The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-11-19
F,oa, the Iou ksu ooseue.


poisons manufactured by ancient men in glass
masks, and of ladies destroying their rivals
byl the perfume of q fan, a nosegey, or q
pair of gloves, have often been regarded as
mere exagge rations, the fruit Of panic occa-
stoned by large addition made to the num-
ber of known poisons in the first age of mo-
dern chemical discovery. But we believe
that this ipcredulity is not shared by all the
great chemists of our day. They say that
If chemical research, instead Of
being guided by the wish to penetrate the
secrets of the natural world, or to fiud out
remedies for disease, or even to hit upon the
philosophers ST one, we're directed solely by
the ambition to effect the subtle destruction
of human life there is no reason why, if not
among solids and fluids, at least among va
pors, II might not easily fud the means of
doing all that the italian poisoners said
to have done. Fortunately for the human
race poisoning has never been viewed with
more than very moderate approval. What
ever were the faults of the medieval Italian
States, they certainly went near to stamping
out this particular crime. The fears and
hesitations of the Apothecary in ROmeo and
JUliCt are among the last traces of a contest
in which the law had the best of it.
The next fifty years will apparently be
period during which the skill, patience, and
wealth which hitherto have been mainly de-
voted TO developing the arts of peace will be
apDIeu Dy lOe mOSJ civilized races OF Tue
world to improving the arts of destruction.
AS this process will be carried on not amid
the execrations but amid the applause and
interest of mankind, it is impossible that we
should not ask ourselves what may be ex-
pected from it. Its commencement, it sh ould
be remembered, is extremely recent. The
last half century has by no means been dis
tinguished hy sustained attention to this spe-
cial branch of art. During more than thirty
years of it the chief European nations de-
olined rather than otherwise in knowledge of
the practice and appliances of war, and even
those who appeared to have become stronger
for military purposes owed their strength,
like Prussia, to the mere multiplication of
men and guns in their standing armies. But
q new era began with the Crimean war, and
it is startling to think what has been accom-
plished since the men of the nineteenth CEN
tury began to give themselves up with real
earnestness though at present doubtless with
what will soon appear to have been merely
infantine clumsiness, to the invention and
Improvement of mechanical oontrivances for
wholesale slaughter. The identity of national
name in the men who fought the battle
of Jena and in those who fought the
battle of Gravelotte blinds us to the
fact that they belong to different military
eras: but gulf separates war wsged with
muskets and round shot from war conducted
with breech- leaders, concal bullets, mitrail-
leurs, rifed cannon, and shell. We are told
by some, it is true, that the proportion of
killed and wounded to the whole force en-
ployed is not greater than it used to be. The
calculation may be suspected of falacy, as
not taking into account the peculiar compost
tion of modern armies; but, at all events, it is
not to the point-for the question is not
Where are we but, What are we coming to !?
The treasures of destruction lurking in nature
and capable Of being disinterred by the hand
of man would appear to be practically inf
mite. Looking TO one branch alone in this
class of discoveries, we find that gunpowder,
which was supposed TO be unique in its pro-
perties, belongs to whole family of sister
compounds, each more eIplosible and deadly
than the other One cannot reflect
on the transformation which harmless
substances have undergone without
recalling Jack Cades" lamentation that the
skin of an innocent lamb, being scribbled
over, should undo man. Cotton. which fur
nisbed their evangel to the apostles and sti-
pendiary preachers of the Anti-Corn Law
League cotton, the spinning of which was to
be the principal occupation of the blessed
during the Manchester millennium-cotton,
being dipped in certain useful acids, turned
out to be so explosive that its very destruc.
tiveness prevented its being freely Employed
but now, by process described the other
day in these columns which looks like a crue
parody on The manufacture of paper the limi
tations Oh it's fatal usefulness may be re-
moved, although by distinction quite i'm
material TO the happiness of mankind it mus
now be exploded by the tap of a hammer
whereas it once went off with spark. In
fact, the future of Europe would appear TO be
future OF Eliminates. Can anything save us
from this Is it possible We may be saved
by the very thoroughness of the ia.
cilities for universal homicide? In the
dramatic piece recommended by Mr.
Sheer to Mr.. Dangle, it was intended b,
the mere force of humor to make
HOUSEKEEPING so ridiculous that bolts anG
bars would be shortly useless; and the late
Mr.. Douglas Jerrold seems certainly to hav,
supposed that by the help of thin and aci(
wit he could make war too absurd for mel
ever TO fight again. For our part, we thinl
that if war ever becomes ridiculous it will b,
through the scientific form of humor calleC
the TedBcfiD 0d dbSardum. Suppose what a
present seems perfectly possibe) naval en-
gagements were to begin with the simulta
neous fouIdering of half of each fleet through
the explosion of torpedoes movable or i'm
movable. suppose the greatest part of eaol
of two oontending armies were, on the firms
of the first shot, instantly to Euecumb to
shower of deadly hail; or, again, suppose wa
to resolve itself into system of perpetua
lodging into harbors or behind fortresses
Would the human race be suddenly overeom
by a sense of the ludcrous and the grea
tribunal of war break up amid a genera
laugh
One thing in war has been placed at las
beyond doubt. 1t is an industry, like an,
other industry, capable of Improvement o
retrogressiou under precisely the same con
ditions Mankind have outliyed many illu