The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-08-06

spade to the weight of the soldiers equipments
and deprecates the slowness of an advance with
the spade as destructive of French elan. Austria,
who learned at Sadowa so sharp lesson of the
necessity of providing her troops with means of
protection against breech-loaders and she'll
guns, has adopted the spade among her military
equipments. Every third man in the Austrian
infantry now carries a short-handled and broad
bladed spade, called the Linneman, on his left
side, en- bdndouljere
During some of the marches of the Army of
the Potomac which we witnessed 1t was the Off
GERS and not the men who carried the spade.
Experiments in the Austrian encampment at
Bruch showed that with the help of the Lime
man a company could In five minutes shelter
itself completely with a row of rife mantlets.
The French nIitrailIeur-It Is n Direct Theft
from American InRenuity-The Montigny and
Calling Guns.
The Army and Nary Journal of to-day has
the following editorial article:-
The favorite subject Of kilograms, just at present.
is the nitTGeur, and the last piece of intelligence
as to this wonderful French "machine gun" is to
the effect that Frankfort offers 500 thalers, or
about $500, to the first captor of one of them. SO
far as this new engine OF destruction is concerned
we have the best reason for assuming that Prussia
is quite as well supplied with it as France. There
are two types OF the invention in Europe-the
French one, about which so much fuss Is made, aud
Belgian affair claiming to be its SUPERIOR designed
by NJ. Montgny. In suggestion both inventions are
due to the original idea OF DIR. Gatng, and there is
very ns @ rec as theft 'hg pom
American. In the autumn OF 1868 the atten-
tion OF the Imperial Government was drawn
to The Calling gun, and Emperor expressed through
the usual media, ga profound interest" in the In
yenton. The time, however, was not opportune for
further study Of the affair, or the Emperors
thoughts, peace intent, were not in frame for the
adoption Of new destructive engine; at any rate,
Shortly afterwards mysterious whispers began
to circulate OF wonderful gun, with which
tf Napoleon. AS time passed on, it began
to be known that the French army was to have the
use cot OF "a machine gun, saraiLe1r The fact
so far as any opinion at all was advanced, ap-
proved by the Imperial inspection, is persuasive
evidence against the French originality Of the
Rlitrdillea,; but there even stronger indica-
tions of the theft in the mechanism OF the machine
ITSELF which has Indispensable features exactly
identical with the Gatling. In a forthcoming num-
Der we purpose to give a faithful illustration and
which is far superior to either of its European m-
tators, between which, 10y the way, there seems
gesyed by the terrible execution of the sa
leur upon crowded abattoir of broken-dowl
horses and the announcement that each bat
TALON Is to have mtrdiLeurS on its tanks, bears n
ternal evidence of being intended for moral effect
on the enemy. The comparative accuracy OF Anne
rican and Earopean machine guns is best Illustrated
by the trial results. In experiments for instance
with the Montigny gun, upon target 81 feet long
s3O yards, out of $40 cartridges placed in
the gun, 40 were missdres, 27s struck, and
the hits were in proportion OF about so per cent
and at 100 yards, for some reason, the trial was
given up. Compared with such execution the ope-
ration of the Gatling gun is really marvellous. At
target 10 feet square, 500 yards distance, there
not one lost out of ITO shots At the target 1000
yards, 76 per cent Of the shots struck. Other eX-
periments have demonstrated, under proper direc-
tion, the scattering powers of the gun upon more
We shall be disappointed, however, if the French
obtain any such results from the nsitraaeur the
newspaper reports would have us believe They are
far too much inclined to advertise its virtues
vince us that they have much faith In it themselves
II will undoubtedly do sufficient service in certain
situations to Justify its use but that it will have any
decisive influence on the conduct OF war, we do not
anticipate.
The Railroads IntersectInR the Sent of War
Distances of the Principal stations from
Each Other.
| The following are the stations and distances
on the principal German and French railroads
which intersect the seat of the present European
war. The Rhenish Railroads run in a north
westerly direction along the left bank of the
Rhine from Bingerbrueck at the mouth of the
Nahe river to Cologne, having length of nine
| ty-five miles: The following are the principal
stations on the railway and their distances from
the starting -Bingerbrueck, Bacharach
miles; ,,0beEwesel, 1s4 miles; st.
sGad %es ooSsn %s BCgsTa nes & mss ssuTeR SsRResR s
miles; Andernach, 40 miles; Brohl, $50 miles;
Nd. Breissig, Sc miles, Sinzg. 591s miles; Rema-
gen. 6194 miles; Rolandseck, &C miles; Mehlem,
miles; -Boisdorf, rs miles; sechtem, S2S
miles; Bruehl, S5 miles; Cologne, 95 miles.
From Neunkirchen in Rhenish Prussia east
| the railroad stations and distances are-Kaisers
| laLLtTn III hHeulSn DaVarla, - miles; NeuStaQt
4S15 miles; Ludwigshafen, 81 miles; Worms, 81
miles. The railroad from Germersheim to
Spires, in acknowledgements, near the Rhine, is z
| miles in length. From Frankfort on the Main,
! south, along the Main-Neckar Railroad, the sta
tions and distances are as follows:-Darmstadt
1871 miles; Zwingenberg 2615 miles; Auerbach,
! % miles; Bensheim, 80 miles; Heppenheim, 33
miles. Weinheim, 3914 miles; FriedIchsfeld,
4S miles; Mannheim, in Baden, $50 miles.
From Kehl, in Baden, on the Rhine, opposite
| StTaSbOurg, the railroad stations to the
east with their distances are:-York, 80
miles; Legelshurst, miles, Appenweier
Gunction), z miles, From Mannheim in
Baden, south along the Baden railroad, runnin Q
stations and their distances are:- Heidelberg,
111s miles; Langenbrucken, 269l miles, Bruch-
sal, 3219 miles; Carlsruhe, 46 miles; Ettlingen,
50L miles; Muggensturm So miles, Rastadt 6i
miles; Oos, 661a miles; Buehl, 80 miles; Achern,
10 miles; Renchen, SO miles; Appenweier Gunc-
tion), 8615 miles; OffenbuTg, 90 miles: Friburg
191 miles; Basle, Switzerland, 40 miles. From
Stuttgart in Wurtemberg, north west the sta
tions and distances are:--Lud wigsburg, 81 miles
Bietigheim, 15 miles, Muehlecker, 30 miles
! Maulbronn 33M miles, Bretten, 391& miles
Bruehsal, in Baden, 40 miles. From Paris, north.
east, the stations and their distances ares
Rheims, 9914 miles; Charleville 1885, miles
thence southeast-Sedan, 1853 miles; Montmedy
29l1s miles; Longuyon, 2141 miles; Thionyille
France, 24l19 miles.
From Paris, east, the stations and their dis
tances are:-Nancy, 220 miles; thence, north tc
Metz, 244A miles; thence, east, to st. Avoid
2751S miles; Forbach (France), 2S7H miles
From Paris, east again, the stations and dis
tances are-Luneyille, 240 miles; Avricourt, %!
miles; sarrebourg, 26S9 miles; Sayerne, 80
miles; Strasbourg CFrance(, 3l215 miles. From
Strasbourg. across the Rhine, TO Kehl, the dis
tance is 1873 miles.
War Items. -..r.
NJ. Chassepot has received a Russian paten
for an Improvement on his rifle.
| 40