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Anti-war essays, poems, short stories and literary excerpts
Guy de Maupassant: Selections on war
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Guy de Maupassant
From Bed No. 29
Translator unknown
When Captain Epivent passed in the street all the ladies turned to look at him. He was the true type of a handsome officer of huzzars. He was always on parade, always strutted a little and seemed preoccupied and proud of his leg, his figure, and his mustache…
“There’s a great dandy. When shall we stop feeding all these good-for-nothings who go dragging their tinware through the streets? For my part, I would rather be a butcher than a soldier. Then if there’s blood on my table, it is the blood of beasts, at least. And he is useful, is the butcher; and the knife he carries has not killed men. I do not understand how these murderers are tolerated walking on the public streets, carrying with them their instruments of death. It is necessary to have them, I suppose, but at least let them conceal themselves, and not dress up in masquerade, with their red breeches and blue coats. The executioner doesn’t dress himself up, does he?”
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