The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-12-15
Rife

the Argentine Republic and Belgium the
name is Mauser. but in Spain and Turkey
they are MOusers. title previously con-
ferred on cats. Austria. Chile. Germany.
Holland and Roumania call the dogs of
war MannlicheT. but I'm Denmark and. in
oted, In the United States. ten years ago.
Trey were krag-JOrgensens. They arc Lee
MedfOrds in England, Lebels and Berthiers
IL France. Mann-Carcanos in Italy. Daude-
teaus In Sweden Schmidts in Switzerland,
and Springfields i'm the United States. The
last named, however. are greatly inn
proved breed over those Of fifty years ago.
II you will peep into dogs mouth or,
tetter. that of wolf. you will see four
pointed teeth called CANNES. They look
tor all the world like cartridges. There are
similar teeth in your own mouth. but they
would be sorry weapons in a contest with
carnivorous beasts all of which have ex-
cellent piercing and decorating weapons in
their jaws Ii would seem that the creator
I'm depriving humanity OF such weapons and
at the same time giving them larger and
finer brains. much said. Il want you
10 be cunning and Thoughtful. Go TO work
and make teeth or fangs sharper than ony
OF these. Put wings or your teeth so they
may fly and bite, and springs in their limbs
50 that they may bite deeper and surer."
The rifle cartridges are these winged
tangs. and for this reason such weapons
are called the dogs Of war.
The family tree of the rifle would read
some what i'm the following order: Breech-
loading rifle. son OF percussion musket,
OF Flintlock Muslxet. son of Match
lock MIusket or Hackenbuse. Musket is
old French for Hawk, son of Terquebus,
son of Valverin. son of Arbalest, son of
Crosbow. son Of Longbow. son Of Bow. son
of Nimrod IL will be interesting to trace
this genealogy downward with greater care,
remembering that as you have the canine
teeth and all the complex apparatus of
lone and muscle i'm the dog you have also
the missile and the mechanism for making
IT effective in the rifle and its ancestor.
The whole group are weapons for pierre
ing, cutting or mangling at a distance-they
are missile. The most primitive bow now
in use is long spindle of wood, with little
attempt at differentiation of parts or orna-
ments. The Hawaiians. SamOans and other
brown Polynesians had no bows, the same
Is true OF the Inca Peruvians. But all
other unciviized peoples had the weapons
in some form.
INDIAN INVENTORS.
The Indian tribes about the Straits of
Magellan may be taken as the starting
point in the long series of inventions. Their
bow is stick. consisting of inhexible grip
for the hand, elastic wings to speed the
missile. string TO transfer the energy to
the arrow and the arrow itself, with rigid
shaft. piercing head of bottle glass. feath-
ers to act as a rudder and hook or notch
for the bow string. IL is a device of what
Emerson names that cunning little
creature called man" to take the place of
his arm. In sooth IL is often written
arm" He had all sorts of murderous
weapons before he made the bow-dag-
gers, spears, javeins. fists, clubs and sings,
knives. swords and pole axes. These. one
and all. used up the elasticity of his mus
Gle, operating gradually and I'm any direc-
ton like a free running machine or most
suddenly and in one direction as any pent
up force will act when instantly released
The Fuegan bow is of the latter kind, an
elastic stick in which the power of the
arm Is slowly accumulated i'm drawing and
suddenly set free in releasing. 1 may be
pardoned for dwelling a moment at this
point. for human intellect was on the rack
thousands OF years devising first this and
then some other mechanism to hold the
force of elasticity and then to release it
suddenly.
From the first il was known that the
rear end of an arrow called the shaftment.
ought to have the greatest resistance from
the air The inventions proposed to secure
this will be considered later.
Starting out from the Fuegian bows IL is
interesting 10 note how various savage
tribes have constructed theirs, governed by
the materials at hand and the game TO be
killed. No better method could be found
for making this study than to walk with
the savages all the way from Magellan
strait 10 Point Barrow. The South Ameri-
can. middle American. eastern North
American and Rock mountain tribes all
use the plain or self-bow. Here it is of
black palm wood there of hard tropical
wood in another place 1T is black walnut
Usage orange. hickory, ash, oak or even
willow, owing TO the varying humors OF
dame nature, but over nearly the whole
continent as well as in the entire negro
Malay and European areas only the simple
form is used
In passing il will be well to notice a
piercing projectile in the Amazon region
and among Malay peoples that may have
whispered in the ears of the men who have
invented the arquebuss L mean the blow
tube arrow. There is barrel to give di-
rection TO the missile. which is sent on its
mission by the expansion OF a gas-the hui
man breath-in the tube and by another
gas produced by the explosion of the gun
powder in the firearm. No historic proof
survives. however, that any collision ex-
listed. The perfection of the self-bow was
reached i'm England, as everybody knows
who has read Roger Ascham's ''Toxophi-
Ius'' or Conan DoyIe's White Compan = =
or who has heard of Robin Hood. said to
have been able TO shoot flight arrow the
distance OF a mile.
OTHER KINDS OF BOWS.
on the Pacific coast of America. in the
Interior basin. among the Eskimo, and
throughout Asia. the self-bow gives place
10 the compound or the built up bow. In a
few areas the ingenuity Of man has had to
contend against terrible odds, which. how
ever. have quickened his intellect TO pro-
duce on Hudson bay sOrry-bOw in three
pieces. a grip and wings Of bone dashed to-
gether: or on the treeless regions of the
Missouri "A horn-bow.
But the tribes OF California and Utah
knew how 10 make a broad bow of yew or
other wood. to shred sinew from the shout
ders. legs and tails of animals until il was