Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1888-12-21
EuRoPE'S ARMED PEACE.
The Terrible Strain on the Nations-The
Next War.

me Terrible Strain on the NatiOns-The
Next War.
The whole continent seems to be under
some horrible enchantment. The armed
peace sits like vampire at the bedside
# the people, draining their life blood
while they sleep. Hence, say some, war
! IS certain. The nations cannot stand the
strain much longer. Sooner or later.
and sooner rather than later, they will
rush to war rather than wait to be slowly
-uifocated by the sheer weight of their
| armor.
As the armed peace is a nightmare
fouer than the world has yet suffered, so
the next war is an appalling catastrophe
from which imagination shrinks aghast
For there is nothing in modern history
that it will resemble. Hitherto, down
even to the last wars, when empires have
gone to battle it has been war of sol
dlers. The next war will be a war of
peoples. In the Russo Turkish war it was
an army framed on the old system which
was repulsed at Plevna, and ultimately
swept in triumph to Constantinople. In
the Franco-German war the French army
was largely professional, and it was be-
cause the standing army of professional
soldiers went down like ninepins before
the irresistible rush of an armed nation
that all military systems have been revo-
utionized. Now every nationhas armed
all its able bodied adults
In former days the mastering of a half
million of soldiers was regarded as
mighty feat Today Prince Bismarck
adds to the ranks of the army of the
fatherland, with one stroke of his pen,
100000 fathers of families. and not
a single voice is raised even in passing
protest. Germany in the center of
Europe fronts east and west with an
available host Of 5000, 900 trained sol
diers. France will have between 2,OOO,-
600 and 100000 ready to hand. Rus
STA before long will be able to put 5, OO0.-
900 into line. Austria and Italy we need
not count. The blast of the trumpets
that proclaims the beginning of war will
summon the manhood of Europe to the
work OF slaughter
Not only will the number of the com.
batants be far beyond those which were
raised even in the DAYS of the First Ma
poleon-the grand army with which he
crossed the frontier on his march to
Moscow only consisted of the same num-
Der of men that has been added this year
to the German army-but the spirit in
which it will be brought out will differ
for the worse. Prince Bismarck has
frankly told us what kind of war it will
be. We shall fight. he said. if we do
fight, until we are bled as white as veal.
1t will be duel to the death-a war in
which the avowed object of the COM
batants is the utter destruction of their
adversary.
n Il a.
life blood of your enemy until YOU leave
his carcass as white as that of the calf
from which the butcher seeks to drain
every ruddy drop of gore-that is the
declared ideal of the foremost nation of
the continent in the year of grace 1888.
The imagination refuses to picture what
IL means. All our recent wars were
short. The longest was that of the Cri-
mea, which was little more than the |
siege and the defense of single fortress
by professional soldiers. The Franco |
Italian war was almost an affair of |
weeks. The Danish war was over al |
most before it began The Austro- Prus- |
san Italian war lasted just six weeks |
The Franco German war was over in six |
months. The conquest of Turkey was
completed in about the same time.
i'uI Ille HeXC war VIII not be over In |
six weeks or six months. To bleed each
other white, when both combatants are |
pretty well matched, and when there are
millions of men in reserve, is an affair
of years. But when all the business is
suspended, and the reapers have been
summoned from the farm to the battle
fields, it will be impossible to carry on
war on this scale for years without utter
collape and CHASTITY famine Hence the
embattled millions will fight with the |
grim and desperate energy of men who
know that, like Judas, what they do |
they must do quickly. They will strike
terror. All the tourney rules of civil
lied war will be in danger of going by ;
the board. 1t will be contest of titans |
waged with the ruthlessness of fiends
The next war will be in danger Of de-
generating into the Nineteenth century
version of the horrors of the thirty years
war, on scale far more gigantic. and
therefore characterized by crimes far
more colossal. Pail Mall Gazette
When Lawyers Are Rusty.
Yes, lawyers frequently call upon