The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-10-13
KILLING is A SCIENCE.
sHARPsHoOTERS WILL PLAY 4
GREAT PART IN FUTURE
WARFARE.
The Terrible New Army Rine-BuI-
let's That &c Entirely Through a
Mans Body and Bones smoke
Bombs and smokeIess Powder.
ZION the Pittsburg pIsps

] EIOm the ElLLSDuFk DIepdlCu
| Washington. Sept. 2s.-The new army
/ rifles are now being distributed among
/ Uncle Sans soldiers. Eventually 5000 OF
them will be delivered TO the war depart
ment from the national factory at Spring
field. To make them has taken a yeas
and a half. and not all of them are I'm
ished yet. These modern small arms are
/ wonderfully different from the guns car
ried by our troops hitherto. The clumsy
/ old 45-caliber has been replaced by a wea-
I pom that shoots as fast as a man can pull
/ the trigger. 1t is effective at a distance
] Of mile. and the lead bullet clad in
I steel coat leaves the muzzle at a speed
nearly half a mile a second. The idea
of the up-to-date rife is to threw a small
and very hard projeetile with enormously
increased velocity to a much great dis
lance with greater precision than for
merly.
( Just here comes in an odd point. The
weapon is an Improvement in the direc-
ton of humanity. The bullet travels SO
1 fast that apparently the body does not
attempt TO resist it, and it passes through
flesh and bone without infiicting much of
a shock, making small, clean hole and
not breaking the tissues. 1t goes through
the thinner bones. as the shoulder-blades,
the ribs and breast-bone without smash
| ing effect.
An opportunity for first-rate test was
afforded by the recent ChitraI campaign
in India. Wounded natives with tiny holes
drilled clear through them were out and
about within twenty-four hours, not suf-
tering any serious inconvenience. Such
was actually the case with many of the
| SWatis who were hurt in various engage
ments. This might be understood more
easily Il only the flesh had been injured.
| were not disabled.
Snarpshooters armed with the modern
style OF rlne will play great part in
future warfare. The discharge of the new
| weapon is almost noiseless. and. smoke
less powder being used, there will be
nothlns TO betray the location of a con-
| cealed rifieman, who pours out a contin-
/ uous flre with murderous accuracy into the
| ranks OF the enemy. The commander of
the held will see his officers and men fall
| the blow is struck Two or three skilled
Dlafksmen Will be able to pick off every
man az battery of artillery so as to rem
| DER the guns of no use The new rifle fires
| hve shots from the magazine as FAST as the
| Trigger can be pulled, and quick as a wink
anotner set of five cartridges Is substi-
! tuted Tor the empty shells. The cartridges
are las tened together Is sets of five with
| paper strips.
in. hne invention Of smokeless powders has
| given cause for the creation Of a contriv-
ance with a purpose quite opposite This
latter device is original with Col Maien-
Ge, her ma1estys inspector of explos-
| ives, ana IL is called a smoke bomb In
battle bombs of this kind are to be
| throWn from field mortars toward the en-
envy Bursting they set free clouds Of
thick black noke, which, being Just
ABOUT as heavy as the atmosphere hangs
| IKE veil for a long time and forms a
9ense screen, impenetrable to vision.
| behlnu such screen an entire army
| could maneuver unseen A division for
example might be split into two parts and
assalIed IN hank and rear, as under the
cover OF night hostile force that wam
expecting the attack from in front
In the Chitral campaign the smoke
| less and almost noiseless volleys Of the
British are said to have done fearful exc
eution. Smoke in all wars hitherto has
been unavoidable, and it may even be
| SAID to have modified history In the
battles of the civil war so dense a cloud
OF smoke commonly was spread over the
neld that the combatants on both sides
| were only able to fire into 1t blindly The
| average survivor of that great confiict
| Will tell you that he never killed anybody
| IN his certain knowledge, but he may
| warfare OF the future 1t will be very DIFF
| ferent. Killing will be done with scien-
the precision and certainty During the
| rebellion the sharpshooter was regarded
as rather cold-blooded type of soldier.
inasmuch as his object was to take the
individual life deliberately and with set
purpose, but he was a gentle and harm
less infant compared to the destroying
marksrnan with the smokeless and noise-
sharpshooters in the civil war used
heavy telescope rifles, which, while very
accurate, made big noise and much
| smoke. Thus the marskmen betrayed his
location to the enemy and became himself
| target. No regiment could successfully
charge company of marksmen armed
with rifles of the modern type. Supposing
the company to be concealed behind logs
or otherwise, firing beginning at a dis
lance OF mile. not man in the regi-
ment would be left alive and unwounded
by the time the intervening space was
crossed. one thing quite certain is that
| in the battles of the future much more am
and, the accuracy of aim being greater,
the percentage of killed and wounded will
be far larger than hitherto. United
| States soldier armed with the new rifle
| will carry 175 cartridges.
On the other hand, the men wounded
in the battles of the future will recover
more often and more quickly. Experience
has already proved that the clean-punch-
ed holes through the bone and flesh made
by the modern rife bullet heal readily
and without Suppuration. Another matter
to be considered is the vast Improvement
that has been made in the surgical treat
ment of soldiers in the field. To the devel-
opment of their profession medical men
i have been devoting great deal of atten-
ton of late. The methods of antseptic
| surgery have reVolutionized practice in
this line. AS soon as man has been car
ried to the rear treatment is applied to
| prevent bacteria from getting into the
wound. If he has hole through him, an
| y.
The germs that make pus and cause blood
poisoning being kept out, no suppuration
follows and the patient has a better
chance of getting well. In the last Egyp-
tan campaign not single case of infec-
tive wound disease occurred among the
| British soldiers.
The soldier of to-day carries in his KNAPP
sack an antiseptic dressing of lint and
iodoform, all ready for application to a
wound. OF course, each private of the
hospital corps is provided with kit con-
tanning similar dressings, bandages, adj
hesive plaster, and other necessaries for
the immediate aid of the injured. The
war department has now adopted an Inn
proved style of surgical chest, which is
intended to be placed on the back of Z:
mule 1t holds complete outfit for serv-
ice in the field.
In modern warfare the purpose is to
wound, rather than to kill. 1t is not only
more humane, but more advantageous
from military point of view. One wound
ed man requires two able-bOdie6 sol
diers to carry him off the field, and they
are Withdrawn from the fight for the time
being Furthermore, it costs trouble and
money to take care of him. The question
is still in dispute as to whether a bulle;
| ought to paralyze a man or simply to
| infiict a slight injury. In battle 90 men
| ,F will xxyit