The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1888-08-15
EURoPE's ARMED PEACE.
The Terrible Strain on the Nations - The
Next War.

Tie whole continent seems to be unde
some horrible enchantment. The armed
peace sits like vampire at the bedsi1,
of the people. draining their life bloot
while they sleep. Hence, say some, val
s certain. The nations cannot stand tn,
strain much longer. Sooner or later
and sooner rather than later, they vii
rush to war rather than wait to be slowly
| suffocated by the sheer weight of theii
armor.
As the armed peace is a nightmar,
fouler than .he world has vet suffered. Sc
the next var is an appalling catastrophe
| from which imagination shrinks aghast
For there is nothing in modern history
that it will resemble. Hitherto, dowr
even to the last wars, wlrn empires have
gone to battle it has been war of sol
dlers. The next war will he war OF
peoples. In the usso-Tuskish war it was
an army framed on the oil system which
was repulsed at Plevna, and ultimately
swept ip triumph TO COnstantinople. In
the Franco-Germanw war tie French army
was largely professional and it was be.
ca,Ise the standing army of professional
soldiers went down like nineplns before
the irresistible rush of an armed nation
that all military system: have been revo-
ihtionized. Now every aationhas armed
I'll its able bodied adults.
In former days the mastering of hall
,nllion of soldiers was regarded as 4
mighty feat. Today Prince Bismarck
adds To the ranks of .he army of tha
tatheriand. with one stroke of his pen,
100000 fathers of families, aud not
!: single voice is raised even in passing
protest. Germany it, the center OF
Europe fronts east ai.d west with an
available host of 5000 900 trained SOL
oilers. France will have be.-veen 2,000,-
600 and 5000, 900 ready to hand. Rus
IN before long will be able 10 put 1000.
900 into line. Austria ard Italy we need
not count. The blast of the trumpet,
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
.arants be far beyond those which were
it,ised even in the DAYS of the First Ma
p.aeon-the grand army with which he
crossed the frontier on his march to
Moscow only consisted of tie same mum
tsr of men that has been added this year
I" the German army-but the spirit IN
which it will be brought ont will differ
for the worse Prince Bismarck has
frankly told lis what kind of war it will
-. We shall fight. he said if we do
fight until we are bled as white rs veal.
II will be a ducl To the death-a war in
which the avowed object of the cont
batants Is the utter destruction of their
adversary.
"Saign.r a blanc. to drain the very
lie blood If your enemy until you leave
lis carcass As white as that of the calf
from which the butcher seeks to drain
every rudy drop Of Gore--that is the
declared ideal of the foremost aatiOn Of
tine continent i'll 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-
mca. which was little more than the
siege and the defense of a 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-
sian-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.
But the next war will 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 III reserve, is an affair
of wears. But when all the business is
suspended, and the reapers have been
summoned from the farm to the battle
fielQs it will be impossible to carry on
war on this scale for years without utter
collape and CHASTITY famine. Hence the
embattlet 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 ttans
waged with the ruthlessness of fiends.
The next war will he i'll 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.