Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1917-03-25
ANCIENT HORRORS
0UTD0NE THIS DAY
Writer in London Newspaper
Says Human Life Has
Become a Triflc.
TORTURES ARE UNsPEAKABLE
German Submarines More Awful
Than Nursery Tales Of
Spanish Main.

LONDON. March oi--Frighttul me-
d;cval cruelty. such rs would have
been considered thing only of the
distant past FOUR years ago. now lives
again. says Sidney Dark. writing in a
London newspaper Human ife has
become Il thing OF slight moment and
human suffering OF even less account.
II have always Goubted whether the
mechanical progress OF what was once
described az the 'so-cailed nineteenth
century made mankind one whit hap
pier or kinder or better" says Mr..
Dark.
1T is certainly true that during the
hundred years before the war regard
for human life was intensified. hut this
probably had an entirely commercial
and unworthy foundation. Under the
commercial system IA mans life has a
certain money value Only the foolish
slave driver whips his slaves to death.
With this greater Discrimination to
take the lives OF others came much
more tender solicitude for oneself
Men hung on 10 life as they had never
hung on to il before. but. while they
grew afraid to die. most OF them
grew afraid really to live
since the outbreak Of war there
has been among the mass OF people
In the beliigercnt countries conccn-
tration on national rather than per-
sonal interests. and this has been ac-
companied by cheerful readiness to
de- which Is little appalling TO those
of US who are still swadd!ed in nine
teenth-ccntury cottonwood
Nv" had supposed that the progress
of civilization had made barbarous and
calculated cruelty Impossible. we
nave seen during the past two and n
half years the most scientifically edu-
Gated people In Europe adopting and
applnuding the appalling methods OF
massacre and torture employed by me-
oieFal mercenaries and by tho Huns
~ Attila.
All OF us have Shivcrcd at stories
Of the peoples of belcaEuered cities
pouring molten lead on the heads OF
their assailants. The Germans have
SPraEc" t!'"ir enemies with liquid fire.
anu have nhffcd poisonous gases I'm
their faces. This sort OF thing being
lone an one side is Immediately and
u ~
IA mo"crn battle field becomes a scene
of calculated torture that might we'll
nil IN" hear, of al ancient Italian
sw:s! hnckler with envy.
EVEN CRECY WAS
FOUGHT" tIiIVAI.ROUSI.Y
try Ia compare tie batt:c field uf
Srccy with the battle field OF the
S"mme! In thu one case you had men
KILLED by clean wounds inflicted by
! Arrows and men ba shinS each other
over the heal with clubs and battle
mas. There must have been citation
/ ihd excitement IN the combat. AMI It
was conducted according to chivalrous
and accepted rules.
| ON the modern battle field the SOL
der seldt M sees the enemy. He fires
, horrible devastating internal machines
at him from guns miles away. He
riddles him with machine-gu gun bullets.
fie poisons him and burns him.
The wounded are perforce left in
hundreds OF cases to die in agony
where they fall What a monstroua
Joke II is III face of all this that we
should talk of progress and vaunt our
| fathers.
again, Oh tue StOrlOS OF pl-
rates on the Spanish Main that thrilled
our nurseries,! How we writhed with
! Indignation at the horrors OF walking
| the plank! What a siiall think this
was. after all. I" the prOwess of the
German submarine that, safely i'm
trcnChed under thu water. sends de-
| struction by torpedo INTO the very
vitals OF an unsusrccting ship! Cap
| tain Kidd WAS at least ready to fight
before lac murdered
The sinking OF the Lusitania as a
/ sheer horror, has 40 equal in the his
! tory of the seas.
The city was taken and the wom-
en- and children were put 10 the sword
! This is commonplace of the history
| OF the past. put all the maSsacres that
the world has ever seen have been
outshonc by the calm. methodical kill
! inS OF the \rme mans by the Turks
Try 10 Imagine what it means to
assassinate 100000 people! These un-
| fortunatcs We're butchcred to make a
/ Turkish holiday
'rhe whole thing is not only hor.
! ribIe. bui IL is utterly aud hopelessly
! bewildering. On the enc hand, we are
| aStounded by The extraordinary hero
ism of common. average men. On the
other hand we are stunneu by discoy-
ertns that bestial cruelty can still be
perpetrat'd as part of definite 10
/ iit;cai policy. just rs II was perpe-
! trntcd by the worst OF the Roman
| Emperofs and by the most evil deca-