the soldier, he turned, and walking up to a sentry a few paces distant, he said: "Let me see your rifle " extending his hand as he spoke. The man saluted and replied: "I cannot, your Excellency." "But I want to see if it is clean," persisted the general. "I cannot, your Excellency," again said the sentry, as firm as a rock. Scobeleff smiled, pulled his ears, and walked on. I asked an explanation, whereupon he said that a rule of war with him was that no sentry on duty was on any account to give up possession of his arms- not even to the czar himself. "But," said I, "suppose the sentry had given up his rifle when you were seemingly so serious in asking it. What then?" "He would have been shot," quietly replied the general, "for disobedience to orders in time of war."

mate courage and coolness in danger are discussing the merits of various systems. already well known to readers in western Taking a 'Berdan," " with which the Europe. Let me add one or two. On troops were latterly armed, from a soldier, the day before the assault on the Green he undid the breech and lock and exHill, redoubt at Plevna, I was with him on plained the mechanism with the precision a vine-covered ridge which commanded a of a gunsmith. Returning the rifle to view of the Turkish position. Scobeleff was making preparations for the assault. He had from personal inspection made a plan of the surrounding ground, and was, quite in view of the enemy, making a series of sketches of the exact points and the ground leading to them which were to be the objects of attack by each of his battalions. The Turks opened fire: at first the shells were short, then they flew overhead, but suddenly two shrieked unpleasantly near. One burst within a few yards of where Scobeleff was sitting on a camp-stool, drawing, and he and his paper were covered with the friable soil of the vineyard. Without a word or a wince he simply shook the soil off the paper and finished the preparation of his plans, ordering his staff, when he observed that the fire continued exact, to find cover under a sloping bank some twenty yards In many quarters in the course of the off. At the battle of Senova - and I refer last few weeks it has been said that Gento this engagement frequently because eral Scobeleff was the enemy of England. the details of it are almost wholly un- In no sense do I think was this a truthful known in England-Scobeleff, mounted description of the man. He was an aron his white charger, went out alone to dent admirer of England and of English reconnoitre the Turkish position. Of institutions, though he did not believe course he was the mark for a pretty hot that the latter were adapted for his own fusilade from both infantry and artillery. country. It is true that before and after Suddenly a shell appeared to strike the the signature of the Berlin Treaty he ground right beneath his charger and ex- bluntly expressed his hatred of the policy ploded. Thousands thought his temerity of the Beaconsfield government. This is had at last brought the death he seemed his exact language as noted at the time: to court. But when the smoke cleared" Cannot you see how this policy should away the white charger was observed stir us so? For two years we have plunging gallantly onward, and his rider, deluged this land (Bulgaria) with our unharmed, soon afterwards rejoined his blood. Our brothers are slain, our counown troops. Scobeleff told me that when try has made enormous sacrifices, widows the shell exploded he was almost suffo- mourn, children weep, and fathers lament cated with the sulphurous smoke, and the loss of promising sons. All this we that for a moment he actually believed would have borne with the patience which his hour was come. The plunging of his God gives, had the full freedom which we horse, as it were, awoke him from the had won for our brothers in race and relishock, and he was able to finish his survey gion, in language and faith, been accorded unnerved. It would be wearisome to multo them. But accursed diplomacy steps tiply instances of his escapes or of his in and says, No; only the smaller half daring. of them shall be free, and the greater number shall be again handed over to the tender mercies of the Turks.' You know yourself what the Turks have been, and are, and ever will be; and placing yourself in our position, would you not also be consumed with wrath that our sacrifices are to be in vain, and that the men over whose graves we are now treading should have died for nought?" More especially

As a disciplinarian he was firm and strict. No point was too minute to be overlooked. Scobeleff's vedettes were never caught napping. His knowledge of the detail of military duty was universal even to sounding all the bugle calls. An illustration of the discipline of his corps occurs to me. I had been talking with him of military breech-loaders and

looked to the growth of a purely Slavonic civilization based on Slavonic ideas, and it was this sentiment which led to his hatred of and by a certain section of German politicians. These latter, through their organs and the press, have unblushingly rejoiced over the death of General Scobeleff, as the removal of a living force which would have excited not only Russia, but the Slavonic world generally, to fight against “Germany and that civilization which Russia can only get from the West."

Scobeleff, with many other influential | International Law," has called the "deleRussians, complained bitterly of the clause gation of power," as contradistinguished in the Berlin Treaty providing for the from constitutional methods of governgarrisoning of the Balkans. Such a meas- ment. For the development of Russia he ure, it was declared, could only weaken the Bulgarian principality, and place eastern Roumelia at the mercy of the military pashas. I believe that had the English government persisted, in 1879, in demanding the literal fulfilment of this part of the treaty, war would have been declared once more by Russia. And it is an open secret that the Russians were well prepared for it. The whole of the male population of eastern Roumelia had been organized by General Scobeleff into a well-drilled, fairly equipped militia; while that of the principality of Bulgaria had been similarly organized by Prince Dondakoff Kotchakoff, governor of the principality previous to the election of Prince Alexander. And in view of such a contingency as a new war, General Scobeleff had prepared the most elaborate plans of the campaign. He himself had ridden over almost every mile of Turkey from Constantinople to the Danube, had surveyed every position capable of defence or attack, and a new military map had been constructed. I have no doubt that the plan of the campaign, which embraced several volumes of sketches, is now in the archives of the Russian War Ministry ready for future eventualities.

Panslavism, as understood by Scobeleff and by thousands more of the enlightened sons of Russia, means the principle of nationality. And why in the name of equity should not there be a legitimate Slavonic ideal, if it be right and proper that there should be a Teutonic ideal, a Gallic ideal, and even an Anglo-Saxon ideal? And it is an historic fact that much of the trouble in Russia during the past two hundred years is due to the attempted enforcement of Germanic ideas of civilization upon an unwilling Sla vonic people. Scobeleff was only giving utterance to the sentiments of the majority of the Russian nation and of the Slavonic race when he said at Paris: "If Scobeleff had no belief that Russia and Russia does not always show herself England need necessarily come into hos- equal to her patriotic ideas in general, tile conflict in Asia. I was with him to- and to her Slav rôle in particular, it is wards the close of the British campaign because both within and without she is in Afghanistan, and discussing the ques- held in check by a foreign influence. We tion, he frankly stated that Afghanistan are not at home in our own house. The was without the sphere of Russian con- foreigner is everywhere and his hand in quest, which he recognized was confined everything. We are the dupes of his polto the northern division of the great con-icy, victims of his intrigues, the slaves of tinent of Asia, and did not extend to his power." India. "But," he added, "had Russian ambition stretched towards Hindostan, the invasion of Afghanistan under the Beaconsfield and Lytton administrations, and the proceedings which followed thereupon, was a policy than which a better could not have been devised to subserve supposed Russian views. It would throw the Afghans into the arms of Russia." As a soldier, he admired the conduct of the Afghan campaign.

He seldom spoke on what may be termed the home politics of Russia. In a sense he might be said to have been a staunch Imperialist. In other words, he seemed to think that the genius of the Slav race was adapted for what my friend Professor Lorimer. in his "Institutes of

Prévost Paradol, in one of his famous orations, said that " France and Germany were like two locomotives on the same line of rails, going at full speed in opposite directions, and bound to collide at some point." History proved the truth of his forecast. And it needs but little prescience to assent to Scobeleff's prediction that "a struggle between the Slav and the Teuton is inevitable; and it will be long, sanguinary, and terrible; though we may somewhat doubt his patriotic self-assurance, "that the Slav will triumph."

Scobeleff's equally famous speech at Warsaw expressed not a new sentiment, but was simply an echo of a proposal made in the sixteenth century by a sover

we

eign of Poland. "I wish," said Scobeleff, | store clerks and society men bummers "the best to the Poles, and sincerely de- we call 'em - t' associate with. Ye never sire that they may form one body with us, saw such a change in all your life. I'll as Servia and Bulgaria should do. Are be dog if the women's half as pretty as not all brethren?" About 1580, they were. Hell! 'Tain't no sort of a Stephen Batthory, king of Poland, thus place to what it used to be. No, sir." addressed the Russian ambassador to his Nevertheless, to the stranger it will court: "Let us abandon vain quarrels. seem that a spirit of princely extravaAre we not brothers? What matters gance still characterizes the inhabitants some slight differences in religious be- of the Golden City. With his last tenlief? Why should we not have the same dollar piece the true San Franciscan will flag, the same chief?" Panslavism is, dine sumptuously, take a box at the theatherefore, not a thing of this day, and tre, or a drive out to the Cliff House. Scobeleff knew it; he only wished to His last twenty-five cents will be invested give it vitality. So far as I could judge in a good cigar. The veriest "dead beat" from the conversations I had with him, who asks you for money in the street Scobeleff's ideal future for the Slavonic would feel insulted by a tender of coprace appeared to be (1) The federal pers. The Californian will starve rather union of the different Slav States under than pinch. Fortunately, he has only to a democratic-imperialistic government; work to be rich. There is no fight for and (2) that this democratic-imperialistic existence there. No man need jostle his government in each of the States should neighbor. Such being the case, men acbe based and developed on the lines of cept greater risks and experience losses the mirthe Russian system of commu- with less concern than is the case in Eunal peasant proprietary — which seems to rope. be approved by, and adapted for, the gen ius of the Slav people. Into whatever form his opinions may have ripened it is needless here to speculate. His eloquent voice shall be no more heard forever; his sword is sheathed in the tomb. Requiescat in pace. W. KINNAIRD ROSE.

From The Nineteenth Century.
A GLIMPSE OF MEXICO.

Returning to San Francisco after an absence of twelve months, I discovered that several men who during my previous visit had appeared to possess bottomless purses, had vanished from the club circle. "Where is A.?" I asked.

"A.? Oh, he's got a mine down in Arizona. When the bottom tumbled out of that Pole Star silver mine, A. had to skin out of this."

"And what has become of B.?"

"Well, one of the boys met him prospecting down in New Mexico the other day. Said he was carrying his own pack, dead broke. B. will be up again though. He's a ruffler. You'll hear of him soon." "Has C. gone too?"

"Yes. Soon after you left, they knocked
Golcondas higher'n a kite.
C. was

a

They do say he's prospecting a new mine down in Toombstone country, and it's likely to turn out a Bonanza. Hope it will, anyhow."

SAN FRANCISCO is rapidly forsaking the "dandy rig" of the gambler, and assuming the sober garb of commercial propriety. Stocks have gone "all endways." The old times when fortunes were made and lost in a day, when a man might go to bed a pauper and wake a mil-large holder. lionaire, or wake a millionaire and go to bed a pauper, have vanished. Nor is it probable that they ever will return. Those were times! Refer to them in the presence of any one who knew them in their golden prime and mark how his eyes will glisten. How eagerly will he launch forth upon a sea of anecdote! how he will revel in the train of recollections thus induced! 'Dog gone if I know the place!" said an old fellow to me when I was last there. "Ye never see a shot fired from year's end to year's end now. No, sir. Why, it isn't often ye even hear a champagne cork drawn. 'Stead of the chink of gold, ye hear nothing but the scratching of pens. All the boys are gone, and there's only

66

Amongst these incogniti was a prince of good fellows, at whose hands I had formerly experienced the warmest hospitality. I determined to go south and visit him at his new mine in Sonora. In due course the Southern Pacific Railway landed me at Tucson. Thence the journey had to be continued by stage. driven to the Metropolitan Hotel, to the proprietor of which, Mr. Maloney, I had a message of introduction.

I was

"What time does the stage start for Magdalena?" was my first inquiry.

66

Magdalena? Well, I guess you'll

1

have to wait here till Saturday now. tently inquire how far those assertions Stage went out this morning at eight have been verified and those intentions o'clock," said the bar-keeper. It was nine fulfilled. Having posted himself up to o'clock on Tuesday. I had seen enough the latest date in all that concerns the of Tucson en route from the station to victim of his curiosity, he proceeds in prompt an impolite apostrophe to my ill- return to furnish him with biographical luck. The bar-keeper did not seem to sketches of such later passages in the realize any misfortune in a delay of four lives of his friends as may have escaped days at Tucson. his knowledge.

"Take a drink?" said he. "Thar's worse places than Tucson. Thar's places where you can't get a drink."

I took a drink. The bar-keeper joined

me.

"Is Mr. Maloney in?" I inquired. "Mr. Maloney has not long gone to bed. The boys was having a little game of 'freeze out' last night. I guess he'll be about again at midday."

Returning to the hotel I found that Mr. Paul Maloney had arisen. I also found a card of invitation from (I think it was) the Union Club, awaiting me. Being somewhat dubious as to the nature of a club in Tucson, I interrogated Maloney on the subject.

"Do you care to play monte?" he asked, weighing the card in his hand. "Not particularly."

"Well."

I was assigned a bedroom, or rather a loose box, in the quadrangle of bedrooms That "well," drawled out and sustained, at the back of the saloon. After break- and the look that accompanied it, told me fasting, I strolled out to look at the town. quite as much about the club as I desired Until, twelve months previously, the rail- to know. Paul and I cemented our acway reached it, Tucson was an unimpor-quaintance with cocktails. tant dobe village. Now it is growing Conversation at any time, on any topic, rapidly. Edifices of brick are springing up. Practically it is the gateway betwixt Mexico and the Western States, and in a few years it will be a considerable town. Under the shop awnings in the main street loitered a crowd of handsome, bearded, bronzed miners from the neighboring mining districts. To and fro flit ted a few busy store-clothed storekeepers and clerks. Here and there a knot of men might be seen examining some specimen of quartz. Here and there a couple of leather-breeched cowboys, ostenta tiously "heeled," rode past on their Mexican saddled bronchos. Yonder a chain-and-ball gang of convicts slowly advanced, sweeping the dusty road.

or with any person in Tucson, invariably led to this ceremony. Cocktail-drinking has a peculiar charm of its own which lifts it above drinking as otherwise practised. Your confirmed cocktail-drinker is not to be confused with the ordinary sot. He is a true artist. With what exquisite feeling will he graduate his cups, from the gentle "smile of early morn to the potent "smash" of night. The analytic skill of a chemist marks his swift and unerring detection of the very faintest dissonance in the harmony of the ingredients that compose his beverage. He has an antidote to dispel, a tonic to induce every mood and humor that man knows. Endless variety rewards a single-hearted deIn a place of this kind the barber's votion to cocktails; whilst the refinement shop, next to the drinking saloons, is the and artistic spirit that may be displayed chief place of resort. The barber, in in such an attachment, redeem it from inimportance, ranks second only to the temperance. It becomes an art. It is artistic mixer of cool drinks. He is hail- drinking etherealized, rescued from vul. fellow-well met with every one. Espe- gar appetite and brutality, purified of its cially cheery and amusingly ceremonious low origin and ennobled. A cocktail hath is Figaro if he happens to be a colored the soul of wit, it is brief. It is a jest, a man. His memory is prodigious. Men bon-mot, happy thought, a gibe, a word of enter that he has not seen for months, and sympathy, a tear, an inspiration, a short with whom he is perhaps only slightly ac- prayer. A list of your experienced cockquainted. Yet will he resume the conver-tail-drinker's potations for the day forms sation precisely where it was terminated. a complete picture, fraught with every He will remind his visitor exactly of what he said and what his projects were when he last was shaved, and he will persis

• Armed.

nuance of delicate shading. Nothing is so delightful in nature as the effects created by liquid. Why should this not be so in human nature too?

At length the four days passed, and

seated in the corpulent, dropsical old | scalp was raw, and every angle I poscoach with its team of four wheelers and sessed was bruised. four leaders, we rumbled slowly out of Tucson.

The passengers were a Mexican dame with a baby, a Mexican man, a miner, and myself. There was a coachman, and a second whip who sat beside him, with a short but powerful weapon. Thus armed he made short excursions from the boxseat to the ground, whilst the coach was in motion, and fought it out with any refractory member of the team as he ran along. Collecting a pocketful of the wickedest stones he could find, he would then return and pelt the bronchos from his proper elevation. Another of his du ties was to disentangle the team when, as not unfrequently occurred, so many of the leaders faced the wheelers that further progress became impossible. It also fell to his lot to tie the coach together when its dissolution was imminent. In the performance of his various duties, this individual displayed considerable agility, ability, and resource.

The Mexican dame was frightful. It was evident that the baby was her own. Nor was the family likeness the only proof of their relationship. It was a musical baby. Mother and infant left us at the end of the first stage. The male Mexican slept all day. Towards evening he awoke and reduced himself to a state of complete intoxication with mascal. The miner never opened his lips until the following morning, just before we entered Magdalena, when we happened to pass a jackass rabbit.

"Next jackass rabbit we see, I'll be dog durned if I don't shoot him," said he.

He forthwith produced one of the largest Colt's revolvers that is made and cocked it. But we did not see another rabbit, so I missed this exhibition of his skill. He subsequently proved to be an Englishman.

Stage-travelling in Mexico, if this was a fair sample of it, is neither luxurious nor speedy. Owing to the irregularity with which the coach is conducted, it is impossile for relays to be in attendance. Not until the coach arrives is a man sent out to drive in fresh horses from the country. As they roam free over the broad mesas, they may be miles from home, conse. quently it is no unusual occurrence for the best part of a day to be wasted before they are found. Outward bound, we were singularly fortunate in this respect. On the return journey our delays were all prolonged, in some cases exceeding even five or six hours. The wattled sheds and huts at which these intervals are passed are of the filthiest description.

Some of the teams were curiously mixed. One consisted of three donkeys, two mules, and three bronchos. Most of them were partly composed of mules. Some were poor, others remarkably good. Particularly noteworthy was the performance of a level team of sturdy bronchos, that we picked up late in the afternoon, and that of a fine team of mules which took us into Magdalena on the following morning. The stages were about sixteen and eighteen miles respectively. With the exception of a few short stoppages occasioned by trouble with the harness, these distances were covered at full gallop, notwithstanding which, the teams pulled up almost as fresh as they started.

*

Not

In one instance a deficiency of stock necessitated the lassoing of a horse that had never been broken. He fought gal. lantly, and an exhibition of singular brutality ensued which lasted nearly half an hour. In the corral, however, there was no escape for him, and eventually he was thrown half-strangled on the ground, when the lasso was loosened, and a few minutes were given him for recovery. until these tactics had been thrice reBy the pace at which we proceeded peated did he allow himself to be har during the night, I judged that the Mexi- nessed. Once in the collar, he had to go can's bottle of mascal was not the only with the rest. I must do our driver the one we had on board. The jolting was justice to say that he handled the ribbons terrific. Besides encountering the regu- with admirable skill and audacity. To lar ruts and inequalities in the ground, we add to the interest of the trip, it was exstruck every now and then full gallop pected that we should be stopped by cowagainst a loose boulder, or the projecting boys. These knight-errants had lately surface of a rock, the shock of which brought our heads in stunning contact with the brass-capped nails that studded the roof of the coach. I was sometimes in doubt whether my neck was broken or not. When Magdalena was reached my

"gone through" the coaches with great regularity, and in anticipation of an encounter our driver and his aide were armed to the teeth. Fortunately, neither

Pound or enclosure.