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Show Ancient And Modern Savagery A BRIEF dispatch, last week, said the allies were gaining in Mesopotamia and were determined deter-mined that the enemy should never occupy the valley of the Euphrates. So it seems that the war extends to the very heart of Asia, - close to where Nebuchadnezzar reigned and fell; close to where Semlramls swung her hanging gardens; close to where Belshazzar saw the fateful hand-writing on the wall of his banquet hall; close to where Cyrus marshalled his armies six and twenty centuries ago. It is close, too, to where the cradle of civilization civiliza-tion was first rocked and the first struggles began be-gan to exalt man, to fit him to take possession of iiHnBi the earth and to rule It as became the chosen agent of the Infinite. M There was progress made, all that pure Intel- H lect can accomplish was accomplished; there H were wonders wrought In art and architecture H and a literature was created that in many re- H spects the modern man has never equaled; T)ut at last as though exhausted, civilization went into H a coma, leaving nothing active save its dregs; H leaving nothing worth embalming Into history H save the ancient splendor. The tide of empire H flowed west; barbarous Europe was occupied and H after centuries of struggle subdued; the new H world was found and occupied, and now It seems- H that the thunders of war have been awakened H where war had Its birth and the scribes are telling H us what is to come when this modern war shall H have spent its energies. Is there any more heart H and conscience in this war than there was in the H savage wars of old? H The ancient Persians worshipped the sun as H the author of life and light; the ancient Egyptians H went into the first battle recorded in history H chanting hymns to their gods. H The Cross was upreared nineteen hundred H years ago and has been radiating its light ever H since, but are the armies now fighting close to ancient Babylon, fighting for any higher cause than did the armies of Darius and Cyrus? H The old desire was for power and land and loot. Take that desire from the present war and H would there be anything left to fight for? Can H any holy principle be vindicated by the present H war. We can see none unless the masses of men In H Europe, contemplating tho savagery being per- H petrated, counting their dead and trying to estl- H mate the losses and the suffering, finally deter- H mine that never again shall a few Inflamed lead- H ers plunge them Into a reasonless and fearfully H cruel war; that the old rule, "thai men are noth- H ing but that some man is everything," shall be H -revei tied-, -antl-that -raver- aEotn-'shalr-a war-be fl awakened unless for a holy principle, the masses shall demand It. I |