Show I ENOUGH OF WARS Theappetite for war in this country is being glutted So long as we were fghtng against tyranny and oppression oppres-sion so long we had a foe believed to be worthvof our steel so long as we were Tighting for the independence of men who had struggled in vain against odds for many years so long as we were espousing the cause of the weak against the strong there was plenty of interest even enthusiasm In every hamlet town and city in the land Men sat up all night watching for the reports and filled the air with deafening cheers whenever a victor was announced All this has passed The thirst for blood has gone I is a different cause a different foe And it is sickening to read of the slaughter of peasants in their own republic in South Africa victims as they believe or AngloSaxon greed and vengeance There is something about war so terrible ter-rible that the cause must be holy indeed in-deed If I one can look upon the death and desolation wlifch follows in its wake and not grow sick at heart The heroic offering a squad of Boers made of their lives at Glencoe to draw the I fire of the British while thtjlr com v rades escaped in another direction is enough to make every man and woman in the civilized world redouble their efforts ef-forts to secure international arbitration I treaties between all the powers I A soldier writing home from the Philippines ippines not long ago related a incident Which shows how brave m n fall in war A Connecticut regular known to his comrade ds Dutchy r stood up To fire behind the kneeling front rank Listen to the balls he said they fang men but they cant hit me How do you know that I asked Easy says he theres too many good folks prayiri for me up in Connecticut Those were his VCr words and then he got up on his knee and began firing the fieshjoad hi his magazine I dont bellevehed fred two shots when 3 bullet smashed him between be-tween the eyes and thatvas the last of Dutchy After that 1 worked there alone between two dead men and listened list-ened to the balls talk Once I went over like a log and thought theyd fixed me but it was only a ball that had struck my cartridge belt and glanced out I bent two cartridges though all out of shape and i made me sick at the stomach After that I didnt like to look at Dutchy for the Inside of his head was all over his face I so I threw some grass on him and about two hours later I threw more grass on him You soon get enough of a dead I man down there when the sun Is hot The sufferings of tfia t Spanish after the naval battle of Manila have been depicted recently by an English physician physi-cian who visited the hospital ship with an American surgoOn just before i sailed for Spain His experience has been published recently in the London Chronicle These poor soldiers not one of whom was past Ills first youth were in a moist terrible condition mere skeletons covered with yellow skin like leather and scored with deep wrinkles hell glassy eyes were sunk In the sockets and rimmed with black The wounded covered with excrement excre-ment were howling with pain for their SOles had not been dressed and were infested in-fested with flies and woinis I entered the room pointed out to me by the doctor who accompanied me and there accmpnied came to the most tonible corner of this floating lazaretto Sixteen soldiers were on the point of death Here t dead body lay on Its back one eye wide open the other almost shut while the bottom of the face was covered with a thick foam There was another ypuny soldier eaten up by consumption stretched beside theo the-o Ho was looking at It quietly with a certain stoical calm and eq lay without movement as if he aheady belonged to the kingdom of shadows A n the soldier on the contrary Whose loncr jaw had been carried away by 0 bullet was hiding his face in the sheets so that he might not see the dead man But in spite of his 1 terror and as if moved g I by an irresistible I force oa would now and then draw aside his covering slightly raise his head and look sideways at his dead comrade his face took on a look of horror which I cannot describe and then he would hide himself again under the coverlet The others paid no attention to the dead man The extent of their sufferings made them indifferent to what happened around thorn A young soldier his face looking pathetically like that of a pale young girl was shrieking aloud for some one to come and finish him Another quite as young was calling on his mothers name with tears and hysterical sobs Oh mother he screamed dont leave me In my trouble Take me with you to heaven I cannot bear It any longer Oh God it is burning me up Mother mother save me Another with horrible < oaths groaned groan-ed and swore that he had in his stomach a viper which was eating into his bowels Above him another young soldier was sobbing sob-bing so piteously that to hear him was enough to curdle ones blood Two dying men near him were Inhallujr ether to help their breathing and at the bottom of this den there rolled and Shook on his mattress a living being so burned up with fever that he looked Ikea madman What horrible scenes No wonder the arbitrationJldei is gaining ground Mo wonder the appetite for war Is glutted glut-ted Remove fromJehin that picture of misery in the Spanish hospital the cause of emancipation in which our country was engaged and it would be intolerable To think that such sorrow and suffering is being inflicted yet in the name of humanity in Africa or in Asia when tact diplomacy or arbitration arbitra-tion might have prevented it all is enough to cause Christian people everywhere every-where to turn from the carnage close their ears to the din of war and pray for peace everlasting universal peace |