' 8 'Che Conservative.
It is much easier
OUIl WAK. , , . , , , ,
to ucfc quickly tlmn
it is to mnkc up one's mind on a ques
tion of right and wrong. That is how
it happens that the American people
find themselves at the finish of a sur
prisingly successful war , while they are
still pondering whether they want war
at all or not.
We were told that the Cuban insur
gents were lovely men and lofty patriots
whom we must in humanity set free
from the vile Spanish ; it scorned hard
to find out just how this was , tfftfiigh
some of our senators nearly convinced
us. We were told that Europe despised
us , as a nation unsuited to war ; well ,
that might be , though we rather thought
we could fight a little. Wo were told
that the sinews of our young men were
sapped I ) } ' too long ponce , that we were
losing our marrow as a race ; we didn't
know even then , was it quite fair to
lick Spain , just to give our young men
exercise ? How would it do for the
states from A to M to declare wnr on
the states from N to Z. if that was nil
wo wanted ? We wcie told that we
were becoming a people without high
ideals , looking no further than to our
ledgers and bank-books ; well , may be ;
we thought we knew of worse things
than being successful in business.
And while we could not make up our
minds , the war came itpon us , and the
hard lists of our forefathers quickly laid
our opponent , prone and breathless , at
our feet. That was a strange idea for
any man or nation to entertain , that a
people of our extraction , could not , or
would not , fight. Was it absolutely
unknown , that the peaceful United
States has spent , iii the twenty-two
large and small wars it has carried on
since 1845 , not only as much as warlike
Great Britain has done in the same
period , nor twice as much , bxit over
eight times as much ?
Fight , of course we can ; but the ques
tion is still open whether wo want to or
not ; and the deliberate citizen is liable
to be guided to his filial conclusion by
the things that he finds go with war ,
even such a war as this , briefer and
more successful than any one could have
hoped for.
Do wo like to find our soldiers losing
respect for their overmen , and clamor
ing to be sent home ? Do we like the
intimation that the petty officers try to
compel the privates to silence , that they
may enjoy xinaccustomed revcmies a
while longer ? Do wo like to find that
in our own country , where supplies are
absolutely measureless , and means of
transportation unbounded , the men in
charge , with no restriction placed upon
their outlay of money , allow our armies
to suffer want ? Do we like to see the
accusation batted about among respon
sible officials , each man seeking to lay
the blame upon another ? And how do
wo like the second war among the fight
ing men , as to who should have the
most renown from the first war ? And
oh , in the name of patience , how do wo
like to look forward down the perspec
tive of pensions , frauds , veterans , par
ades , reunions , societies of Sons of
Whatsisnames , and all that endless
train ; with good old ladies still drawing
pensions from the Revolutionary War ?
And how do we like paying for all this ?
It has turned out to be pleasant
enough to carry on a short war , with
everything on our side ; but take it all
together , do we want any more of it ?
It is an advantage to have lived a
primitive and frontier life if only to
learn what are the gross necessaries of
life , and what efforts are required to
secure them.
The early bird gets the worms in the
orchard and the late ones frequently get
the fruit. The pioneers of a country
frequently have a diet of worms and
grasshoppers but those who succeed
them faro sumptuously every day and
clothe themselves with purple and fine
linen.
The Literary Digest explains that the
portrait of the French ambassador which
it lately published , and which TIIE CON
SERVATIVE criticised as a poor likeness ,
was not really a representation of M.
Jules do Cambon , but one of M. Cul
do Jambou , who is a different per
son , although the similarity of names is
great enough to be misleading.
[ From the Review of Reviews for August. ]
"Graveyards as
THE MKNAOB or
TIIK GRAVKYAKI > .a nMMUUJO to the
Commonweal" is
the subject of an article by Mr. Louis
Windmuller in The North American
Review for August.
Many facts are cited to sustain the
writer's argument for cremation as a
substitute for our present burial cus
toms :
"Innumerable proofs , furnished by
scientific men of all ages , recentty by
the French doctor , Pasteur , show that
earth retains , instead of destroying , the
germs of disease contained in a body ,
and that in some degree it will vitiate
its surroundings.
"Since Hannibal's army was deci
mated by effluvia from an ancient grave
yard he unwittingly demolished , history
has repeated itself. The cholera in
London in 185-1 was ascribed to the up
turning of earth where victims of a
previous plague had been buried.
"Th ° Fr ° °
DANGERS OF
Academy of Medicine -
BimiAL.
icine located the
origin of diseases of the lungs and
throat in putrid emanations from the
Parisian cemetery Pcrc la Chuisc. Of
the older churchyards of Paris , once
honeycombed with graves , that of the
Innocents is remarkable. Establishes
on the present site of the market caller
Unlles Ccntralfn , it bred pestilence i'oi
centuries without hindrance. Finally
it became notorious as a nuisance , so
that it had to be abolished. Innumer
able skeletons wcro unceremoniously
carted to the Catacombs on April 7 ,
1780. Lyon Playfair asserts that Roman
fever originates not in the Pontino
Marshes , but in decaying bodies of the
millions buried in the Eternal City. Dr.
Domingo Frcire found in cemeteries of
Rio do Janeiro myriads of microbes in
corpses , identical with those in persons
stricken with yellow fever , a year after
burial.
"Drainage from cemeteries in Phila
delphia has polluted water of the Fair-
mount reservoir. The centennial dysen
tery of 1870 has been attributed to this
cause. A continued prevalence of ty
phoid fever in this sparsely inhabited
city must be ascribed to the same cause.
"Mortality by yellow fever was twice
as large in portions of New Orleans
where largo cemeteries are located than
elsewhere.
"In Cuba this plague rages almost
continually. Bodies of the victims of
disease and Spanish cruelty , estimated
to number 200,000 , are inadequately
protected against high temperature and
moisture ; their emanations are a menace
to our soldiers more terrible than Span
ish guns. American officers should bo
delegated to destroy these bodies before
they do harm.
CREMATION.
government per
mits the destruction of those who have
fallen on the field of battle by the erec
tion of pyres , a practice which ought to
be made obligatory on the military auth
orities of all civilised nations. Over
100,000 bodies of Napoleon's army of
invasion were cremated in 1812 by
Russians. More men died before Sebastopol -
bastopol by inhaling miasma of putri-
fied bodies that were killed by the ene
my. Some 40,000 corpses poisoned the
air after the battle of Sedan , until in
habitants of adjacent Belgian villages
prevailed on their government to ap
point in 1871 an officer to relieve the dis
tress. By saturating them with naptha
ho succeeded in burning 300 bodies an
hour until all were consumed. Long
experience in the East Indies has shown
that danger increases with moist heat.
Neither burial nor disinfectants can
sufficiently protect the health of our
army. "
"A commision recently appointed to
investigate sanitary conditions of all
graveyards in Denmark was obliged to
condemn G05 out of a total number of
050. German authorities have forbid
den the use of water from any well sit
uated within 800 yards of a grave. Ex
perience has shown that cemeteries
should , by law , bo banished far outside
the limits of any city ; that no grave
should bo opened before complete decom
position of the body ; and that therefore
only one body should bo permitted in
ono grave. Graves not less than 10 feet