The Horrors of War.

Cromwell Argus, Volume 1, Issue 51, 2 November 1870, Page 7

The Horrors of War.

The following vivid description of the misery experienced by those living in a country ravaged by war is from a letter, describing tae battle of Saarbruck, by the special correspondent of the Times : —

“ My narrative broke off last night, where the Prussians, having turned the French left, wore chasing them from the town in the direction away from Metz. Among this retreating and panic-stricken crowd we found ouiselvos, aud we thought it better to continue with them and avail ourselves of their knowledge of the roads aud byways, whereby to get, ac all events, to a more comfortable distance from the Prussians. When we reached the summit of the heights, and were actually out of immediate danger of the Prussian allot aud shell—whoa, in fact, the poor people could think of something beyond the instant peril of life aud limb, —they seemed suddenly to realise the entire ruin which had fallen upon them ; they also began to think of their families aud friends who were all scattered, flying in desperation through the deep woods, where tnc darkness was deepening with the falling night. Such scenes of anguish and misery 1 never saw before, and hope never to see again. Mothers who had lost their children seeking for hem with frantic erica and gesticulations—old.

tottering men and women stumbling feebly al-ng, laden with some of their poor household gouou, silent with the silent grist of age— httio eh-ldmi only half emissions of w!ut 'those things are, tripping along, often leading some chciisocd household pet, and seeking some friendly hand to guide them—husbands supporting their wives, carrying their little ones (some.lines two or three) on their shoulders, and encouraging the little family group with brave and tender words —the woods ringing with shrieks and lumentatious, with prayers to the (Saviour an I the Virgin. It is impossible to describe in language tho sadness and the pathos of that most mournful exodus. If all the world cimM catch a glimpse of such a scene, I will venture to say that war would become impossible ; that fierce national pride and Quixotic notion of honor, an I the hot ambitions of Kings, and emperors, a.id statesman, would be forever curbed by the remembrance of all the pity and the desolation of the spectacle.”