edikant. It was the only house in the place which had any pretension
to decorative finish. But when the staff took possession it was a
sorry pigsty. In its halcyon days a part of the house had evidently
been in the possession of a young mother, for two of the apartments
were knee-deep in a disordered heap of female apparel, intermingled
with the tiny garments which mothers store away--small socks and
bonnets tied with pink and blue. The ruthless hand of man had
ransacked each drawer and crevice, and all that calls forth the
sacred care of women lay tossed and tumbled in the dirt of floor and
passage. To those who had time to think, a sad, heart-rending sight,
pitiful evidence of the degrading influence of war. During the first
year of the struggle there was not a man in the British army who would
have pushed a woman aside to ransack the sacred corners of her
chamber. But war's brutal influence in time blunted the finer
instincts. How could it be otherwise? The longer a struggle is
protracted the fiercer and more bestial it will become, until at last
familiarity with the final arbitration of the beast deadens the better
influences of human reasoning. As one saw upon every hand the ruin of
these homes--many of which showed evidence of refinement bred of
wealth and education--one felt the pity of it all, and cursed the
leaders who in their spirit of tin-pot patriotism had pushed a
struggle, already hopeless, to its most barbarous issue.

Looting was not allowed. That is true, but how was it to be
prevented?--where can you draw the line between legitimate requisition
in war and brutal plunder? Can you punish the men who in the morning
followed you without flinching in the face of death, because in the
evening you find them searching in a deserted house for a 'kerchief,
waist-band, or baby's sock to send as a memento to the mother or
sweetheart waiting patiently at home? Is there not some extenuation
for the man whose "pal" has been ambushed and butchered, when he
gleefully places a match to the murderer's byre or dwelling? Place
yourselves in the position of the fighting man before you consider
actions which are inseparable from partisan warfare, and bear in mind
that if the leaders of the enemy had capitulated when it was first
evident that they were a beaten people, there would not have been a
tithe of the brutality and suffering which marked the final phases of
the struggle. The story of the Predikant was strange. Himsel