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Show WAR. (The following comment upon the war is given to the Pyramid by Pres. Hcber J. Grant, chairman of the Third Liberty Loan committee for Utah.) I War is the work, the element, or rather the sport and triumph of death, who glories not only in the extent of his conquest, hut in the richness of his spoil. In the other methods of attack, in the other forms which death assumes, the feeble and j the aged, who at the best can live i but a short time, are usually the vie- j thus; here they are the vigorous and, i the strong. It is remarked by the most ancient of poets, that in peace children bury their parents, in war parents bury their children; nor is the difference small. Children lament their parents, par-ents, sincerely, indeed, hut with that moderate and tranquil sorrow, which it is natural for those to feel who are conscious of retaining many tender ties, many animating prospects, i Parents mourn for their children with the bitterness, of despair; the a:,red parent, the widowed mother, loses, when she is deprived of her children, everything but the capacity of suffering; her heart, withered and desolate, admits no other object, cherishes no other hope. It is Rachel Ra-chel weeping for her children, and refusing re-fusing to be comforted, because they are not. But to confine our attention to the number of the slain would give us a ery inadequate idea of the ravages of the sword. The lot of those who perish instantaneously may be considered, con-sidered, apart from the religious 1. rospects, as comparatively happy, since they are exempt from those lingering lin-gering diseases and slow torments to which others are liable. We cannot see an individual expire, though a stranger or an enemy, without being sensibly moved, and prompted by compassion tp lend him every assistance assist-ance in our power. Every trace of resentment vanishes in a moment; every other emotion gives way to pity and terror. In these last extremities, we remember re-member nothing but the respect and tendernesa due to our common nature. na-ture. What a scene then must a field of b'attle present, where thousands thou-sands are left without assistance, and J without pity, with their wounds exposed ex-posed to the piercing air, while the 1 blood, freezing as it flows, binds them to the earth, amid the trampling of horses, and the insults of an enraged foe! If they are spared by the humanity of the enemy, and carried from the field, it is but a prolongation of torment. tor-ment. Convoyed in uneasy vehicles, often to a remote distance, through roads almost impassable, they are lodged in ill-prepared receptacles for the wounded and the sick, where the variety of distress baffles all the efforts ef-forts of humanity and skill, and renders ren-ders it impossible to give each the attention he demands. Far from their native homes, no tender assiduities of friendship, no wife, or mother, or sister, is near to soothe their sorrows, relieve their thirst, or close their eyea in death! Unhappy man! and must you be swept into the grave unnoticed and unnumbered, and no friendly tear be shed for your sufferings, or .mingled with your dust? We must remember, however, that as a very small proportion of a military mili-tary life is spent in actual combat, so it is a very small part of its miseries which must be ascribed to this source. More are consumed by the rust of inactivity than by the edge of the sword; confined to a scanty or unwholesome diet, exposed In sickly climates, harassed with tiresome marches and perpetual alarms; their life is a continual scene of hardships and dangers. They grow familiar with hunger, cold and watchfulness. Crowded into hospitals and prisons, contagion spreads among their ranks, till the ravages of disease exceed those of the enemy. We have hitherto adverted to the sufferings of those only who are engaged en-gaged in the profession of arms, without with-out taking into our account the situation situ-ation of the countries which are the scene of hostilities. How dreadful to hold everything at the mercy of an enemy, and to receive life itself as a boon dependent on the sword! How boundless the fears which such a situation sit-uation must inspire, where the issues is-sues of life, and death are determined by no known laws, principles, or customs, cus-toms, and no conjecture can be formed form-ed of our destiny, except so far as it is dimly deciphered in characters of blood, in the dictates of revenge, and the caprices of power! Conceive, but for "a moment, the consternation which the approach of an invading army would impress on the peaceful villagus in our own neighborhood. When you have place'j ourselves for an instant in that situation, sit-uation, you will learn to sympathize with those unhappy countries which have sustained the ravages of arms. But how fs it possible to give you an idea of these horrors? i Here you behold rich, harvests, the bounty of Heaven, and the reward of industry, consumed in a moment, or trampled under foot, while famine and pestilence follow the steps of desolation. des-olation. There the cottages of peasants peas-ants given up to the flames, mother?; expiring through fear, not for themselves, them-selves, but for their infants; the inhabitants in-habitants flying with their helpless babes in all directions, miserable fugitives fu-gitives on their native soil! la another part you witness opu- lent cities taken by storm; the streets where no sounds were heard but those of peaceful industry, fined on a sudden with slaughter and blood, resounding with the cries of the pursuing and the pursued- the palaces of rubles demolished-' the houses or the rich pilaged, aud'everv age, sex, and rank, mingled in pro. miscous massacre and ruin! |