| OCR Text |
Show N.cA:pT-iRirz.-Dui.ui s n e mL fired by the Redskin Chief Red Cloud, after he had massacred the women and children of the town, go up in flames.. On one occasion his mother fled before the savage attack of the Indians mid knowing that the heavy child in her arms would sooner or later result in her enquire and be the death of them both. Watching her chance she hid her precious child under a shock of corn and drew the pursuing redskins in an opposite direction. She escaped and when the Indians were at last driven oil she found her baby Fred sound asleep unconscious of the terrible fighting that had been raging around him. This baptism bap-tism of fire lilted Frederick Russel Eurnham for the adventurous roll he was to fill in after years. lie was living in Los Angeles. California, Cali-fornia, when his father died, leaving him ,t lad of twelve, to care for his mniher. For a time after the head of the house passed away Mrs Burnham and her boy felt the pangs of poverty. The boy got a job as mounted messenger, became the breadwinner of the household. An uncle in one of the eastern states hearing hear-ing the family's plight offered to cr.rc for Mrs. Burnham and her son. Here young Fred Burnham's grit pot a chance to show itself, and it diL lie refused to become a burden and at the mature age of thirteen, he took up his rifle -niy brute courage and a carelessness .bout the continuance of his own ex-stance ex-stance that succeeds in the arduous task of inflicting civilization on the land. It requires the thinker as well; ihercfore the scholar and scientist are found more frequently than the ordinary ordi-nary adcnturer waiting for the main chance. Durnham during his many duties in the Southwest, found time to study and become a proficient naturalist, natur-alist, geologist and mincrologist. This, with his scouting experience and his all-round general knowledge g.ii.ied in the school of hard experience, make him a valuable man for any new country. In i?93, longing for new fields of adventure and fresh openings for his energy, Burnham packed up, and accompanied ac-companied by his wife and brother-in-hw, set sail for South Africa, the land of diamonds, gold. Kaffirs, Boers and war, and lie got what he wanted. Primarily his idea was to prospect for gold and precious stones in German East Africa, and pick up a fight where he could. He no sooner reached the Dark-Continent Dark-Continent than the news of the first Matabele war reached his cars. There was nothing else to do no choice to make. In his eagerness to fight he forgot the quest for gold, and lured It was a daring fdan and it required 'a daring set to carry it out The j whole affair, although the men w ere under the command of Major Wilson, was practically in ihe hands of litirn-him, litirn-him, who, with his brother-in-law, Ingram, were to be the scouts; or otherwise, the eyes and intelligence of the venture. v AV it h twelve men, besides Eurnham and Ingram, Major Wilson set out at nightfall to ride through the Mata-bele Mata-bele to Lohengul.Vs camp, seize him anil fight their way out, It was , a terrible night just one for such a deed a terrific thunderstorm thunder-storm raged. Rain fell in torrents like silver sheet? on the ivid blue of the flah and ensh of the lightning. The incessant roll of the thunder made it impossible to command, and the earth became a lake of rushing waters. Three thousand warriors were camped around their king on the Shang.ini river, and through these in a wild ride galloped the daring little band, their only hope lying in sudden action. They rushed the trek wagon which they thought Lobengula was using as his camp. The dizzy dancing danc-ing of the lightning, which was succeeded suc-ceeded by the sudden inky blackness, blinded and confused them and they 5t '-VL;.v. w ham told Major Wilson he would require re-quire some one to lead his horse Major Ma-jor Wilson volunteered. Eurnham often of-ten traveled on his knees to keep the ' spoor" atul before morning he was rewarded re-warded by finding the three troopers unharmed un-harmed but lost in the jungle. This fc?t established Purnham's reputation with the Eritish and made him a criterion. cri-terion. Hack at the hill again they joined their anxious and waiting comrades and then the watch for dawn and escape commenced All around they could hear the Kaffirs preparing to rush theni. feU ril11 American ff7- rwi;io Al killed the great Pt ttl'rSJ and terrible LI Matabcle God Kir? Mlinio, thereby -vUv ending a bloody bj war. An Kmpirc jvy jFtf was .lhc British 7,- Citt Empire, when it "r found itself hum- klcd by the vic-tdM4?- torics of the LV Boers over its "iiia'.;,';,!. k'vt best troops in South Africa condescended to ask for his help, the '. .; Ip of an American citizen because he possessed the kind of brains they lacked, i'hc man is Major Frederick Russrl !'.urnbani, the story of whose deeds on the Dark Continent, like the deeds of ::iany others there, reads like the indentions in-dentions of a romancer. You can count on your fingers, and then have some to are, the men who hie become famous in two or more countries on their real merits, who have contributed to the worlds history and put the color of romance and the fire of action into its matter of fact pages. I do not mean those professional warriors war-riors who were ?ent out by their respective re-spective countries at the head of legions, v.i:h the resources and wealth of Em-':rcs Em-':rcs behind them, or men who were -.idc heroes by the inflated newspaper i ncntions of copy manufacturers. N'ot ncn who could not be anything but '.crocs, for the mere fact that they were raid huge sums by these nations who employed them. The very cowardice of such men is extolcd into masterly retreats re-treats and cool, calm courage in adversity ad-versity in front of overwhelming numbers. num-bers. You all remember the Boer war, .where even ' stupid and disinterested mules were blamed for the crushing disasters of General Duller at the hands r f General Louis Botha with a handful e? Boer burghers at Colenso. This story is not about a man who could not help being a hero, a man who was a hero in spite of himself. It is about, a man who "made good" as the Americans s.iy, ever against prejudice in a foreign iand, as well as in his own. A man like such men as Lafayette, Garabaldi, Paul Jones, Henry Stanley, and the few others of their kind who have found 'he routine of civilization commonplace and uninteresting, nerve racking in its monotony, like the clash of a cracked bell. Such a man Is Major Frederick Russel Eurnham, known everywhere, from Melbourne to Tort Arthur, from Port Arthur to Paris. from Cape to Cairo, from Cairo to New York, from N'cw York to 'Frisco, from Alaska's snowy wastes to the parched plains of Mexico. Bumham, who has not heard of him. Had he been born with a hundred hun-dred million behind him you would perhaps per-haps be not surprised that Frederick Uussrl Burnham has made a world acquaintance, ac-quaintance, has put the seal of his pemus on the earth's annals. Eurnham I ad not this advantage. Instead of being born with the proverbial gilded rpoon in his mouth he probably was cry satisfied with a galvanized iron o!ie. He started his independent life with a rifle and a few rounds of ammunition, am-munition, and on such a beginning laid the foundation to world fame, and sees 1 imsclf. while he still lives, a man of unquestioned note, a man to whom the Eritish Empire is in debt It is the habit of success, purchased l.v the exercise of intelligent energy, tnanlv rectitude and indomitable courage cour-age that made Major Eurnham re-f re-f peeled and admired even by his enemies. ene-mies. T, myself, have tossed coins with a brother scout for the privilege of having hav-ing first shot at him, of splitting his body with a bullet. Had I succeeded I would have had the lugubrious satisfaction of writing the major's obituary notice. had he that he was regarded by the natives na-tives as a god. And, like most men who arc given credit for supernatural rowers, row-ers, he pretended to live trp to them. He told his tribesmen that no harm would ever come to them in a war against the whites, as he would turn their bullets to water, blind them, and leave their women and children at the mercy of their spears. Things were certainly serious. The gloom of uncertainty crept over the Eritish, and visions of the bloody Zulu war rose and were reflected by the London Lon-don press. The war could be ended-only ended-only by some sudden and masterful coup, and the brains of the home tacticians tacti-cians strained for ideas, but in vain, and the prospect of a rainy season, which would greatly favor the Matabele warriors, war-riors, was before them. At this juncture the commissioner of the district, a young fellow named Armstrong, Arm-strong, suggested that Mlimo be captured cap-tured or destroyed. How? Had rot the army been breaking its neck to accomplish ac-complish that? It did not strike the ponderous tacticians that a couple o men often do what 'n impossible for art army. Armstrong told the commander that he knew where Mlimo made his retreat The Eritish commander called for volunteers to capture the "god." Eurnham was a chronic volunteer, and lie and Armstrong set out to capture Mlimo. It was a terrible task", Tor the priest had selected a cave at the top of a kopje as his headquarters, and surrounded sur-rounded himself with aa army of two thousand tried warriors, who were encamped en-camped at the foot of the hill. Beside this the scout3 of the blacks kept the country completely under their eyes. What chance had art enemy to pass these brave and alert savages, especially a w hite skinned one? One In a thousand. Yet Eurnham and his companion took the chance. It was a nerve strainer. Mile after mile they covered, crawling1, running, run-ning, riding, biding;, Jiardly daring to breathe when near th 6 Kaffirs, sometimes some-times covering half a mile an hour, sometimes a little more. The last mile they covered took them three hours. At last, tnperccived, they reached the foot of Mlimo's kopje. Slowly from bush to bush, from boulder to boulder, they crept like wounded lizards until the, opening of the "god's" cave dwelling showed black before them an hour after! they had started the ascent. Eurnham, being the better shot, was to fire first, for they decided that under the circumstances Mlimo could not be, taken alive. And they also knew th3tj their shot would be the signal to thej thousands of warriors below to attack' them and there would be little chance to escape, but that was a secondary con-' sideration. Closer they crowded to the mouth of. the cave. They waited, but the "god"' could not be seen. A little nearer and nearer. Eurnham was now in the entrance en-trance and a cry came out of the dark-, ness inside, and the giant, befeathercd Mlimo sprang at him. His rifle blazed once and his bullet opened the heart of the savage. The shot echoed through the hills and in a moment the Matabcle . army was in arms and rushing toward j 'the cave and spreading in a search for 1 the shooters. Eurnham and Armstrong , flew over the ground like springboks, , dodging shots and spears. They reached their mounts in safety and then rode like ! demons for their lives, being driven int ; a corner half a dozen times from which j they had to fight their way like ball j buffaloes. They escaped and reached Eulwayo. The Matabele. finding that their "god" t was a pretender as far as his divine, powers were concerned, ceased hostili-j ties. Frederick Russel Eurnham ended j the war with one shot and added another , success to British arms. For his courage and devotion Eurn-( ham was greatly honored by the British ' and he and Ingram, with the Honorable Manuel Clifford, were jointly given a tract of land three hundred miles long in appreciation of their services. When the British were at war with the Boers Lord Roberts, knowing the weakness of his army, which had no trained eyes, called on Bumham to become be-come his chief of scouts. His exceptional excep-tional services to the British in the campaign cam-paign won him his military title and made him a perpetual officer of the British army on full pay. He was a!si decorated with the Distinguished Service Serv-ice Order by King Edward. Beside this, he wears on the breast of his uniform a number of other medals, the insign'12 of his love for the lure fJ peril. Copyright, 1010. by Metropolitan News-faper News-faper Syndicate. "All arour.d lltey could hear the Kaffirs preparing to rush them, find ivhen ihe lightning flashed they could see the glistening naked bodies in the ram." their ranks. They rallied and rushed, and again the foremost fell before Wilson's Wil-son's mMi One by one the troopers were picked off, and Major Wilson, seeing see-ing that a desperate chance must be taken to save the small remnant of his force, asked Eurnham to break through the enemy's lines if possible, and bring help from Forbes. Ingram and an inexperienced in-experienced trooper named Gooding were detailed to accompany Burnham. "One of you might succeed," said Major Ma-jor Wilson, who saw a man drop at his side as he spoke. Taking the surviving horses, Burn-ham Burn-ham and his two comrades, leaping the breastwork of human bodies and horses' carcasses, started their ride through the line of investing Kaffirs. Xo sooner were they on the open than the fire of the Kaffirs was concentrated upon them. Spears were hurled from every bush, and although they and their horses werc often grazed, they escaped serious hurt From one side to the other they were driven, Eurnham using every wave of his mental energy to save them from destruction. Every hollow in the ground had become a lake and every rift a roaring torrent from the night rains. It was ride around this, through that, over the cliffs, into the waters, swimming swim-ming and climbing with the continual sing-zip of the Kaffir bullet.;, around their heads. Every I rick Burnham learned in the Southwest, amongst the Indians he used and those, no doubt, saved their lives. When he eanic in view of Forbes' column he found them surrounded like the party he had left. Riding through the circle of attacking natives he got into the ring of fightins troopers, who had all they could' do to hold their own against their enemies. Eurnham delivered his message: "I have been sent for re-enforcements by Major Wilson. I believe that we arc the only surviving members of his party " Major Forbes could not move and could not spare enough men without with-out risking the destruction of his troop, and Eurnham and his companions, seeing see-ing t!c situation, joined in the fight and helped to drive off the Matabele. Six weeks later the bodies of Wilson's Wil-son's troops were found lying in a circle, cir-cle, where they fell, not one. with the exception of Eurnham and his daring companions, having escaped the relentless relent-less assagais of the Matabcle. Tins would be enough bravery for the average man, but not for Fredcrick Russel Eurnham. If there were anything any-thing of a dangerous nature to be accomplished. ac-complished. Eurnham generally was the one to do it. So open did he volunteer to do hair-raising deeds, and succeed in doing them, that it became the habit in Matabclcland for all eyes to turn his way when death was to be defied in the performance of some act that would make the ordinary man stand and tremble. trem-ble. The next little service that Burnham rendered the British Empire was the killing of the notable "God" Mlimo. This deed alone probably saved thousands thou-sands of lives, millions of pounds and prevented the likelihood of an uprising of the blacks in South Africa, for there was a general unrest amongst them, and many had secured modern arms and they got a general idea of military tactics tac-tics as practiced by the British, through experience in their previous campaign. For these reasons the second Matabele war was much more serious than the first So serious, in fact, that the Chartered Char-tered Company could not cope with it ?nd they cnlled in Imperial troops. They mrwlc a cry little difference as far as getting get-ting any results were concerned, and it looked like a long and doubtful campaign. cam-paign. The leading spirit of the Matabele was Mlimo, a brave and patriotic priest. w'"o bated the whites who had invaded 1 his country. So magnetic a personality and went into the wilderness of the Great Southwest to be a scout. He fought Indians and highwaymen, searched for gold with prospectors, hunted big game to supply the camps with meat, always doing more than a man's share. At last he got his wish He became a scout. For fifteen years he wandered over that wilderness of canyon and desert that runs from the Great Divide to Mexico. Fighting the fierce Apache, hunting Mexican thieves, doing everything that was part of the daily life of a (cout in those days. Everyone throughout the West, knew, or knew of Fred Burnham, a brave man, a wonderful scout, a splendid shot, and a fine horseman. What better training could a man have to fit him for the position of chief of the British Scout in South Africa. His selection by the Eritish was one of the clever acts of the campaign, which stands out like an incandescent light on a dark road of blunders. Major Eurnham in anocarance Is of mucular. tight-knit build, a littl under un-der medium height, has a soldierly bearing and drese like a business man. His face, the conspicuous part of him. carries the Mory of bis life and nuts the seal of the deed done on all he tell: it ' strong without b'ing touch, a peculiar and noticeable characteristic of the African pioneers of all races. In Africa it is not the gun-carrying frontiersman, who has by his love for danger, offered his services to the British South Africa Company, which was conducting a private war against King Lobengula and his Kaffir warriors. It did not take Burnham long to get into the swing of African campaigning cam-paigning and his ability was soon recognized rec-ognized by the British, even with their prejudices against all Americans. The destruction of Major Allen Wilson and his men at the hands of Lobcngula's w-arriors and the daring work of Frederick Russel Burnham were the two con'picuous events in the campaign. Burnham's gallant effort to save Wilson's party made him a hero where practically everyone every-one had an heroic deed to his credit. Major Forbes, with about three hundred men who were all tried and true, was out to give battle to King Ibengula and bis warrior hosts. While Forbes force was pursuing the king and his warriors, he in turn was being followed by an army of warlike Matabele who were operating the well-known surrounding movement practiced in all campaign by the Af-ric?n Af-ric?n races related to the Zulus, and which has cost the Eritish more than one defeat at the hands of the Kaffirs. As the fVhflng wa eosMy and the results in battle even at thr hst uncertain, un-certain, the Eritish conceived the idea of capturinc the m?in cause of the war, the Warrior King Lobengula. found to their dismay that they had rushed the wrong wagon. As they were riding through the Matabcle to Lobcngula's laager, they alarmed the wdiole host and it was now their turn to make their escape before the fatal surrounding movement which they knew would come jf they delayed hemmed them in to their doom. Already Al-ready thev could hear the rush of the enraged fCaffirs through the bush on every side and shots from their rifles and flying spvars told them that there had commenced a fight to a finish, for there is no quarter where the Kaffirs are fighting. About a quarter of a mile away there was a huge ant hill, which the flashing liehtning revealed from time to time. This, on account of its dominating height, was selected to make a stand on. Fighting the black figures in the darkness as thev rode over the torrei-covcred ground, exchancing shots with the savages s the lightning revealed them. On reaching the hill a count was made and thre- were found to be mining. Maior Wilson ordered the c.cort to find out their fate, tn locate them if thev wft dead -r guide tVm b?.ck if thev l'ved. This was a harardovs undertakinr. for on aerourt of the darkness of the niVht. tVi- ttre?ms of water, and the birkinu Kaffir, it was recessary for Burnham to keen ho "spoor." to follor nt-morted. Knowing what was before him. Burn- and when the lightning flashed, they could sec the glistening naked bodies m the rain, lust before dawn they heard the unmistakable unmis-takable sounds of marching cavalry. They thought that the column of Major Forbes had ridden to their rescue. Instead, In-stead, it Avas Captain Borrow who was sent to their aid with twenty men. The Kaffirs with splendid skill concealed the fact that they had surrounded Wilson and allowed Borrow (wiih his troop to jo:n Wilson, preferring to concentrate their attack on one place. A little later dawn drove the night from the jungle and in the ashy gray of the wet morning morn-ing the Matabcle opened the attack from every piece of cover they could find. Assegais rained into the defense that was made of the carcasses of the dead horses, and bullets flew from every tree, tearing the flesh of the living and the jdead. One by one the defenders fell land the Matabele, encourage 1 by their success, made a wild rush, howling in l!'e dclipht of their blood lust, holding l(Vc;r shields before them and swinging i:het"r krc-kcrries at the beads of the jwHfes who eotd.l re th.'t itV; a miT'cl hanrened they ver fiahfirg 'pvr t!-eir rrves. A wr1l-hM vo'W 'drove them back, hurling death into which had my aim been true, would have read thus: ' Killed. Major Frederick Russel Burnham, Burn-ham, chief of Scouts of the British Army attached to the column of I-onl Roberts. Shot in a skirmish fifteen im'le? northeast of KroonsUd. Instead r-f being buried under the sod of the African veld, Major Burnham. ever where danger flaunts it's crimson flag, h down in lexico among the Yakui Indians where, with John Hays Hammond Ham-mond and Harry Payne Whitney he is developing a huge tract of land which be expects will make a considerable ad-lition ad-lition to hi already comfortable for-UTic for-UTic in a very short time. That is what he is doing to-day, to-morrow he miftht be standing with his back against a rlifT with half a dozen savages around him thirsting for his blood, whilst he is doirisr his "durndest" to continue his eventful existence. How did it come that an America, mid Americans, after all are never really liked by the English, who are alwas rrrjudiced against anythinc that i not 1 orn under the Union Jack, became a Bri'ih hero, with a dozen gallant dee1 to his credit, any one of which would vve brought him, or anyone r'e f-imc. T'ow did Tlumham come to be in Africa That is the ;tory of an extraordinary e r. urnl'im otK'ned bis rye Jm adven-"(. adven-"(. tV srm of wir r.ed around I""1 wV'n l-e w: still ;n bi rno;hr's mill, lie saw New Ulm, which was |
