Shenandoah herald. [volume] (Woodstock, Va.) 1865-1974, 1892-07-08
WARS MATHEMATICS
TWELVE HUNDRED MILLION
BEINGS HAVE BEEN KILLED.
The Human Sacrifice in Thirty Cen
lures As Great a the P0puia-
ton OF the Earth Now
The Cost of fighting.


during modern wars. We know that
during the unaccouutable Franco German
wa of lS7O-7l, $50, 900 men were slain
on the two sides; that during the useles;
Crimean war of 1886, 7S5, 900 were
slain; that during the short Italian war
Of 1859. So, 900 men fell ON the field OF
battle or died in hospitals; that the
came of chess between Prussia and Aus
tria in 1856 deprived As, 900 individuals
of life; that in the United States the
strife between the North and South
caused the death of 450, 900 men in
1S6O-Gl; we know also that the wars Of
the first Empire poured out the blood OF
five million Europeans, and that France
has taken up arms twenty times since
1915. On adding the number Of vic
tins of war during the last century a
total of 1850, 900 is reached in the
civilized countries of Europe and in the
United States.
Commencing with the Trojan war,
the case has been the same in all ages OF
history. Certain remarkable battles,
fought hand to hand with knife or club,
have had the memorable honor of leav-
ing as many as two hundred thousand
men dead on the field; as examples we
cite the defeat of the Cimbrians and the
Teutons By Marius, and the last exploits
of Attila. Eighteen to twenty million
men are killed every century in Europe
by the enlightened institution of war. II
these men, averaging thirty years of age,
should join hands they would form a
line 1900 leagues long, crossing all Ell
rope and Asia.
The nations of the extreme Orient (the
Chinese and their neighbors) form sec
ond human consolidation, aud shed about
the same quantity of blood. Gangis
Khan and Tamerlanc marked their routes
with pyramids OF severed heads. Bar
barous nations also are engaged in com
bats, seldom killing fewer than four to
five million being, in a century. The
total number destroyed every century 10
political, religious or international wars
is at least forty millions.
General statistics prove that, since the
Trojan war 5000 years ago, not single
year has elapsed in which some war has
not killed its proportioaate number.
During the thirty centuries which have
elapsed since the beginning of Asiatic
and European history, loss of a, OOO,-
600 century makes the total number
destroyed by war to be 1, 200, 900, 900, a
number very nearly representing the
total population OF the globe at the pres
ent day.
Twelve hundred millonsi
1t is day, aud the sun sheds its light
and heat upon the world. The country
is green, the cities full of life, and the
villages surrounded with laborer3. Mil
lions of men are living, acting, aud pro.
duclng. Life unfolds its joyous and di-
vine radiance on the surface of the globe
But behold the SUI, gone to rest. Be.
hold, black night and melancholy 81
leacel Funeral Death descends from
sombre heights, holding in his hand
scythe Of steel He passes like bird of
night whose flight makes one shudder,
extends his hand to the four cardinal
points, travcrses shaiowy space AMI dis
appears in the depths; this gesture has
arrested humanity in its course; this pas
sage OF the necrophOre has sent all hu-
man beings to their last sleep; to-mor-
row morning none OF US will waken; the
sun will shine upon land of the dead.
Not single human being remains to
look upon the scene. Paris, London,
New York, St. Petersburg, Vienna, Ber-
lin, and Rome are suddenly extinguished.
Streets are deserted, dwellings filled with
the dead; cities aud villages ale Gene
teries.
Silence, seated on the ruins of the
globe, sleeps IN the midst of the vast
field of the dead, in the midst Of this
prostrated army o. 1900, 900, 900
corpses.
The immense cemetery of all mau-
kind, seen at Que view, is the real meas
ure of the victims destroyed by wat
from the historical beginning of nations
down to the year Of grace in which we
live.
The sword is ceaseIessly drawing blood
from human veins. Eighteen million
cubic meters have been shed.
In summer, at Paris, the Seiuc de-
livers to the two parts of the bri ige
Pont-Neuf about hundred cubic meters
of water every second, moging with a
force Of $500 horsepower Every hour
$50, 900 cubic meters OF water pass
under the arches of the bridge, or g.
GAO, 900 cubic meters in a day. Imagine
the river to be human blood instead of
water, for if the blood shed iu all wars
was put into the basin between the
quays it would form such a river, and
we would have to remain standing on the
parapet fifty hours to see ii flow away.
That quantity Of blood weighs IS,