OCR Text |
Show oo FAMOUS WAR CORRESPONDENT. There have been few men of his day, even among professional soldiers, who have seen more of e perils of the firing fir-ing line than tho Just deceased Melton Prior, one of the foremost war correspondents corre-spondents and Illustrators of the last half century. In hl3 pretty villa In the Newstead road, which he made his home when po dwelling in tent or bivouac, were souvenirs gathered from all over the vorld. A mute witness of that first campaign of his la the beheading sword from Ashantee, which beheaded some thirty human victims In the king's slaughter house an n last fetich before the entrance of the British troops into Coomassie, a i;ight which the artist describe toward the close of his career as one of the most terrible terri-ble he had ever witnessed. It was while mounting the hill Into Coomassie that Mr. Prior, overcome with fatigue, found himself falling behind be-hind the soldiers. He caught the tail ol a passing mule for support. The rider turned sharply, and the artist to his horror recojnlzcd Lord Wolseley. "I beg your pardon, sir," gasped the offender. "Hold on. Mr. Prior," l.iughcd his lordship. "We'll pull you in." There is the sa.ldle on which Mr. Trior rode duriug the memorable Nile expedition across the deceit, and In connection with it the owner used to relate his vain attempt to reach Ill-fated Ill-fated Khartoum by hiding himself on a steamer commanded by tilr Charles llson. There are iortraits of Ms old associates. asso-ciates. Stanley, Boyle. Henty and Cameron, Cam-eron, and a sketch of Colonel North's party on the steamship Galacia, bound lor Chile. Peru and the nitrade fields. During the Carllst war he narrowly escaped with his life In a midnight attack, at-tack, surprising the troops of Alfonso in the foremost trench at Pampeluna. The Herzegovlnlan insurrection found him with Peco Pavlovitcl:. Then he followed the Russo-Turkish war, in which Mr. Prior followed the Turkish armies in the Kaffir and Lasutn wars he had many narrow escapes. He witnessed wit-nessed the fight with th-3 Boors at Majuba Hill and was the only man of the English forces who slept In the Boer camp the first nlsht after the proclamation of peace, where he witnessed wit-nessed and described their remarkable thanksgiving ceremonies. Then followed the Zula war, with Mr. Prior everywhere at the front in me thickest of the fight The flght6 at Abu-Klea and Abou Krou, where ho was hit three times, he describes as me most hazardous struggle he ever v. ltnessed. In South America ho was present t the Venezuelan, Brazilian and Ar-Ccntino Ar-Ccntino insurrections. He was with Jameson's raid and accompanied tho tioops In the Matabele end Afrldi wars. He was on the northwest frontier fron-tier In India and in rete during her Insurrection. He was also at the siege of Ladysmith during 1900. |