Impressions of a War Correspondent

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Impressions of a War Correspondent, by George

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Title: Impressions of a War Correspondent
Author: George Lynch

Release Date: June 1, 2007 [eBook #21661]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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IMPRESSIONS OF A WAR CORRESPONDENT
by
GEORGE LYNCH
Author of "The War of the Civilizations"

[Illustration: Photo Bassano. Frontispiece. GEORGE LYNCH.]
[Illustration: Arms]

London: George Newnes, Limited Southampton Street, Strand, W.C. MCMIII

"TO CARMELA"

CONTENTS Page
I. The Dance of Death................................. 1 II. The Aftermath of War.............................. 15 III. Elandslaagte...................................... 31 IV. A Glimpse of our Gunners.......................... 49 V. In the Tents of the Boers......................... 58 VI. The Fellow that felt Afraid....................... 68 VII. The Dance of Death in China....................... 79 VIII. Certain Comparisons............................... 91 IX. The Crucifixion of Christianity in China......... 107 X. Ex Oriente Lux................................... 120 XI. Night in the City of Unrest...................... 132 XII. A Street in the City of Unrest................... 142 XIII. A Glimpse of a Southern City..................... 151 XIV. The Penalty of their Pace in the City of Unrest.. 158 XV. The Million-Master in the City of Unrest......... 166 XVI. The Woman who works in the City of Unrest........ 175 XVII. The Hou-men of the Dingy City.................... 185 XVIII. Tired............................................ 196 XIX. The City of Dumb Distances....................... 210 XX. The Land of the Evening Calm..................... 217 XXI. With Some Toilers of the Sea..................... 225

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
George Lynch. Bringing Wounded Back Into Ladysmith. Advance of the Gordons at Elandslaagte. Advance of the Devons before the Attack at Elandslaagte. George Lynch Captured by the Boers. Boer Shell bursting among the Lancers at Rietfontein. General French and Staff on Black Monday. General White and Staff on Black Monday. Artillery crossing a Drift near Ladysmith. Naval Brigade passing through Ladysmith. General Yule's Column on the Way to Ladysmith. Hospital Train leaving Ladysmith for Pietermaritzburg. Boer Prisoners. Japs entering Pekin. Relief of Pekin.
We are indebted to the courtesy of the Proprietor of The Illustrated London News for permission to reproduce the illustrations facing pages 33, 48, 65, 80, 97, 144, 161, 176, and 193, and to the Proprietor of The Sphere for a similar permission with regard to the illustrations facing pages 224 and 231.

INTRODUCTION
There are few people in the world who have more opportunity for getting close to the hot, interesting things of one's time than the special correspondent of a great paper. He is enabled to see "the wheels go round;" has the chance of getting his knowledge at first hand. In stirring times the drama of life is to him like the first night of a play. There are no preconceived opinions for him to go by; he ought not to, at least, be influenced by any prejudices; and the account of the performance is to some extent like that of the dramatic critic, inasmuch as that the verdict of the public or of history has either to confirm or reverse his own judgment. There is a peculiar and unique fascination about this reading of contemporary history, as it grows and develops while one peers with straining eyes through one's glasses. There is something like a first night, too, about the way the critics view things. Sometimes great difference of opinion. I recollect the afternoon of Nicholson's Nek--Black Monday, as it was afterwards called--when we returned into Ladysmith half the correspondents seemed to be under the impression that the day had been quite a successful one; while, on the other hand, one had headed his despatch with the words, "Dies Ir?, dies illa!" To get to the heart of things; to see the upspringing of the streams of active and strenuous life; to watch the great struggles of the world, not always the greatest in war, but the often more mighty, if quiet and dead silent, whose sweeping powerfulness is hidden under a smooth calmness of surface--to watch all this is to intimately taste a great delicious joy of life. The researches of the historian of bygone times are fascinating--absorbingly fascinating, although he is always handicapped by remoteness; but the historian of to-day--of his day--this day--whose day-page of history is read by hundreds of readers, the day after has set to him a task that calls for all, and more than all,