The Red Cloud chief., 1898-03-18
| SOME RAMBLING THOUGHTS.
ny ''NENO."
copyrighted by Dave 4 Tabcr.)

you by the memory OF your own pangs
to sit down and think of war a 1t is.
See yonder regiment behind a fence,
crouching out of range Of bullets that
already begin their deadly work, Now
at the word of command the men are
on their feet, a moment later they are
out beyond all protection, and away
they go across the cruel zone of death,
some pallid with the prescience OF the
end, some laughing from hysteria.
Stumbling, shouting, cursing, thinning
as they go. With groans that are I'M
needed in the noise, many OF them
drop in their track, their bones shat.
tered, their vitals pierced. A few are
blessedly relieved from pain at once,
others liuger for the cruel kindness Of
the surgeon and the long death | IN the
crowded hospital. Imagine that out
there on that bloody field is your son,
a mangled mass of flesh and blood.
What a you utter of rejoicing when
his regiment marches home again lack.
ing the one man in ii that made it
something in very deed more than a
mere mineral to you9
-
Look out again with dry, Mortified
Dyes at the reaping place Of Death. 1t
is trodden back and forth by friend
and foe; and at every maneuver that
son is being ground more and more
out Of all recognition of the bright-eyed
bonny babe that kneaded your breasts
with his chubby fists. He cannot move
towards you; you cannot fly to him.
There is q great hollow aching within.
Night now falls and there he still lies;
sight gone, comeliness gone, life gone,
with none to cover his horrors from
the cold glitter Of the stars and nom
to drive from him the ghOuls who make
sport Of life by robbing the dead.
With a shudder you think of the chill
~enshrouding mist and the gloom Of
that dreadful night. With a deeper
shudder you think OF the heat fostering
of the pittiless sun as il rises to sum.
mon to their vile duty the buzzard and
the vulture. What of thrill is left for
you when the triumph comes and the
blind populace who have not suffered,
think only Of the living but have no
feeling for your dead? In every corpse
lying there is a tragedy deep as yours.
This is the sane view to take Of this
harvest, whose g~leanings are sorrows
and whose stubble pierces to the quick.
Loving and long suffering mothers Of
men, it is you who must suffer when
red wal makes its demands. 1t is you
who have the dread waiting to do; the
living death OF anxious uncertainty to
face. Your signing should be louder
in the public ear than all the clamor or
boastful m%outhings of hot.headed men.
Let your plant be this: "If war must
be, let it be one Of justice, Oh our great
sacrifice will be hard indeed"
And this is one future dread feature
Of war; a feature that makes it more
dreadful and more heinous. On OPP
posing sides the men.children Of the
yearning bowels of befret mothers
fight not because they have any feel
ing Of individual enmity. They have
in fact nc knowledge Of n another;
they have no words Of anger to rouse
the blood to boiling point; they never
met before, until the sharp call of the
officers brought them face to face.
Yet they are aiming, firing, manning,
killing in a perfect frenzy Of subordi.
mated will. Beyond all this, they grow
so wild with the horrible gloating and
glut OF bloodshed that death alone is
not enough for the dead enemy, but he
needs must be outraged, insulted
Knocked when he is dead. Yet all this
is spoken of as glory; it is made % by
drawing a cloak over its horror; and
by being needless of the dead and heed.
full only of the survivors. 1t is the
theme of the descriptive writer, a
source of profit to the contractors, and
a summons TO insensate rejoicing on
the part of all those human parasites
who will gladly reap from others sor.
rows where they themselves have
neither sown nor know of sorrow or of
loss.
-
You men who at every corner talk of
war; who feel utterly capable of the
successful conduct Of Il campaign; but
yet have not even the remotest inten-
tion of moving away from your cosy
iiresidos, examine yourselves and purge
yourselves from confusion of thought.
1t is well to think twice before speak.
ing once in favor of slaughter. The
second thought will show that where
there is no intention, no ability, no fit,
ness for combat it is essentially selfish
to urge it when others shall bear its
burdens, leaving to the home'stayerS
,.l., A.. ,on,l,, MANI 90 un, mill ,a.