The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-03-06

Po""ef 10 discharge the torpedo from the
c''se toward the object it is intended to
Destroy. When the torpedo is once de-
ilNefed into the sea. it moves automatic
any the compressed air gets to work
Oh inc screw, which prOpels the little
dlaole 400 yards, the direction having
o'tH given by close mathematical calcu-
la'ioil on the part of the commander and
lile executive officer. There is a vertical
oIdue partly composing the frame en-
closing the screw This keeps 1.-The
llihg plumb, and at right angles to
inns Is horizontal ruddcr bending up
ana down with the pliancy of Il human
manu- held parallel to the ground and
worked up and down. One may get
some idea of the power of the charge of
4uo pounds of gun-cOttOn when 1T is said
that 600 pounds of gun-cotton could have
caused the disaster to the Maine. Life
on theSe tOrpedo-boats is not Il happy one
specially at sea: in fact. they were not
punt for sea-service, but Teddy RoOse-
Helt has been lately seeing just how
much they would stand as in the case of
the NinSl0w which came near being
nipped in gale off Far Rockaway not
long ago. During these gales 1t
Is almost air-tight below deck. the hatch
eS being hattened down, the companion
way being the only hope and that let's
IN the sea-. The officers qurters-tW0
Officers on each bOat-are like collins
about feet wide for the executive Of
ficer ana about feet long, being under
water. The condensation, in the close
ness is something almost overwhelming,
requiring the staunchest men TO with
stand the exposure. Yet the young naval
officers crave the honor of being assign
ed aboard of one of them. For example,
there are rs many as 800 applications TO
90 even on one of them. so that the
system has been hit upon of allowing the
commander the privilege of staying only
one year. and the executive officer, six
months But when one sees the Stagna-
ton i'll the life of n young officer aboard
the cruisers, one does not wonder at
this torpcdo-boat ambition among young
chaps of red blood and courage. BY the
bye. Mr.. Worth Bagley, of Raleigh. as
most Of his friends know, rs executive
officer aboard the Winslow. which has
just sailed for Key West. One compen-
sation in their speed of - knots an hour
is the fact that they can get away from
INV tiFiiIH just as 4tt>l as tiCN SOA 1T
him, and live to fight another day.
Wonder if all these Tar-Heel young
fellows who are Offering their services
for the impending conflict can imagine
what it feels like to be i'm battle? Some
of their daddics might try to tell them
and then fail. The feeling doubtless is
hard to describe Stephen Crane de-
scribcs it in the Red Badge of Courage
very wildly and very humorously. Per
sOnal courage in a battle probably de-
penis very much upon the digestion. If
II fellows heart beats well and his food
and he are friends. courage comes ma
naturally. Then. men are naturally caur-
ageDuS. There are very few towards; il
there are any. in nine cases out of ten,
II is due TO physical infirmity of some
kind or to conscience. Jcb Stuart, en-
joyed the exhilaration of this high physi-
cal state when he would make his cayal-
ry sweep around the enemy Just FOR illn,
until mt Gettysburg they had almost. to
stop and wait because they couldn't
find him. 1t is study to see how. lightly
men regard death at such moments.
Page McCarty, the famous Virginia
.duelist who Killed M0rdecai, and. Whose
father before him killed Mason, told me
once while he was acting rs
second in the Beirne-E clam duel when
ELAN was shot, that mentcithcr buoy
antly rode danger on carried danger by
main force. NFhat was his experience.
and he was pitileSsly cool before an an
tagoniSt. Du 'Mauricr, also. in Peter
IbbetSOn emphasizes the effect of physi.
cal health upon courage as well as upon
the attitude of one toward death. All
philosophy is learning how to die, some
body said. and if there were no death
there would be no philosophy. Probably
il poor COwper had kept up his health
he would not have been haunted with the
horrors of the objectionable sim which
caused him to write the most lgonizingIy
wrptched wall i'm the English language.
When his friend was drowned, he wept
over him in verse. as TennysOn did over
Arthur IIalIam uttering this note of
horror referring to his own spiritual
state.
but 1 beneath a blacker gulf than
he.
Am 'whelmed'
And yet death came and he went to
sleep. A laynan has no business
preaching; he should confine himself to
physical attitudes, and let the preachers
do the rest People get worried about
death. and so crazy. AS Oliver Wendell
Holmes says if Il man cannot find Il lOgi-
cal way out of hiSsdilcmna, it is his duty
to go crazy and he is Il fool if he don't.
But while keeping up the spiritual end
much depends on physical wholesome
ness which c0lors death with the tone Of
Rest and ribs it of much of the terrors
that are talked but which are rarely
seen on death beds. Nature helps
a mans religion lot in letting one down
gradually from the healthy state into
the fathomIess sea. wrapped in dreams
a little work. little play-and then
goOd-dayw That is Dir Maurier's
healthy way of looking ut life and death
and if the true music of the words were
heard by all, even death in contcmpla-
ton. as of sleep. would not be without
Its sweetness.
One chap the other day in Raleigh
wrote off and handed to another chap
"The Vampire" Kipling's brilliant
verses. Chap number two, who is a lit
crary fellow was led to believe that
the lines were written by chap number
one. and he was asked please to revise
and suggest any Improvement he might