The officer flew into a rage, rushed up to the soldier, slapped his jaws, kicked him repeatedly on the shins, struck him with the flat of his sword, and spat time and again in the man’s face!
Of course the officer was cursing the private for every vile thing he could lay his tongue to, all the while.
Said my informant, “He not only spat in the man’s face once, but he did it four or five times.”
I asked, “Was there no murmur of disgust or indignation in the crowd of citizens who were looking on?”
“None whatever,” he said. “The people took the occurrence as a matter of course. It happens so often.”
Then the young man rose up in the smoker, and showed me how the private had stood in his place, rigid, staring straight ahead, not daring to change his position or expression while enduring the kicks and spits of the officer. Not a word of protest or complaint did he venture to utter.
That’s Militarism, gone crazy.
Not long ago one of our high-priced city preachers declared publicly that we Americans needed an Emperor to head our army.