The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1892-07-05
THE HORRORS OF WAR.
Some Startling Figures as TO the
Number Of Lives Lost
in Battle.
Estimated to be Twelve Hundred
Millions in About Thirty
Centuries.
1t II Equal to tho Total Population Of tho
Globe ut the Present
Day.

- ssO
Day.
Camille Flammarain, The French author,
has q passion for big faules.
General statistics. he says, prove that
since the Trojan war 5000 years ago not a
single year has elapsed in which some war
las not killed its proportiouate number.
During the thirty centuries which have
elasped since the beginning of Asiastio and
European history, q loss Of 40, GOO. 900 a cen
fury makes the total number destroyed BY
war to be 1,2OO. 100000, a number very
nearly representing the total population of
the globe ut the present day.
Twelve hundred millions!
1t ia day and the sun sheds its light and
heat upon the world. The country 10 green.
the cities full Of life, and the villages su =
rounded with laborers. Millions of men
are living, acting and producing. Life un-
folds lts joyous and divine radiance on the
surface of the globe.
But behold the sun gone to rest! Behold
black night and melancholy silence! Flu
neral death descends from sombsr heights,
"o'~AhR Al AAn AoAN q oSy ~ "a oUCcAs AlO
passes like a bid of night, whose flight
makes one shudder, extends his hand to
the four cardinal points. traverses shadowy
space and disappears in the depths; this
gesture has arrested humanity in its course;
the passage of the neorophore has lent all
human beings to their last sleep; tomorrow
morning none of Us will waken; the sun
will shine upon a land Of the dead. Not q
single human being remains to look upon
the scene. Paris, London, New York. St.
Petersburg. Vienna, Berlin and Rome are
suddenly extinguIshed. Streets are de-
serted. dwellings filled with the dend; cities
and villages are cemeteries.
Silence, seated on the ruins of the globe.
sleeps in the midst of the vast field Of the
dead. in the midst Of this Frustrated army
of 1000, OOO. 600 oorpses.
The immense cemetery OF all mankind
seen at one view is the real measure of the
victims destroyed by war from the histori-
cal beginning of nations down to the year
of grace in which we live.
Thu sword is ceaselessly drawing blood
from human veins. Eighteen million cubic
meters have been ahed.
In summer at Paris the Seine delivers to
the two parts of the bridge Pont-Neuf
about a hundred cubic meters Of water
every second. moving with a force of $500
horsepower. Every hour 800, 600 cubic
meters of water pass under the arches Of
the bridge, or $500, 600 cubic meters in a
dav. Imagine the river to be human blood
instead of water, for if tho blood, shed in
all wars was put into a basin between the
quavs it would form such a river, and We
would have to remain standing on the
parapet fifty hours to see it flow away.
That quantity of blood weighs IL, 900. 000,-
MN fj)rnrupnu II ! M rpfoS1sx,~ uArN~.~o
which every hour since history began has
unceasingly poured $50 litres of. blood to
dye the royal purple worn by the occupants
of imperial thrones.
If the |, 200, 600, 700 skeletons should rise
and climb ono upon the other the ladder
thus formed would reach the moon, coil
about that body, and. continuing onward,
would mount into infinite space four times
rs far again, that is, 500. 200 leagues in
height. The corpses, If thrown into the
channel at Calais. would form a bridge be-
tween France and England and separate
the ocean from the North sea by a weir. If
only the heads of the men slaughtered in
war were taken and placed side by side, a
band would be formed reaching six times
around the world.
War is not only an unnecessary scourge,
but is more injurious than all others, for it
never comes alone; sickness, ruin and fam
Inc always follow in it's path.
A HAo0V hlAouAlb u uuOIoy IL ucC0N00Ev III
order to kill in a proper manner, for each
man slain costs about $1,000. The incrsas-
ing and multiplying taxes Of all nations
are never sufficient to pay for the butchery
of human troops. Every year Europe
spends more than ST. 200, O00,O 900 in she'd
ding her ohildren's blood; and France
spends 100000 every day. From the
Crimean war down to that of 1901. the
civilized nations of Europe and America
spent in destroying one another $1O.OOO,-
100000 of the ordinary budget and more
than $11,OO 600. 600 raised expressly for the
purpose, making a total Of $21. OOO. OOO, 900.
The vars Of the last hundred years have
cost $40, 900, OOO. 900. without counting the
sorrow, the loss of men and other results.
For a part only of this fabulous sur all
the children might have been brought up
and educated Rratuitously; all lines of rail
ways might have been built; provisions
might have been made for her attempts to
dues, and all obstacles to freedom of trade
might have been suppressed; oil destitution
might have been removed, except tina
caused by idleness and infrmity.
Can the armies of the world DO abolished2
It 10 impossible. A mechanic has calculated
the cost OF making wooden soldiers of natu-
raj size and good condition. As. after all,
the victims of to-day are only an affair Of
number, money and strataRem, he decided
that all the armies could be reproduced for
5000 oO 900 francs. or 81, 2OO.O OO. 600 a year
(soldiers in fiji. under office 8 in oak, officers
in rosewood, captains in mahogany. ~oolonels
in cedar and generals in ivory. and
that they could be drilled by steam
power, the artillery being included in tho
calculation. The leaders Of the two nations
at war n their staff officers would son.
duct tho strategy at their risk and peril.
The victory would belong, as heretofore, 10
him who by his skill should succeed in
cheekmating his adversary and in destroy
ing the greatest number of contestants.
That improvement on ordinary armies
would have the advantage of leaving the
~husbandman to his field, the workman in
his factory and the student to studies, and
would promote public prosperity and hap
piness.
That may answer 40 advice to future min
listers of Wal when mon, having finally
reached the age of reason, shall refuse 70
hight. But for centuries ministers and GEN.
erals can rest upon their ~laursls.
Good Looks.
Good looks are mo 70 than skin deep, de
pending upon a healthy condition of all the
vital organs. II the liver be inactive, you
have a bilious look; il your stomach DO dis
ordered you have a dyspeptlc look. and II