The special correspondents of the newspapers usually write well, and
sometimes most effectively, but they have rarely been consummate artists in words. The Daily Mail has, however, found a man of that kind, Mr. G. W. Steevens, whose description of the battle of Omdurman, published in Friday's issue, reaches, we do not hesitate to say, the high- water mark as literature. Sir William Napier might have known more about the details of the battle, but even he could not have brought the blood of the reader to his forehead in a more exciting way. We may, by the way, while we are on this subject, specially ask our readers to look at the prediction as to the battle uttered by a Mussulman and quoted by a correspondent. It was published in the Cornhill Magazine in 1896, it is therefore past question authentic, and General Kitchener might almost have telegraphed it as his despatch.
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