The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1913-04-13
THE HORRIBI r

THE shadows o, balmy night slowly
| falling. The women rema.nedin the dra wing
OF ne villa Tho seated in gar
den-chair.. smoking in front of tho door,
forming circle round table laden with cups
and wine glasses
Their cigars shone IKE eyes in the darkness
which. minute BY minute. growing thicker
They had been talking about frishtful accident
which n ad occurred the night before-two mon and
three drowned before tho eyes OF the
guests in the river opposite. General dc q
remarked:
~. ,bes. thing. are affecting. they
n horrible
The horrible. that wen-known word means
much more than tho terrible. A frightfui accident
like this moves upsets scares; II does hot hoFriy
In order should experience horror. some
thing IS needed than the exctation OF .ne
soul: something more spectacle of dreadful
death. There shudder!nE sense OF Tnys-
terry or sensation of abnormal terror beyond tho
limits of nature m dies. under the
most dramatic conditions. does not excite horror;
q field OF battle horrible: blood is not hor-
ribie: vilest crimes are rarely horriole
Here II you will listen. two personal eK-
nmples. which have shown me what Is tho mean
ing OF
81, was during war of 1870. We were re-
treating towards Pont-Audemer. after having
passed through Rouen. The army. consisting OF
about twenty thousand men--twenty thousand mon
in disorder. disbanded. demorahSed e1hausoed-
were going to reform at liavre.
The earth was covered with snow. The night
was falling. They had not eaten anything since
the dsy before They flying rapidly. the
Prussians being far of
The Norman country. ivid dotted with tho
stretched on, every hand under black sky
heavy and sinister.
.Noth,np could be heard In the wan twilight
-. ,,a confused sound. soft and underlined. of
= morcbnr throng, endless tramping mingled
w,tb TN. vague ouk OF pottinsers or sabers The
an hent round shouldered dirty. In many cases
zen In rags dragged themselves through tho
49,, With a long en-b backed stride
.Ths skin OF their hands stuck to tho steel OF
.ha,- muskes' trends for 1t was freezing dread
~, that night I frequently saw a soldier take
go Ma sboes in order walk barefooted. much
ala his foot gear bruse him; and with every stop
ta ,stt a little track OF blood. When. after
49,. hs SAT down field for few minutes
res, he never got up again Every man who sat
down n dead man.
"sbou,d we have loft bohind thone poor
,aust.d soldiers who fondly counted n being abls
10 start afresh as they had
>reshed their stifened legs? Now. scarcely had
they ceased 10 move. and to MAKE their almost
frozen blood circulate in their veins. whom
comfortable torpor CONCEALED them. nailed them
10 the ground. closed their and in second
collapsed this overworked human mechanism. They
sank down gradually, their heads falling towards
their knees. without. however quite tumbiing
over for their Ions and their limbs. when they lost
their capacity for moving. became 8 hard wood
impossible to bend or to upright
and the rest OF more robust kept struggling
vanced by dint OF forced movement through that
night. through that snow through that cold and
deadly country crushed by pain. by defea. ny