The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1904-11-30

4 Dread Jlllndcr Of Gums More Than )cn til =
Missiles

That's why | stayed on The beach,
sir, frankly admitted the man,
"Thcm guns makes me tired
Give day. in irons for him, said
the skipper, turning to the first luif.
Then, sotto vocc to the latter: but
I'll be damned if blame the man.
They make me tired too
And Rear Admiral Roblcy Evans
hates the spouting Of the big guns as
much today as he ever did, and makes
no bones whatever about admitting
it.
llalfcivilizcd men, fellows not
highly organized, endure the noise Of
the enormous guns much less gamcly
than men of superior order. The
Chinamen, for example, 20 all to
pieces under the continuous uproar.
Americans who helped to fight the
Chinamcn naval battle Mt the Ialu
river say that the dctonations of their
own guns drove slcws of the Chinese
sailors stark mad and made most of
them, officers as we'll as men, hysteri-
cal and of no account for fighting pur-
poses. They simply couldn't stand
the sound Of the concussion.
They grovelcd at the feet of the
white gunners and begged them to
cease firing. Some of them jumped
overheard and perishcd by drowning
to get away from the uproar. Yet Il
Chinaman hasn't half so much fear of
death as the average white man.
White men enduring the thing for
the first time have to Keep q mighty
strong clutch on themselves to avoid
doing something foolish. Men now to
the titanic uprOar have peculiar and
almost understandable desire to scream
with all their might while the big guns
arc agoing.
The oldtimcrs who have conquered
this impulse look dumbly and help
lessly at one another during great gun
practice, and they say little or nothing.
But they shake their heads in a queer
sort of deprecating way after each
stupendous report. These head shak.
ings express good many things, but
nothing more strongly than the head
shakers wish to ses-whiz that they
we're somewhere else.
There IS simply no way Of explain
ing just how it feels to be within close
carshot Of 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 usually pass
away with a,series Of atrocious head
aches.
1t is the nervous system that is at
tackled, and the hardest and most
rugged sailormen cave in under these
attacks Of concussion. 1t is to be re-
membered, too, that the human being
is about the only animal capable of
surviving the concussion following the
firing Of great guns.
Ships pets-dogs, oats, goats,
birds, panthers, even snakes-are al.
ways removed, when possible, from
the ships Of war before big gun prao-
tice. The noise and the concussion
would kill them.
On one OF the Chinese battleships
during the Yalu engagement more than
forty Chinese canaries, pets Of the
men, were dead in the bottom Of their
cages from tho concussiou before the
fight was we'll under way and the dogs
and cats aud other animals on board
the ships kecled over, ohoked to death
by the concussion.
A few years ago, as an experiment,
number Of sheep were placed in the
turrot Of one OF our big battleships
while one OF the big turret guns was
fred. After the first shot the ami
mails we're found heaped up in neat
little pile, the deadest mutton imagin-
able. Yet eailor men have stood the
shock in that same turret without any
permanent injury.
The concussion following the firing
of big gun on man Of war hits man
on the deck like q sharp slap Of wind,
and when the full service charges are
used, as in battle, the ooncussion
will rip and tear mans uniform into
rags. It. seems marvellous that the
man 8 body is not ripped and torn in
the same way, and the faot that it is
not goes far toward proving that man