The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-06-10 00:00:00

A CONTRADICTION IN TERMS.

IN his Seraglio prison
ArDuL-Aziz !Jailed, too late,
"The Spits is my downfall,
The harder is my fate."—Punch.

WEAPONS OF WAR IN THE PHILA-
DELPHIA EXHIBITION.

The correspondent of The Times, In noticing the Military
Department in the Philadelphia Exhibition, remarks :

As the majority of the visitors are peaceful civilians,
the Military Department, with its formidable array of
deadly weapons and latest improvements for the
speedy destruction of life, is naturally the most popu-
lar, eepecially among ladies and the extremely civil
and obliging soldiers in attendance—whose patience
seems to be inexhaustible—have sometimes to answer
the most singular questions, as to why rifles should be
loaded at the wrong end, and how many enemies per
second can be killed by the Gatling gun. As real
soldiers, who have been in action and with their own
hands disposed of a score or two of men, though they
may be too modest to confess it, they are regarded as
very high authorities, and the most implicit faith is
put in the appropriate answers which they always
have ready. But, independently of their instruction,
the articles exhibited are so well arranged, and, as a rule,
so clearly ticketed, that whatever useful knowledge
they may impart in the art of slaughter is within
reach of the humblest lay comprehension. It is a notice-
able and highly commendable feature of the Govern-
ment Hall that special pains are taken in it to teach
what may, perhaps, be considered the main lesson of
the Centennial Exhibition, considered as a whole, by
showing the changes and advances in the state of the
country produced by one century. Thus, in the
Military Department, the visitor may first examine
a curious collection of the cumbrous flint-lock muskets
and huge pistols in use 100 years ago, and then
find, a few yards off, the very latest editions of
Colt's, Remington's, or Springfield's—some with
improvements so recent that their value has,
I suspect, yet to be tested in war. I, at least,
have never before seen an arrangement by which car-
tridges may, with a spring, be fastened to the right
side of the rifle, close to the trigger, so that the soldier
has them as close as possible to his hand. The Ameri-
can bayonet is also, to me, a novelty. It looks less
like a weapon for thrusting or fighting than like an
elongated trowel, with sharp point and sides, which
make it a fairly serviceable implement for digging and
chopping. A small wooden handle, which it requires
when thus employed, is carried by the soldier in his
pocket. The theory of its construction would seem
to be that the long range of modern fire-arms has
made the bayonet less wanted as a sword than as a
knife or spade. Some of the contrasts between ancient
and modern institutions are not more instructive than
quaint. Close to the Cavalry soldier of to-day stands
the " Minuteman " of 1776—50 called, it is said, be-
cause he was always ready to come out and fight at a
minute's notice. Assuming the " Minuteman " cos-
tume historically correct, he was quite sublime in his
picturesque simplicity. He seems to have been
seated all ready in his shirt sleeves, with red
waistcoat, drab breeches, homespun socks, and well.
polished pumps, and to have had nothing to do
when the summons to battle came but to clap on his
wideawake, throw a cloak over one shoulder in stage.
bandit fashion, and seize the " Tilt lock musket used
at Bunker's-hill." Behind him is a rude drum-shaped
canteen, out of which he may have drunk, for it was
"carried through the revolutionary war by Corporal
Isaac Sherbet," whose grandson, with pardonable
pride, now lends it to the Exhibition and shares his
grandeire's immortality. _ _

_ -
Compared with the self-sufficing Minuteman, his
neighbour, the Cavalry soldier of this degenerate cen-
tury, is a poor creature enough, with as many wants
and new-fangled appliances as a whimiical invalid. It
is only fair, however, to say that they are chiefly for
his horse, but the sum total for man and he ast is ap-
palling—saddle-bags forage-bag, nese-bag, haversack,
blanket, great-coat, Spring-field carbine, pistol, spare
shoes, lariat, watering-bridie, hobbling chains, curry-
combs and biush, with other "conveniences of civiliza-
tion " which I cannot now recall. They give altogether a
very impressive picture of the completeness of American
Cavalry equipments, but also tempt one to speculate
how much of them is really carried after the second
day's march. The Cavalry soldier's uniform, resemb-
ling that of the Infantry, is neat and serviceable, if not
very showy—dark-blue coat, with light blue troueers.
An imposing group of life-size figures in martial array
illustrate the changes through which the American
uniform has gradually gone ; and here again one is
conscious of a painful detericration in modern taste,
when one compares the costumes of to-day with that
of Waehington's Life Guards, in their long coats, with
lappels fastened hack, buff waistcoats and breeches,
top-boots, white laced neckties, and cornered hate,
with their smart cockade and white plume. Here
and there among these formidable battalions of
"object lessons," the visitor comes upon such in-
teresting historical relics as the "6 pounders presented
to the United States by Lafayette," or even upon
mere curiosities in which one vainly seeks for any
loftier a'm than to amuse. Conspicuous are two
bullets which have met in full course in mid-air, like
those of Munchaueen, though with a different result.
The concussion and friction have welded the two indis-
solubly into something like a mushroom with a hole in
the top, and a hollow stem. In appropriate proximity
is the stump of an oak, such as even Munchaueett
never foresaw, cut down by bullets as by a blunt axe.

In speaking of the Patent Office Department, The Ti
Correspondent also remarks :
The Patent Office is one of the most characteristic
of American institutions, and deserves more space than
I can here give it. I will now only say about it that
it has a very prominent part assigned to it in the Go-
vernment Hall programme, taking up over forty cases,
and exhibiting some 5,000 models. As it became an
Executive Department of the Government nearly 90
years ago, it has a peculiarly appropriate place in a-
Centennial Exhibition, since it illustrates with marvel-
lous variety and copiousness the century's progress in
scientific invention. The 5,000 models in the Exhibition
are picked specimens from 150,000 at Washington.
The Americans have a wonderful genius for patents
which, like other forms of genius; sometimes borders
on madness. Applications are perpetually being
made for patents of the wildest description. One
genius is said to have wanted a patent for a machine
which was to bore through the earth; another, for a
huge illuminator, which, hung over great cities,
would dispense with gas and the moon; a third,
for an apparatus tb make spirits—spirits of the
rappincr and scratching kind—visible to mortal
eye. Visitors who do not know that the Patent
Office was once the only fire-proof building in
Washington, may wonder what connexion there is
ton'sbetwecehninpaaleantsparensdenstuchorelihcesr asfrMomartLhaataWyeatsthei,in
or
Washington's camp service of plainest pewter, or still
more sacred treasure, his vests and "pants." They
were consigned as among the most precious of
America's p assessions to the safest place. In the same
cage with them fi.4ures what, when the consecrating
duet of ages has embalmed it, will be scarcely less
venerated than Washington's pants—the model of a
Plan for lifting vessels overshoals designed by Abraham
Lincoln.