Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-01-15
Modern Bravery.

A writer in "Blackwood's Magazine"
believes that the invention OF long range
fighting has brought into the world a
type Of fortitude which has been hither-
to totally unknown, excepting in occa-
sional isolated cases. which is just as
much product Of our century as rail-
ways or electric telegraphs, and which
is as distinguishable from the animal
courage required for sword-work as is
prophecy for fortune-telIing. Instead of
dashing at the enemy in fierce excite
ment, instead Of the hot emotion Of saw
age struggle, instead of furious muscular
evaporation, instead of the intensest
development of combative facilities. our
soldiers have now to exhibit their intre-
p1dity by remaining placid, motionless,
undisturbed amidst hail of death and
wounds. They have to stay quiet under
constant fire, to let Themselves be
knocked to pieces, without the chance or
even the possibility Of doing anything to
defend themselves in an eager, efficient,
satisfactory form; the one solution open
to them is to treat the other people in
the same fashion, and to pelt irlpersonal
missiles at them from afar. Not man
on either side has the pleasure of iden-
tifying the particular opponent who
slaughters him. There is scarcely any
of that individuality Of carnage which is
SO contenting in hand-to-hand fight.
And, worse than all, there is none of
the output Of effort, Of the bitter strain,
which necessarily accompanies the ex-
hibition of brute hardihood. The bray
cry of to-day is nervous, contemplative
process; there is no action, no move
ment, no tug about it. It prin-
cipally consists in waiting obedience
until you are hit by a stray shot.
Troops do not like it. They are
always wanting to get out of it, to rush
ahead, to strike, to do something violent
and comforting on their own behalf.
They feel that it is absolutely unnatural
to stand still to be killed, that it is total
~ anomalous to rest unaggressive under
a tempest of ambient peril, that it is con-
trary to all the tendencies of humanity
to make no vigorous attempt to ward off
destruction; and yet that is precisely
what they have learned to Go. They
may use shelter, if they can find it Git is
no longer cowardly to hide) but they
may not use action. In one of Raffet's
caricatures, regiment is halted in the
middle of the river, with the water up
to the mems necks. The colonel says to
them: "My children, I forbid you to
smoke, but I permit you to sit down."
and that is very much the situation in
which European soldiers are placed in
battle now; it is permitted them to be
killed, but it is forbidden them to fight.
In Asia, it is true, there is still a
chance of getting to close quarters, and
of using the right arm-as good many
Englishmen who have been in Afghanis-
tan can testify. But in modern fighting
on the continent, the rule is that the foe
is so far off that no fighting can reach
him. The consequence is that our new
shape of courage is based upon the sup
preston of direct effort. It has become
q passive process, in which we endure,
instead of acting. The old sword daring
was impetuous, emotional and intuitiye.
The new gun. courage is deliberate, log
ical and subjective. The one was
material and substantial; the other is
abstract and theoretical. They are as
different from each other as credulity
and faith, as astrology and astronomy,
as dreams and thought.