The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1897-09-08
The Dogs OF War.

In an article on the recent Greco
Turkish war, the News says
We have it on the authority of DR.
Russell, an eyewitness of the fight
that no nightmare could have been so
frightful. No human eye,' he wrote
ever rested on such revolving sights.
Imagine masses of colored rags glued
together with blood and brains. and
pinned into strange shapes by frag-
ments of bones. Conceive mens's
bodies riddled with shot, and scattered
and dismemberd limbs on every side,
bodies lying with sculls shattered,
faces blown off, flesh and gay clothing
all pounded together as If brazed in a
mortar, extending for miles, not very
thick in any one place, but recurring
perpetually for weary hours and then
it is impossible, with the most vivid
imagination, to picture the sickening
reality of that butchery.' No
wonder that DR. Russell added that he
could not imagine anything so trying
to the bravest men as to meet death In
such a scene as that.
"'These things it was once said in
a daily paper, however fearful, are the
necessary accompaniment of warefare;
and however much we may deplore
them, still, as they come under the
category of the inevitable end usual,
we do our best to ignore them What
confession! Thank God they are no
longer usual; we may even question
whether they are inevitable But 10
any case we would not have the hor'
rors of war either hidden or forgotten.
Enough to sicken the heart of Europe,
we pray that they may do 80; and thus
fill the public mind with q deep and
abiding disgust of war, and a loath-
ing at the very thought of what is
falsely called military glory and teri
torial 'aggrandisement.'
"As these feelings are deepened and
nourished, n it will be felt that the read.
iness to resort TO arms in times of ma
tional misunderstanding, involves a
fearful sin against God and humanity;
and that nothing short of the sternest
necessity, which can only arise when
the aggressor gives no choice after
every effort has been made to avert the
evil; can justify the nationa! decision
which sets loose on the earth one OF
Gods -four sore Judgments
IF anything is more heartrending
than the actual battle 1t is the horrors
that follow. Two years ago we were
in Metz, and found 1t impossible to be-
lieve that there where peace reigned
some of the most tragic scenes in the
worlds history had been enacted with
in the memory of the living. Is there
necessity to alter single word in this
description of what followed the de-
feat of the French? Has it not been
re-enacted on the Greek frontier?
When out of reach of shot and shell,
the poor people and villagers who had
taken shelter in Metz seems suddenly
to realise the entire ruin which had
fallen upon them. They began to
think of their families and friends,
who were all scattered, flying in despe'
alton through the deep woods there
the darkness was deepened with the
falling night. Such scenes OF anguish
and misery I never saw before, and
hope never to see again. Mothers who
had lost their children, seeking for
them with frantic cries and gesticul-
ations; tottering men and women
stumbling.feebly along, laden with some
theirI poor household goods, silent with
the silent grief of age; little children,
only half conscious of what all these
things meant, tripping along, often
leading some cherished household pet,
and seeking for some friendly hand to
guide them; husbands supporting their
wives carrying their little ones some
times two or three) on their shoulders,
and encouraging the little family grouF
with brave and tender words. The
woods rang with shrieks and lamenta-
tions and with prayers. 1t is impossl-
BILE to describe in language the sadness
and the pathos of that most mournful
exodus. If all the world could only
catch a glimpse Of such scene. will
venture to say that war would become
impossible; that fierce national pride,
and Quixot!c notions Of honour, and
the hot ambitions of kings, and emper-
ors, and statesmen, would be forever
curbed by the remembrance ofall the
pity and the desolation of the specta-
nla