up +about a god. He happened to be in France in the most tragic hour that +France has ever known or, please God, will ever know. She was bearing +alone the weight of that alien tyranny, of that hopeless and almost +lifeless violence, which the other nations have since found to be the +worst of all the terrors which God tolerates in this world. She trod +that winepress alone; and of the peoples there were none to help her. +In 1870 the Prussian had already encircled Paris, and General Chanzy +was fighting against enormous odds to push northwards to its relief, +when his army was joined by the young and silent traveller from +England. All that was in Kitchener's mind or motives will perhaps +never be known. France was still something of an ideal of civilisation +for many of the more generous English gentry. Prussia was never really +an ideal for anybody, even the Prussians, and mere success, which +could not make her an ideal, had not yet calamitously made her a +model. There was in it also, no doubt, a touch of the schoolboy who +runs away to sea--that touch of the schoolboy without the sense of +which the staidest Englishman will always be inexplicable. But +considered historically there is something strangely moving about the +incident--the fact that Kitchener was a French soldier almost before +he was an English one. As Hannibal was dedicated in boyhood to war +against the eagles of Rome, Kitchener was dedicated, almost in +boyhood, to war against the eagles of Germany. Romance came to this +realist, whether by impulse or by accident, like a wind from without, +as first love will come to the woman-hater. He was already, both by +fate and choice, something more than he had meant to be. The +mathematician, we might almost say the calculating boy, was already +gambling in the highest lottery which led to the highest and most +historic loss. The engineer devoted to discipline was already a free +lance, because already a knight-errant. + +He returned to England to continue his comparatively humdrum order of +advancement; and the next call that came to him was of a strangely +different and yet also of a strangely significant kind. The Palestine +Exploration Fund sent him with another officer to conduct +topographical and antiquarian investigations in a country where +practical exertions are always relieved against a curiously +incongruous background--as if they were setting up telegraph-posts +through the Garden of Eden or opening a railway station at the New +Jerusalem. But the contrast between antiquity and modernity was not +the only one; there was still the sort of contrast that can be a +collision. Kitchener was almost immediately to come in contact with +what was to be, in various aspects, the problem of his life--the +modern fanaticisms of the Near East. There is an English proverb which +asks whether the mountain goes to Mahomet or he to the mountain, and +it may be a question whether his religion be the cause or the effect +of a certain spirit, vivid and yet strangely negative, which dwells in +such deserts. Walking among the olives of Gaza or looking on the +Philistine plain, such travellers may well feel that they are treading +on cold volcanoes, as empty as the mountains of the moon. But the +mountain of Mahomet is not yet an extinct volcano. + +Kitchener, in these first days of seemingly mild and minute duties, +was early aware of it. At Safed, in the Galilean hills, his small +party had found itself surrounded by an Arab mob, stricken suddenly +mad with emotions unintelligible to the political mobs of the West. He +was himself wounded, but, defending himself as best he could with a +walking-stick, not only saved his own life but that of his +fellow-officer, Lieutenant Conder, who had been beaten to the earth +with an Arab club. He continued his work indeed with prosaic +pertinacity, and developed in the survey of the Holy Land all that +almost secretive enthusiasm for detail which lasted all his life. Of +the most famous English guide-book he made the characteristic remark, +"Where Murray has seven names I have a hundred and sixteen." Most men, +in speaking or writing of such a thing, would certainly have said "a +hundred." It is characteristic of his type that he did not even think +in round numbers. But there was in him, parallel to this almost +arithmetical passion, another quality which is, in a double sense, the +secret of his life. For it was the cause of at least half his success; +and yet he very successfully concealed it--especially from his +admirers. + +The paradox of all this part of his life lies in this--that, destined +as he was to be the greatest enemy of Mahomedanism, he was quite +exceptionally a friend of Mahomedans. He had been first received in +that land, so to speak, with a blow on the head with a club; he was +destined to break the sword of the last Arab conqueror, to wreck his +holy city and treat all the religious traditions of it with a +deliberate desecration which has often been held oppressive and was +undoubtedly ruthless. Yet with the individual Moslem he had a sort of +natural brotherhood which has never been explained. Had it been shown +by a soldier of the Crusades, it would have been called witchcraft. In +this, as in many other cases, the advance of a larger enlightenment +prevents us from calling it anything. There was mixed with it, no +doubt, the deep Moslem admiration for mere masculinity, which has +probably by its exaggeration permitted the Moslem subordination of +women. But Kitchener (who was himself accused, rightly or wrongly, of +a disdain for women) must have himself contributed some other element +to the strangest of international sympathies. Whatever it was, it must +be constantly kept in mind as running parallel to his scientific +industry and particularity; for it was these two powers, used +systematically for many years before the event, that prepared the +ground for the overthrow of that wild papacy and wandering empire +which so long hung in the desert, like a mirage to mislead and to +destroy. + +Kitchener was called away in 1878 to similar surveying duties in +Cyprus, and afterwards in Anatolia, where the same faculty obtained +him a _firman_, making him safe in all the Holy Cities of Islam. He +also dealt much with the Turkish fugitives fleeing from the Russian +guns to Erzerum--whither, so long after, the guns were to follow. But +it is with his later summons to Egypt that we feel he has returned to +the theatre of the great things of his life. It is not necessary in +this rough sketch to discuss the rights and wrongs or the general +international origin of the British occupation of Egypt; the degree of +praise or blame to be given to the Khedive, who was the nominal ruler, +or to Arabi, the Nationalist leader, who for a time seized the chief +power in his place. Kitchener's services in the operations by which +Arabi was defeated were confined to some reconnaissance work +immediately preceding the bombardment of Alexandria; and the problem +with which his own personality became identified was not that of the +Government of Egypt, but of the more barbaric power beyond, by which +Egypt, and any powers ruling it, came to be increasingly imperilled. +And what advanced him rapidly to posts of real responsibility in the +new politics of the country was the knowledge he already had of wilder +men and more mysterious forces than could be found in Egyptian courts +or even Egyptian camps. It was the combination, of which we have +already spoken, of detailed experience and almost eccentric sympathy. +In practice it was his knowledge of Arabic, and still more his +knowledge of Arabs. + +There is in Islam a paradox which is perhaps a permanent menace. The +great creed born in the desert creates a kind of ecstasy out of the +very emptiness of its own land, and even, one may say, out of the +emptiness of its own theology. It affirms, with no little sublimity, +something that is not merely the singleness but rather the solitude of +God. There is the same extreme simplification in the solitary figure +of the Prophet; and yet this isolation perpetually reacts into its own +opposite. A void is made in the heart of Islam which has to be filled +up again and again by a mere repetition of the revolution that founded +it. There are no sacraments; the only thing that can happen is a sort +of apocalypse, as unique as the end of the world; so the apocalypse +can only be repeated and the world end again and again. There are no +priests; and yet this equality can only breed a multitude of lawless +prophets almost as numerous as priests. The very dogma that there is +only one Mahomet produces an endless procession of Mahomets. Of these +the mightiest in modern times were the man whose name was Ahmed, and +whose more famous title was the Mahdi; and his more ferocious +successor Abdullahi, who was generally known as the Khalifa. These +great fanatics, or great creators of fanaticism, succeeded in making a +militarism almost as famous and formidable as that of the Turkish +Empire on whose frontiers it hovered, and in spreading a reign of +terror such as can seldom be organised except by civilisation. With +Napoleonic suddenness and success the Mahdist hordes had fallen on the +army of Hicks Pasha, when it left its camp at Omdurman, on the Nile +opposite Khartoum, and had cut it to pieces in a fashion incredible. +They had established at Omdurman their Holy City, the Rome of their +nomadic Roman Empire. Towards that terrible place many adventurous +men, like poor Hicks, had gone and were destined to go. The sands that +encircled it were like that entrance to the lion's cavern in the +fable, towards which many footprints pointed, and from which none +returned. + +The last of these was Gordon, that romantic and even eccentric figure +of whom so much might be said. Perhaps the most essential thing to say +of him here is that fortune once again played the artist in sending +such a man, at once as the leader and the herald of a man like +Kitchener; to show the way and to make the occasion; to be a sacrifice +and a signal for vengeance. Whatever else there was about Gordon, +there was about him the air not only of a hero, but of the hero of a +tragedy. Something Oriental in his own mysticism, something most of +his countrymen would have called moonshine, something perverse in his +courage, something childish and beautiful in that perversity, marked +him out as the man who walks to doom--the man who in a hundred poems +or fables goes up to a city to be crucified. He had gone to Khartoum +to arrange the withdrawal of the troops from the Soudan, the +Government having decided, if possible, to live at peace with the new +Mahdist dictatorship; and he went through the deserts almost as +solitary as a bird, on a journey as lonely as his end. He was cut off +and besieged in Khartoum by the Mahdist armies, and fell with the +falling city. Long before his end he had been in touch with Kitchener, +now of the Egyptian Intelligence Department, and weaving very +carefully a vast net of diplomacy and strategy in which the slayers of +Gordon were to be taken at last. + +A well-known English journalist, Bennet Burleigh, wandering near +Dongola, fell into conversation with an Arab who spoke excellent +English, and who, with a hospitality highly improper in a Moslem, +produced two bottles of claret for his entertainment. The name of this +Arab was Kitchener; and the two bottles were all he had. The +journalist obtained, along with the claret, his first glimpse of the +great and extraordinary schemes with which Kitchener was already +working to avenge the comrade who had fallen in Khartoum. This part of +the work was as personal as that of a private detective plotting +against a private murderer in a modern detective story. Kitchener had +learned to speak the Arab tongue not only freely but sociably. He wore +the Arab dress and fell into the Arab type of courtesy so effectively +that even his blue northern eyes did not betray him. Above all, he +sympathised with the Arab character; and in a thousand places +sprinkled over the map of North-East Africa he made friends for +himself and therefore enemies for the Mahdi. This was the first and +superficially the most individual of the converging plans which were +to checkmate the desert empire; and its effects were very +far-reaching. Again and again, in subsequent years, when the +missionaries of the Mahdist religion pushed northward, they found +themselves entangled among tribes which the English power had not so +much conquered as converted. The legend of the great Prophet +encountered something more elusive than laws or military plans; it +encountered another legend--an influence which also carried the echoes +of the voice of a man. The Ababdeh Arabs, it was said, made a chain +across the desert, which the new and awful faith could not pass. The +Mudir of Dongola was on the point of joining the ever-victorious +Prophet of Omdurman. Kitchener, clad as an Arab, went out almost alone +to speak with him. What passed, perhaps, we can never tell; but +before his guest had even left him the Mudir flew to arms, fell upon +the Prophet's hosts at Korti, and drove them before him. + +The second and superficially more solid process of preparation is much +better known. It was the education of the native Egyptian army. It is +not necessary to swallow all the natural jingoism of English +journalism in order to see something truly historic about the English +officer's work with the Fellaheen, or native race of Egypt. For +centuries they had lain as level as the slime of the Nile, and all the +conquerors in the chronicles of men had passed over them like a +pavement. Though professing the challenging creed of the Moslems, they +seem to have reached something like the pessimist patience of the +Hindoos. To have turned this slime once more into a human river, to +have lifted this pavement once more into a human rampart or barricade, +is not a small thing, nor a thing that could possibly be done even by +mere power, still less by mere money--and this Kitchener and his +English companions certainly did. There must have been something much +more than a mere cynical severity in "organisation" in the man who did +it. There must be something more than a mere commercial common-sense +in the nation in whose name it was done. It is easy enough, with +sufficient dulness and greed of detail, to "organise" anything or +anybody. It is easy enough to make people obey a bugle (or a factory +hooter) as the Prussian soldiers obey a bugle. But it is no such +trumpet that makes possible the resurrection of the dead. + +The success of this second of the three converging designs of +Kitchener, the making of a new Egyptian army, was soon seen in the +expedition against Dongola. It had been foreshadowed in a successful +defence of Suakin, in which Kitchener was wounded; a defence against +Osman Digna, perhaps the first of the Mahdist generals whose own +strongholds were eventually stormed at Gemaizeh; and in the victory at +Toski, where fell the great warrior Wad el Njume, whose strategy had +struck down both Hicks and Gordon. But the turn of the tide was +Dongola. In 1892 General, now Lord Grenfell, who had been Sirdar, or +Commander-in-Chief of the Egyptian Army, and ordered the advance at +Toski, retired and left his post vacant. The great public servant +known latterly as Lord Cromer had long had his eye on Kitchener and +the part he had played, even as a young lieutenant, in the new +military formation of the Fellaheen. He was now put at the head of the +whole new army; and the first work that fell to him was leading the +new expedition. In three days after the order was received the force +started at nightfall and marched southward into the night. The detail +is something more than picturesque; for on all accounts of that +formidable attack on the Mahdi's power a quality of darkness rests +like a kind of cloud. It was, for one thing, a surprise attack and a +very secret one, so that the cloud was as practical as a cloak; but it +was also the re-entrance of a territory which an instinct has led the +English to call the Dark Continent even under its blazing noon. There +vast distances alone made a veil like that of darkness, and there the +lives of Gordon and Hicks and hundreds more had been swallowed up in +an ancient silence. Perhaps we cannot guess to-day, after the colder +completion of Kitchener's work, what it meant for those who went on +that nocturnal march; who crept up in two lines, one along the river +and the other along an abandoned railway track, moving through the +black night; and in the black night encamped, and waited for the +rising of the moon. Anyhow, the tale told of it strikes this note, +especially in one touch of what can only be called a terrible +triviality. I mean the reference to the new noise heard just before +day-break, revealing the nearness of the enemy: the dreadful drum of +Islam, calling for prayer to an awful God--a God not to be worshipped +by the changing and sometimes cheerful notes of harp or organ, but +only by the drum that maddens by mere repetition. + +But the third of Kitchener's lines of approach remains to consider. +The surprise attack, which captured the riverside village of Firket, +had eventually led, in spite of storms that warred on the advance like +armies, and in one place practically wiped out a brigade, to the fall +of Dongola itself. But Dongola was not the high place of the enemy; it +was not there that Gordon died or that Abdullahi was still alive. Far +away up the dark river were the twin cities of the tragedy, the city +of the murder and the city of the murderer. It was in relation to this +fixed point of fact that Kitchener's next proceeding is seen to be +supremely characteristic. He was so anxious to do one thing that he +was cautious about doing it. He was more concerned to obtain a success +than to appear to deserve it; he did not want a moral victory, but a +mathematical certainty. So far from following up the dash in the dark, +upon Firket or Dongola, with more romantic risks, he decided not to +advance on the Mahdi's host a minute faster than men could follow him +building a railway. He created behind him a colossal causeway of +communications, going out alone into wastes where there was and had +been no other mortal trace or track. The engineering genius of +Girouard, a Canadian, designed and developed it with what was, +considering the nature of the task, brilliant rapidity; but by the +standards of desert warfare it must have seemed that Kitchener and his +English made war as slowly as grass grows or orchards bear fruit. The +horsemen of Araby, darting to and fro like swallows, must have felt as +if they were menaced by the advance of a giant snail. But it was a +snail that left a shining track unknown to those sands; for the first +time since Rome decayed something was being made there that could +remain. The effect of this growing road, one might almost say this +living road, began to be felt. Mahmoud, the Mahdist military leader, +fell back from Berber, and gathered his hosts more closely round the +sacred city on the Nile. Kitchener, making another night march up the +Atbara river, stormed the Arab camp and took Mahmoud prisoner. Then at +last he moved finally up the western bank of the Nile and came in +sight of Omdurman. It is somewhat of a disproportion to dwell on the +fight that followed and the fall of the great city. The fighting had +been done already, and more than half of it was working; fighting a +long fight against the centuries, against ages of sloth and the great +sleep of the desert, where there had been nothing but visions, and +against a racial decline that men had accepted as a doom. On the +following Sunday a memorial service for Charles Gordon was held in the +place where he was slain. + +The fact that Kitchener fought with rails as much as with guns rather +fixed from this time forward the fashionable view of his character. He +was talked of as if he were himself made of metal, with a head filled +not only with calculations but with clockwork. This is symbolically +true, in so far as it means that he was by temper what he was by +trade, an engineer. He had conquered the Mahdi, where many had failed +to do so. But what he had chiefly conquered was the desert--a great +and greedy giant. He brought Cairo to Khartoum; we might say that he +brought London or Liverpool with him to the gates of the strange city +of Omdurman. Some parts of his action supported, even regrettably, the +reputation of rigidity. But if any admirer had, in this hour of +triumph, been staring at him as at a stone sphinx of inflexible fate, +that admirer would have been very much puzzled by the next passage of +his life. Kitchener was something much more than a machine; for in the +mind, as much as in the body, flexibility is far more masculine than +inflexibility. + +A situation developed almost instantly after his victory in which he +was to show that he was a diplomatist as well as a soldier. At +Fashoda, a little farther up the Nile, he found something more +surprising, and perhaps more romantic, than the wildest dervish of the +desert solitudes. A French officer, and one of the most valiant and +distinguished of French officers, Major Marchand, had penetrated to +the place with the pertinacity of a great explorer, and seemed +prepared to hold it with all the unselfish arrogance of a patriot. It +is said that the Frenchman not only welcomed Kitchener in the name of +France, but invited him, with courteous irony, to partake of +vegetables grown on the spot, a symbol of stable occupation. The +story, if it be true, is admirably French; for it reveals at once the +wit and the peasant. But the humour of the Englishman was worthily +equal to the wit of the Frenchman; and it was humour of that sane sort +which we call good humour. Political papers in pacific England and +France raved and ranted over the crisis, responsible journals howled +with jingoism; but through it all, until the moment when the French +agreed to retire, the two most placable and even sociable figures were +the two grim tropical travellers and soldiers who faced each other on +the burning sands of Fashoda. As we see them facing each other, we +have again the vague sense of a sign or a parable which runs through +this story. For they were to meet again long afterwards as allies, +when both were leading their countrymen against the great enemy in the +Great War. + +Something of the same shadow of prophecy is perhaps the deepest memory +left by the last war of Kitchener before the greatest. After further +activities in Egypt and the Soudan, of which the attempt to educate +the Fellaheen by the Gordon Memorial College was the most remarkable, +he was abruptly summoned to South Africa to be the right hand of Lord +Roberts in the war then being waged against the Boers. He conducted +the opening of the determining battle of Paardeberg, and was typically +systematic in covering the half-conquered country with a system of +block-houses and enclosures like a diagram of geometry. But to-day, +and for many reasons, Englishmen will think first of the last scene of +that war. When Botha and the Boer Generals surrendered to Kitchener, +there was the same goodwill among the soldiers to contrast with the +ill-will of the journalists. Botha also became almost a friend; and +Botha also was to be in the far future an ally, smiting the German in +Africa as Kitchener smote him in Europe. There was the same hint of +prophecy about the war that ended at Vereeniging as about that other +war that so nearly began at Fashoda. It seemed almost as if God were +pitting his heroes against each other in tournament, before they all +rode together against the heathen pouring upon them out of Germany. + +It is with that name of Germany that this mere skeleton of the facts +must end. After the South African War Kitchener had been made +Commander-in-Chief in India, where he effected several vital changes, +notably the emancipation of that office from the veto of the Military +Member of the Council of the Viceroy, and where he showed once more, +in his dealings with the Sepoys, that obscure yet powerful sympathy +with the mysterious intellect of the East. Thence he had been again +shifted to Egypt; but the next summons that came to him swallowed up +all these things. A short time after war broke out with Germany he was +made Minister of War, and held that post until the dark season when he +set out on a mission to Russia, which never reached its goal. But when +his ship went down he had already done a work and registered a change +in England, with some words about which this sketch may well conclude. +Journalistic attacks were indeed made upon him, but in writing for a +foreign reader I pass them by. In such a place I will not say even of +the meanest of Englishmen what they were not ashamed to say of one of +the greatest. In his new work he was not only a very great man, but +one dealing with very great things; and perhaps his most historic +moment was when he broke his customary silence about the deeper +emotions of life, and became the mouthpiece of the national horror at +the German fashion of fighting, which he declared to have left a stain +upon the whole profession of arms. For, by a movement unusually and +unconsciously dramatic, he chose that moment to salute across the long +stretch of years the comparative chivalry and nobility of his dead +enemies of the Soudan, and to announce that in the heart of Europe, in +learned academies and ordered government offices, there had appeared a +lunacy so cruel and unclean that the maddest dervish dead in the +desert had a right to disdain it where he lay. + +Kitchener, like other Englishmen of his type, made his name outside +England and even outside Europe. But it was in England, and after his +return to England, that he did what will perhaps make his name most +permanent in history. That return to England was indeed as symbolic as +his last and tragic journey to Russia. Both will stand as symbols of +the deepest things which are moving mankind in the Great War. In truth +the whole of that great European movement which we call the cause of +the Allies is in itself a homeward journey. It is a return to native +and historic ideals, after an exile in the howling wilderness of the +political pessimism and cynicism of Prussia. After his great +adventures in Africa and Asia, the Englishman has re-discovered +Europe; and in the very act of discovering Europe, the Englishman has +at last discovered England. The revelation of the forces still really +to be found in England itself, when all is said that can possibly or +plausibly be said against English commercialism and selfishness, was +the last work of Lord Kitchener. He was the embodiment of an enormous +experience which has passed through Imperialism and reached +patriotism. He had been the supreme figure of that strange and +sprawling England which lies beyond England; which carries the habits +of English clubs and hotels into the solitudes of the Nile or up the +passes of the Himalayas, and is infinitely ignorant of things +infinitely nearer home. For this type of Englishman Cairo was nearer +than Calais. Yet the typical figure which we associated with such +places as Cairo was destined before he died to open again the ancient +gate of Calais and lead in a new and noble fashion the return of +England to Europe. The great change for which his countrymen will +probably remember him longest was what we should call in England the +revolution of the New Armies. + +It is almost impossible to express how great a revolution it was so as +to convey its dimensions to the citizens of any other great European +country where military service has long been the rule and not the +exception, where the people itself is only the army in mufti. In its +mere aspect to the eye it was something like an invasion by a strange +race. The English professional soldier of our youth had been +conspicuous not only by his red coat but by his rarity. When rare +things become common they do not become commonplace. The memory of +their singularity is still strong enough to give them rather the +appearance of a prodigy, as anyone can realise by imagining an army of +hunchbacks or a city of one-eyed men. The English soldier had indeed +been respected as a patriotic symbol, but rather as a priest or a +prince can be a symbol, as being the exception and not the rule. A +child was taken to see the soldier outside Buckingham Palace almost as +he was taken to see the King driving out of Buckingham Palace. Hence +the first effect of the enlargement of the armies was something almost +like a fairy-tale--almost as if the streets were crowded with kings, +walking about and wearing crowns of gold. This merely optical vision +of the revolution was but the first impression of a reality equally +vast and new. The first levies which came to be called popularly +Kitchener's Army, because of the energy and inspiration with which he +set himself to their organisation, consisted entirely of volunteers. +It was not till long after the whole face of England had been +transformed by this mobilisation that the Government resorted to +compulsion to bring in a mere margin of men. Save for the personality +of Kitchener, the new militarism of England came wholly and freely +from the English. While it was as universal as a tax, it was as +spontaneous as a riot. But it is obvious that to produce so large and +novel an effect out of the mere psychology of a nation, apart from its +organisation, was something which required tact as well as decision: +and it is this which illustrated a side of the English general's +character without which he may be, and indeed has been, wholly +misunderstood. + +It is of the nature of national heroes of Kitchener's type that their +admirers are unjust to them. They would have been better appreciated +if they had been less praised. When a soldier is turned into an idol +there seems an unfortunate tendency to turn him into a wooden idol, +like the wooden figure of Hindenburg erected by the ridiculous +authorities of Berlin. In a more moderate and metaphorical sense there +has been an unfortunate tendency to represent Kitchener as strong by +merely representing him as stiff--to suggest that he was made of wood +and not of steel. There are two maxims, which have been, I believe, +the mottoes of two English families, both of which are boasts but each +the contrary of the other. The first runs, "You can break me, but you +cannot bend me"; and the second, "You can bend me, but you cannot +break me." With all respect to whoever may have borne it, the first is +the boast of the barbarian and therefore of the Prussian; the second +is the boast of the Christian and the civilised man--that he is free +and flexible, yet always returns to his true position, like a tempered +sword. Now too much of the eulogy on a man like Kitchener tended to +praise him not as a sword but as a poker. He happened to rise into his +first fame at a time when much of the English Press and governing +class was still entirely duped by Germany, and to some extent judged +everything by a Bismarckian test of blood and iron. It tended to +neglect the very real disadvantages, even in practical life, which lie +upon the man of blood and iron, as compared with the man of blood and +bone. It is one grave disadvantage, for instance, that if a man made +of iron were to break his bones, they would not heal. In other words, +the Prussian Empire, with all its perfections and efficiencies, has +one notable defect--that it is a dead thing. It does not draw its life +from any primary human religion or poetry; it does not grow again from +within. And being a dead thing, it suffers also from having no nerves +to give warning or reaction; it reads no danger signals; it has no +premonitions; about its own spiritual doom its sentinels are deaf and +all its spies are blind. On the other hand, the British Empire, with +all its blunders and bad anomalies, to which I am the last person to +be blind, has one noticeable advantage--that it is a living thing. It +is not that it makes no mistakes, but it knows it has made them, as +the living hand knows when it has touched hot iron. That is exactly +what a hand of iron would not know; and that is exactly the error in +the German ideal of a hand of iron. No candid critic of England can +read its history fairly and fail to see a certain flexibility and +self-modification; illiberal policies followed by liberal ones; men +failing in something and succeeding in something else; men sent to do +one thing and being wise enough to do another; the human power of the +living hand to draw back. As it happens, Kitchener was extraordinarily +English in this lively and vital moderation. And it is to be feared +that the more German idealisation of him, in the largely unenlightened +England before the war, has already done some harm to his reputation, +and in missing what was particularly English has missed what was +particularly interesting. + +Lord Kitchener was personally a somewhat silent man; and his social +conventions were those of the ordinary English officer, especially the +officer who has lived among Orientals--conventions which in any case +tend in the direction of silence. He also really had, and to an extent +of which some people complained, a certain English embarrassment about +making all his purposes clear, especially before they were clear to +himself. He probably liked to think a thing out in his own way and +therefore at his own time, which was not always the time at which +people thought they had a right to question him. In this way it is +true of him, as of such another strong man as the Irish patriot +Parnell, that his very simplicity had an effect of secrecy. But it is +a complete error about him, as it was a complete error about Parnell, +to suppose that he took the Prussian pose of disdaining and +disregarding everybody; that he settled everything in solitary egoism; +that he was a Superman too self-sufficing to listen to friends and too +philosophical to listen to reason. It will be noted that every crisis +of his life that is lit up by history contradicts the colours of this +picture. He could not only take counsel with his friends, but he was +abnormally successful in taking counsel with his foes. It is notable +that whenever he came in personal contact with a great captain +actually or potentially in arms against him, the result was not a mere +collision but a mutual comprehension. He established the friendliest +relations with the chivalrous and adventurous Marchand, standing on +the deadly debatable land of Fashoda. He established equally friendly +relations with the Boer generals, gathered under the dark cloud of +national disappointment and defeat. In all such instances, so far as +his individuality could count, it is clear that he acted as a moderate +and, in the universal sense, as a liberal. The results and the records +of those who met him in such hours are quite sufficient to prove that +he did not leave the impression of a Prussian arrogance. If he was +silent, his silence must have been more friendly, I had almost said +more convivial, than many men's conversation. But on the larger +platform of the European War, this quiet but unique gift of +open-mindedness and intellectual hospitality was destined to do two +very decisive things, which may profoundly affect history. In the +first he dealt with the more democratic and even revolutionary +elements in England; and in the second he represents a very real +change that has passed over the English traditions about Russia. + +Personally, as has already been noted, Lord Kitchener never was and +never pretended to be anything more or less than the good military +man, and by the time of the Great War he was already an elderly +military man. The type has much the same standards and traditions in +all European countries; but in England it is, if anything, a little +more traditional, for the very reason that the army has been something +separate, professional, and relatively small--a sort of club. The +military man was all the more military because the nation was not +military. Such a man is inevitably conservative in his views, +conventional in his manners, and simplifies the problem of patriotism +to a single-eyed obedience. When he took over the business of raising +the first levies for the present war he was confronted with the +problem of the English Trades Unions--the very last problem in the +world which one could reasonably expect such a man to understand. And +yet he did understand it; he was perhaps the only person in the +governing class who did. If it be hard to explain to the richer +classes in England, it is almost impossible to explain to any classes +in any other country, because the English situation is largely unique. +There is the same difficulty as we have already found in describing +how vast and even violent a transformation scene the growth of the +great army appeared; it has been almost impossible to describe it to +the chief conscript countries, which take a great army for granted. +The key to the parallel problem of the Trades Unions is simply +this--that England is the only European country that is practically +industrial and nothing else. Trades Unions can never play such a part +in countries where the masses live on the land; such masses always +have some status and support--yes, even if they are serfs. The status +of the English workman is not in the earth; it is, so to speak, in the +air--in a scaffolding of artificial abstractions, a framework of rules +and rights, of verbal bargains or paper resolutions. If he loses this, +he becomes nothing so human or homely as a slave. Rather he becomes a +wild beast, a sort of wandering vermin with no place in the state at +all. It would be necessary to explain this, and a great deal more +which cannot possibly be explained here, before we could measure the +enormity of the enigma facing the British official who had to propose +to the English the practical suspension of the Trades Unions. To this +must be added the fact that the Unions, already national institutions, +had just lately been in a ferment with new and violent doctrines: +Syndicalists had invoked them as the future seats of government; +historical speculators had seen in them the return to the great +Christian Guilds of the Middle Ages; a more revolutionary Press had +appeared to champion them; gigantic strikes had split the country in +every direction. Anyone would have said that under these circumstances +the very virtues and attainments of Kitchener would at least make it +fairly certain that he would quarrel with the Trades Unions. It soon +became apparent that the one man who was not going to quarrel with the +Trades Unions was Kitchener. Politicians and parliamentary leaders, +supposed actually to be elected by the working classes, were regarded, +rightly or wrongly, with implacable suspicion. The elderly and +old-fashioned Anglo-Egyptian militarist, with his doctrine and +discipline of the barrack-room and the drumhead court-martial, was +never regarded by the workers with a shade of suspicion. They simply +took him at his word, and the leader of the most turbulent Trades +Union element paid to him after his death the simplest tribute in the +plainest and most popular language--"He was a straight man." I am so +antiquated as to think it a better epitaph than the fashionable phrase +about a strong man. Some silent indescribable geniality of fairness in +the man once more prevailed against the possibility of passionate +misunderstandings, as it had prevailed against the international +nervousness of the atmosphere of Fashoda or the tragic border feud of +the Boers. I suspect that it lay largely in the fact that this great +Englishman was sufficiently English to guess one thing missed by many +more sophisticated people--that the English Trades Unions are very +English. For good or evil, they are national; they have very little in +common with the more international Socialism of the Continent, and +nothing whatever in common with the pedantic Socialism of Prussia. +Understanding his countrymen by instinct, he did not make a parade of +efficiency; for the English dislike the symbols of dictatorship much +more than dictatorship. They hate the crown and sceptre of the tyrant +much more than his tyranny. They have a national tradition which +allows of far too much inequality so long as it is softened with a +certain camaraderie, and in which even snobs only remember the coronet +of a nobleman on condition that he shall himself seem to forget it. + +The other matter is much more important. Though the reverse of +vivacious, Kitchener was very vital; and he had one unique mark of +vitality--that he had not stopped growing. "An oak should not be +transplanted at sixty," said the great orator Grattan when he was +transferred from the Parliament of Dublin to the Parliament of +Westminster. Kitchener was sixty-four when he turned his face westward +to the problem of his own country. There clung to him already all the +traditional attributes of the oak--its toughness, its angularity, its +closeness of grain and ruggedness of outline--when he was uprooted +from the Arabian sands and replanted in the remote western island. Yet +the oak not only grew green again and put forth new leaves; it was +almost as if, as in a legend, it could put forth a new kind of leaves. +Kitchener, with all his taciturnity, really began to put forth a new +order of ideas. If a change of opinions is unusual in an elderly man, +it is almost unknown in an elderly military man. If the hardening of +time was felt even by the poetic and emotional Grattan, it would not +have been strange if the hardening had been quite hopeless in the +rigid and reticent Kitchener. Yet it was not hopeless; and the fact +became the spring of much of the national hope. The grizzled martinet +from India and Egypt showed a certain power which is in nearly all +great men, but of which St. Paul has become the traditional type--the +power of being a great convert as well as a great crusader. It is the +real power of re-forming an opinion, which is the very opposite of +that mere formlessness which we call fickleness. Nor is the comparison +to such an example as St. Paul altogether historically disproportionate; +for the point upon which this very typical Englishman changed his mind +was a point which is now the pivot of the whole future and perhaps of +the very existence of Christendom. For many such Englishmen it might +almost be called the discovery of Christendom. It can be called with +greater precision, and indeed with almost complete precision, the +discovery of Russia. + +Military bureaucratic systems everywhere have too much tendency to +work upon one idea, and there was a time when the military and +bureaucratic system of the British in the East worked on the idea of +the fear of Russia. It is needless here to explain that sentiment, and +useless to explain it away. It was partly a mere tradition from the +natural jingoism of the Crimean War; it was partly in itself a tribute +to the epic majesty of the Russian march across mysterious Asia to the +legendary Chinese Wall. The point here is that it existed; and where +there exists such an idea in such military rulers, they very seldom +alter their idea. But Kitchener did alter his idea. Not in mere +military obedience, but in genuine human reasonableness, he came late +in life to see the Russian as the friend and the Prussian as the +enemy. In the inevitable division of British ministerial councils +about the distribution of British aid and attention he was the one man +who stood most enthusiastically, one might say stubbornly, for the +supreme importance of munitioning the magnificent Russian defence. He +mystified all the English pessimists, in what seemed to them the +blackest hour of pessimism, by announcing that Germany had "shot her +bolt"; that she had already lost her chance, not by any of the Allied +attacks, but by the stupendous skill and valour of that Russian +retreat, which was more triumphant than any attack. It is this +discovery that marks an epoch; for that great deliverance was not only +the victory of Russia, but very specially the victory of the Russians. +Never before was there such a war of men against guns--as awful and +inspiring to watch as a war of men against demons. Perhaps the duel of +a man with a modern gun is more like that between a man and an +enormous dragon; nor is there anything on the weaker side save the +ultimate and almost metaphysical truth, that a man can make a gun and +a gun cannot make a man. It is the man--the Russian soldier and +peasant himself--who has emerged like the hero of an epic, and who is +now secure for ever from the sophisticated scandal-mongering and the +cultured ignorance of the West. + +And it is this that lends an epic and almost primeval symbolism to the +tragedy of Kitchener's end. Somehow the very fact that it was +incomplete as an action makes it more complete as an allegory. English +in his very limitations, English in his late emancipation from them, +he was setting forth on an eastward journey different indeed from the +many eastward journeys of his life. There are many such noble +tragedies of travel in the records of his country; it was so, silently +without a trace, that the track of Franklin faded in the polar snows +or the track of Gordon in the desert sands. But this was an adventure +new for such adventurous men--the finding not of strange foes but of +friends yet stranger. Many men of his blood and type--simple, +strenuous, somewhat prosaic--had threaded their way through some dark +continent to add some treasure or territory to the English name. He +was seeking what for us his countrymen has long been a dark +continent--but which contains a much more noble treasure. The glory of +a great people, long hidden from the English by accidents and by lies, +lay before him at his journey's end. That journey was never ended. It +remains like a mighty bridge, the mightier for being broken, pointing +across a chasm, and promising a mightier thoroughfare between the east +and west. In that waste of seas beyond the last northern islets where +his ship went down one might fancy his spirit standing, a figure +frustrated yet prophetic and pointing to the East, whence are the +light of the world and the reunion of Christian men. + + +_Printed in Great Britain by_ THE FIELD & QUEEN (HORACE COX) LTD., + _Bream's Buildings, London, E.C. 4_. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Lord Kitchener, by G. K. Chesterton + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LORD KITCHENER *** + +***** This file should be named 25795.txt or 25795.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/5/7/9/25795/ + +Produced by Irma Spehar and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/25795.zip b/25795.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..1f3239c --- /dev/null +++ b/25795.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ce48270 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #25795 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/25795) |
