Freeland tribune. (Freeland, Pa.) 1888-1921, 1899-08-17
AMERICAN SIGNAL GUNS.
NOW HEARD EVERY NIGHT ALL
OVER THE EARTH.

Awaken Him just Before His Owr
Signal Gun Doomed.
Webster's allusion to Great Britain
as ga power which has dotted over
the whole globe with her possessions
and military posts, whose morning
drum beat, following the sun and
keeping company with the hours, cir
cles the earth with one continuous and
unbroken strain OF the martial airs OF
England" may not have been an orig
inal idea with him. Captain John
Smith in some of his writings alludes
to the Spanish soldier who brags that
the sun never sets on Spanish domin-
ions, but lever shineth ON one part OF
other" while both Schiller and Wal
ter Scott put similar ideas in the
mouths of their Spanish characters.
But our late war with the dons has
stripped the Spaniard of large part
of his braggadocio so that it no longer
takes Old Sol long time to traverse
the dominions of Spain.
But the decrease in time of the sum-
traversing the dominion of the don re-
suited in an increase in the time of its
wandering over the domain of the
Yankee. Previously the first army
gun fired to salute the rising of the
sun was in Fort Preble, Maine, and
the last at the Preside, San Francisco.
Now dozen salutes to the sun are
fired in advance of that at Fort Preble
the guns at posts in Porto Rico; and
number after those at the Preside
at Dyea, Honolulu and in the Philip
pines.
The custom of firing these guns is
observed in camps in the field as well
as at posts and garrisons, because it
is one of the institutions of the army
commanded by the army regulations,
and is as much matter of law as the
mastering in of troops or the rules of
discipline. This institution of saluting
the coming and going of the sun has
existed from time unremembered. 1t
is the practice not only in America
but in the leading nations of the world.
Our army regulations require that the
reveille (morning) gun be fired at a
time no earlier than $50 a. m. in sum-
mer nor g. 80 a. IN. in winter and the
evening gun at sunset. Local and
not standard time is followed. The
ceremony is in charge of the officer of
the day who details sergeant and two
enlisted men to fire the gun. These
sergeants generally go by their own
watches and any available proprietary
medicine almanac will do to determine
the hour Of sunset. There is, never
theless a reasonable degree of regu-
larity and simultaneousness through
out the country since these almanacs
are made from the ephemera published
by the naval observatory.
1t costs Uncle Sam to maintain this
custom about $15, 900 year, about the
same amount as it costs to fire a few
thirteen-inch guns. Cheap grades of
powder, costing about fifteen cents n
pound, are used. These two signal
shots each day have the effect of mill
tary order to all the men at the post,
garrison or camp. The evening gun
is the concluding ceremony of the day
and is fired with the last note of the
bugle sounding the retreat, when the
flag is lowered, no honors are shown to
any one, and all sentinels understand
that they are to challenge friend
or foe until the morning gun ushers in
the break of day. Even if the Prcsi-
dent or the commander-in-c chief of the
army were to appear after sunset a
salute would not be fired in his honor.
The biggest guns used in giving these
signals are the eight-iEch rifles on
Governors Island, which are fred
with great regularity and preciseness,
and as their boom sounds throughout
the vicinity of New York City and
Brooklyn every vessel of whatever ma
ture in port has to Immediately dis
play its lights for the night.
There are 144 military posts of
Uncle Sam that are under these regu-
lations.
The first shot fired at sunrise comes
from the garrison on the island of
Vieques, east of Porto Rico. In its
westward journey the sun is saluted
almost in constant succession until
the shot at Aguidilla, on the extreme
west coast of Porto Rico, is fired.
Approximately Sc venteen minutes af-
ter this Porto Ric an gun is sounded,
the cannon at Fort Preble, in Portland
harbor, Maine, booms. The success
sion continues in the United States
until Fort Meyer, across the Potomac
River, is reached Just as the Fort
Meyer gun sounds, the Fifth Infantry
at Santiago hears the daily gun. AS
the sun travels in the heavens stimuli
taneous shots are fired in Cuba and
the United States. After the Pinar
del Rio shot is heard, the line of fire
returns to the mainland and moves
westward through the various military
posts scattered over our big country
until it reaches the Preside at San
Francisco. Forty minutes after the
Presidio's shot comes fire from Fort
Wrangel, and twenty minutes still
later the gun at Dyea, Alaska, is
heard. An hour after the Dyea gun
the sun calls upon the gunner at
Honolulu for salute. And finally,
seven hours and fifteen minutes
elapse after the Preside shot before