nderstand. On the one side were the great armies of
Russia,--men drawn, all of them, from the ranks of the peasant, men of
low nerve force, men who were not many degrees better than animals. They
came to fight against us because it was their business to fight, because
for fighting they drew their scanty pay, their food, and their drink,
and the clothes they wore. They fought because if they refused they
faced the revolver bullets of their officers,--men like themselves,
who also fought because it was their profession, because it was in
the traditions of their family, but who would, I think, have very much
preferred disporting themselves in the dancing halls of their cities,
drinking champagne with the ladies of their choice, or gambling with
cards. I do not say that these were not brave men, all of them. I myself
saw them face death by the hundreds, but the lust of battle was in their
veins then, the taste of blood upon their palates. We do not claim to be
called world conquerors because we overcame these men. If one could have
seen into the hearts of our own soldiers as they marched into battle,
and seen also into the hearts of those others who lay there sullenly
waiting, one would not have wondered then. There was, indeed, nothing
to wonder at. What we cannot make you understand over here is that every
Japanese soldier who crept across the bare plains or lay stretched in
the trenches, who loaded his rifle and shot and killed and waited for
death,--every man felt something beating in his heart which those others
did not feel. We have no great army, Mr. Haviland, but what we have is
a great nation who have things beating in their heart the knowledge of
which seems somehow to have grown cold amongst you Western people. The
boy is born with it; it is there in his very soul, as dear to him as the
little home where he lives, the blossoming trees under which he plays.
It leads him to the rifle and the drill ground as naturally as the boys
of your country turn to the cricket fields and the football ground. Over
here you call that spirit patriotism. It was something which beat in
the heart of every one of those hundreds of thousands of men, something
which kept their eyes clear and bright as they marched into battle,
which made them look Death itself in the face, and fight even while
the blackness crept over them. You see, your own people have so many
interests, so many excitements, so much to distract. With us it is not
so. In