The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-02-19
REcRUDEsCENT BARBARISM.

The ease with which civilized men
and women return to the borders OF
lsayagery when Law is eclipsed and the
leye of conventional society is shut
supplies one of the strangest side
lights on human nature. Any kind of
war very soon turns the soberest OF
family men into a. vandal and often in
| to a murderer. He causes suffering
| and looks at 1t with a cynical eye. he
touches the torch to the home and
warns himself by the blaze; he takes
| q shot at a fellow mortal and is dis
appointed If he does not make the
| blood run. And In battle he becomes
| as much of demon as die the Hun
when he descended upon the Goth
that held the borders of Rome's East
| ern empire. He "sees red" and runs
amuck like the lighting man of Malay
STA.
Some months ago Isabella Harding
Davis, writing for the Independent on
the transformation war makes in the
most unexpected places. told Of a little
Maryland village whose male inhabl-
tants in 1864 were mostly old men OF
the church going species, the young
men having gone to the army. The
village was Unionist In sentiment and
the old men formed a sort OF home
guard The Confederates had been near
by but having been compelled to re-
treat. the gray-bear6s of the village
formed ranks and raided q rebel vii
lage across the line. They killed no
one, for the population ran away; but
when they returned home in. triumph
they carried every portable article In
o. - 7<n< f1od or
filled with bedding, while tubs. clocks,
dishes, stoves, pictures, carpets,
horses, harness and farm utensils made
up the spoil of the rest. It was rank
stealing, of course, and the home
guardsmen were not much better than
Ali Baba's Forty Thieves. But they
were beside themselves with enthus-
iasm over their victory, though
doubtless they felt duly ashamed of
themselves afterward. 80
81 don't know what was the matter
with me during the war. Z; said fam
GUS Confederate officer. Il; am touched
to the heart by the sight of suffering
,nowsybut I can remember standing by,
amused, when one of my soldiers jerk
ed the tight boots of the feet of a dy-
ing Federal"
This sort of thing explains the car
nival of loot and murder in which re-
spectacle white civilians have been dis
porting themselves of late in China.
The evidence of these atrocities is very
strong; and to the writer, who saw
such things during the China-Japan
war of 1894. it Is nearly indisputab1e.
The Latins had the saying: Law is
silent in the midst of armies" but so
is humanity, and common honesty and
morals. We recall a par
ty of white men, fresh from burning
and robbing Chinese village, who rode
up to most pitiable scene, gazed at
1t a moment and rode jokingly away.
There on the thawing Ice lay a group
of dead and dying Chinese. among
whom shell had exploded. Blood
mingled with the water and one faint
ing soldier was tapping the vermilion
pool, trying to assuage his last thirst.
Did any white man dismount to help
him? Not one. Each member of the
party regarded the scene as calmly as
British officers do the burning of
Boer farm house.
But it does not always need war to
bring out the brute that turks In the
soul Of man. Any great. vindictive
passion will do 1t. Witness the burns
ing OF negroes at the stake with men,
women and children looking cheerfully
on There are few people, when their
passions are aroused who can keep out
of mob and the. delight they take in
destroying property shows that the In
stincts of the time of Alaric still sur
yive among people who, in their sober
moments, would be first to rebuke
them. Mrs. Nation and her mob Of fe-
male agitators, going about, hatchets
and cobblestones in hand, smashing
the fixtures of saloons. present very
familiar types indeed. Back in another
day they would have rioted about the
poor devil in the Salem pillory or car
ried the heads of the French nobility
on pixies. They not only love their
cause but they love their destructive
work. In their creed it is better to
throw a Ratchet through a saloon win
dow than to induce one sinner to re-
pent The helping hand is a tame pos
session, not half so exciting to the
owner as the clenched fist.
Well, it is not surprising. Civilization
is not yet two hundred years old while
savagery may have had it's cycles. 1t
Is hard to shake off the influence of an
cestral habit, though society has done
something to cover it up. Even the
Kingdom of Heaven is taken by vio-
lence and the violent take 1t by force.
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