EUROPE'S DYNASTIC SLAUGHTER HOUSE 63 



EUEOPE'S DYNASTIC SLAUGHTEE HOUSE 



By WILLIAM J. ROB 



THUS, half a century ago, he forecasted what is now happening on 

 the other side of the Atlantic, who was perhaps America's most 

 suhtle reasoner. He is commonly classed as a poet — this man, Walt 

 Whitman — lauded as such, reviled as such. He was really a prophet; 

 though, as it is presumed to be well known, " High Criticism " in final 

 analysis declares that the words prophet and poet are synonyms. 



The younger Scipio Africanus has left an account of his observations 

 of a great battlefield; of the battle fought between Syfax and Hasdru- 

 bal, the Carthaginian, and Massinissa, an ally of Eome. Scipio chanced 

 to be present in Africa when this battle was fought, and was able to 

 witness every manoeuvre from a height near the field of conflict. From 

 the account thus transmitted to modern times has come the adage that 

 " Onlookers see most of the game." 



Manifestly, however, Scipio's observations would have served little 

 if he had been a common peasant or mere civilian. He was able to com- 

 prehend the tactical movements and their relations to the strategy of 

 the contending forces solely because his military training enabled him 

 to understand the meaning of isolated movements and their bearing 

 upon the final result. 



While strategic principles remain to-day in precisely the same con- 

 dition that they were at the beginning of the last Punic war, it is of 

 course no longer possible for a neutral observer to station himself upon 

 a height and overlook a battlefield. The numbers engaged are too great, 

 the field far too vast, the range of projectiles too extended, the obscurity 

 of the "battle cloud'' too dense. For data of military events the re- 

 porter, critic and interpreter is compelled to rely upon reports, official 

 or otherwise, and these always more or less romantic, or actually men- 

 dacious, and usually garbled, censored out of all correct perspective in 

 the endeavor to deceive both friend and foe, to meet supposed military 

 or political expediencies. 



The scope of the observer of military operations at the present day 

 has not only been immensely broadened, but wholly altered in character. 

 The critic of strategical combinations and tactical movements must now 

 be equipped with information undreamed of in the days of the Eomans 

 and Carthaginians, dreamed of doubtless, but as yet subsisting only in 

 dreams during the Napoleonic wars, and which for virtually the first 



Area of murder-plots of thrones, with scent left yet of wars and scaffolds 

 CTerywhere. 



