Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1897-09-09
DOESN'T HURT TO BE SHOT.
DIR. Harry Danforth on the Mauser
Bullet.

The Cuban war is furnishing daily
demonstration of some of the adj
Vantages and disadvantages of use of
the Mauser rifle, with which the Span-
1ards and many of the insurgents are
armed, says The New York Sun. 1t is
this rifle, according to the reports of
nell returned from the island. which
is responsible for the comparatively
small number of soldiers killed in bat
tie or in skirmishes on each side, as
we'll as for the Inaccuracies in the es-
Inmates of the number of the wounded.
Some striking stories of the operation
Of the Mauser bullet, which might al
most be described as beneticent in
some of its effects among the Cuban
hghtlng men, form a part of the testi-
mony taken by the subcommittee of
the senate Committee on Foreign Rela-
tons last month and in June in their
quest for information as to the state
of affairs in Cuba.
When Capt. William H. Smith, a
former United States army officer, who
served in the Cuban army from the
spring Of 1896 until last spring, was
asked by the senators how many men
mad been wounded in a two days bat
tie at La Reforma, he replied:
We never knew the exact number
wounded, because so many are wound
ed VINO do not pay any attention to
1t L saw one man wounded who was
shot with a Mauser bullet, which
passed right through him, anu we
never knew anything about it for two
Gays.
That seems almost miraculous, but
1t is true. l suppose you have seen the
Mauser bullet. The lead is covered
with some metal. l can show you
wound that you would have said, if
1t had happened with any other cart
ridge, would have necessitated amputa-
ton. A bullet went right though my
ankle, and l was in the hospital only
two hours-long enough to have the
wound dressed. The bullet does not
make any fracture. 1 have never seen
- WV ~ GILL PuCcIlOI oluCS L nave UG60
on the island. And it does not cause
septicaemia.'
Capt. Smith showed his wound.
pointing out where the bullet had en-
tered his ankle and where it had left
it.
/ was never laid up minute" he
said; the doctor in camp simply
dressed the wound with iodoform and
a little antiseptic. That is why | say
it is almost impossible to give an
exact account of the wounded"
DR.. H. W. Danforth of Milwaukee.
who passed year in Cuba as ply
slc1an to President Salvador Cisneros.
astonished the senators by telling how
one night he crossed the Moron trocha.
saying that although there was no
attack on his party while they were
crossing, they were fired on, and a
cook got a bullet through the back in
his right lung, but it never bothered
him at all.
He kept right on his horse, and
kept right on with his business of
the doctor added, sit never
bothered him, as I could see." The
senator asked how DR.. Danforth &C
counted for that, and he replied: CAS-
| account for all wounds made by the |
Mauser rife bullet It is the most |
harmless and most humane rifle, and !
am intensely surprised at SPANS |
using it; the most barbarous nation in |
its treatment of the Cubans, according |
to the stories, and yet the most hui
name in the use of firearms.
The Mauser bullet is a steel-clad |
bullet Of 81 and a fraction calibre
That bullet will penetrate anywhere,
ind will go through you as a flash Of
will go through glass; but it
caves no disabling effect, and unless
t hits in vital-spot, as, for instance,
he heart, which is the only spot where
7ou can kill a person instantly and
wen then 1 have seen a person live
unless hit in a vital spot, you will
lot die.
Il have seen a man shot through the
lead and seen him alive and perfect