A prapos of the treatment of train-wreckers, the folk wing
quotation from one of General Sherman's orders issued in 1864 is made in a letter sent to Friday's papers by the secre- tary of the Army League :—" The use of torpedoes in blowing up our cars and the road after they are in our possession is simply malicious. It cannot alter the great problem, but simply makes trouble. Now if torpedoes are found in the possession of an enemy to our rear, you may cause them to be put on the ground and tested by waggon loads of prisoners, or, if need be, by citizens implicated in their use. In like manner, if a torpedo is suspected on any part of the road, order the point to be tested by a car-load of prisoners, drawn by a long rope. Of course, an enemy cannot complain of his own traps." We think General Sherman went too far in his orders, and by no means suggest that such methods as his should be applied to the Boer prisoners in order to test mineat but in face of the order issued by one of the most humane as well as the ablest of the Northern Generals it is ridiculous to represent our conduct of the Boer War as cruel and barbar- ous. There never was a war conducted with such little cruelty. To use the word " barbarous " in connection with it is a mon- strous calumny on our soldiers which will some day be a cause of shame and humiliation to those who have employed it.
