St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-09-16
WARS NEW ELEMENTS.
The Repeating Rifle and tn,
SmOkeless Powder.


London Times.
Baron Beck, the chief of staff Of the
Austrian army, had an opportunity of
noting very interesting novely to-day
at the sham fight which the German
emperor ordered to be held out near
Spandau In honor of his illustrious
guest, the emperor of Austria. The
troops engaged, constituting large por
ton of the old guard corps, were formed
into two pretty equal bodies, whereof
one, named the East army, had adj
vaneed from Berlin ON purpose to re-
duce the fortress and citadel of Span
dau, to which the approach was de-
Tended by West army. Into the de-
tails Of this battle, the most interesting
of its kind, for several reasons, which
has been fought for long time in Ger
many. 1t would be supert1uous for me to
go; but there were two main incidents
that must be mentioned, because they
attracted the attention of the emperor
Francis Joseph and his chief of the
staff.
1t had been the aim of the defenders
to outflank the invading corps (Which,
by the way, was under the command of
the emperor's brother-in-law, major
general the hereditary prince of Sake
Meiningen), and for this purpose it be-
gan to mass and deplOy large force on
its right flank. This force, in beauti-
fully developed order. according to the
latest rules of fire discipline, had been
for some time engaged in pouring a
steady fire into the enemy's lines, when
all OF a sudden it was commanded to
face about and meet the charge of a
regiment Of Lancers coming on like a
thunderbolt in extended array. Nothing
could have been more admirable than
the prompt way in which the skirmish-
ing companies faced about to meet this
unexpected danger, and the cool and
rapid manner in which a body of their
supports formed up in line at right an
giles to the menaced ri1emeD, thus in
closing the advancing lancers in muir
derouS parallelogram of front and ell
filading magazine fire. 1t is only in
such emergencies as these that the
troops are allowed toduse their rifles as
repeaters, and certainly nothing could
have been more awtuliy and swiftly
destructive than the musketry volleys
with which these rashly daring horse
men were received, and which in real
warfare must have emptied every single
one of their saddles. But in real war;
fare they probably would not have been
Hail SO DOlQ.
Having thus disposed of this danger,
the defenders again resumed their flank
ing advance. We could observe little
or 10 attempt at returning our rifle fire
on the part of the foe. But this was
delusion. The umpireS soon decided
that in spite of the apparent success of
our brilliant flanking movement, we
must face to the right about and fall
back, and with all the more alacrity,
too, seeing that we ourselves. the out
fiankers, had been most skilIfully
Outfianked by large body of
the enemy, which, creeping through
wood, threatened to fall upon our
rear. The fact of the matter was that
we had been lured to our destruction
by thinking that the invader had lost
heart, whereas in this particular part of
the field he had only been firing with
powder. which emitted ne smoke and
comparatively little sound.
SmokeleSs powder-that was the latest
innovation in the equipment of the Ger
man army which its young commander
had to show to his imperial Austrian
ally, and the latter was charmed with
the result.