The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1914-11-15
y after bayonet work. pleasant feel

ly after bayonet work, a pleasant feel
ing of lassitude came over them. They
felt particular affection for their
comrades and a sorrowful patronizing
consideration for the enemy. l was
told by Grifgeri Pleskanoff, q gigantic
soldier of mystical tendencies from
OlonetZ, that when he got into the
trenches at the same bublinl battle
he was so pleased to find the Rus
slams victorious that he felt inclined
TO embrace the wounded Austrians,
This so oVercame him that he put up
his bayonet, whcreupon an Austrian
gave him a nasty jab in the groin.
Fearful rage embraces the soldier on
defeat I'm the change from success to
failure. comes psychocal state which is
whimsical, perverted and ineXplicable. The
more educated and refined man the
more he is inclined to vague resentment
at defeat aiN to lachrymose tenderness
to the foe after victory
In confirmation of this theory Maltseff
cites the confessions of Captain Bulga-
lSoff of the Thirty-seventh infantry reg
iment and Sixth army corps, half of
which escaped after the battle of Ho-
henstein Bulgakoff says that he never
realized what defeat meant until he was
moving eastward through the Masurian
swamps shelled by General Hindenburgs
the war as something pleasant and prom
enade-lilSe. Although l had read all the
newspaper rhertoric against Austrians
and Germans, and many stories of their
alleged ferocity and cunning, l paid them
small attention. 7 looked on war as a
noble sport in which l should distinguish
myself show generosity to all, refuse
TO backen the foe, and-as I hoped
get an honorable wound. | remember
how when We marched through Soldau.
the first Prussian townlet near the from
tier, | admired the clean houses and
was particularly struck by a blue. one
stored cottage with geraniums in the
windows. ] said to myself, Probably
this is the schoolmasters house., and
! thought how l should some day settle
down in such a blue house in the UlS-
raine.
Now after the collapse and ignominy
of the last days a terrible feeling took
possession of me. l began to hate the
Germans; to curse them. and to feel that
II we were only victorious again l should
give them no mercy. III particular / be-
gan to credit all the stories against them
which ] discredited a week before.
am sure that If ! had passed that ac-
cursed blue house I should have broken
the geranium pots in futile rage"
Maltseff quotes many other stories to
show that after victory soldiers are mild
and charitable. But during a victorious
campaign any temporary local failure;
the mistake of reconnaissance; the re-
turn of foraging party without forage
these things ruffle tempers and peaceful
civilians suffer. 1.-THE psychopathy of
slaughter is most marked in those who
have failed in slaughtering. bath of
blood wonderfully restores the good tenn
per-"
Maltseff develops the trench steal
ing story into a general inquiry into
the criminality of soldiers and civilians
during war. The present war has seen
marked phenomena In criminology.
The good sides of human nature shown
at the beginning of the war tend to de
crease criminality Later there Is
reaction. I'm Russia this has been
marked owing to the complete suspen-
sion of the traffic in alcohol. Here in
Moscow during the first month there
were only two convictions for drunk
enness; the peace number per month
is about 1900. Now though the drink
shops are still closed there were in last
week 20 convictions. In Germany 1t is
the same. In August following for the
number of men withdrawn from civil
life and not allowed to drink) the
drunkenness rate fell by 70 per cent.
In the first two weeks of September the
rate rose In Austria where the num-
Der of soldiers pro rata of population
is much less than in Germany, there
was a rise in the drunkenness rate last
month. Also in southern Austrian
provinces there were more cases of
theft; and about three times tho nor
NAL number of cases of sudden insan-
ity. The present war, Maltseff pre-
diets, will be followed by great wave
Of crime. This will be a reaction
against discipline and privation on the
part of the disbanded reservists. There
will be thousands of domestic murder
dramas due to unfaithfulness by wives
during their soldier husbands absence.
The present war is essentially an anti
moral factor"
Maltseff declares that the war will
demora1ize the nonfighting European
states as much as the fighting states.
These have all the neurotics and all
the hectic excitement Of war without
the disciplinary effect of suffering"
Nothing Is so bad as continued news
paper excitement In Roumania and
Holland this is already noticeable In
suicide epidemic. Turkey has the war
fever badly. Maltseff quotes some
strange Instances A young Turkish
lady threw herself into the Bosporus
near the Sweet Waters. The cause, she
said, was the war. Three days later.
her cousin, an unmarried girl, COM
mitted suicide in the same way. When
the procuror came back from the IN
quest he was told that his own wife
had shot herself. The cause was the
war In West Anatolia Is a queer Turk
sh revival. "Thc Turks Will come back
to Europe as they came 500 years ago
through Christian dissension." A gen
eral madness has seized the Turks OF
Omienekeui, near Smyrna. A prophet
called Hassan Bey urges them to cut
off their fingers. This" says Maltsefr,
'is war psycopathy. 1t has more sense
than the psychopathy of Europe In
which other things than fingers are
sacrificed"
Europe" Maltseff judges, is IN
state of universal madness which Will
be relieved only by blood-letting. That
was the method practiced by our fore
fathers When 1t Is done weak, pale
emasculated Europe will return 70 It's
former sanity"
copyright, 1914 by Curtis Brown.)
Polite Disdain