Arizona republican., 1899-12-05

 FORWARDED

The citizens of the little village of Snowden's. Va, few miles below Fort Foote, on the Potomac, had an eXperi ence last week through which none of them cares to go again. Snowden's is farming settlement, where several houses are built in close proximity to each other along the river front Thursday and Friday last the commit nity suddenly found itself under a bombardment almost as fierce as that of the Boers at the beleagured city of Ladysmith in Natal. Eight-inch shells fired from siege guns at the govern ment artillery post at Fort Foote shrieked and whizzed about the inhabi- tants. their houses and barns, and nat urally brought terror in excessive abundance. The residents of the place declare that their lives and property were placed in peril through careless ness on the part of some one connected with the government service.
 It is stated that the artillerymen sta- | tioned at Fort Foote were recently or dered to do some practice shooting with eight-inch siege guns. A target was placed two miles below the fort in the Potomac river, and about 200 yards from the Virginia shore. The settle ment of Snowden's, one-half mile be- low, was in the direct line of fire. It was not through any exceptionally bad shooting on the part of the artillery gunners that the shots carried so far beyond their mark, but the officers in charge evidently did not reckon on the skipping propensities of shells striking the water at anything of an angle.
 The first the inhabitants knew of their danger was last Thursday morn ing, when the shells began to pass through their yards and over their buildings. Captain Snowden, while in his orchard, was startled by the shriek of shell which passed directly through the top of the apple tree under which he was standing. The projectile finally lodged in a nearby hillside, from which it was afterward disinterred. It measured eight inches in diameter and twenty-four inches in length. The shell is now held as a souvenir of a narrowing incident. A number of ad- ditional shells struck on Captain Snow den's place, while some went further still, landing in the yard of MT. George Zimmerman. One missed that gentle mans barn by about six feet. No one happened to be in the yard at the time and there was luckily no damage.
 Naturally, the knowledge that they were being fired upon put the people of Snowden's in terrible fright. Cap tain Snowden made his way into the city early Friday morning, visited the war department and made quick pro- test. He was told the target practice would be stopped at once, but before word could be conveyed to the troops at Fort Foote the firing was resumed and another bombardment of Snow den's resulted. One of the shells from the second firing struck in the yard ot Mir. Van Ness, where it was shattered a fragment making it's way into the house.
 You might have thought that Az uinaldo had suddenly been discovered in our midst" said a resident of Snow den's, and that the army was trying to force him to surrender. It was more from good luck than care in placing the target that our lives were not sacrf- feed. The official responsible for the placing of the target must have known that the houses beyond would be ir danger from the skipping shells. The houses are in plain view from the tar get. The people of our section of V1r- ginia are as patriotic as any you may find in the whole country and want oui gunners to be the very best shots ir the world. but prefer that they do theil practicing in more secluded spots. - Washington Star.