Emphasis Preaching Journal

In Mark Helprin's best-selling novel, A Soldier of the Great War, the character, Alessandro Giuliani, tells years later of his being in the First (the Great) World War. As an Italian soldier he's captured by Austrians who treat him very humanely. He ends up as personal servant to the Austrian Field Marshall Strassnitzky. The positive tone of life for the Austrian soldiers who serve under the Field Marshall is finally explained when the Field Marshall tells Alessandro that his weapon isn't loaded. "It's never loaded. I'm a pacifist."