The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1900-08-10
The ZENITH OF
HUMAN MISERY
Ry Max Pemberton.)

- 80 = :
Ry Max Pemberton.)
=
Outstanding in the history of the
world will ever be certain bloody pages
which. judge it as you will, the mind
must linger over. Alva in the Neither
lands, the September massacres, the
sack OF Bajados, the debacle at Sedan
but greater than all, Napoleon's re-
treat from Moscow, when five hundred
thousand men persisted Of hunger and
of cold. and q swarm Of beggars. fl
thy, emaciated, covered with vermin,
stood for the once great army that,
three months before, had set out to the
conquest of Europe, and even. as the
dreamer may have believed, to the
Of the whole eastern world
these are pages which even the school
boy must remember.
1t has been said recently that the 70.
mancers make the wars. If such be the
case. I am curious to know how the
morality Of such book as Sergeant
Bourgogne has written is to be judged.
Nothing in all the story of the debacle
can for a moment be named with such
an account as, the sergeant gives us
of the church at Smolensk. His rec
ord Of the crossing Of the Berezina at
tains such attitudes of horror that one
Is tempted to lay down the book and to
have done with it.
Yet Sergeant Bourgogne was not ro-
mancing. He was telling a story as
simply as child might have told it..
81 felt that 1 must write down the
things did and saw that might rest"
he says. His own part and lot in the
holocaust is never unduly emphasized.
He does no paramount deeds of daring
He simply suffers. suffers, suffers-suf-
fers until he can scarce drag himself
across the snow; suffers until his toes
fall from his feet and his fingers from
his hands. Yet never once does he lose
faith in the sublimity of the man who
protested that million lives were as
nothing to such as he. Revenge-the
emperor would lead them back to that.
back over the frozen roads where the
snow covered the countless dead. where
the zenith of human misery had been
passed. >5
For some days we have the usual pic
ture of an army marching. Crowded
roads, broken baggage wagons, food at
haphazard, yet order and discipline still
maintained. The change comes as
swiftly as the dramatist might desire.
1t begins to dawn upon them that food
is not SO abundant as it should be.
Where one fell and died yesterday a
hundred fall and die today. The booty
Is now an ironical burden. Men cast it
in the snow. They begin to fight for
food as wolves in winter. Those who
have the strength and the will totter
into Smolensk. only to tell themselves
that this is the beginning, and to ask
what the morrow has in store. The
sergeant himself wanders about Smo-
lensk, stumbling over dead men. unable
to find a lodging. driven by hunger to
the verge of madness. There is no
more striking picture in the annals Of
history than the story il this night as
the sergeant tells It, Here he is search
Ing for lodging, men dying all about
him, in strange town. separated from
his regiment with little hope that he
will not be as those upon whose bodies
he treads necessarily. At last he hears
phantom music and believes that he is
mad indeed.
while the fearful death-rattle was
going on near us. the aerial music be-
gan again. but this time much nearer.
I called Beloque's attention to it, and
told him of the strange things which
had happened to me when heard the
music before. And then he said that
at intervals he had heard the music.
too, and could not make it out. Some
times it was an internal racket, and II
men were amusing themselves in that
way they must have the devil inside
them. Then, coming closer to me. he
said in low voice:
my friend, these sounds are very
like death music. Death is all around
us; and have a presentiment that in
a few days I shall be dead, too Then
he added, May Gods will be done!
But the suffering seems too great. Look
at those poor wretches!' pointing to two
men lying in the snow.
II said nothing, for I thought just as
he did.
.'He stopped speaking. and we listen
ed attentively in a silence only broken
by the heavy breathing Of dying man.
Suddenly my companion said
".To my mind the sounds seem to
come from above
II had not been alone a minute. when
the cursed music started again. !
stopped, and, raising my head to listen
better, I saw a light in front Of me. AS
I walked on toward the light. the road
descended rapidly and the light dis
appeared. In spite Of this. I continued,
but was stopped almost directly by a
well in front Of me. and was forced to
retrace my steps. turned first to the
right, then to the left. and found myself
in q street Of ruined houses. strobe
ON quickly, still guided by the music.