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in the Sudan, which was administered by Cairo. General George Gordon, who had made his reputation fighting for China’s emperor during the Taiping Rebellion, was sent to Khartoum early in 1884 to organize its evacuation.
Gordon, who had strong religious convictions and no lack of self-belief, decided instead to prepare the city for a siege, with the eventual aim of defeating the army of the rebel leader, the Mahdi. The British Government initially left Khartoum to its fate but was forced by public opinion later in the year to mount an expedition to relieve Gordon.
Commanded by Garnet Wolseley, this made slow progress up the Nile by boat. Wolseley divided his force, sending part across the desert in the hope of reaching Khartoum more quickly. Using steamers, a group from this force reached the city on 28 January 1885 – two days after it had fallen to the Mahdi.
Gordon had been among the 10,000 inhabitants massacred and his death became an abiding image of the imperial era. Sudan was abandoned to the Mahdi and only reconquered in 1898 with victory at Omdurman.
10 November 1888
During the early hours of yesterday morning another murder of a most revolting and fiendish character took place in Spitalfields. This is the seventh which has occurred in this immediate neighbourhood, and the character of the mutilations leaves very little doubt that the murderer in this instance is the same person who has committed the previous ones, with which the public are fully acquainted.
The scene of this last crime is at No: 26, Dorset-street, Spitalfields, which is about 200 yards distant from 35, Hanbury-street, where the unfortunate woman, Mary Ann Nicholls, was so foully murdered. Although the victim, whose name is Mary Ann (or Mary Jane) Kelly, resides at the above number, the entrance to the room she occupied is up a narrow court, in which are some half-a-dozen houses, and which is known as Miller’s-court; it is entirely separated from the other portion of the house, and has an entrance leading into the court. The room is known by the title of No. 13. The house is rented by John M’Carthy, who keeps a small general shop at No. 27, Dorset-street, and the whole of the rooms are let out to tenants of a very poor class. As an instance of the poverty of the neighbourhood, it may be mentioned that nearly the whole of the houses in this street are common lodging-houses, and the one opposite where this murder was enacted has accommodation for some 300 men, and is fully occupied every night. About 12 months ago Kelly, who was about 24 years of age, and who was considered a good-looking young woman, of fair and fresh-coloured complexion, came to Mr. M’Carthy with a man named Joseph Kelly, who she stated was her husband and who was a porter employed at the Spitalfields Market. They rented a room on the ground floor, the same in which the poor woman was murdered, at a rental of 4s. a week. It had been noticed that the deceased woman was somewhat addicted to drink, but Mr. M’Carthy denied having any knowledge that she had been leading a loose or immoral life. That this was so, however, there can be no doubt, for about a fortnight ago she had a quarrel with Kelly, and, after blows had been exchanged, the man left the house, or rather room, and did not return. It has since been ascertained that he went to live at Buller’s common lodging-house in Bishopsgate-street. Since then the woman has supported herself as best she could, and the police have ascertained that she has been walking the streets. None of those living in the court or at 26, Dorset-street saw anything of the unfortunate creature after about 8 o’clock on Thursday evening, but she was seen in Commercial-street shortly before the closing of the publichouse, and then had the appearance of being the worse for drink. About 1 o’clock yesterday morning a person living in the court opposite to the room occupied by the murdered woman heard her singing the song, “Sweet violets,” but this person is unable to say whether anyone else was with her at that time. Nothing more was seen or heard of her until her dead body was found.
During the autumn of 1888, a series of murders of women in the poverty-ridden East End of London became ascribed by the police and the public alike to a single killer. He was known, from a letter claiming responsibility for the crimes, as Jack the Ripper.
Mary Jane Kelly was the fifth and last of those thought most likely, from the brutal nature of their deaths, to have died at the same hand. Despite their customary characterisation, she was also the only one of the women to have worked regularly as a prostitute. Little else, including her true name, is known for certain about her life, the details of which she may have embroidered to evade a gang that had trafficked her to Paris.
The Ripper murders are usually held to have stopped after Kelly’s death and were never solved. They lived on, however, in popular culture, in voyeuristic tourism and in an abundant literature about the killings, notable for dwelling more on the possible identity of the murderer than on the fate of the victims.
THE DEDICATION OF THE EIFFEL TOWER
1 April 1889
The Eiffel tower has now attained its full height – 300 metres (984 feet). When the proposal was made, two years ago, to erect the structure, artists and literary men signed a protest against the scheme, declaring that it would disgrace and disfigure Paris, and would destroy the effect of the great monuments of the city, such as Notre Dame and the Louvre. It must be admitted that the effect produced by the drawings was unfavourable. The form suggested the ugliest parts of a suspension bridge, and it was predicted that the deformity would be increased with the increase of size. The result has not been what was predicted. Even some of those who protested most loudly against the proposal now admit that the effect of the structure is not what they anticipated. They acknowledge that it has a light and graceful appearance, in spite of its gigantic size, and that it is an imposing monument, not unworthy of Paris.
At half-past 2 o’clock to-day the ceremony of hoisting the first flag from the summit was celebrated, in presence of a crowd of spectators. M. Eiffel, with about a dozen persons, ascended the tower to the last small platform, and from that point the flag was hoisted by pulling a rope. The appearance of the flag was saluted by a salvo of 20 guns, followed by the cheers of the crowd. The flag is seven metres and a half long by four metres and a half wide. It bears the letters “R. F.” The engineer, M. Condamin, addressed those present on the platform. He said he saluted the flag of 1789, which their fathers had borne so proudly, which had won so many victories, and which had witnessed so much progress in science and humanity. They had endeavoured to erect a monument worthy of the great date ‘89, and it was for that reason that colossal dimensions were required. To M. Eiffel, who had conceived this idea, and to the fellow-workmen who had enabled him to carry out his work, they were glad to do honour. M. Berger then proposed the health of M. Eiffel, the workmen, and the Municipal Council, which was drunk in champagne, amid cries of “Vive la France! Vive Paris! Vive la Republique!”
The descent from the platform was found to be as trying as the ascent had been, and lasted 40 minutes.
Tables had been arranged for an entertainment to be given to the guests and about 200 workmen. The party were joined by M. Tirard, the Premier, and M. Alphand, city surveyor, and when the repast had ended M. Eiffel delivered a speech, in which he said that it was a great satisfaction to him to have that day hoisted a flag on the highest monument man had ever constructed. After thanking his fellow workmen for the assistance they had given, he said France had shown that she was still capable of great things, and of succeeding where other nations failed.
The Eiffel Tower was the winner of a competition held by the French government to design a fitting gateway for the great exhibition planned for the centenary of the Revolution in 1889. It was created by several engineers working for the construction company owned by the architect Gustave Eiffel, whose previous commissions included devising the interior framework for the Statue of Liberty.
Intended to demonstrate French technological prowess, the wrought-iron structure, planned with extraordinary precision for the times, was erected in just two years. It was then the tallest edifice