"McNEILL."
One day in camp we counted up the price per word of this
cablegram, and Churchill was delighted to find that it must have
cost the man who sent it five pounds.
On the day of his arrival in Durban, with the cheers still in the air,
Churchill took the first train to "the front," then at Colenso.
Another man might have lingered. After a month's imprisonment
and the hardships of the escape, he might have been excused for
delaying twenty-four hours to taste the sweets of popularity and the
flesh-pots of the Queen Hotel. But if the reader has followed this
brief biography he will know that to have done so would have been
out of the part. This characteristic of Churchill's to get on to the
next thing explains his success. He has no time to waste on
postmortems, he takes none to rest on his laurels.
As a war correspondent and officer he continued with Buller until
the relief of Ladysmith, and with Roberts until the fall of Pretoria.
He was in many actions, in all the big engagements, and came out
of the war with another medal and clasps for six battles.
On his return to London he spent the summer finishing his second
book on the war, and in October at the general election as a
"khaki" candidate, as those were called who favored the war, again
stood for Oldham. This time, with his war record to help him, he
wrested from the Liberals one of Oldham's two seats.
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