The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1915-06-04
Old Plaques Arise When
Strife is On.
Effect Of Big Shells On The City
of Dunkirk. Told by
Witness.

Savagery. Long ages nave Deen re-
uuired to bring civilized man by slow
and painful stages to his present con-
dition. Only few months are re-
quired for him to relapse into the
condition of barbarism from which he
emerged In times of great disaster,
when the conventions of civilized So
ciety are removed, man again be-,
comes an individualist, striking like
primitive man or like the beasts of
the jungle for food and shelter and
even for life itself, ruthlessly aban-
doning any refinement or customs
which might impede him. Under
such conditions, he easily reverts to
the habits of his former savage state.
Even the diseases of barbarism re-
turn.
A striking illustration is the reap
pearance of typhus fever in the war
swept countries of Europe. From the
plague of Athens, as described by
Thucydides, down through the ages,
typhus has always appeared at times
of disaster. Always the companion of
war and misery, known at different
times by its old names of camp fever,
siege fever, famine fever and Jail
fever, it ragged all over Europe dur
ing the Napoleonic war only to die
out in later years so completely as
10 be almost forgotten
'"Ihe history of typhus," says
pages of the worlds history which
tell OF the grievous visitations of
mankind by war, famine and misery
of every kind"
MurchisOn says that a complete
history of typhus would be the his
tory OF Europe during the last three
and a half centuries. Clemow, in
his Geography of Diseases" says
that lin the earliest ages of the
worlds history typhus accompanied
famine, sieges and war"
Yet both civilization and science
had practically forgotten it, All au-
thorities of the present generation |
have described it as rare disease. |
Several generations of medical men !
grew up and died with hardly any |
knowledge of it. So completely was it |
forgotten that Ricketts, was obligated |
TO go to Mexico for material to study |
it while few cases which appeared |
in ther tenement districts of New |
York we're not recognized and were
widely discussed as a possible new
with its accompanying horrors. bring
back to mankind's old enemy, the
companion of famine, rapine and
barbarism in a thousand wars.
This relapse into barbarism, hope
less though it may be, is robbed of at
least a part of its horrors, so far as
typhus is concerned. by the scientific
.9lvGac2s OF the last decade.
~'T'hal'-s to The works of Ricketts,.
Wilder, Anderson and Goldberg, this
age-long scourage has lost all its ter
% 70 Inv Joui hoi VI inc NihCliN
can Medical Association, "only in
those countries which are so hopeless
ly warridden as to make decent liv-
ing impossible is there any excuse for
1he presence of the disease. When
the present war is over ii will again
disappear, only to reappear again, as
il always has and always will. so long
as supposedly civilized nations resort
TO wholesale murder and destruction
as a method of settling their diff
culties.
Struck Dunkirk.
A thrilling story of the havoc
wrought in Dunkirk by the huge
German guns that shelled that town
from a point twenty-eight miles away
was told by John p. Brady, Chicago \
newspaper man who returned on the
White Star Liner Adriatic.
Brady was in Dunkrik during the
second Commandment with John Bor-
den, the Chicago millionaire and 1
member of the New York Yacht {
Club. Both had been acting as ,
chauffers of hospital supply trucks |
attached TO the hospital established {
by Mr. Borden's sister, Mrs. Mary !
Borden Turner.
"'rhere were two bOmbardments,"
said Mr.. Brady THE first took {
place on April 22 and 23. and the :
second on April 29 and 80. We were I
in Dunkirk when the second bonn s
bardment commenced at 1890
O'Clock on the 29th. II lasted that .
day until 1880 p. m. during which
twenty shells OF diameter of nine ]
teen and one-half inches were hurl-
ed into the town. The first shell
struck in the plaza in front of our
!. osaI ahaut 0kA yaa rda from M and