Springfield globe-republic. (Springfield, Ohio) 1884-1887, 1885-05-26
A svNpAyscnoOL LESION.

three brothers. Why they thus linger and
lounge round the infant seminary Of Chris
tianity is not apparent. Perhaps it is be-
cause they have high respect for pety
and want to get rs near to it as they can.
They bask in the sunshine and look as
peaceful as the scene in which they are
set. The young voices, singing Of the
Prince Of Peace, come floating out to them
on the serene air. The three brothers sit
and chew their tobacco, and perhaps
whittle, thinking Of the times when they
were good little Sundayschool boys.
Suddenly three brethren of neighbor-
ing family appear on the scene and ap-
proach at rapid pace. The three rumi-
mating brothers in front OF the Sunday
school jump to their feet and pull their
gus from their pocket-arsenals. The
three oncoming brethren have theirs al.
ready in hand. Clickl click click on
each side; and, as soon as they get within
pistol.range, bang bangl bang
The Sundayschool shreks, streams Gu,
Of doors, and flies to the four winds. The
brethren, three to three, are now at close
quarters, banging at each other in the
cloud of sulphur-smoke, and, when their
revolvers are empty, graphing together
with slashing knives.
The result was that four of the six were
killed outright and the two survivors were
so chopped to pieces that they probably
have not lived to run the very slight risk
there is Of being hanged in the South for
gentemanly style OF murder like that, in
a square, staad-uD, give-and-take proceed
ing with the fashionable arms. The aver
age Southern juror would think with a
seven-shooter in his hip-pocket and a
bowie-knife down his boot-leg) that "it was
wah, sab, honahable and sqrar wah"
And in fact its resemblance to war is
very striking. II, instead of three on a
side, there had been three thousand or
thirty thousand, and they had shot and
slashed each other with the courage and
bloody desperation and closed with pro-
portional mortality-list Of these three and
three, all Christendom would have cele-
brated them as heroes, and history would
have recorded their mutual slaughter as
one Of the grandest battles and mightiest
victories (whichever side won) in the an
malls of civilization. Such is the magic OF
numbers when two parties go to kill each
other.
The incident we have sketched took
place last Sunday week in the Confeder.
ate section Ct the United States. 1t is a
sample Of the quality of morals, and Of the
state Of public conscience in that recon-
structed fragment OF our Republic. 1t is
what would naturally be expected of so.
ciety in which every adult male of the re-
spectacle class, and The alkoUdJIe color,
goes with his clothes full of the impIe-
ments Of murder. Each OF the six men in
this little Sundayschool drama had the
tools for killing on his person. Every one
Of them was prepared to kill at mo-
ments notice. The two fathers of them
had had feud, and had gone to their
graves with it. The sons, being always
ready, fought it out, without word Of per-
sonal provocation, on sudden encounter
in the presence aud under the benign in
auence Of Sundayschooll
1t is state Of barbarism masQuerading
in the guise Of Christian civilization. "If
. man smite you on the right cheek"
(with his other hand on his hip.poeket),
get the drop on him OR get leftl If q man
does not like you, and his dislike is often
F., sive to your gentlemanly feelings, kill
him! Nay, if thy father is offended with
a man, and the man dies before he can be
killed, do thou shoot that mans son on
sightl
We do not seem to recall these COM
mandments from anywhere in the Old or
the New Testament, King James's or re-
vised edition; yet they express the practi-
cal morality Of many Christian communi-
ties, so called, and of most Christian na-
tions, likewise so called Indeed they reg.
ulate the intercourse of most Christian
states with one another now, just as they
have regulated that Of all peoples from
the beginning Of history. The time when
nations shall learn war no more is yet only
hoped for. An inherited feud between two
governments. based upon something a
hundred years old and forgotten, will set
hostile armies in the field and swarm the
seas with battle-sbips on a provocation
such as justice Of the peace should set
tie between two individuals in an hour.
The nations all go armed to kill on oc-
casion, just as did those two little broth.
erly groups OF our Southern brethren. The
international killing is done in the face
and eyes of Christian worship, as that in