The star. (Reynoldsville, Pa.) 1892-1946, 1904-12-28
NOISE OF BIG GUNS.
FeAtEul EFFECTS OF THE TITANIC
uPHo 4 ON THE NERVES.

concerned over the noise of the ships
guns than over the danger of being hit
by missiles from the guns of the enc
my" remarked an officer of the navy
who has smelt his share of powder in
actual naval warfare. "They can In a
measure get away from the thought
of being hit, because 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
can't be forgotten or warded Off. 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 concus-
sion that they hardly think of the
projectiles from the guns of the enc
my.
"That IL is the noise of their own
guns that they nbhor, and that only, Is
shown by the fact that men-of-war's
men do not dread battle more than
they dread target practice with the big
guns. They are proud of their prof.
cheney with the gigantic shooting irons,
and keen is the ship and fleet competi-
ton at the business of shooting ut the
anchored mark.
"But the keenest among them hates
and abominates the noise. The men
simply can't help making wry faces
over the announcement of ship or fleet
tnrget 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 feel 1t the
strongest. 1t is purely physical dread,
a shrinking of the body and not of the
mind.
"Few men in the serviee ever become
really used to the roar of the great
guns. There are officers and men in
the American navy who have been up
and down the world on men-or-war for
a generation and who abhor the yawp
of the big guns as much today as they
hated II on the first day they had to
stand for ii.
"BronZed old sailor men Of the navy,
who know Tangier and Tahiti as well
as they know New York and who are
as easy in their minds when combing
with marlinspikes as when quafiing ale
at half Il yen II bottle in Nagasaki. grow
grouchy and fine ladyish under the
strain Of great gun practice and incon-
tinently curse the big barkers from all
hands to pipe down of target day.
Many blucja kets, in fact pu!posely
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 high
ly organized, endure the noise of the
enormous guns much less gamely than
men of a superior order. The China
men, for example, go all to pieces under
the continuous uproar. Americans who
helped to fight the Chinamen's naval
battle of the Yalu said the detonations
of their own guns drove slews of the
Chinese sailors stark mad and made
most of them, officers as well as men.
hysterical and of no account for fight
ing purposes. They simply couldn't
stand the sound and the concussion.
The sailors groveled at the feet of the
white gunners and begged them to
cease firing Some of them jumped
overheard and perished by drowning
to get away from the uproar. Yet a
Chinaman hasn't half as much fear
Of death as the normal white man.
"White men, enduring the thing for
the first time, have to keep mighty
strong clutch upon themselves to avoid
doing something foolish. Men new to
the titanic uproar have peculiar and
almost understandable desire to scream
with all their might while the big guns
are a-golng.
"The old timers who have conquered
this impulse look dumbly and helpless
ly at one another during great gun
practice and say little or nothing. But
they shake their heads in queer sort
of deprecating way after each stupen-
dous report. These head shakings eX-
press a good many things, but nothing
more strongly than that the head shhk
ers wish to gee-whiz that they were
somewhere else.
There is simply no way of explain
ing just how it feels to be within close
earshot'o the barking of the big guns.
To know the singular misery Of it each
man must experience it for himself.
"The mere concussion, 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 sometimes
pass away with a series of atrocious
headaches.
1T Is the nervous system that Is at
tackled, and the hardest and most rug
ged sailor men cave in under these at
tacks of concussion. 1t Is to be remem-
bered, too, that the human being is
about the only animal capable of sur
viying the concussion following the fir
ing OF big guns. Inferior animals near
ly always die from the effects of the
concussion.
The conrnssion following the firing