The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1900-03-04

ments fell nothing was to escape with life,
the terrible lyddite was to perform with
a certainty such as had never before been
known its murderous work. And all
these terrors, which had been so assidu-
ously preparing for us for years past,
have, after all, not proved as terrible as
we were led to expect. Our surprise on
being asked by the prisoners whom we
had captured from the English, What cf-
feet had the lyddite shells when they
burst? cannot be described in words. We
had found dum-dum bullets on the bat
tlefeld, but that lyddite had been used we
had never dreamed On more careful in
vestigation we found, however, that there
was something strange in connection with
the greenish-yello column of smoke
which arose wherever the bombs fell and
at once rose the cry, take care, there IS
death in that smoke, poison there must
be, or otherwise il were impossible tor
death to be spread for a space of 400 yards
around. And such destruction must take
place, because the English themselves had
said So
1--WE have been convinced. 1t was lyd-
dite. II so happened that we had an OPP
portunity of seeing for ourselves the eff
feet of Iyddite, and that we were able to
form some conception of the consequences
of inhaling the deadly fumes We were
standing close to-one of our Long Toms
which was attracting the fire of the enc
my as the magnet attracts steel; 1t raine1
heavy and fast around US from the en-
emys guns, when the ships cannon land
ed shell close to us. 1t made
a tremendous noise as 1t struck
the ground, some distance behind our gun,
sank about four feet in the yielding soil,
and, coming upon rock, burst with most
unearthly noise similar to that which is
caused by violently hammering an iron
building with heavy hammer. 1t made q
hole in the ground big enough to bury
horse in. 1t so happened that one OF oui
men was at the time not more than tep
PAGES from the spot where the shell eX'
ploded and loud were our expressions Of
sympathy with the poor man whom We
should never see again, the first victim OF
a lyddite bomb. The fatal smoke CLOUD
rose high in the air, and the fragments OF
the shell hurtled through space, with
snarling sound, in all directions. Our men
stood up, walked toward the hole, which
had been make by the shell, and stood
calmly gazing down into it. AS ALREADY
said. 1--WE found certain portions of these
bombs, containing not only lyddite, but also
the chemical matter required in order ia
explode 1t, and send herewith a portion
in order that 1t may be analysed. Inc
lyddite itself may be seen in the posses
sion of DIR. Cunning In the State Mu'
scum.
The enemy uses lyddte in connection
with two guns of 1875 centimeters and these
are, so we are informed, ships guns serV-
ed by the sailors. and are situated in the
hills to the north of the town, and FIRE
two kinds of shells
With respect to the actual working Of
the bombs, l man inform you that the
material in the bag marked X appears "a
be ignited Immediately upon the projectild
coming into contact with any hard sub
stance, and this Immediately sets fire u
the lyddite, which explodes with the ef'
feet above described. The English say
that lyddite has six times the explosive
power of dynamite, but, at the same time
1t Is quiescent, and will not, like dynamite
explode merely upon impact, and it can
not therefore, be fired with ordinary pow
der and when II falls IL bursts into frag
ments, which scatter on every side. When
the iyddite was experimental with in Pre-.
toria the same results were obtained, and
we came to the conclusion that the projec
tiles We're about as harmless as those Of
the early part of the eighteenth century