Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1884-06-11
llailg gyess aaa 9akstaiau
A HORRIBLE MONSTER.

Creeping Over tho Land IL win Sweep the
People from the Face of the Earth.
Boston Herald.
Boston is the home Of the reformer,
the anti.war man, the hereto, the puri-
tan, the ancborite, the free-lsver and the
inventor; and while the others are busy
with their theories, their arguments and
their agitation, tho inventor, bending in
cessantly over his plans and drawings, is
putting the finishing touches to terri
ble man.klller, land monster to be used
in time OF war. Up to this date nothing
has been written or printed about it.;
but the inventor, wellknown builder
of locomotives, aud the originator of
many valuable and famous machines,
has 80 far developed his plans that he il
willing to speak of them in o general
way, while he holds back for the
present the secret details of man.
ufacture. 10 fully appreciate the in-
vention one must imagine u huge steel
monster, turtle-shaped, impregnable to
the most forcible missiles of the artil.
lery, creeping over the face of the earth
and raining from the machine guns
within it showers OF bullets and dyna.
mite bombs which work terrible havoc
among the enemy. The she'll of this
"war-turtle," as the inventor has chris.
tened it, is to be made Of tool steel, thick,
heavy and massive, which no missiles
can penetrate. It will move on broad
wheels shod with thick rubber bands,
which can take strong hold on the
ground, establishing so great attraction
that the turtle can climb steep hills,
driven by an enormous engine concealed
within its body. ''Of course"
says the inventor, "the weight Of the
turtle, which must carry ammunition,
petroleum in tanks beneath the steel
skin, and men to man the guns and steer
the fighting land craft, will be enormous;
but 1 have carefully studied and calcu.
lated, and find that can get enough
power from the engine to move with
sufficient rapidity and clear away what.
ever obstacles the enemy might erect to
stop the turtles progress" The sharp.
knife like edges of the monster will be
able to cut down small trees and shrub
berry, and the terrible force of the engine
will be sufficient to plunge it
through substantial barricades. Two
pilots, protected from sharpshooters
and stray balls by heavy
plates, will have positions in the steel
head of the creeping battery, aud guide
it by peculiar mechanical apparatus,
and the guns, pointing In all directions,
will be able to discharge 5000 balls
minute. In the tail of the turtle, SO to
speak, is to be placed machine capable
of hurling twenty dynamite bombs
throwing them SO far that the
turtle will be out of range when they ex-
plode. The inventor, who is no Darius
Green with his flying machine, but is
known as clear, level-headed man, says
that, of course, the turtle with its guns
and dynamite will seem impracticable
to the average engineer and mechanic,
but he insists that he can build it and
work it successfully whenever the gov
ernmeut shall have need of such ter.
rible weapon and death.dealer. Until
that time, probably, the essential details
of manufacture will be kept secret from
all save few intimate scientific
friends who are interested in the develop.
ment OF the scheme. The inventor,
whose name cannot be given at present,
was led to conceive of his fighting turtle
after noticing that, while most impor-
tant changes in naval warfare had been
made during the recent years, the nota.
BILE Improvements in land fighting
were few and far between. Should the
United States go to war with Germany
or England, he says, the turtle" will do
for the land forces what Ericsson's
"cheesebox' did for the fighters by sea
and river