Evening star., 1901-07-13
WAR LITERATURE.
Good Results Flow From the Quick
is.eminatfon of News.


From the Shanghai Mercury.
Readers of today, if they ever think about
the matter at all, must wonder how their
grandfathers and greatgrandfathers man
aged to exist without the daily stimulus of
the telegraph or the more solid If less fire.
uuent budget of fact and fiction which the
wars and rumors of wars of these days call
forth. 1t is not altogether easy to put our
selves in their place, it would have been
impossible for them to understand ours.
Histories of wars they knew, and Very
good ones, but war fiction was not the COM
mon thing it is now, and the publication IN
evening papers of long descriptions of light
ing done that morning hundreds of lGiles
away would have been almost beyond the
reach of their imagination.
There is good and a bad side 20 the
craze for exciting literature. Interest in
real fighting is natural. 1t is on a par
with that feeling which thrills through the
small boy when two of his school COM
panions resort to tsticuffs. Boys, Ike men,
are in these days of civilization bound by
many purely artificial restrictions. But
when the blood is up, when fists are clench-
ed and teeth set, when the old Adam is
thoroughly in the ascendant and nothing
can settle differences but hard poLn.iin2,
then despite all the morality of the class
room and the gentle up-bringing of a mod
ern home. the real savage blaZes forth. ar
tificiality goes to the winds, and the sight,
because of it's reality, is too much for flesh
and blood to resist. Even the milksop wants
to see it.
1t is this feeling which is at the bottom
of the desire for war news, war pictures,
war songs, war everything. Newspaper pro-
prietors, editors, authors and publishers
would be more or less than human If they
did not cater fOr-we had almost written
pander to-this taste. There is money in it,
and that of itself takes the place of an
old world virtue which covereth a multi
"a t,,,- h.nr tan CIV NJ
ing a denunciation of war literature to lave
stamped 1T all with the stigma of panter-
ing. Such a description might have done
Tor much, perhaps most, of the purely sem
sational journalism of the past year, but
there has been much good and honest work
done in the newspaper world which will
have its value for the historian as it has
been OF use to the man Of the day.
war Whets the appetite for knowledge
Cape Colony has been British for some
thing like century, but not one English-
man in ten thousand could have answered
a dozen questions upon its history and
geography. 1t is far otherwise now. There
is hardly district a town of any note
which could not at once be located, there
is not an important event in South Africa n
history which is not generally known. We
nave paid high price for the knowledge,
and given big sum for the experience,
but so that We finally settle matters to our
satisfaction the results may be worth the
cost, terrible as it is.
Aiio va lbs uoile more tndn COST money,
more than open our eyes to the true nature
OF the Boer and his surroundings. 1t has
produced literature which has shown us
ourselves, our friends and our enemies. 1t
mas SHOWN US our own shortcomings, and
though many of the lessons have been hu-
initiating there have been others of a more
satisfactory nature. 1t Is better that such
teach,ng should have come from a hundred
Thousand Mausers talking Cape Dutch than
from couple of million Berdans speaking
RUSSIAN Ana it was just as well that our
eyes should be thoroughly open to the ex-
act position we hold in the affections Of Eu-
rope. DR.. Leyds' secret service funds did
US more good IN this respect than they ever
dld the Beers. There is no excuse now for
any misunderstanding of our International
position. Neither shall we in future fail to
avoid certain traps which were laid with
much cunning to ensnare our unwary feet
The war literature upon these points has
not been without its use. Then again there
are vast stores Of Information respecting
the management of hospitals, the tending Of
the wounded, the prevention of disease and
sne many other scientific questions which
have arisen. All this is pure gain In no
other way could it have been collected