The Hartford republican. (Hartford, Ky.) 18??-1926, 1920-04-09


service and his mental reactions to
battlefield experiences. He says, in
part:
81 am not a psychologist, and I
have not seen many people die in
their beds; but it is estimated that
very few people are afraid Of natu-
raj death when it comes to the test.
A violent death such as death in bat
tie is obviously different matter. It
comes to man when he is in the
full possession of his health and vigor
and when every physical instinct is
urging him to self preservation.
IF man feared death in such cir
cumstances one could not be surpris-
ed, and yet in the present war hun
dreds of thousands of men have gone
to meet practically certain destruc-
ton without giving a sign of terror.
Their emotions seem to be numbed.
Noises, sights and sensations which
would ordinarily produce intense pity,
sorrow or dread have no effect on
them at all and yet never was their
mind clearer, their sight, hearing etc,
more acute. Blu with the issue be-
fore them, with victory or death or
the prospect of eternity, their minds
blankly refuse to come to grips.
1T is before an attack that man
is more Liable to feaT-beeOre his
blood is hot, and while he stu, has
leisure to think. The trouble may
begin a 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.
zone INDUCES regret 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 disagreeable either. Very
few men are afraid of death in the
abstract.
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 a 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.
1.-THE vast majority experience
more or less violent physical shrink |
ing from the pain of death and |
wounds, especially when they are
obliged to be physically inactive, and |
when they have nothing else to think
about. This kind of dead is, in the
case of a good many men, intensified
by darkness and suspense, and by the
deafening noise and shock that ac-
the defamation of high ex-
plosives. 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 repulsion
md loathing for the whole business
If war, with its bloody ruthlessness,
is fiendish ingenuity, and it's insen-
ate cruelty, that comes to man af-
er a battle, when the tortured and
dead lie strewn about
he trench, and the wounded groan
rom No-Man's-Land. But neither I
) that the fear of dead. 1t is re-
ulsion which breeds not anger more
ften than cold fear, reckless hatred
f life mcrs often than abject cling
lg to it.
But even where mer are afraid it
generaiiy not death that they fear.
heir fear is a physical and instinc- t
We shrilkIHg from hurt shock and +
ne unknown, which ins;.nc5 obtains t
ne mastry only through surprise, or a
trough tue exhaustion of the mind t
nd will, or through man being ex- g
self-centered. It is not the t
,ar of death nationally considered,
ut an irrational physical instinct !!
hich all men possess, but which al II
ost all can control" b