Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-06-26
USKEr A SOCIAL FORCE.
<VoEURxOs or rHE WEAPON FOR
1rDWD1s AND PRUyEUTILE.
G1sgasg Rsvssw Of Carious B,ssovsssi
I -usw Rsudailsm went Down Be-
f - oaspswder Tho Mushes Ia
Anssssean Bands-Ths Ballot the
new weapon oS the PecPse.

&:f3S = ,,,,.ct uumber Of the Popular
<niS-nxs no.fh,v Mr.. John McElroy treats Of |
&4n q - q Social Force " and
HsuaaIv srscss the effects of improve-
- ieoorns from their inventioudown
o0orS times. He fails, however, to lay
ropoe stress upon the discoveries In
1urgy, which alone made cannon and
E hoss possible. Many theories have been
X Snncod to account for the awakening OF
$10eOpe from the sleep Of the dark ages and
" explain the forces that finally brought
nat the overthrow of the feudal system.
/. Il ~ bson attributed to three great causes
~ Invention Of gunpowder, of printing and
~ the mariners compass but of these three
Sthe first, which was no doubt the greatest
cause, would have been useless but ior
smother fact to which historians have Tailed
- aive due prominence. The feudal knights
md barons gave encouragement 20 one art
above MI others, the art Of working metal
Into invulnerable armor and trusty weapons;
and this art was carried to such perfection
hat the mounted knights had nothing to
toax from any man not armed and mounted
N knightly style.
In those old lawless days we read Of deeds
of oppression and cruelty prepetrated by
theo0 "noble" and "chivalrous" knights
upou the wretcbed peasautry that are quite
- sickening in their details as any of the
border massacres that our colonial chronicles
relate. If anyone has a taste for such reading
let him turn to Guizots account oil the war
Of the Jscquerie
hut the knights were paying for the forg-
1u9 of the instrument of their own desiruc.
tiOn. The arnor smiths were class OF men
skilled In the forging OF iron and steel, and II
wss Inevitable that they should discover
means of so contining gunpowder in an iron
tube, that its explosion would give destfuc-
tive force to an iron ball stopping that tube
We know that the explosive was discover
Cd carly in the fourteenth century, aud yet
it, use did not become general until the lat
tor part of the sixteenth century; this was
simply because tubes could not be construct
cd strong enough to hold It, The rude hooped
iron boxes that were used at first must have
been extremely dangerous and awkward
things to handle.
THE FIRST CANNON CAST.
1t is said that the first cannons of cast iron
were made in England, in 1913, and this is
the first cast iron OF which there is any record
In history. From this time dates the decline
Of the power of the mounted knights; and
Il did not take much longer for the metal
workers to achieve the manufacture OF
wrOuQht ordnance that could be handled by
the peasantry against the mounted cavalier
and roll him in the dust with all his blood
stained crest and coats of arms, the symbols
Of centuries of tyranny.
First came the bombardele, a tube ofabout
two inches in diameter, fastened to stick,
which was planted firmly in the ground to
receive the recoiL Then through various
stages the matchbox was evolved and the
Swiss destroyed the army of Charles the
Bold of Burgundy. With better weapons
the Spanish infantry defeated the cavalry OF
France at Pavia, and a hundred years later
the Dutch by the same means, and the abil-
ty of Prince Maurice, defeated the Spanish.
Then by the use of paper cartridges the
Swedish musketeers, under Gustavus Adol
phus, achieved much OF their success while
Cromwell's round heads, with their fire.
locks, were overthrowing the proud cavaliers
who fought so loyalty and hopelessly for
Charles the First.
AS Mr.. McEloy says, it was a remark able
providential dispensation that inspired old
Desau with the idea Of an iron ramrod, which,
enabling the troops of Frederick the Great
to fire with greater rapidity, gave them
strength to Withstand the overwhelming
masses of barbara Russia, But Mr.. Nc
Elroy's passage ON the development of the
musket in America must be quoted una
bridged.
ain the grasp of the men who sought ref.
uge from tyranny in the wilds of America the
musket was not the mysterious and awk-
wardly handled engine it was in the hands
Of most Europeans TO the colonist 1t was
the most familiar of his every day tools. The
daily food OF the family was provided with it;
the fiercest wild beasts were slain by il, and
the fiercer wild Indians were conquered by
it and driven from the lands which they
ci8itneu rs tn6lr DlrtDrlpbI Benz lts owners
main dependence in his struggle for lie, he
naturally strove to raise its powers TO the
highest mechanical limits of the day. By
rifiing the inside of the barrel and placing
sight on the rear end he made his ain math-
ematically certain.
sWith his rifle in hand the common mau
reclothed himself with all the rights that had
been torn from him by a thousand years of
despotism of the man on horseback"
Americans maintained the rights they
w fhAir nd tEaf,
French allies to do the sane. "Within a
quarter OF century alter the close OF the
American Revolution the eyangel of freedom
had famed from the Seine to the Mosk wa at
the muzzles of muskets, borne by men who
had suddenly risen from the abasement of
serfdom to the full stature OF manhood"
Mr.. McElroy might have brought the
story down to our own times aud shown how
the musket as social force has been replaced
by the ballot, and how our use OF this latter
weapon has also spread over the civilized
world. But the ballot was a new weapon
and the true age of reason had not vet
dawned. So fierce were the struggles of fac
tiOn, 80 narrow and unwielding the opposing
parties that the musket again became social
i0rco acting between opposing meu on foot,
though scarce century had passed from the
overthrow of the old enemy on horseback.
As a social force in the republic the musket
should never act again, for by dissension
and disnnion among the men on foot the |
man on horseback may again Iemouni, but |
BY tho ballot should all opposing claims he |
balanced, and all should remember when
they use 1t that this little scrap of paper takes
tne place OF the musket, and its power for
good or evil as social force quite az great.
What They Saw IN the Air