If.any doubts previously existed as to the English, being 'a hero-worshipping race they must have been set at rest last night. The reception accorded to Sir Herbert Kitchener on his arrival at Victoria Station from the East seems to have far outdistanced all previous efforts in. a like direction. I was not present, so cannot write from personal observation, in fact had I formed one of that vast crowd it is possible that I might have been unable to write at all, as many of the women present seem to have been crushed and otherwise injured—the Sirdar himself was carried off his feet and had his coat torn and his hat Knocked over his eyes, and, I should say, would fur rather face a second Omdurman than repeat last night's experience. One reporter described it as 'a scene one could witness but once in a lifetime. I wonder whether Mr. {Robert Buchan: was present among that seething mass of people? Probably not—but if he was he must have reflected that the open letter he wrote to the Sirdar (published in the Sunday Special) in which he called him rat-catcher -hired to slaughter" and compared him to the butcher boy at the end of his street, has not had any appreciable effect upon the minds of the masses. One cannot always take Mr. Buchanan seriously, but even as a joke I think that letter tad better have remained unwritter though it was good of him to say he did not grudge our hero his title nor the £25,000 which has been voted him as payment." The labourer is worthy of is hire""—he is likewise willing. that he should be accorded the "meed of social recognition" which he will most certainly receive—but to compare him to Jack Ketch is going a little tov fur. One begins to wonder what great work of Mr. Buchanan's has remained unnoticed, and whether it is the green-eyed monster jealousy or a violent attack of dyspepsia that is answerable for this sudden outburst, which in the end does not confine itself to the Sirdar. but includes the Poet Laureate and "the Bard of the Jungle, our own, the only, Kipling"—at any rate it is kind to place Sir Herbert in, such good company, and should ho ever see the letter in question it will probably afford him " few minutes' infinite amusement—nothing more,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.