Omaha daily bee., 1917-01-26
On the Eve of Battle

am not psychologist, and l have not seen
many people die in their beds; but it is established
that very few people are afraid of natural death
when it comes to the test A violent death such
as death in battle is obviously different matter.
II comes to a man when he is in the full possess
sion Of his health and vigor, and when every
physical instinct is urging him to self-preserva-
ton. If man feared death in such circuui-
stances one could not be surprised, and yet in
the present war hundreds of thousands of men
have gone to meet practically certain destruction
without giving sign of terror. Their emotions
seem to be number. Noises, sights and sensations
which would ordinarily produce intense pity, sor-
row or dread have effect on them at all, and
yet never was their mind clearer, their sight hear
ing etc, more acute. But with the issue before
them, with victory or death or the prospect of
eternity, their minds bankly refuse to come to
grips. 1t is before an attack that man is more
liable TO fearshefore his blood is hot, and while
he still has leisure to think. The trouble may be-
gin day or two in advance, when he is first
told of the attack which is likely to mean death
to himself and so many of his chums. One in
duges in regrets about the home one may never
see again. One is rather sorry for ones self; but
such self-pity is not wholly unpleasant. One feels
mildly heroic which is not wholly dsagreeable
either. Very few men are afraid of death in the
abstract. Very few men believe in hell, or are
tortured by their consciences
But as the hour approaches when the attack is
due to be launched the strain becomes more
tense The men are probably cooped up in a
very small space. Movement is restricted.
Matches must not be struck. Voices must be
hushed to whisper. Shells bursting and machine
guns rafting bring home the grim reality of the
affair 1t is then more than at any other time
in an attack that a man has to face the specters
OF the mind" and lay them if he can.
The vast majority experiences more or less
violent physical shrinking from the pain of
death and wounds, especially when they are OBJ
liged to be physically inactive, and when they
have nothing else to think about This kind OF
dread is, in the case of good many men, ntensi-
fed by darkness and suspense, and by the deafen-
ing noise and shock that accompany the detona-
ton of high explosives. But it cannot properly
be called the fear of death, and It is a purely
physical reaction, which can be, and nearly always
is, controlled by the mind Last of all there is
the repulson and loathing for the whole business
of war with its bloody ruthlessness its iendish
ingenuity and its insensate cruelty that comes to
after battle when the tortured and dis
nembered dead lie strewn about the trench, and
| the wounded groan from No-Mans land Blu,
neither is that the fear of death. 1t is repulsior
which breeds hot anger more often than cold fear
| reckless hatred of life more often than abjeci
| clinging to it. But even where men are afraid il
| is generally not death that they fear Their feat
shock and the unknown, which instinct obtains
the mastery only through surprise, or through the
exhaustion of the mind and will, through
man being excessively self-centered. 1t is moi
| the fear of death nationally considered; but ar
| irrational physical instinct which all men possess
| but which almost all can control.