The daily morning journal and courier., 1899-09-28
KILLING IN MODERN WAR UNWARRANTED ASSUMPIION AS
 TO THE
Death Dealing Effect of Improved
 Engines of Destruction.


 they cannot run away with any chance
 of escaping they must either kill or be
 killed. Hence the same instinct of self
 preservation which nowadays makes
 man coward made him in the old his
 toric times a hero. Whole armies and
 tribes perished in the Homeric combats
 of antiquity. When your foe stood but
 few yards from you to turn your back
 meant to give him the opening to deal a
 death blow for which he was watching,
 and to run away was therefore more
 dangerous than to face him.
 In the days of Eugene and Marlbor- ough, although vililainous saltpetre had
 asserted its supremacy, it took long
 time to load and fire a musket, and the
 bayonet and broadsword were the sur
 est means of destruction. Cold steel
 was the stanchest ally even up to the
 early years of the present century, and to give them the bayonet" the most
 favorite tactical device of our Peninsula
 generals. Brown Bess was ineffective at hundred yards. and to hit hay stack at half range was as much as the
 soldier had any right to expect. Thus armies, when they drew together for
 fight, had to come to the closest quar- ters to gain any important or far reach ing result. Not so near together, per haps, as were the antagonists of cen
 tury before, but far more within reach of one another than were the French and Germans in 1870. The vanquished could not escape so easily as in that last campaign, and in accordance with experience, although it took longer to effect the slaughter, the piles of dead were higher, therefore, in the earlier than in the latter days. At Zorndort One-half to third of the total forces engaged were either killed or wounded; at Marengo one-quarter were left on the field at Borodino the blood of one third dyed the Russian snow. The in- vention of rifed guns and muskets re- duced the losses at Solferino to one eleventh, at Koniggratz to one-t1fteenth, while even the chassepot and mtraill- euse did not bring the total at Gravel otte to more than one-eleventh of all the forces engaged.
 Yet, in spite of the testimony of sta- tistics such as these, our newspapers have lately been filled with the most sensational paragraphs as to the horrors modern war will bring with it. and the AcdullIlSS COllCtILlIlS lHt pOltllldllliCS of our newest weapons have been posi- lively nauseating. It seems to be inn agined that because twenty-five thou sand Dervishes were killed and wound ed in a forenoon the other day there fore we may expect a similar holocaust every time a bataille rangee Is accept ed. The circumstances under which these gallant lives were lost seem often lost sight of, and the smallness of our own losses appears to convey no mean ing to the sensation mongers. It might have been supposed that the lessons of the war in Thessaly would have had some stedying effect on the perfervid imaginations of our journalists. There we saw modern weapons and appliances also brought into the field, magazine rifles, breech-loading cannon made by the indefatigable Herr Krupp, shrap nel shells and the whole paraphernaia of destruction which are to turn the battlefields of the future into abattoirs. Yet, as happened on another celebrated occasion, mo one Comparatively speaking) seemed one penny the worse" The unspeakable Turk has seldom indulged in bloodshed so ab stemiously as at Domokos. The val iant Greeks made no hectatombs such as caused the soil to reek in the old classic days
 The anomaly is easily explained. Both parties knew the deadlness of the others armament, and, like many of the opponents in the old duelling times, | the nerves of both were more or less | influenced by what they knew. A few | hits were enough to make men keep | their distance. The guns never dared | to move into decisive range. and when | one side had done enough to satisfy It's | sense of self-respect it made strategic movement to the rear. Long range fire | both from rifles and guns had an ex- ceptionally good opportunity for exhib- l iting its destructive effect, and these | weapons were as efficient as those In the | hands of any army at the time.
 But it is not by armament that wars | are decided; the personal element is still the predominant one, and the flesh and blood of the soldier is not to be steeled or hardened by any mechanical process such as may be applied to plates or gunbarres. The men at Domokos did not shoot well because the officers had not the same control over those in tIIS iullhS tHdl ouI olllGClc oli llle 4NilS possessed over the men they had trained. No doubt at Omdurman both British and Egyptians were being shot at, too, and many bullet found it's way into brave mans body, but the men actually shooting were compara- lively little hit, and if the bullets which sailed over the heads of those In the firing line found victime in the rear, those in front did not know of it until the battle was over and the victory won. When your enemy does not get nearer than half a mile away it is easy to keep your head, to feel confident, to aim deliberately, especially if you know that you are supported by powerful ar tilery while he has none, and if you are certain that the weapon in your hand is infinitely superior to that which your enemy carries. Conclusions hastily drawn from the results arrived at un- der such conditions are to be accepted with caution and We shall do well to curtail the estimates made as to the future by the sensation mong- CTS.
 More mschievous than anything else, however is the prominence which has taen given tn the performances of the | high explosive shells which were for