To speak of the “_Dark Ages_” is but a polite reference to that period of time when mankind generally was known to be “addle-pated.” The light refused to shine upon his _thimbleful of brains_, although the sun of centuries had blazed down upon a world of half-baked intellects--and even yet has work ahead. But coming through the ages, in the due course of events, a few master minds coincided in the belief that a little exercise was good for the “noddle” and set about it to experiment. The first hard work indulged in by our early ancestry, after receiving a slight smattering of instruction, was to _kill off their teachers_. Many centuries were allowed to skip by before education was again utilized in stimulating the understanding. [Illustration: “Smile when you say it”] Pending the dawn of the new era, man was taught only the use of his hands and feet for the sake of his stomach--his upper story becoming a warehouse for dark superstitions, and fearful forebodings. It is not unlikely that from this period descended the later day reference to certain persons as _numskulls_--a species of mankind known to have _bats in the belfry_. Notwithstanding the seeming uselessness of many hundreds of centuries in their relation to human intelligence, there is no discounting the fact that we have finally come into an age when brain power is not counted a misdemeanor and made subject to fine and imprisonment. From the end of our Civil War to the breaking out of the great world-wide strife, the intellect of man had expanded tremendously. More important still, intellect had been discovered to be a _world-asset_, and of such mighty consequence that _human knowledge_ progressed amazingly. Pity it is that the world’s brain power could not have forestalled the great slaughter--impossible, however, at this stage of our mental development. But the time is coming--our grandchildren will see the day--when _intellectuality_ will rule the universe. Brains and bodies of individuals are to be developed for other _uses than war_. Until that day arrives we are bound to continue as before, and will, with true patriotism, _follow the flag of our cause_. Some day when our intellects have been fed up into a higher state of efficiency and humanity is more nearly matched in brain power, settlements between nations will be made beside the lamp of reason rather than under the flare of the cannon’s mouth. [Illustration] CHAPTER V BACKING UP THE FLAG