Page:Tolstoy - Christianity and Patriotism.djvu/50

 people. And before we have time to look round, the usual sinister and absurd proclamation will appear in the columns of the newspapers:

The bells will begin ringing, men with long hair will dress up in gold embroidered sacks and begin praying for murder. And the old horrible business familiar for ages will begin over again. The journalists will get to work, egging men on under the guise of patriotism to hatred and murder, and will be delighted at doubling their sales. The factory-owners, the merchants, the purveyors of army stores, will gleefully get to work, expecting doubled profits. Officials of all sorts will get to work, foreseeing the possibility of stealing more than they usually steal. The higher officers of the army will get to work, receiving double salary and rations, and hoping to win for murdering men various trinkets greatly prized by them—ribbons, crosses, stripes, stars. The idle ladies and gentlemen will get to work putting their names down for the Red Cross, getting ready to bandage those whom their own husbands or brothers are going