The Bismarck tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, N.D.) 1916-current, 1917-02-19
SLAUGHTER NOT
WORST FEATURE,
SAYS SHEPHERD
Fact That Men Herded Together
Are Reduced Seemingly to et1,
.sa ib"-. ~. 'uJ1LG*-in.'
Same Level Is Worse a
EFFECTS OF WAR Scar
VERY SOULD OF THE MEN
BY WILLIAM G. SHEPHERD.


New York, Reb. 19.-Those of you
who followed the things l wrote for
the United Press may have been inn
pressed with the horror Of slaughter
among the fighting people in Europe
But there are worse things in war
than slaughter In the current issue
Of Every Week nave told what those
things are; and a summarized quota
ton from that story may interest you:
isn't the slaughter terrible?"
Everybody who returns to tho
is asked this question, trite as it
seems.
My answer must always be:
Dying or killing are not the most
terrible things that war brings to a
man, woman or child In Europe you
see worse things than dying or kill
ing. Worse things happen to Euro
pean folk than being killed or Grip
| Pied"
The first dead men I saw in the
| war, back in those early and old-time
days in Belgium, struck me as having
, been uselessly murdered, and the
sight left baleful impression on my
mind, for time. To my surprise,
however, l soon beheld such sights
| without emotion But there was one
| sight-one manifestation of the hor-
| rOrs of war-that l could not accus.
tom myself to view without a mental
! q oh 0f
bodies of men marching or camping.
Like Animals.
There they were, men Of family, of
business, of ideals, Of religion, all
brought down to the same level-all
alike. Like barrels whose hoops have
been removed, these men, individu.
ally, in their lives, and in their char
acters have fallen apart since the
binding support of their home envir.
onment has been taken away from
round about them. The impression
that they were like animals, like herd.
ed, unthinking beasts, was so strong
upon me that at night>in my sleep, in.
stead of seeing dead and mangled
bodies, saw in my dreams vast bod.
les of soldiers passing before me,
each man wearing the head Of some
beast instead of his own. They we're
not brutal, leonine men-animals l
saw; only patient, dumb obedient,
l0ng-suffering, kindly ones, such as
cattle, deer, horses and dogs.
Worse Than Death.
To be turned into such q man is
worse than death, and among think
ing men in the six armies that I saw
at close range often found soldiers
and officers who realized what sort
of beings they had become. There are
penalties just short of death for men
in the various armies who sicken of
being unthinking men-animals and
try to find way out of their plight
by suicide-who stick their heads
above the trenches or who wound
themselves with their own rifles.
The moral and mental disintegra-
ton that is caused by the surround
ings Of military service in individual
cases is shocking. This applies to all
armies that l have SEEN
THAT fellow would be better dead
said friend of mine. as an English
man we had known in peace times
walked away from us after chance
meeting in the Strand. Everything
that was good in him is dead al
ready"
II Star Of Fleet Street.
H Only year before, this man had
been star of Fleet Street He wrote
with a sympathy and an understand
ing of human nature that made his
work stand out. But as we saw him,
after year in the army as an UNI
commissioned officer, the CRIME Of
war was on his soul as we'll as on his
body.
1--WE quit writing" he said, with a
weak grin that displayed the absence
of two front teeth. Something's
happened to me. l can't ever write
again. don't even try to do it. Any
how, what's the use? It's all war"
! The man that he had been a year
before would have killed himself with
his own gun rather than become the
man we saw and talked with that
afternoon In the Strand.
mo more books or music and no
moro women. I'm simply rotting
| mentally." I have had officers make
this confession to me IN i've different