There were thousands of soldiers who became lions to fight, hyenas to snarl, beasts to debase, hogs to wallow.

There were equally as many who were forced to fight, who could not kill, whose gentleness augmented under the brutal orders of their officers.

There were those who ran toward the front, heads up, singing at the top of their lungs.

There were those who slunk back.

Soldiers became cold, hard, materialistic, bitter, rancorous: and qualities antithetic to these developed in their comrades.
Lane exhausted his resources of memory and searched in his notes for a clipping he had torn from a magazine.