Waterbury evening Democrat., 1906-10-27
Then there Is tho new bayonet. This

Then there Is the new baycnet. Thie
 bayonet is knife. a double edge6 | knife sixteen inches long. It cuts both l ways. It will do more execution than
 any bayonet ever devised before. Bet- l ties of the Russo Japanese war proved l that there is still plenty of use for tho
 bayonet, which some military men had l begun to consider obsolete.
 l For the first time each regiment haa it's own machine gun squad. A detail | of twenty-one men handles tho regi. I mental machine guns. which are Vicks ers- Maxims of the same caliber as the ! new rife. When in operation these guns resemble cameras or surveying | instruments, being set on tripods. Thein action. however, is different. An ex- pert handler of one of these little tripod devils can saw a board in two with bullets at distance of half a mile. The new three inch field gun Is an- other novelty in active service. but is tried and proved by thorough tests. It shoots a shrapnel shell of fifteen pounds. having a bursting radius of fifty yards. Great accuracy, long range and reduced recoil are features of this gun.
 Then there is the mountain gun, cars ried, like the regimental machine gun. on the back of mule. The piece itsele is borne by one mule, the carriage by another and the ammunition by q third. This gun is of 2.95 inches calls Der. Like the field gun it shoots . fifteen pound projectile, but its range is not so great. The chief advantage of this gun is that it can be carried over mountain trails. wherever mule can find a footing.
 In estimating the fighting eniciency of an army the horses and mules must not be omitted The best cavalry horses in the world come from the western plains of the United States These horses are thoroughly educateds They know their business as well as the trooper knows his. Sometimes, so say the instructors, the horse learns faster than the man. The army rule is highly important. No one will deny that the Missouri mule, whether from Missouri or some other western statet is universally sought after. England. Japan, Germany, Russia and other na- tions supply themselves with pack mules from the United States whom they can get them. The United States army mule also is educated. He grad. uates from the training school at Jef~ ferson barracks, St. Louis. before res ceiving his commission to carry c mountain gun or load of cartridges.
 The men in our army are the fittese of all. Statistics show that they are slightly larger than any other soldiers and that adds something to their fight. ing force. They are physically fit:I they must be to get into the army. or late the enlistment regulations have been made more rigid. If a man has c corn nowadays he is liable to turns ing down when he seeks to enlist Corns interfere with forced marching.
 The American army of today has tho worlds best marksmen. That record was held before the Spanish war. but the infusion of green volunteers durs ing that conflict lowered the standard of marksmanship, and for time the championship was lost to the United States. But now our soldiers have won back the premier place in marksman. ship, making better records than any soldiers in the world ever made be- fore. There are now in the army about 10000 crack shots-men who have mad the grade of marksman OF better. That is a most remarkable shov Ing, and it means something "awks ward' in case of war.
 RoBERTUS LOVE.