THE LATE GENERAL GORDON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 1930, 4 March 1885, Page 2

THE LATE GENERAL GORDON.

General Gordon despised "JpreparaJjons%nd dispensed with them. When, having returned : to London from Brussels, whither he had gone to see King.Leopold, at whose instance hjs had consented to, proceed to the Congo, he had an inters View before departing for Egypt, with a triend interested in Ms mission, a sation'of the following nature, and almost ■ in these precise words took .place:— "Have you got your kit ready General?" ■"I have got.what I always have: This ■ hat is good enough, and, i so. Me, these clothes. I shall start as lam • my boots ' are quite strong;" ;; .*'' "And how you off for cash ? You must^ have Borne ready money. ";" "~" Ah! IforgotuV Yes, Tforgotthat! ■ I had to borrow five and twenty pounds, by the by, from the King of the.Belgiatiato Set over here;' Of course I shall pay this, and I shalKant a little riipre."' " How much {would one or two thousand pounds do, iii notes and bills ?" ■" "Oh dear no! A hundred pounds a. piece for myself and Stewajt! will be enough, What on earth do we want movofor!" .. -Ij£7 Thus the frugal hero deniiiw with about 5, 400 in ready money/te'' meeting an old valued-Soudanese acquittance in Cairo, who was very poorly 'off, Gordon could not resist the olaims of;" auld lang Byne," and lent or gave his. oldT African ■ friend the greater part, of his -rtravelling money. The scene at the Charing Cross' Railway station-when Gordon';took his ■• departure was uirique. Lord. Wolseley earned the General's portmanteau, Lord Granville took his ticket for liim,-and the . \ Duke of Cambridge held open the carriage ■' door.-" Mercutio" in New Zealand Her- ■ aid. -' ■:■:/ '-■■:.;.■. ■