The sun., 1907-03-24
Brownsville Up to Date.

The idea that the shooting up Of
Brownsville on the night of August l3,
1905, could be fastened on the dismissed
by firing two cartridges from each of the
rifles issued to the three companies and
comparing under a microscope the ex-
plOded shells with the shells picked up
in the streets on the morning after the
raid was ingenious, but it may be doubted
whether the scientific theory will work
out to the satisfaction of the War De-
parrfnent.
The test was made at the arsenal in
Springfield, Mass, and Lieutenant W. J.
HAWKINS of the Ordnance Department
and A. c. SPooNER, expert inspector of
gauges, we're in charge of it. After the
riflng of a gun ring bolts, or small
scratches, plainly to be seen under
microscope, remain in the chamber.
They are said to differ in appearance as
human thumb prints differ, and after a
cartridge is fired through the barrel the
empty shell is seen to be scratched or
indented by these ring bolts" Army
associating a discharged shell with a
particular rife when they make the mi
croscope test After two cartridges had
been fired from each OF the rifles issued
to the negro battalion the test showed
that the thirty-three telltale cartridges
picked up in the streets and alleys of
Brownsville on the morning after the
raid which terrorized the peaceable in
habitants must have been exploded in
fo6f of the new Springfields issued to
Company b.
The next step was to connect the four
rifles with the four men to whom they
had been issued But according to the
testimony given at the Penrose court
martial by Lieutenant G. c. LAwRAsoN,
who commanded Company b, and ot the
Senate committee hearing by Quarter
master Sergeant MCCURDY, two of the
rifles from which nineteen of the pickedup
shells were fired assuming the micro
scopic test identified them) were in
nailed down box which lay under a pile
of iron cots in the locked storehouse Of
Company B when the shooting began
in the town. The evidence on this
point seems to be conclusive, and Secre-
tary TAFT admits that neither Of these
rifles had been given out to men of Com
pany B. The other two rifles were issued
TO Privates THOMAS TAYLOR and JOSEPH
L. WILSON, who if they were engaged in
the raid must have fired fourteen of the
telltale shells. The Senate committee
has subpGnaed TAYLOR and WILSON.
When examined by Lieutenant-Colo
L. A. LOWERING, Acting Inspector-Gen-
eral, at Oklahoma City, in the end of
September, the evidence given by these
men was brief and very much to the
point. We quote from the examination
of Private THOMAS TAYLOR:
% where were you on August iS. 1903. when
the shooting commencedr A. In bed, asleep; Fort
Brown Tex.
o Whereabouts in Fort Brown1 A. In quar-
ters, Fort yIrOwn.
%. Anybody ever abuse YOU in Brownsvie'
A. No. sir never went around them"
WILSON also swore that he was asleep
when the shooting began, and he also
averred that nobody in Brownsville had
abused him.
The ordnance test is further compli-
Gated by the difficulty of proving that the
thirty-three shells submitted as evidence
of the guilt of soldiers Of the battalion
we're used on the night of the raid.
There is evidence that empty shells
could have been picked up about the
barracks, and cartridges were surrep-
Eitiously sold in the town. The shell test