Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1904-06-18
THEY HATE THE NOISE

"Men-o'-war's men in action are more
concerned over the noise Of the ships
guns than over the danger of being hit by
missiles from the guns of the enemy" re-
marked an officer Of the navy who has
smelt his share OF powder in actual naval
warfare. They can, in q measure. get
away from the thought of being hit, be-
cause they are too busy at their stations
to consider that chance. But there is no
getting away from the noise of your own
guns. That's can't be forgot, or warded
on. The men are. in fact. so absorbed In
waiting for the barbarous detonatiOns from
their own huge barkers. and in trying to
neutralize the effect of the conclusion, that
they hardly think Of the projectiles from
the guns Of the enemy.
THAT 1t Is the noise of their own guns
that they abhor and that only is shown
by the fact that memo wars men do not
dread battle more than they dread tar
get practice with the big guns. They are
proud of their proficiency with the gil
gantic shooting irons. and keen is the
ship and fleet competition at the business
OF shooting at the anchored mark. But
the keenest among them hates and aboml-
mates the noise. The men simply can't
help making WY faces over the announce
ment of ship or fleet target practice with
the main batteries This dread of the
roaring Of the great guns is no indication
of timidity on the part of the men who
fee! it the strongest 1t Is purely a physi-
cal dread, a shrinking of the body, and not
of the mind.
Few men in the service ever become
really used to the roar of the great guns
There are officers and men in the Ameri-
can navy who have been up and down
the world on men-o'-war for a generation
and who abhor the yawp of the big guns
as much today as they hated 1t on the
ha6 70
"Bronzed old sailormen of the navy who
know Tangier and Tahiti well they
know New York, and who are as easy in
their minds when combing shellac alcohol
out of their mustaches with marlinspikes
as when quaffing ale at half a yen bottle
in Nagasakf. grow grouchy and fine-ladyish
under the strain of great gun practice, and
incontinently damn the big barkers from
all hands to pipe down Of a target day.
Many blue jackets, in fact purposely break
their liberty when they get the chance in
order to avoid being on board Of their
ships during great gun practice.
"Half-civilized men, fellows not highly
organized, endure the noise of the enor-
nous guns much less gamely than men
of superior order. The Cinnamon for
example, go all to pieces under the con-
tinuOus uproar. Americans who helped to
fight the Chinamens naval battle Of the
Yalu say that the detonations Of their own
guns drove slews of the Chinese sailors
stark mad. and made most Of them. off,
account for fighting purposes They SIM
ply couldn't stand the sound and the con-
cusson. The sailors groveled at the feet
OF the white gunners and begged them 10
cease firing. Some OF them jumped over
board and persisted by drowning to get
away from the uproar. Yet a Chinaman
hasn't half as much fear of death the
normal white man.
white men enduring the thing for the
first tine, have to keep mighty strong
clutch upon themselves to avoid doing
something foolish. Men new to the Titanic
uproar have a peculiar and almost unre-
strainable desire to scream with all their
might while the big guns are a-going.
THE old-timers who have conquered this
impulse look dumbly and helplessy at one
another during great gun practice. and say
heads in a queer sort Of deprecating way
after each stupendous report. These head
shakings express a good many things. but
nothing more strongly than that the head
shakers wish to gee-whiz that they were
somewhere else.
There is simply no way of explaining just
how 1t feels to be within close earshot of
the barking of the big guns. To know the
singular misery OF 1t each man must ex-
perience 1t for himself.
THE mere conclusion, let alone the strain
of waiting for each report. tells severely
upon many of the strongest men. 1t catches
most fellows about the spine. and jars them
all over and causes them to stay Jared
for days afterward. Such attacks some
times pass away with series of atrocious
headaches.
"It is the nervous system that is at
tackled, and the hardest and most rugged
sailormen cave in under these attacks Of
conclusion. 1t is to be remembered. too,
that the human being Is about the only ami
NAL capable of surviving the conclusion
following the firing of big guns-inferior
animals nearly always die from the eff
fects of the concussfon.
1.-The conclusion following the firing of a
big gun on a man-O'-war hits man on
deck like sharp slap of wind, and when
the full service charges are used, in a
battle, the conclusion will rip and tear
mans uniform into rags. 1t seems mar
velous that the mans body Is not ripped
and torn in the same way. and the fact
man is about the toughest and most leath-
cry live thing in creation.
but the fellows on deck are better OF
than the unfortunate chaps down below
the men at their fire stations the lower
decks, but most particularly the members
of the black gang or engineers force. Tho
black gang fellows are, most of all, the
ones out of luck during the big gun prac-
tice.
THE detonations come down the matches
with force of conclusion enormously am
plifled by the narrowness of the passage,
and the machnists and firemen and oilers
and water tenders and coal beavers are hit
as by Invisible pile drivers. The advantage
of the fellows on deck consists in the fact
that they can see when each shot is going
to be fired, and brace themselves for it
and lay against 1t, as they say. They have
a chance to get to their tiptOes and separate
their lower from their upper teeth. But
there is nothing doing of that kind with the
black gang. They have simply got to take
it 1t comes. 1t Is the horrible uncer-
tainty as to the exact instant when the
next shot is going to be fired that tells on
the man down below. He tries to figure out
by guesswOrk just when the next explosion
Is going to happen, but this is always
vain and frutless figuring. The detonation
always nails him when he isn't prepared for
it. That IS why the language heard in the
bowels of a man-of-war during the raging
of the big guns is simply saddening to
listen to-
Nose Surgery for Consumption.