PROBLEMS AND PLACES


In 1884 I kept a diary--kept it the entire year. It was written in the
straggling characters of a child of ten. As I peruse it now,
twenty-five years afterward, I am struck not so much with what it
records, as with what it leaves unrecorded. The great places visited
and the names of great men are chronicled, Bible studies and religious
observations find a place--but of the fierce struggle of the human
soul with destructive and corrupting influences, not a word!

The itinerary of the year included Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Italy,
Syria, Asia Minor, Cyprus, Crete and Sicily. Of these Syria was of the
greatest interest to me. Of the men whose pathway crossed mine,
General Gordon was of the most importance; of the others, the King of
Greece and the second son of Victoria were unique, but not
interesting. One in my position could only meet them as a flunky meets
his master, anyway.

Gordon, on his way to his doom in the Soudan, disembarked at
Alexandria. It was early in January. There was no parade, no reception
of any kind. Gordon was dressed in plain clothes with a cane in his
hand. Gladstone had sent him thus to bring order out of chaos in the
Land of the Mad Mullah. Officers with a penchant for religious
propaganda are scarce either in the army or navy, but into whatever
part of the world Gordon went, he was known and recognized and sought
after by men engaged in religious work. It was an officer of the Royal
Naval Temperance Society, who was at the same time a naval petty
officer, who said to me on the wharf at Alexandria--"That's Chinese
Gordon!"