The Butler weekly times. (Butler, Mo.) 1881-1918, 1896-01-30
ROMAN CANDLES AND SKY
ROCKETS.
Weapons of Warfare Used by the
British in Ashantee.
NOT ONE GUN WAS FIRED.
Red Lights and Aerial Bombs STAN
peded the Warriors OF King
Prempeh.

New York, Jan. 23-A cable from
London to a local paper says that
the most extraordinary war Of mod. |
ern times has just closed, the Zero.
cious barbarian King of Ashantee
has surrendered to the British expe-
dition. The funniest part of it all
is the way the English troops fright
ened the brave African monarch and
his warriors almost to death without
even firing a gun.
The path from the coast to the
interior led through dense African
jungle-an ideal place for an ambush.
The army engineers went ahead Of
of the troops with corps of wood
choppers to clear the way for the
army. As the expedition approached
the kingdom of the braye King of
Prempeh they found the woods full
of armed savages.
Suddenly the engineering corps,
after darkness had settled on the
crest, set off an enormous display
of sky-rockets, Roman candles, aerial
bombs, pin wheels and fre-crackers.
They sent the rockets whizzing into
the underbrush and exploded the
many colored bombs among the
trees. Red, blue and yellow lights
glowed hers and there and Roman
candles shot their exploding balls
up over the heads of King Prempeh's
ambushed braves.
The warriors were astounded.
Their eyes bulged with terror and
in FIVE minutes there wasn't a cor
poral's guard of the valiant army to
be seen. The fireworks were kept
up all night and at daybreak cour-
ier from King Prempeh crept up to
the British picket lines and begged
to announce that the King was ready
to agree to anything the English
commander wanted.
The way this war has been carried
out is the funniest part Of the whole
opera bouffe performance.
When the steamer Angola left
Liverpool, hidden away down in he
hold was an immense quantity O
skyrockets and Roman candles.
She had tons of these Fourth OF
July fireworks among her cargo 0
warlike implements. There wer'
skyrockets of every kind, fire bal
g looms, shooting stars, red, white am
r blue powders, pin wheels, snakes,
l. and Chinese freerackers.
s. Another ship followed the Angol
similarly loaded and containing n
i rifles or cartridges whatever. Thi
. ship bore to the Gold Coast simpl
!. an enormous consignment of fir,
II works
It Long wooden boxes that locke
as if they contained rifles with whic
= to shoot down the warlike Ashante
II really had within them harmlei
d skyrockets with patent tails th;
: made fiery streamers of sparl
~ through the African jungle and E:
- :; plodeain gorgeous clusters of stal
h of every hue, Some OF these SIX,
al rockets released strings of red ba
le looms of FIRE to float serenely oy'
o. the dense Ashantee forests.
- - Other rockets had bombs in the
il; head and would finally termina
lis their career with loud explosie
re far from the place where they b,
10 been set of. Still other s kyrocke
L L, that were taken along ON the Asha
ut tee expedition carried curio'
u whistle and as they shot throug
he the air made hideous noise tn
o. could be heard for many miles al
ne seemed weird aud uBcanny in Il
10 thick tropical forest through whi'
1g the British forces had to advance.
n. London, Jan. 23-Cables fro
rs British West Africa describe the Fl
til of Coomassie and the humiliation
It. Prenpeh, the Ashantee King.
Kinr pramneh was greatly i