The Forrest City times. [volume] (Forrest City, Ark.) 1871-1919, 1898-04-22
DEATH-DEALING MISSILES.
Destructiveness of the Modern Bul-
let-Whnt War Would he
An This Day.

1t has been said that the new army
rife is "humane"-that it punctures
clean holes, and is less likely to infiict
dangerous injury. According to tho
best evidence, however, the fact is very.
much the other way. The new-style
bullet, very long and with diameter
about the same as that of lead pencil,
leaves the gun with q velocity of half .
mile second, with pressure behind IL
OF 10000 pounds per square Inch Four
miles from the muzxle of the weapon, IL
is travelling at the rate of 400 yards >
second, and viii penetrate the abdomen
of man who hsppens to be in the way,
| Owing to its velocity, and to its rotary
motion of 400 revolutions a second, it
develops an explosive energy when it
strikes anything at moderate range,
| splintcring bones into small pieces and
effectually destroying any organ like
the liver or kidney.
| Owing to these conditions, man who
Is hit in an arm bone or leg bone by a
bullet from a modern rifle must in near
ly every instance die or submit to ampu-
tation. A hole through an important
blood vessel, being punched cleanly out.
results in profuse and dangerous hem
Drrhage right away, so that the victim
Is likely to die before surgical aid can
| arrive. Much valuable information in
this line has been obtained by firing ex-
perimentally at corpses at various
ranges, and observing the character OF
the injury inflicted. 1t has been found
in this manner, incidentally, that one Of
these bullets will pass through seven
men stood in line. The French have
done good deal of experimenting
with silhouette soldiers, cut out from
boards and fired at from given distances.
From the resulting hits they have tried
to reckon casualty percentages.
Under modern conditions troops
within firing distance of an enemy will
have to meet a veritable hail of bullets.
A modern rifle is able to deliver 40 shots
q minute. Herr Prinz, a German mill
tary surgeon, writing of the recent
civil war in Chilli, says: "The Balma-
cedists, who were no towards, declared
that their establishment, caused by the
terrible storm of projectiles, left them
unable to use their own weapons" In
a battle the rifles described will be sup
plemented by improved Gatling guns.
which fire 1000 shots minute, with
muzzle velocity of a quarter of a mile
second, and an effective range of III
miles. Under such circumstances, obvi-
ously, it will not be possible for mill
tary commanders to risk their troops in
the open, inasmuch as to do SO would be
wholesale suicide.
To illustrate the destructiveness of
modern weapons on land, let it be sup
posed that command il well posted
and concealed with six-gun battery
of these small breech-loading cannon,
couple of Gatlings, and regiment Of
700 infantry armed with Krag-Jorgen-
sen rifles. A hostile force of twice the
strength approaches to within dis
tance of 5000 yards. The range being
carefully calculated, allowing for the
expansion of the cones of fire from the
artillery, the six cannon will cover
line of 1,440 yards. At the word firing
begins, and in one minute 80 shrapnei
are hurled at the advancing foe. They
are burst 200 yards in front of the en-
emy, scattering 10,s00 messengers of
death among them. In the same min
ute two Gatlings deliver 1000 shots, and
the 1000 rifles discharge $4,000 projec-
tiles. In go seconds the space occupied
by l,50o men has been swept by tre-
mendous storm of 26,s00 missiles, and
two-thirds OF the oncoming soldiers are
laid low. One more minute, with an
other such discharge, and few survivors
are left to tell the tale of the DISASTER
Boston Transcript.
How Gold Was Found ON Klondfhe.
The famous Bonanza creek and the
more famous Eldorado creek are very
like ordinary, everyday creeks in ap-
pearance-a little less civilized, per-
haps, than creeks to be met with in
the east. There are men living i'm Alas
ka to-day who have hunted moose over
these creeks dozens of times; but, as
the old miners say, there were no sur
face indications to lead anyone to sup
pose that gold might be found in them.
SO hundreds of miners passed by in
their boats, going to Forty Mile and
Circle City. The finding of such gold
is always an accident, and the old
hands are usually the last to realize
the truth. stick George" Cormack
and his squaw's relatives camped on
the creek for dinner one day, and some
how got to digging, and washed out
some gold. He went to Forty Mile and
made claim for discovery, and soon the
news spread like wildfire.-John Sid
ney Webb, in Century.
fAOxy Rarher CuII~ H~rsoIf .Nst~.
A young widow, whose husband died
two years ago. has opened barber
shop, and her sign reads: Miss Boyd.
Barber" Asked why she called herself
miss, she naively replied that she had
good business reasons; that mea
seemed to prefer TO be shaved and "ton-
sorialized" by an unmarried woman;
they seem to hesitate at having their
hair cut by woman whose husband
might come in and offer to attend to the