Willmar tribune. [volume] (Willmar, Minn.) 1895-1931, 1914-10-07
Copyright, 1914, by H. G.. Wells.

Is.
niles were more pf1ncely and less To-
rensic, the Chinese still refused reso.
lutely to become a military power and
maintained small standing army
upon the American model that was
said so far as it went to be highly Ell
cient, and Russia, secured by str1n-
gent administration against internal
criticism, had scarcely altered the de-
sign Of uniform or the organization
Of battery since the opening decades
Of the century. Barnet's opinion Of his
military training was manifestly a
poor one. His modern state ideas dis
posed him to regard it AZ a bore, and
his common sense condemned it an USE
less. Moreover, his habit Of body
made him peculiarly sensitive to the
fatigues and hardships of service.
For three days in succession we
turned out before dawn-and for no
earthly reason-without breakfast" he
relates. II suppose that Is to show US
that when the day comes the first thing
will be to get us thoroughly uncom
Portable and rotten. We then proceed.
ed to Kriegspiol according to the nys
ferrous ideas Of those in authority over
Us. On the last day we spent three
bours under a hot, If early. sun getting
over eight miles of country to a point
we could have reached in a motor ON
nibus In nine minutes and half-I did
it the next day in that-and then We
made massed attack upon entrench-
ments that could have shot VI all about
three times over II only tho umpires
had let them. Then came little bay
onet exercise, but I doubt If am sui
1ciently barbarian to stick this long
knife into anything living. Anyhow. in
this battle shouldn't have q chance
Assuming that by some miracle l
hadn't been shot three times over
was far too hot and blown when I got
up to the entrenchments even to lift
my beastly rifle. 1t was those others
would have begun the sticking.
For time we were watched by two
hostile aeroplanes: then our own came
practice Of aerial warfare still being
unknown-they very politely desisted
and went away and did dives and cir
cles Of the most charming description
over the Fox hills"
All Barnet's accounts Of his military
training were written in the same half
contemptuous, half protesting tone. BE
was Of opinion that his chances Of
participating in any real warfare were
very slight and that, If after all he
should participate, it was bound to be
so entirely different from these peace
maneuvers that his only course as a
rational man would be to keep as OBJ
servantly out Of danger as he could
until he had learned the tricks and pos
sibilities Of the new conditions. He
states this quite frankly. Never was
man more free from sham heroics.
Barnet welcomed the appearance Of
the atomic engine with the zest Of
masculine youth in all fresh machinery,
and It Is evident that for some time
he failed to connect the rush Of won
derful new possibilities with the flnan.
cial troubles Of his family. II knew
my father was worried" he admits.
That cast the smallest Of shadows
upon his delighted departure for Italy
and Greece and Egypt with three con-
genial companions in one Of the new
atomic models. They few over the
Channel isles and Touraine, he men.
tons, and circled about Mont Blanc
These new helicopters, we found" he
notes, had abolished all the danger
and strain Of sudden drops to which
the old time aeroplanes were table,
and then he went on by way of Pisa,
Paestum, Ghirgenu and Athens to visit
the pyramids by moonlight flying
thither from Cairo, and to follow the
Nile up to Khartum. Even by later
standards it must have been a very
gleeful holiday for young man, and
it made the tragedy Of his next expert
ences all the darker. A week after
bis return, his father, who was a
widower, announced himself ruined,
and committed suicide by means Of an
unscheduled opiate.
At one blow Barnet found himself
dung out Of the possessing, spending,
enjoying class to which be belonged,
pennfless and with no calling by which
be could earn living. He tried teach.
ing and some Journalism, but in little
while he found himself on tho under
side Of world In which he had always
reckoned to live In the sunshine. For
innumerable men such an experience
has meant mental and spiritual de.
struction, but Barnet In spite Of his
bodily gravitation toward comfort
showed himself when put to the test of
the more valiant modern quality. He
was saturated with the creative stoi-
cism Of the heroic times that were al.
ready dawuing, and he took his diff.
cultfes and discomforts stoutly as his
appointed material and turned them to
expression.
Indeed, in his book he thanks fortune
for them. II might have lived and
died" he says. lin that neat fools par
| adise Of secure lavishness above there.
[ might never have realized the gather.
Ing wrath and sorrow Of the ousted
and exasperated masses. In the days