[English] Colonel Baden Powell as a Humourist.

Colonel Baden Powell as a Humourist.

The Spanish-American War opened, it will be remembered, with a flourish of trumpets and the wholesale slaughter of one solitary mule. Colonel Baden-Powell has now gone one better, and sent a telegram, "All well. Four hours' bombardment. Dog killed." That Mafeking dog should live in history beside the Matanzas mule. The jest is thoroughly in character. The gallant Colonel, besides being one of the best pig-stickers and sportsmen in India, is well-known as a first-rate low comedy actor or stage buffoon. He and Major Hobday are the two licensed jesters and caricaturists of Anglo-Indian society; the present anecdote recalls the spirit of one of Major Hobday's campaigning sketches, entitled "The Last murghi in Upper Swat," which depicts a native soldier in hot pursuit of a shrieking barndoor fowl. A couple of years ago Colonel Baden-Powell created a sensation in Simla by appearing in public disguised as the Ambassador for a foreign Power, and it was not until after he had hastily quitted the scene that the masquerade was discovered. When our campaigns are conducted in this same spirit of light-hearted ribaldry, what chance has the unfortunate Boer? Even in war ridicule kills.

Source:

1. Page 3, "Hongkong Telegraph", 18th Day, 11th Month, 25th Year of Guang-xu

   • 18th Day, 11th Lunar Month, Ji-hai Year

   • Wednesday, 20th December, 1899 Commin Era