THE AFGHAN CAPITAL.

Kumara Times, Issue 850, 21 June 1879, Page 4

THE AFGHAN CAPITAL.

[CORRESPONDENT NEW YORK HERALD.] This palace of Takoob Khan as, a dwelling place had nothing whatever to recommend it. It is furnished in accordance with the customs of-the country, which is as good as saying that you must sit on your thumb in <jhs absence of chairs ; the only open air apace throughout the whole building is a very small courtyard, without even the shadow of a tree. The General felt much annoyed at this "absence of verdure. He appears to me to be one ofrthoae soldiers who belong to what may be called the contemplative order. He represents the dreaming class of soldiers, ajthongh his life had been passed in the midst of camps in the Caucasus, er in Central Asia, I; speak of his. active career, for this was preceded by a long period of study. It was after receiving his commission that he qompleted his studies by attending at St. Petersburg the classes of the Academic d'Etat-Major When he had gone through these, he went to the Academic d'Etat Artillerie and began another course. He had then learned all that could be taught in the military art, and began studying medicine. Of this he acquired a sufficient knowledge to entitle him to practice in a general way. Thus it was that in principle he was the physician of the mission, and it accounts for the answer he gave me when I •Kabul. "I spent," said he, '< a aPe at part of my nights in attending one of our Cossacks, who was laid up *f ft typhus » ofXZ' Ge r al KaUffmjwa MiSe that of all the supplies sent to. E&ml during the residence of the wXn there sulphate of quinine wa* That whTch General GasgonoffvaW.the most He of the fevers which prostrated them, and intbn was pound and pound ot it con aumed, But, notwithstanding the zealous endeavors of the soldier doctor the presence of a real physician was deemed necessary, it was the Amir himself who asked for him. He was sent to him, and u the same who forwarded the despatches relative to the precarious state of Sbere Ah s health. This mau of science has already supplied material for several squibs It is hinted that he went to Kabul to be present at the death o£ the the .4 mir **<* selected, and that if his previsions had proved true he must have witnessed the death of Shere Ah,.at Tasbkourgan. It is add ed that GeneraTGasgonoff who killed nobody; was, evidently, no doctor at all. *