The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-11-15
THE CHARS EIRENICON.
Facts About the Book Which Inspire
 A,,tbnr


 enough to possess the leisure, the taste and the training necessary to latter day apostle, whatever the gist of his preaching to mankind, He wrote arti- cles on the coming war; from time to time, for the Russkia Vedemosti libe- ral newspaper of Moscow, and he has incorporated them all with much addi- tional matter, in the encyclopaedia work of which I am now endeavoring to give an idea.
 The merely mechanical order ob- served in the six volumes, the lack of literary style, manifested among other ways in endless but not always Weari- some repetitions, and the general get up of the publication stamp it in it's pres ent form as a nasty compilation. De- spite this serious drawback, however, it l is storehouse of most interesting in- formation upon subjects of the utmost importance to the widest possible circle ( of readers, and it is only fair to say | that so little are the writer's facts de- | liberately tinged with tha color of h's theories that his book can be safely used as a work of reference on most subjects connected with the conditions i of modern warfare.
 Arms, ammunition, War-ships, troops, commissariat, ambulance services, are all discussed clearly, concisely, exhaus- lively, and in the light of the most re- cent data, theoretical and experimental. The magazine rifles used by each coun- try are examined and compared with those of former times, as well as with each other, the force of impact of the bullets, the distance they carry, the na- ture of wounds they intiict, the advan- tages of smokeless powder the use of explosives by modern artillery and the vast changes which these and similar 1 improvements of weapons have wrought in what may be termed the psychology of war are among the topics treated fully and impressively. For instance, owing to the murderous fire which can now be kept up by troops armed with rifles of small cali bre, it is impossible for infantry to fight as in bygone times in close order, with in earshot of their commanders. They must now attack and defend them selves in dispersed order, broken up | into little knots, often far away from the encouraging voice of their com- mander, out of the hearing of their of ficers most of whom will have been moved down, and fighting under cir cumstances calculated to unnerve the strongest, When wounded they will be left on the battlefield, bathed in blood, writhing in pain, tortured by thirst and abandoned by their comrades-for so long as the battle actually rages mo- gody could enter the deadly zone swept by the murderous bullets of the invisi- . xu1 wounded 1ip and return alive. "Tbe bones of the tsoldier who is struck by one of these little bullets are shivered into minute splinters, which are scattered all over the body inside. as if by means of q charge of dynamite. z. The liver the heart, the kidneys are literally pulver- ized, the intestines torn to shreds and the muscles snapped asunder. The bullet with the steel jacket, as soon as it penetrates the body, changes it's form, and frequently throws off a quantity of fine sharp particles which utterly destroy the tissues.' Only the very best trained among iron-nerved men, the writer thinks, will be able to hold out under these new and blood curdling conditions.
 But it is not merely the weapons whose number has been increased and whose force has been intensified by re- cent inventions and discoveries. The armies have been reinforced, at enor- nous sacrifices of the nations earnings, and their numbers have become so overwhelming that no one man, were he the late Field-Marshal Moltke him. self, could efficiently direct tte move ments of his country's army. But, even were it feasible to manipulate such a mighty implement of destruc- tion it would still be virtually impos- sible to keep it supplied with food, ann munition and medical help during the continuation of the war. This part of the problem is absolutely insoluble, be- cause the means of communication are not sufficiently rapid, the workmen needed could hardly be got together, and the protection of the railways at all points would need another army of men and similar commissariat. Yet a hitch in the delivery of supplies might make all the difference between victory and defeat or even ruin. Numbers, therefore beyond a certain limit, are positively disastrous from military as well as economical point of view. Yet, for the sake of getting together and training those unwieldy multitudes, the peoples of Europe are, being systemati- cally beggared. All nations are groan- ing under the yoke of militarism. Year after year they are compelled to extract more ard more mil ions of pounds from the working and produc- ing elements of the population for the increasing needs of the national de- fence" The rifle with the small cali bre was scarcely invented and intro duced when military science made a step further in advance, and it is now practically certain that the great pow ers will shortly be complied to adopt a newer system still, consisting of rifles of smaller calibre, which will have nearly twice the force of the present weapons. and allow the soldiers to car ry a larger number of cartridges. Sim ultaneously France and Germany have begun the manufacture of new heavy guns and mortars, specially adapted to the snokeless powder; millions are be- ing voted for new ironclads, for impreg- nab,e fortresses, for every means of at tack and defence in the war which can not come But even if it could be waged it would not be final, and the wounds it inflicted on the vanquished would rever heal. Revenge would