The Plymouth tribune. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1901-1911, 1907-08-22
SOLDIERS OF FORTUNE

4
low Men When War Is Declared.
The phenomena of men voluntarily
giving their services to any belligerents
that will accept them are curious from
ethical viewpoints. Men are supposed
to fight because they have grievances
whether the contest be at long or
short range. The love of fighting pure
ly for the sake of fighting is innate in
some human creatures.
Warfare becomes to such men a
trade as legitimate as welding an axe
against the trees of the forests.
The character of the soldier of for
tune, or free lance" is one that per-
yades history. Since the beginning Of
man mercenaries have had mention.
The desire for embodiment isn't con-
fined to any nationality OF race.
Commentators upon the recent death
in this city of Colonel ]. Y. f. Blake
exposed their ignorance of history
when they asserted that the Irish fur
nished the most notable examples. The
Swiss always have been the free lances
Of Europe. We know about the Hes
slams in the American Revolution. In
the wars Of the sixteenth century thou
sands of soldiers of fortune fought
Cow under one and now under another
Of opposing banners. Sir Walter Scott,
in his delightful study of Captain Du-
gald DalgNtty, in the Legend of Mont
rose" permanently fixed the type of
the soldier of fortune in English litera-
ture. The keen sarcasm of Cervant IS,
In that greatest of all lanpoons, Don
Quixote," could not discourage or ridi-
to render his race extinct. He contin-
ued to be born, to grow up, and to go
to war with no other purpose than to
make trouble for himself and others.
Men of this type love danger, purely
for its own sake. They seek the happy
chance of hard blows. Generally speci-
mems Of fidelity to their employer, in
dividual or national, they are indiffer-
emit to the political or moral aspects Of
the conflict in which they take such ac-
tive parts
We have had many examples of these
adventurous spirits. Sam Houston was
a yirginian by birth, but he couldn't
keep out of the fight, for Texas free
dom from Mexico. William Walker, the
Nicaraguan filibuster, was Tennes
seean, and had been a Journalist in
California: he cared nothing for the
people of the Central American State.
General Ryan, wen known to all work
ing newspaper men Of this metropolis
in the early seventies, disliked the Gu
bans almost as much as he loved lib
erty-the freedom of a fight He was
captured on the virginius, stood against
a wall at Santiago and shot to death.
But I am sure he died happyl Hobart
Pacha commanded the Turkish navy
during the war with Russia In 1877
and 1878 He was an English naval
officer until he took that job.
Speaking of Russia. one marveis at
the disclosures that a little research
gives regarding the part Britons of two
generations ago played in her naval
battles. Englishnen, as officers Of Rus
sian war vessels, and as commanders
OF troops afield, did more than native
genius to extend and consolidate the
+, power of the Car by land or sea
Englishmen appear to have been as
/, fond of the campaign of hard knocks
as the Irish.
Wasn't 1t Charles Darwin who as
serted that human nature has constant
tendency to revert TO the primitive
type? Does this explain why the saw
age love of combat revives individuals
from time to time? l was living in
London when the revolt against the
Turks broke out In Herzegovina and
speard to Servia, and among my small
circle OF acquaintances were several
mild, scholarly, humaAe and amiable
men, as known to their associates, who
hurried off to the mountain Businesses
to kill men, much as they might have
gone down to Devonshire for a weeks
end pheasant shooting. Guerrilla war
fare was the last imaginable kind Of
life one would have supposed such men
to have desired; but they went mad at
the prospect of taking human life. of
spilling human gore.-BrOoklyn Eagle