The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-05-12
STEPHEN CRANES WAR LETTERS.

When newspapers have a piece of news of
the utmost Importance to the public or a
contribution over which they feel as proud
as a boy with a new bicycle, they print
it in loaded double-column with many
headlines. One paper which the Journal
had occasion to mention recently in the
doubIe-column connection never rises to
this measure of enthusiasm save when the
article is one sounding it's own praises.
Others have a wider range, some even go
ing so far as to get excited over stephen
Cranes syndicated war news. They are in
this state of mind now. Stephen was a
little late in getting to the war, and as 1t
is now over, his career as correspondent
on-the-spot was necessarily brief. Nobody
can say, however, that he failed to exert
his peculiar talent to the utmost IN de-
scribing such features of the conflict in
Greece as came under his notice. At Veles-
tino he saw his first battle and seems to
have been much surprised. AT least, he
found it very different from the red, black
and variegated wars he had been depict
ing in his books for some years. The color
of the combat does not seem to have i'm
messed him so much as its sound. The
roll of musketry fire was tremendous in
the distance he says, like the noise OF
tearing a cloth. Nearer it sounded like
rain on resonant roofing, and close at hand
was Just a long crash after crash. 1t was
a beautiful sound, beautiful as l had ever
dreamed of, more impressive than the roar
of Niagara and finer than an avalanche OF
thunder. because it had the wonder of hui
man tragedy in it. 1t was the most beau
tiful sound of my experience, barring no
symphony. The crash of it was ideal
The originality of Mr.. Cranes comparisons
is doubtless one element that makes his
services so valuable to papers that IKE that
sort of thing, but the domestic character
of his imagination, as evinced IN these
graphic portrayals, will serve him Wen When
he wishes to recall his sensations at Veles-
tino. The next time he has a war novel
70 write he can provide a bolt of muslin to
he torn into fragments and somebody to
plav a garden hose on a tin roof and thus
reproduce the scenes of carnage before ms
minds eye-or should it be ear? 1t is also
a matter of interest to the public to know
that the sound of tearing cloth and of RAIN
on a tin roof is beautiful" that the crash
of musketry is ideal" Only a genius or
something, could have made the discov-
cry.
He is willing to admit that another view
might be taken by the men who died there,
and he is shocked at the reckless persist
ency of the Turks in charging upon the
Greeks. the desperate cavalry even charg-
ing up a steep rocky lillian insane and
almost wicked act" He is out of patience
with the German officers who omman
Turkish troops, although the trouble seems
to have been that their guns were better
than those of their adversaries. Il learned
TO curse the German officers who directed
the fire of the Turkish batteries he says.
81 think them the normal outgrowth of
German civilization, which teaches that
man should be first of all a soldier. He ul-
timately becomes simply a soldier, not a
man at all. l consider these German Off
GERS hired assassins. One has a strong feel
ing under some circumstances" One has,
indeed-under such circumstances for ex-
ample, as reading this sort of stuff.
Young Mr.. Crane does not seem to have
been in the thick of the battle at any time
He says it was like a game-simply as
movements of tiny dolls. He observes
plaintively that the difficulty of the war
correspondents career is that'he can never
tell where the exciting thing is going to
break out, but he made a good enough
guess to keep himself at a safe distance.
.They say Smolentz wept when the unex-
pected order to retreat came. l did not see
him weep" says the sympathetic Stephen,
but would have done so had / been he"
And this is the kind of thing some news
papers pay high prices for and set forth
as valuable Information. is it any wonder
that se~rious-minded people who fail to dis
criminate between the papers that publish
| twaddle and those that do not are talking