GENERAL GORDON.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 287, 25 July 1908, Page 7

GENERAL GORDON.

There is a vivid pen picture of the hero of Khartoum, in the June number of the “ Nineteenth Century,” written by Lord Esher. ' Speaking of visits to his house in 1880, Lord Esher says : “ Gordon would generally come in the morning, a queer figure, with a loose comforter round his throat, and a hat—by no means a good one —tilted back on his head, the eternal cigarette between his lips. He was of small stature —very small, like so many great men and of spare figure. He would have passed unnoticed anywhere •except for his eyes, which were of that--peculiar steel-like blue common to enthusiastic natures, more especially when the enthusiast is a soldier. “ His religion was never obtruded, but it was as much a part of his daily life as smoking cigarettes- He literary walked with God, a n d if it were not disrespectful, one might almost say arm in arm with Him. Lord Esher makes quotations from Gordon’s letters which contain complimentary references to Lord Cromer, who was then Sir Sir Evelyn Baring. The keynote of many letters was insistence upon the supreme importance of the navy. “Bo not take Egypt, he wrote, “ keep a grip over it, and give its people free institutions, first breaking up its wretched crew of an army. Bo not annex it. You only weaken yourself by doing so; but do not let others interfere with your pplicy there. . •_ • see that your naval power is Supreme.” In conclusion, Lord Esher writes: “ There have been at-

tempts made to be little Gordon, and to deprive him of the lustre which his life and death shed upon our country. 1 The greatest gift a hero leaves to his race is to have keen a hero.’ It is true that he took small account of the ‘ great ones of the earth.’ lam not sure that he possessed what is called a ‘ dress suit.’ He was never, to my knowledge, at an evening party, but he was seen to —■ walk hand in hand with street arabs. He know the Bible by heart, and the fear of man was not in him. Faithlessness was in his eyes the worst of crimes. I am sure that he went to his death as to a feast.”