For the account of this grim duel,—one of the severest
and most enduring fights on record,—we are chiefly indebted to the brilliant success and enterprise of the military correspondent of the Daily News, who, on Wednesday week, August 22, followed some of the Russian reinforcements into the Shipka Pass, stayed there watching the struggle till Friday evening, then rode off to the Russian head-quarters, had an interview with the Czar and the Grand Duke Commanding-in-Chief, and subsequently managed so to telegraph his six and a half columns of vivid de- scription of the struggle that it appeared in the Daily News of Monday, August 27. Probably a greater feat in journalism has never been accomplished, nor can any one say that the sympa- thies of the writer bias in any way his military judgment. Ho held that the Russian reinforcements had so far pushed back the menacing Turkish advance that for the time, at least, the danger of losing the Pass wm over,—and official reports from both sides have completely confirmed his judgment. The terrific fighting of Saturday and Sunday was due in the main to an attempt of the Russians to drive the Turks from the heights from which they enfiladed their own position,—an attempt in which, in spite of the gallantry displayed, they were unsuccessful. In fact, the foes in the Shipka Pass seem to be equally matched in • both pluck and strength of position, while the numbers of the Turks have far exceeded those of their opponents.
