The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-08-04
Swords.

One of the most clearly-marked differ
ences between man and the brute beasts
lies in the fact that with his own unaided
strength man is seldom able to take the
life OF his fellow beings. Consequently,
when we wish to put ourselves upon
level with the tiger and the wolf, and to
qualify ourselves for the shedding of
blood and the taking of life, we are
obliged to find some other weapons than
those nature has given us. Here and
there may be man who can kill an
other man by the exertion of his unas.
sisted strength, but it is very seldom in
deed that human life is taken by human
beings without the use of an artificial
weapon.
The first weapon used by man was
probably club; and it is also likely
that in time this was made of very hard
wood and somewhat sharpened on one
or more sides, so as to infict more
deadly wound. Wooden weapons of
this kind are now in use by some savage
races. Then it was found that more eff
fective weapons of the sort could be
made of harder substance, and short,
| unwieldy swords were hewn outof stone,
very much as our Indians make their
arrow-heads of flint. But sword of
this kind, although terrible weapon in
| the hands of q strong man, was brittle
and apt to break; and so, in time, when
| the use and value Of metals came to be
understood, swords were made of these
| substances. The early Romans, and
| some other nations, had strong, heavy
swords made of bronze. But, when
iron and steel came into use, it was
quickly perceived that they were the
metals of which offensive weapons
should be made.
By careful study of the form and
use of the sword, from its first inven-
ton until the present time, we may get
good idea of the manner in which, in
various ages, military operations were
carried on At first, men fought at close
quarters, like the beasts they initiated.
But as the arts of warfare began to be
improved, and as civilization and en-
Acknowledgements, men seemed anx-
ious to get farther and farther away from
one another when they fought, aud so
the sword gradually became longer and
longer, until, in the Middle Ages,
mans sword was sometimes as long as
himself.
But there is a limit to this sort of
thing, and when the use Of projectiles
which would kill at great distance be-
came general, it was found that soldier
was seldom near enough to his enemy
to reach him with his sword, and at the
present day it is seldom used in actual
warfare except by cavalrymen, and these
frequently depend as much on the fire.
arms they carry as upon their sabers.
1t is said that cavalry charges, in which
the swords of the riders are depended
upon to rout the enemy, do not fire.
quently occur in the warfare of the
present day, and those naval battles of
which we all have read, where the OPP
posing ships are run side by side, and
the sailors of one, cutlass in hand,
spring upon the deck of the other and
engage in a hand-to- hand fight, are now
seldom heard of. Our ironclad ships
fire at one another from great distance,
or one of them comes smashing into an
other with its terrible steel ram, and a
sword would be a useless thing to mod
ern sailor. Our armies lie a mile or
two apart, and pop at each other with
long range rifles and heavy cannon, and
to the great body of the opposing forces
swords would be only an incumbrance.
John TezDees. in st. Nicholas