THE INSATIABLE WAR SPIRIT.
By W. N. G.
The war spirit became heated to such a degree during the summer months that it seems difficult to cool it down. No sooner was peace declared with the common enemy than the rivalry for honors and the placing of responsibility for blunders begat a rather heated contest between dignitaries of the army and of the navy, and between their various friends and admirers. But the “patriotism” was emphasized in the regret of those who did not get a chance to go to the front and demonstrate to their countrymen that they were heroes indeed. From the patriotic standpoint it was really too bad that a war for the liberation of Cuba should close while Spain had a foot of colonial territory to be conquered, and while there was a single company of volunteers who did not have an opportunity to spill some Spanish blood. It is said that Alexander the Great, after conquering the world as far as it presented any opposition to his ambition, sat down and wept because there were not other worlds for him to conquer. Such was the spirit manifested by many of our volunteers who got no further into the fray than the camps of rendezvous. A considerable expedition was being embarked at San Francisco for Manila when the news of peace came, and the disappointment was indescribable. The writer ventured the remark to two of the men, “So you didn’t get off to the war after all,” when he was met with the sad-hearted reply, “Don’t mention it to us; the disappointment is bad enough without being reminded of it.” And it is safe to say that the majority of the army (excepting the fever patients and those who were dissatisfied with their rank and positions), and many politicians and speculators, were sorry that the war ended so soon. The opportunities for gore, and booty, and glory were all too greatly straitened to satisfy the superabundant patriotism of those who went out to set Cuba free, and to “remember the Maine,” and to gather the harvest. In the thirteenth chapter of Proverbs it is said: “There are three things that are never satisfied, yea, four things say not, It is enough: The grave; and the barren womb; the earth that is not filled with water; and the fire that saith not, It is enough.” Verses 15, 16. Had Agur, the son of Jakeh, lived in our day, he might have added, “And the patriotic war spirit of this professed ‘Christian nation,’ as long as it is victorious, saith not, It is enough.”