Fort Worth weekly gazette. [volume] (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-06-05

cities will have to keep their armoTies,
and arsenals, and well-drilled militia,
because until the millenDlal day there
will be populations with whom arbitra-
ment will be as impossible as treaty with
cavern of hyenss or jungle of snakes.
These men who rob stores and give
garroter's hug, and prowl about the
wharves at midnight, and rattle the dice
in gambling bells, and go armed with
pistol OF dirk, will refrain from disturb
ance of the public peace just in proper
ton as they realize that the militia of
city, instead of being an awkward
squad, and in danger of shooting each
other by mistake, or losing their ownlife
by
LOOKING DOWN INTO THE GUN BARREL
to see If it Is loaded, or getting the ram
rod fast in their boot leg, are prompt as
the sunrise, keen as the north wind, po-
teIt as thunderbolt, and accurate, and
regular, and disciplined in their move
ments as the planetary system. Well
done, then, say to Legislatures, and
governors, and mayors, and all officials
who decide upon larger armories and bet
ter places for drill and more generous
equipment for the militia. The sooner
the sword can safely go back to the scab-
bard to stay there, the better; but until
the hilt clangs against the case in that
final Judgment, let the sword be kept free
from rust; sharp all along the edge, and
its point like needle, and the handle
polished, not only by the chamois of the
regimental servant, but by the hand of
brave and patriotic officers always ready
to do their full duty. Such swords are
not bathed IN impetuosity, or bathed in
cruelty, or bathed in oppre ssion, or
bathed in outrage, but bathed in heaven.
Before speak of the doom of the
sword, let me also say that it has deYel-
oped the grandest natures that the world
ever saw. 1t has developed courage
that sublime energy of the soul which
defies the universe when it feels itself to
be in the right. It has developed self
sacrifice which repudiates the idea that
our life is worth more than anything else,
when for principle it throws that life
away. as much as to say, 1t is not neces-
sarY that live, but it is necessary that
righteousness triumph. There are tens
of thousands among the Northern and
Southern veterans of our civil war, who
are ninety-five per cent. larger and
mightier in soul, than they would have
been, had they not, during the four
years of national agony, turned their
back on home, and fortune, and at the
front sacrificed all for a principle. 1t
was the sword which on the North
ern side developed q Grant,
Mcclellan, q Hooker, Han
cock, Sherman, Sheridan,
and Admirals Farragut and Porter and
on the Southern side Lee, Jackson, a
Hill, Gordon and the Johnstons, Albert
Sydney and Joseph E., and Admiral
Semmes, and many Federals and Con-
federates whose graves In national ceme-
taries are marked Unknown, - yet
who were just as self-sacriflcing and
brave as any of their major generals,
and whose resting places all up and
down the banks of the Androscoggin, the
Hudson, the Potomac, the Mississippi
and the Alabama, have recently been
showed under with white flowers typical
of resurrection, and strewn with red
flowers commemorative of the carnage
through which they passed, and the blue
flowers illustrative of the skies through
which they ascend.
BUT THE SWORD IS DOOMED.
There is one word that needs to be
written in every throne room, in every
war once, in every navy yard, in every
national council. That word is disarma-
ment. But no government can afford to
throw its sword away until all the great
governments have agreed to do the same.
Through the influence of the recent con-
vention of North and South American
governments at Washington and through
the peace convention to be held next
July in London, and other movements
in which prime ministers and kings and
queens and sultans and ozars shall take
part, all civilized nations will come to
disarmament, and il few barbarian
races decline to quit war, then all the
decent nations will send out a force of
continental police to wipe out from the
face of the earth the mlscreants. But
Until disarmament and consequent arbi-
ration shall be agreed to by all the great
governments, any single government
that dismantles its fortresses, and
spikes its guns, and breaks its sword,
Suppose, before such general agreement,
England should throw away her sword;
think you France has forgotten Water
loo? Suppose before such general agree
ment Germany should throw away her
sword; how long would Alsace and Lor-
raine stay as they are? Suppose the czar
of Russia before any such general agree
ment should throw away his sword all
the eagles and vultures and lions of Eu-
Topean power would gather for piece
of the Russian bear. Suppose the United
States without any such general agree
ment Of disarmament should throw away
her sword; it would not be long before
the Narrows of our harbor would be
ablaze with the bunting of foreign navies
coming here to show the folly of the
Monroe doctrine.
Side by side the two movements must
go. Complete armament until all agree
to disarmament. at the same command
of Haiti all nations hating. At
the same cammand of "Ground armsI'
all muskets humping. at the same
command of 'Break ranksl' all armies
disbanding. The standing army is
THE NIGHTMARE OF NATIONS.
England wants to get rid of 1t, Ger
many is being eaten up by it, Russia is
almost taxed to death with it. Suppose
that the millions of men belonging to the
standing armies of the world and in
absolute idleness, for the most part of
their lives, should become producers,
instead of consumers. Would not the
world "a DrosDeritiaa imnrova and tho