People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 January 1897 — Laws of Modern Warfare. [ARTICLE]

Laws of Modern Warfare.

The “laws of war,” as at pres ent formulated by the civilized nations, forbid the use of poison against the enemy; murder by treachery, as, for example, assuming the uniform or displaying the flag of a foe; the murder of those who have surrendered, whether upon conditions or at discretion; declarations that no quarter will be given to an enemy; the t use of such arms or projectiles as will cause unnecessary pain or suffering to an enemy; the abuse of a flag of truce to gain information concerning an enemy’s positions; all unnecessary destruction of property, whether public or private. They also declare that fortified places shall be besieged, open cities or.villages not to be subject to siege or bombardment; that public buildings of what ever character, whether belonging to church or state, shall be spared; that plundering by private soldiers or their officers shall be considered inadmissible; that prisoners shall be treated with common humanity; that the personal effects and private property of prisoners, excepting their arms and ammunition, shall be respected, that the population of an enemy’s country shall be considered exempt from participation in the unless by hostile acts they provoke the ill-will of the enemy. Personal and family honor and the religious convictions of an invaded people must be respected by the invaders and all pillage by regu lar troops or their followers strictly forbidden.—Ex.

“A boy will tramp 247 miles in one day on a rabbit hunt and be limber in the ! evening, when, if you ask him-to’go across the street and borrow' a two inch auger, he will be as stiff, as a meat block. Of course he will. And he will go swimming all day and stay in the water three hours at a time, and dive, and next morninghq will feel that the unmeasured insult has been offered him when he is told by his mother to wash his face care fully, so as not to leave the score of the ebb and flow so plain to be seen under his gills. And he will wander about the bed of a dry creek all the afternoon piling up a pebble fort, and nearly die off when his big sister wants him to pick her up a basket of chips for the parlor stove. And he will spend the biggest part of day trying to corner a stray mule or a. bald headed horse for a ride, but feel that life’s charms have fled when it comes time to drive the cows home.* And he’ll turn a ten acre field up side-down for ten inch angle > worms, and wish for the voiceles tomb when the garden demands his attention. But all the same, when you want a friend who will stand by you and sympathize with you and be true to you in all kinds of weather, enlist one of these boys.”—Exchange.