The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-09-03
SEATTLE. sUsDAE ser. ,.
BRIGHT SIDE OF A DARK PICTURE.

The national meeting OF the u. A. r.
opens at Indianapolis tomorrow. The ter
rible side Of the picture Of our great civil
war has been thoroughly written mp and
sufficiently deiineated. It's bloody spec
tres have been conjured up by both Union
and Confederate historians. Let Us turn
from the appalling shadows of battle and
hardship to the less haleful lights of camp
life. It's ehara cteristic humor, jest. song
and story.
War is fertile. even In battle. In certain
sort OF grim hnmor. which human nature
Ii prone TO indulge in during moments OF
solemnity, even as boy walking at night
through dark wood or historic haunted
ground whistles furiously while be fears to
glance backward lest fearful fiend behind
him tread. Hamlet in his first awful in
tersiew with the ghost seeks relief for his
soul charged full of horror in jest. When
the ghost from beneath says Swear"
Hamlet escapes from the pressure of the
supernatural by wild transition TO the
ludicrous when he answers:
Hal Ha. boy: art thou there, old true penny
Wen said, old mole; canst walk IN the earth
60 fssts A worthy pioneer.
Coleridge says that latter the mind has
been stretched beyond its usual pitch and
tone ii must either sink into exhaustion or
inanity or seek relief by change. Persons
conversant with deeds of cruelty escape
from conscience by connecting something
of the ludicrous with them, and by in
venting grotesaue terms and Q kind of
technical phraseology to disguise the
horror OF their practices. The terrible,
by law of the human mind, always
touches on the verge of the ludicrous.
Both arise from the perception of some
thing ont of the common order of things,
and II from this We can extract the danger
the sense Of the iudicrons will be excited.
Laughter is equally the expression
of extreme anguish and horror as
of Joy; tears of sorrow and Of Joy,
q laugh OF terror and of merriment"
This is Coleridge's philosophical explana-
sion why Shakespeare makes Hamlet utter
grotesque iests concerning the ghost
whose presence has so fearfuliy and won
derfully startled him. This philosophy
viii serve to explain why even in the
dread experience of war. when death is
not only ubiquitous but within close cali,
mirth is quite as often the rule as melan-
cho!y. whether in camp. on the march or
tn the battlefield.
We heard an ex-Confederate soldier,
Gen. James r. Major, West Point grad u
ate of 1876, who died in Texas In 1877, de-
liver lecture in a New England town,
which won great applause, because as one
old veteran said, he caught on to the
humor Of the war; Gen. Major was a
man over six feet, Of splendid Kentucky
physique, with an immense fund of animal
spirits, and his lecture set forth both the
mirthful and sentimental sides OF war
as clearly as Thackeray does in Vanity
Fair" or Lever in Charles o'MaIley."
And yet poor Gen. Majors lecture, tina.
deserved 20 make a hit, did not do so; he
was a man of fine presence, fine speaker,
he was a genial. loyable man, but in 1873
Il vas too early to drop the horrors Of war
for its humorous IL not its humane aide.
y
how gladly that great soldier takes refuge
I'm the humors of war to the exclusion OF
its horrors. The horrors of war need no
argument; they speak for themselves ia
even the dullcst and most non-imaginatiys
mind; there Is world of revolving truth
In shermsn's grim sentence; WAR is
cruelty" and because II Is organized, Ell
Client cruelty 10 the reason why humane
minds, Ike Grant, Lee and Wellington.
have always spoken OF war as something
20 be avoided IL arbitration could be OBJ
tanned with honor.
Soldiers in their most swfal hours OF
service take refuge in superficial mirth.
Al Savage Station. June %. 1852 during a
most terribly destructive ire. which eos,
the Fifth Vermont @rS men killed and
wounded within twenty minutes. a large.
clumsy man. who had Joined as = raw re-
eruit at Yorktown in NAY and va. a but,
for the wits Of the company, suddenly
whirled about, jumped into the air and
fell. like spread eagle, era Shing into the
bushes behind the hne. Instantly voice
said. II say. boys. there goes Monroe. -
and litter Of amusement rippied down
the company. The appearances Of the
man. the memory Of his eiumsiness we're
recalled by the voice and announcement.
OF his fall, the peai-up excitement Of bis
comrades WAS touched of by IL ard men
instinctiyely sought relief for their dread
Ia laughter as Hamlet did in lest when
the presence Of the ghost filled him with
terror.
A story Is told Of 9 soldier who. al the
hattie Of the Moaocaey, grimly sold his
cemTsde. IS they lar side ey side under
ere. thas a soldiers prayer in hattie ought
90 be oh. God, make me thin rs knife -
On the fsninsalA IN iSss a shell barss
csese 10 two Irlshmen, one of whom re-
marked 10 bis eamtasle. ''fhera's thehhlngs
what sofsens the wax in yeur ear" A
Confederate osfscev tells Of his vsiniy try
ing 70 drive soldier back into line and
shss when seeing tears Of fright in the
mans eyes he denounced hin As a regu-
lar baby, the feIsow said II wish TO Cicd I
Vas baby. and ga baby al sAa.."
IL Anssssan sAs sergeant CT q regular