Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1878-12-05
Communication.
~S-SSrNsNr~~-~~.~NrIr r--S-<~~~NS~~s~Srs-SSrS
Our New York Letter,
Those Marvellous Torpedoes-A
Boat Without a. Crew-The EMU
tual" and its Enemies

Those Marvellous Torpedoes-A
Boat without a. aCrew-The EMU
tual" and its Enemies.
New YoR8, Nov. %, 1878.
To the Editor Of the Observer
This city is again the princi-
Ipal battlefield of another life
insurance war, differing in char
acter but hardly less in impor-
tance than that of q year ago.
The present discussion arises
mainly from a combined attack
on the old Mutual by a number
of other life institutions on ac-
count of the formers reduction
of its premium rates. Now
the Mutual is not only the larg-
est life insurance company in
the world but the richest finan-
cial corporation in the world, as
well, having over eighty-six
millions Of assets or twenty
millions more than the combined
capital of all the banks in New
York. Of course, therefore, its
course affects that of nearly all
the other companies. Equally
Of course, the latter dislike to
have to cut down their profits,
and hence the bitter attack An
attempt has lately been made,
by the authority of some Bos-
ton lawyers, to assail the right
of the company to make the re-
bate, and even to represent its
new policy as not good, but
these efforts have utterly failed;
the highest legal authorities in
New England, Judges Foster
and Chandler, having emphati-
cally declared the plan legal
and the policies so issued 1iron-
clad" The officers Of the Mu-
tual have thus far paid but little
attentions to their maligners.
During their twenty-five years
administration Dir. Winston and
his associates have built up this
impregnable financial structure,
and if they cannot now be trust
ed to wisely administer the al
fairs of it's members, l fear none
of their opponents can claim to
be competent to correct their
errors.
Some weeks ago l made a
passing mention in one of my
letters of certain torpedo ex-
periments which were in pro-
gress in our harbor, for the pur-
pose of providing means of eff
fective offense and defense in
case of a foreign war. At that
time such a thing as war seemed
too absurdly improbable to talk
about; but the somewhat acid
turn which was subsequently
taken by the correspondence
between Uncle Sam and John
Ball over the Canadian fishery
troubles shows that there is al
ways possibility, at least, of
such contingency, and invests
defensive preparations with a
reasonable interest. Two sue
cessful exhibitions in the torpe-
do line have just been given in
the harbor, displaying great in
genuity and demonstrating that
| if the machines involved will
work in the hour of need as per-
fectly as on these occasions, we
need have no fear of attack by
water even by terrible ironclads
which Europe has recently been
perfecting.
One of these deadly inven-
tions is a torpedo boat planned
by Captain Ericsson, who built
the once famous "Monitor,"
and called the destroyer"
This wonderful affair is a thin;
sharp, low-lying iron craft ,adap-
ted to run during action almost
entirely under water, thus de-
fying the heaviest missels that
can be projected against it.
The most remarkable feature
of it is a deep cigar-sharped re-
cess in the bow (also under wa
teri which holds a powerful
torpedo. At the proper mo-
ment this torpedo can be thrown
forward by compressed air at
almost cannon-ball speed, and
with force enough to send il
through the water for several
hundred yards if need be- The
concussion Of the torpedo a.
} gainst the hull of the ironclad
to be destroyed would explode