Morgan County republican. (Versailles, Mo.) 1906-1914, 1907-08-22
WARFARE A TRADE
"soLplERs OF FORTUNE" IN ALL.
AGES.
Few Wars In History In Which Mer.
eenaries Have Not Taken Part
Famous American
Free lances.

The phenomena of men voluntarily
giving their services to any bellig.'
erents hat will accept them are curl.
Gus from ethical viewpoints. Men
are supposed to fight because they
have MISUNDERSTANDING the contest
at long or short range. The love Of
fighting purely for the sake of fighting
is innate in some human creatures.
Warfare becomes to such men a
trade, as legitimate as welding an AZ
against the trees OF the forests.
The character Of the soldier Of for
tune. or free lance is n that per.
vades history. Since the beginning of
man mercenaries have had mention.
The desire for embodiment isn't con
fined to any nationality or a.
Commentators upon the recent death
in this city of Col. J. Y. F. Blake ex.
posed their ignorance Of history when
they asserted that the Irish furnished
the most notable examples, says a
writer In the Brooklyn Eagle. The
Swiss always have been the free lances
OF Europe. We know about the Hes.
blhno III Nut hIitliNdu ltNoiuNioh' ~
the wars Of the sixteenth century thou
sands Of soldiers Of fortune fought
now under one and o under another
of opposing banners. Sir Walter Scott,
in his delightful study of Capt. Dugald
Dalgetty. In the Legend of Montrose,"'
permanently fixed the type OF the sol
der Of fortune In English literature.
| Tho laan uarrnon, rf rnryantnc In
that greatest Of all lampoons, Don
Quixote,' could no discourage or rid
icule the soldier OF fortune sufficiently
to render his race extinct. He con-
tinued to be born, TO grow up, and to
20 to war with nc 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 spec.
linens Of fidelity to their employer, In.
dividual or national, they are indiffer-
ent to the political or moral aspects of
the conduct in which they take such
active parts.
We have had many examples OF
these adventurous spirits. Sam Hous
ton was a virginian by birth. but he
couldn't keep out Of the fight for Texas
freedom from Mexico. William Wal.
ker, the Nicaraguan filibuster, was a
Tennesseean, and had been a Journal
list in California; he cared nothing for
the people of the Central American
state. Gen. Ryan, well known to all
working newspaper men Of this me.
tropolis In the early seventies, dis
liked the Cubans almost as much as
he loved liberty-the freedom of q
fight. He was captured on the Vir.
ginius, stood against a wall at San
tiago and was shot to death. But, l
am sure he died happy! Hobart Pacha
commanded the Turkish nav during
the war with Russia in 1877 and 1878.
He was an English naval officer until
he took that job.
Speaking Of Russia, n marvels at
the disclosures that a little research
gives regarding the part Britons OF
two generations g played in her ma
val battles. Englishmen, as officers Of
Russian war vessels and as command.
ers Of troops afield, did more than ma
tive genius to extend and consolidate
the power of the czar 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 a on.
slant tendency to revert to the print
tive type? Does this explain why the
savage love of combat revives lndi-
viduals from time to time? l was liv-
ing in London when the revolt against
the Turks broke out in Herzegovina
and spread to Servia, and among my
small circle OF acquaintances were sew
eral mild. scholarly, humane and ami.
able men. as known to their asso.
ciates, who hurried of to the noun
tain Businesses to kill men. much as
they might have gone down to Devon.
shire for a week-end's pleasant shoot
ing. Guerrilla warfare 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 bHman life. of splitting human
gore.