The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-09-08
(Albert Mordell in Philadelphia Rec
ord

now being written by the muZZled war
correspondents. may be expected to
come out Of the present war? All
wars have produced more or less ma
terial of the kind. much of it good,
and this, the biggest struggle the
world has ever seen, will doubtless be
prolific.
h authors of nearly every coun-
try have availed themselves of mate
rial for fiction in the events of the
FrancO-Prussian war. The German
novels on the subject are chiefly Gu
logistic of German valor and power,
and very few of these nave been
translated as they have more of a
national appeal han universal liter
airy interest. The defeated nation,
France. has given us the best stories
of that period of history. The French
are experts IN military writing and
are always eloquent when they talk
On the subject Of the war that hurn-
bled them.
No other form of literature offers
such opportunities for the exercise of
the imagination as q war story. me
author can describe war from SO
many angles; he can show you its
glory, the anners flying, the band
playing, the beauty of the excite
ment; ne can show you the gray
ounds and gashes, the mutilated
corpses, the murderous fighting: he
can burst forth with the majesty of
patriotism or the cries of a bereaved
mother or wife.
out of the host of fiction dealing
with the Franco-Prussian war at is
probably safe to say that the two
novels which have the most literary
merit. besides the most renown, are
Zola's 1.-THE DOWNFALL" and The Dis
aster." by the brothers Paul and Vic
tor Marguerite.
One can discover Immediately that
Zola does not love war. Take his
passage. picked UP at random:
"Ah, that accurSed wood, that wood
of slaughter and despair, where, amid
the sobbing Of the expiring trees.
arose by degrees and Swelled the
agonized clamor of wounded men.
Maurice and Jean saw a zouave, near
ly disemboweled, propped against the
trunk Of an oak. who kept up a most
terrific bowling, without a moments
intermission. A little way beyond
another man vas actually being
slowly roasted; his clothing had taken
fire and the flames had run up and
caught his beard, while he, paralyzed
by a shot that a broken his back,
was silently weeping scalding tears
Then there was a captain, who, one
arm torn from it's socket and his flank
laid open to the thigh. vas writing
Oh lax SAodbh III oSOhJp uiloPSonobt
,beseeching, in heart-rending accents
the ~by-passers to end his suffering"
One need not go to Dante'S Inferno
to read imaginary sufferings contrive(
by the poet for his sinners in hell
here we have a real inferno.
The story of Zola's novel centre
oun the. adventures of two ycun,
men in the war. Jean Macquart ant
his friend, Corporal Maurice Levas
sour. There is the war story and tn,
love story. The siege Of Sedan i
masterfully described. But one be
comes faint with the sight of bloc,
to which the novelist continually call
the readers attention. He piles hor
TOR on horror n gives us nauseatin
realistic details of surgeons opera
.tiOns. War is according to lola moth
ing more than gruesome hospita
scenes. Even the love story here
sad and ends tragically. Jean fall
in love with Henriette, the sister c
his friend, she having lost her hus
band at Sedan. But when by acci
dent Jean bayonetS his friend, mis-
taking him for the enemy, the mar
riage with the sister never take
place. Zola'S novel has been tn
most read of the whole Rougon MAJ
quart seris and sold Enormously.
apparel about twenty-five years ag
and caused great offence. The impe
~ WCIC dHSly ptCdISt lie lIDello
the character of the Emperor Napc
leon III. All France was aroused bt
cause he made capital out of the d.
feat and he attacked mil
tarism. But today it ranks with TT
great war novels of the worlds ii
e%rature such as War and Peace" I
TOlStOy.
"A Terrible Description.
One can scarcely resist anoth,
quotation from the book. The d
scription is true and the horror
arouses in us can be nothing con
pared to the reality which is as tr.
today as 1T was in 1870. lola d
ScribeS the room where the wound,
are lying; nothing like it has pro
ably been done:
There were feet, still encased
their coarse shoes, crushed into
a like jelly: from knees Il
bows. that were as if they had be,
by a hammer. depend
inert limbs. There were brok
hands and fingers almost diservere
ready to drop, retained ONLY nv