Impressions of a War Correspondent

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
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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 Iræ, 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;