The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1896-09-18
THE PRINCE GEORGES ENQUIRER UPPER MARLI
GENDPO WIDER IN
EARLY DA U.s.

People outside Of military life who
have no connection with the making
of gunpowder know it only as a coarse
black powder like black sand. which
will flash off with "a loud report if shut
up IN case Of any kind. and set on
fire.
1t is very queer mixture. made up
of three simple and well-known sub
stances, no one of which will burn
says. Lieut. John NJ. Elliott, in s..
Nicholas. Nobody knows when or
how 1t was discovered. for as far back
into the dark ages as records of tradl-
ton will carry us, We find that gun
powder, though not us"d for guns.
was known. 1t was. no doubt, looked
upon with awe and fear by the anclentS
on account of its flame, its noise, and
its rendering force: but their Hunted
mechanical skill could suggest very
little Use for it.
Possibly it was used in warfare long
before the beginning of history: but
the first man in historical times to
form an idea of the terrible destruc-
ton which this awful, bursting, fiery
substance might produce was an Eng
lish monk named Roger Bacon. Monks
in his days, were the chemists, scholars
and writer OF the world and this
Roger Bacon travelled and studied
much, and made continual experiments
in his laboratory to prove for himself
and to develop what he learned from
others. He probably saw gunpowder
among the Moors in Spain, and tried
for himself its explosive effect. Then
he wrote of its composite ion in the
year 1867, and in his writing suggest-
ed that it could be used in engines OF
war to deal death and destruction to
armies of men.
SooE after Roger Bacon's time his
suggestions were taken ur and guns
we're constructed first by binding iron
bars together with hoops to form a
tube out of brass, with one end closed.
Stones of suitable size were selected as
shot, and the powder had to be carried
around in chests OF barrels and shovel
ed into the muzzles of the guus, the
stones being rolled in after it. In
spite of these draw backs very large
guns were built, for there was one
used by Mahomet II. against the
Greeks at the seige of Constantinople
in 1853 which threw stone weighing
600 pounds distance Of one mile.
NEAR-SIGHTED
AND IUPLLSIIE.
She was near-sighted and impulsive
and she felt called upon to right a
number of the wrongs of humanity, in
consequence of which she was frequent
lv in the hottest of hot water
She was walking along North Clark
street the other day, with her eye
glasses dangling from her chain, and
expounding one of her theories to a
politely interested friend.
"rhe fact is she was saying, ''that
onl Y a small percentage of women arr
fitted to have the care of children. In
ny opinion all children should BE-
taken from parents who are not up to
the approved standard and
but, you see, the parents might
object broke in her friend, 'besides,
what would become Of the poor
babies!"
''The parents mu be convinced that
it is matter of right and advance
ment, and, as for the children, the
State must provide nurseries under
the care of well-equipped-my good
ness. that woman will kill her
baby
She dashed into the street where a
woman, apparently unconscious of an
approaching cable train, was trundllng
a baby carriage across the tracks
1t was the work of an instant to
snatch the carriage from the hands Of
the astonished woman and propel it
beyond the line of danger: then, as the
car whizz-d by, SIZE turned upon her
in wrath.
"a nice mother you are" she pant
ed cant you take better care of your
child than that? 1t was mercy the
little angel was not killed through
YOUR carelessness."'
The woman put her hands on her
hips and regarded the speaker.
''And who said anything about a
baby::' she demanded, in high, sar-
castle key, "I'm a washlady, | am: an
it's bundle of dirty clio hes | II
taking home an not child at all.
m how would it be the business Of
chit like you if
But the petticoat. d phllanthropist
heard no more. With one swift glance
at the shapeless bundle, tired IN a
checkered tablecloth, which filled the
| carriage. she fled as if for her life