The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1900-03-04

on Tor week after week and month after month,
fighting an invisible enemy Personally, I saw
| q few score Beers running away at Belmont, q
smaller number escaping from the punishment
vi were netting out To them al Graspan and several
hundred showing themselves with uncommon
impudence and courage on before The beginning OF
the battle OF Modder River But have no doubt
there are men in our army who have never seen a
Boer in battle. know Of Officers who have only
seen one or two IN one battle and I'VE or six in
another, In engagement after engagement our
men have thrown themselves upon the yeldt,
moved 10 do NJ by a hail OF bullets around them
and then have fired away for hours at a time AT
the noise or the fame OF the enemy $ ire in trenches
which they could not zee,
This II true to such an extern, that at Modder
River there were whole ba,talions OF ours that
did not know al the end Of the day whether the
enemy was north or south OF the river In fact,
they believed. during the entire battle, that the
enemy was on the farther side Of the river. I'm.
der such circumstances II we did not pick up sons
wounded and take some prisoners as actual,
ocular proof Of the existence OF a flesh and blood
enemy. we might almost expect the moro imagi
native Of our soldiers 10 believe that they had been
fighting a vapor or an essence. They have seen
the earth crack apart and vomit fame and bul
lets; they have heard the hell's chorus OF battle,
they have seen their comrades fall dead and man
gled by their sides: but they have not seen the
men who produced the tumult and the damage.
This, then, is one OF the new conditions Of war
which has TO be taken into account.
with the introduction OF smokeless powder a
foe intrenched or hiding behind rocks is a foe in
visibls. And 1t takes a tenfold stouter heart TO
fight an unseen enemy than 10 ombatw with a sub
%stantisl line Of flesh aud blood beings or lies ping,
running target Of brown smoke which locates IT,
tit does not reveal the party OF the second part
We do know that a European army fighting under
European rules IL a clumsy wea pom against the
Bosr who opposes us with weapons which render
one man as good as ten. and oil ten invisible
We%remember the old saying, that all army moves
upon It's belly, and We make it read the modern
army must fight upon its belly
The actual as opposed TO the moral effect oil tbs
lyddie shells is still a matter of much discussion.
THE Suns correspondent in Pretoria sends
the following report which was written by a bur
CHER named Preller, serving in Gen boihas
laager outside Lady smith and sent to + j kleigh-
naus. Minister Of Mines In Pretoria
We were told by those who called themselves
our friends how unwise il would he for MS TO attempt
10 measure our strength against that OF Eng
land. and we're informed that the rocks behind
which in other wars We had taken shelter would
not serve US In this case. for the agencies which
were TO I've employed would shower down upon
us a hellish rain OF devastating material which
would scatter our rocky shelters like chat be
fore the wind. For hundreds Of square yards
around The spot whore one Of these death deal
tnr Instruments fll pnihinr MAS 10 pSca ne With
life, the terrible lydGitr was TO perform with a
certainty such as had never before been known,
its murterous work. And all these ,errors, which
had been so nssiduouSly preparing for ny for
years past. have, after all, not proved as terrible
as We were led 10 expect Our surprise on heing
asked by the prisoners whom we had captured
from the English What effect had the lyddl,e
shells when they BURST canno, be described in
words, We had found DUN dunn bullets on
the battlefield, but that lyddi,e had been used
we never dreamed. On more careful invest'
CATION we found, however, that there was some
thing strange in connection with the greenish-
yellow column Of smoke which arose wherever
the bombs fell, and at once rose the cry, take
care, there Il death in that smoke, poison there
must he or otherwise i, were Impossible for death
TO be spread for a space OF 400 yards around
Apu sucn DESTRUCTION must thhe pdCe De'duno
the English themselves had said so
We have been convinced II was lyddite
II SO happened that We had an opportunity Of see.
ing for ourselves the effect OF lyddite. and that
we we're able to form some conoe ption Of The conse-
quences Of inhaling the deadly fumes. We
were standing close TO one Of the Long Toms
which was attracting the FIRE OF the enemy as
the magnet attracts steel, II rhined heavy and
fast around us from the enemy's guns, when The
ships cannon landed a shell close 10 us. II made
a tremendous noise as it struck the ground, some
distance behind our gun, sank about four feet
in the yielding soil, and coming upon rock, burst
with a most unearthly noise similar to that which
is caused by violently hammering an iron build
ing with a heavy hammer. II made a hole in
the ground big enough TO bury a horse in. 1t
50 happened that one OF our men was at that time
no, more than ten PAGES from the spot where
the shell exploded and loud were our ex IMPRESSIONS
Of sympathy with the poor man whom We should
never see again the frs, victim Of the lyddite bomb
The fatal smoke cloud rose high in the air. and
the fragments Of the shell hurled through space.
with a s~narling sound in all directions Our
man stood up, walked toward the hole which
had been made by the shell, and stood calmly
gazing down into IT,
With respect to the actual working Of the bombs,
| may inform you that the material In the bag
marked Y appears To he ignited Immediately
upon the projec,ile coming into contact with any
hard substance, and this Immediately sets fire
10 the lyddite, which e~Nplodes with the effect
above described. The English say that lyddite
has six tines the explosive power Of dynamite,
but, at the same time. /, is quiescent, and will
not, like dynamite, explode merely upon impact,
and it cannot, therefore, be fred with ordinary
powder, and when i, falls It bursts into fragments,
which scatter on every side. When the lyddi,e was
s1perimented with in Pretoria tho same results
were obtained, and We came W the conclusion
that the proiectiles were about as harmless as
those ~ the early part Of the eighteenth century"
THE IORCE OF ABI