Arizona republican., 1904-07-08

| left 100000 men on the field of bat tle. and the groans of the wounded among them, slowly dying where they | lay, were heard for many nights after ward, rising and falling upon the wind. Our humanitarisns have only to picture tkat scene 10 themselves in tIe immensity of its misery to turn with | comparative satisfaction to the lighter harvests of latter-day war and the prompt gleaming up of the injured which rohs battle of half it's terrors. Lead never sped half the souls that ! have been sped by steel. The ancient 1 broadsword and the pike were far lation than the firearms which took their place. At the battle of Cannae 4OO OOO out of SO,oO0 Pop.ans were killed -i. e., 50 per cent. In the battle Of Hastings the victorious Normans lost rocco out of 600O0 mem at Crecy 20,- OCO out of t0P,OO Frenchmen suffered in the horrible confusion when rank after rank of knights and men-at-arms fell over each over and died under the mere weight of their comrades. At Bannockburn Ss, 900 out of 1S5OOO were butchered, mostly in the retreat.
 Tn proportion to the number of shots fired the losses in the Crimea were small. It is calculated tna. She Eng fish fired altogether 15,OOO,0OO shots. but only 2lOOO Russians were It; therefore only every -hundredth shot proved deadly. The 29, ,5OO, 900 shots discharged by the French in the same war killed 5S,OOO Russians, every i've hundredth shot taking effect. The Rus sians, on the other hand killed 4S,009 allied troops with 45,OOO,O00 cartridges. Thus only the nine hundred and tenth bullet found it billet-a proportion to be expected from such ill-prepared peasant troops. In the Italian cam paign of 1859 both sides employed mod ern guns. and the number which fell al Solferino and Magenta amounted to 99 per thousand combatants. In the Ger man war with France in 1S7O-71 breech- loaders came into general operation for the first time, and here was again dem- onstrated the truth of the military ax- iom-the better the weapons the less he fatalities.
 In South Africa in 1899 the losses per 1000 British soldiers were 64. while in Egypt tn 1885 the number was only q trife over 1 per thousand. During twelve years smaller wars out of 92,- G5O soldiers taking part in them 1Gs6 wera killed-i. e., little more than ? per cent.
 In the Franco German war the pro- portion of those who fell during seven months was 50 per thousand. Accord ing to ofiical statistics 116,S12 soldiers were wounded of whom 99, ,566 recover ed, while 11,O2S died in hospital. Thus gunpowder in the course Of time has reduced the percentage of dead from one-third 70 one-fourtl or one-ffth, and the adoption of the preech-loader reduced this percentage still further to one-nirth.
 Modern veapors are therefore not so harmful after all, it is well to remem- Der. The old saw that every bullet has it's billet will not bear examination, 1 since it takes, most probably a good ton of lead to kill a man in battle to- day, and a careful military critic has come to tne conclusion that, all things considered, financially a --liier's life costs the enemy the substantial sum of s7,OOO-and no one will wish 1t pen ny the less.
 The keen, small modern bullet such ! as the Japanese are using dis2bles, but | in the majority of cases does not kill ! It is this which, in spite of appear i ances. tends to make war Q less and | less dangerous pastime. The heavy | spherical ball from the old musket was | infinitely more deadly, and spear and | broadsword, strange as it may seem, ! most deadly of all. It was in the hor- ! rible press of the ancient melee, when | armies fought breast to breast for | hours; in the bloody retreats. when no | quarter was asked or given, and on the ! deserted battle-feIds, where there were none to see the last men die, that war { made it's greatest narvests.