Clarke courier. [volume] (Berryville, Va.) 1869-1997, 1899-03-22
The Absurdity of War.

/ started on the road to civilization he
set up judges of courts to settle con.
troversles- Before that, when tw,
men differed about anything. they
tore on mutilated each others bodies.
and 1T was tacitly agreed that the
man who was most mutilated. If not
killed, should give way. But he
abode 10y the decisions Of courts very
/ reluctantly. The hardest battle of
the reformers of the race was to get
him to submit to the judges. He al
WAYS preferred in his heart some
kiud of mutllation of his adyersarv's =
body, and in order to give dignity to
this mode of settling quarrels he got
up the theory that God presided over
II and always gave the victory TO the
man who was in the right. In Eng
land this notion lasted in the trial
by battle" or wager Of battle" al
most down q our time.
When the wager Of battle as set
tlement Of disputes of any Kind be-
came too absurd. the turbulent classes
were driven into starting the duel.
They felt that there must be some
mode reserved of getting at an al
versary's body with some weapon. 10
they established the rue that all Of.
fenseS against what they called their
"hOnor that l.. their sense of per
sonal dignity must be avenged bv
cutting. stabhinL. or shooting. aud
THAT each man must decide when his
"houor' WAS injured. aud when cut
ting. stahbing. or shooting was nee
essary. This Is very cunning ar
rangement; for if it were left 20 other
people To say when your honor" was
injured. YOU might never. or very
rarely. get chance TO cut or stab or
shoot at all. because they might say
your honor was not injured. But
there WAS even a better device than
this; for it was arranged that the
man who you said injured your honor
could not deny it or apologize with
ont disgrace. lie was held bound.
no matter how triiiing the il Jury, TO
give You chance to cut or stab him.
and to DO his best TO cut or stab vou.
Ia what manner this meuded your
homo: was never explained. To all
outward appearances. after the theory
of the interest of the Deity i'm the
matter had died out. Your honor re-
manned after the fight exactly what
i1 was before the fight. The cuttiag
and stabbing had neither proved nor
disproved anything; it had simply
gratliied AN animal instinct of the
prlmevai time. Dueling, however.
has disappeared here aud in England.
1t tiOurishes still, ia the old barba
rOus, absurd form, on the Continent.
Disputes between nations. for OBJ
vIous reasons, have not come as rap
idly under human methods of drcis.
ion as disputes between individuals.
Nations have never agreed To have
Judges and arguments as individuals
have. The result is that their mode
of deciding differences of opinion has
always remained the old animal one
of doing as much material injury as
possible 10 the other side; and there
still fingers the belief that God is ON
the side of the one which does most
injury; that he counts up the mum
Der of killed and wounded. and de
cideS that the one which has the most
killed and wounded is in the wrong.
During war he is PRAYED to 10 see
that the number of killed and wound
ed on the other side may be the lars
er, and after what is called "victo
ry"-that is, the killing and wound
ing of larger number of your enc
mics than they have killed and
wounded on your Side-people hurry
to church and sing hymns of thanks.
This belief is very strong still in our
day and the enemy's dead are count
ed joyfuIly. The human plan of de-
Gliding differences of opinion bv
Judges, proofs, and argumentative
persuasion, as distinguished from the
animal or feline plan of deciding by
the tearing or rendiug of bodies. has
IN fact not made much progress.
though it has begun to receive atten-
ton. E. l.. Godkin, in the Century.
Happy is the man or woman who can
eat good hearty meal without suffering
atterward. II YOU cannot do il. take
hopoL nNSrEPSIA CURE. 1t digestS