The San Francisco call., 1898-02-20

! into SerNlce al d HIolIlehN 9 Ho
 tice. and which would prove
 very annoying to an enemy. Comparatively little is known about the signal corps of the army ana US inportant work. Aerial military ma neuvers, photographing from great heights and distances, laying, equip ping and operating telegraph and tele- phone lines in time of battle at rate as fast as horse can travel, are inter esting matters, and all of them are achieved by this branch of the service. The Signal Corps on a peace footing consists of ten officers and score or more of sergeants, together with small detachments of enlisted men detailed for this special service at the various posts on the frontier, where instruction in the work of the corps Is given. Brigadier- General A. w. Greedy of Arctic fame is in command of the corps, and has his headquarters at Washington, D. c. Too much credit cannot be given this thoroughly eff cient officer, who is to a large degree responsible for the perfection in all branches of the work that obtains to- day. The largest school of instruction at present is at Fort Logan, Colorado. Captain w. A. Glassford, chief signal officer of the Department of the Colo rado, Is in charge, and has in his de- tachment three sergeants and eigh- teen detailed enlisted men.
 In the present day, owing to the rapid advance made in modern fire arms, the necessity has arisen for means of instant communication from one part of a battlefield to another. For the transmission of orders, in struction, reports, etc, nothing Is so swift as electricity. The aerial ex- ploits of some of these men outrival the widest dreams of old-time aero nauts-for a balloon train is now part of the field equipment of the modern United States army.
 Supposing that a state Of actual war fare exists. we will go with the signal men into the field and see how the field telegraph and telephone lines are put up and operated. The telegraph train consists of three wagons, Of the usual army type, built for rough, hard ser vice. The electrical batteries are se- cureIy packed in wooden bins or cells in one of these wagons, to prevent their topping over, in transit An other compartment in this same wagon provides safe storage for the tele- graph instruments and necessary sup plies.
 The second wagon is known as the wire wagon. It carries supply of or dinary galvanized telegraph wire suffi- cient to erect a line ten or a dozen miles in length This wire is carried upon reels which pay it out automatically, once the line has been started. The third wagon carries the slender poles or lances, together with the necessary insulators to support the wire and tools for setting the lances in the ground.
 The wagon train jogs along at a fair rate of speed, after leaving the post and no one knows, except the officer in com mand just where or when the line is to be put up. The order for double time" was given, and after the men had trotted a short distance the order to halt was sounded. The officer in com mand had selected his imaginary line and directed the battery wagon to be placed in a certain position when halted The men ran to the wire wagon and swarmed over it; others of them attacked the pole or lance truck and in an instant a stream of poles was issu ing from that wagon that could only be approached by an army of circus ern- plOyes dismantling big tent. The gen. eral direction of the line was indicated by the officer and the men set to work Two of them, armed with huge crow bars, trOtted off in the direction the line - was to take One of them halted at about fifty or sixty yards from the bat tery wagon and thrust the sharpened end of the steel bar into the ground The other passed him and went twice as far, when he, too, thurst the sharp instrument into the yielding soil. The first man had now run around him and his place, where he had dug the first hole was taken by a group of men armed with one of the lances, an insu- lator and the end of the wire, which was now spinning out of the rear end of the wire wagon. In less time than it takes to tell 1t, the lance or pole was set, the insulator was in posi- .tion and the wire was attached. The men were already at the second station, where pole was going up, before I had time to make a photograph. The men with the crowbars were now far away and going farther all the time. That row of bristling poles seemed to grow like magic and one could almost see them run. Tn an incredibly short space of time-but little longer than it would have taken me to walk to the edge of the timber-the line had disappeared among the trees. While l was wonder ing what would be done next, the in- strument in the battery wagon began to tick and a message came in over the newly COnSITuCIeQ llH6, dSkiUB IOT 1uT- -ther instructions. Orders were flashed back and the line was continued all the way to the foothills
 Military ballooning has also advanced to such a state of perfection during the past few years that it will be perfectly within the range of possibility, in case of war. to accurately photograph an enemy's position. obtain accurate maps of his Notifications, etc, etc, without sending any one within his lines. The balloon service as it has been con- ducted at Fort Logan proves this con- clusively To the uninitiated 1t would seem out of the question to transport a balloon with an army and to send 1t up for observation purposes at any time or at any place. Yet the difficult ties that naturally surround this prob lem have all been overcome and to-day there is at Fort Logan fully equipped balloon field train, ready for service at any moment.
 The balloon train consists of three wagons, similar in construction to those described above and which transport the field telegraph paraphernalia. The