The Black Hills union. [volume] (Rapid City, Pennington County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1889-1904, 1898-07-15
MAKES-FRlGHTFUL WOUNDS.

Spanish guerrillas, whose shots killed
American marines at Guantanamo,
may not have mutilated the bodies af-
ter death, but it is believed thai they
may have been guilty Of a crime Just
as brutal-that Of using explosive bull
lets.
Surgeons who examined the bodies of
the men who died at Guantanamo have
reported that it is possible hat the
ghastly mutilations We're caused only
by the bullets from the Mauser rifles
used by the Spanish, but, in the opinion
of men who LAY studied the work of
the Mauser rifle, there is much evil
dence to show that the Spaniards used
bullets tina We're practically explosive,
thereby violating every law of human
ity in civilized warfare.
Dr. Won Coler witnessed the effects
OF one of these explosive bullets, which
struck the forehead of a man at 81
yards. He says:
The skull was shattered compltely,
the bones n scalp were torn into the
smallest atoms and scattered in all di
rections.
The entire base of the skull was
broken up into separate pieces of bone.
PUPPY. Nothing was left of the brain
but a little pulpy substance mixed with
fragments Of bone.'
Many years ago every military power
but one agreed that, in war, it would
use no explosive projectile less than
one inch in diameter. Spain was one
of the chief promoters of the agree
ment. The n nation which did not
join in the agreement was the United
States, and it refused on the same
grounds that a man might refuse to
sign an agreement not to be a traitor
to his country-that the mere request
was an insufferable insult. America has
never used the weapons that savored
OF barbarism, h has never expert
mented with poisonous shells or sup
piled her troops with bullets that would
mushroom" when they struck flesh.
Spain has lone these things and is
doing them yet, though Spain signed
the agreement.
1t is a fact, proved by many expert
ments, as we'll as by the British cam
pa1gn in the Chitral, that only under
exceptional circumstances will one of
the small caliber bullets used in mod
ern military rifles cause mutilation.
The bullet is specially prepared so
that it cannot mushroom" 1t can also
be specially prepared so that it will
and Spain's troops have found out how
to do it.
The Mauser bullet inflicts a wound
horrible enough ever without the Span
ish improvement. If one of the ordi-
nary bullets hits a man in the chest at
1000 yards it will pass through him.
The hole at the point of entrance would
not admit the little finger of a surgeon,
but that at the point Of exit would ad-
NIT his clenched fist.
Under the same circumstances, with
one Of the Spanish improved bullets
the wound at the point Of entrance
would admit a mans fist. There would
be no d~iscernible point of exit, for
there simply would be no back left
upon the nan thus struck.
This, according to the descriptions re-
ceived from Guantanamo, exactly de-
scribes the condition Of the bodies of
the marines killed by the Spanish, ex-
cept that, with true Spanish courage,
they had sneaked up and shot them in
the back. The result was the utter de-
struction of the viscera and the pro-
duction Of wounds of such ghastliness
that 1t is small wonder the survivors
believed that deliberate bestiality on
the part of the Spaniards had produced
the conditions they found.
The marines were probably wrong in
believing that Spanish knives and ma
chetes mutilated their lead comrades,
but when they learn, as they will, the
story of the bullets used at Guantan-
amo, they are hardly likely to regret
the sternness of the revenge they took
the next day.
The bullets carried by the Mauser RI
fes used by the Spanish are not as
large as an ordinary lead pencil and
are about n inch long. A heavy
charge of smokeless powder gives them
a velocity unequaled by n of the
larger calibers. Because Of this high
velocity it was found at first thai the
ordinary leaden bullets "stripped' in
the barrel of the gum. 1t was also
shown that, because of this same veloc-
ity, they would assume strange shapes
and inflict h most horrible wounds.
Partly to prevent this loss of weight
in the bullet and partly from the die
tates of humanity the ordnance experts
of every country have invariably in
sisted that the leaden bullets shall be
inclosed in a hardened casing of copper,
German silver or nickeled steel. The
Spaniards are supposed to encase their
bullets in nickeled copper.
Felt Like Napoleon.
Did you ever nave your fortune told
and the whole secret of your life un-