To the newspapers, hundreds of them, over their own signatures,
on the service club stationery, wrote violent, furious letters, and
the newspapers themselves, besides the ordinary reviews, gave to
the book editorial praise and editorial condemnation.

Equally disgusted were the younger officers of the service. They
nicknamed his book "A Subaltern's Advice to Generals," and
called Churchill himself a "Medal Snatcher." A medal snatcher is
an officer who, whenever there is a rumor of war, leaves his men
to the care of any one, and through influence in high places and for
the sake of the campaign medal has himself attached to the
expeditionary force. But Churchill never was a medal hunter. The
routine of barrack life irked him, and in foreign parts he served his
country far better than by remaining at home and inspecting
awkward squads and attending guard mount. Indeed, the War
Office could cover with medals the man who wrote "The Story of
the Malakand Field Force" and "The River War" and still be in his
debt.

In October, 1898, a month after the battle of Omdurman, Churchill
made his debut as a political speaker at minor meetings in Dover
and Rotherhithe. History does not record that these first speeches
set fire to the Channel. During the winter he finished and
published his "River War," and in the August of the following
summer, 1899, at a by-election, offered himself as Member of
Parliament for Oldham.

In the _Daily Telegraph_ his letters from the three campaigns in
India and Egypt had made his name known, and there was a