The Chickasha daily express. (Chickasha, Indian Territory [Okla.]) 1899-current, 1909-08-30

n mile away; stood there with my can in my
hand ready to clap it my face in case OF
accident cursing the curiosity that led me 10
that lethal chamber. Then the wonder Of 1t
came over me-the silence of the guncrew: the
stealthy leap Of the rife barrel like the spring
OF a grasshopper: the quiet dull report which
scarcely trembled that stately moving fortress:
the souregg smell Of the nitrocellulose stimulat
ing the nerves; the sweet. sick subtlety OF ether
lulling the overweight brain
When they shut the steel door that Gagged us
in slipped into funk and until the first shot
was fired my nerve was gone. The sides OF my
courage account footed up:
Debit: u) Imprisonment in an oval case the
shape of coffin. the sides formed of solid steel
nine inches thick and the TOP of steel lust, al
solid and FIVE inches thick (2) filling quarter
of that the back third of 12-nch rife bar
rel. ready for action; 80 below. an open chute
with steel car bringing the shells and powder
from the magazines still farther below; (4) the
stern. silent faces of the gun-crew. which exactly
resemble those faces seen at places of execu.
ton; Is to 100) memory-the knowledge which
yon cannot fight away that III just such stu-
alton as this the turret-crew OF the Georgia We
DEATH and that no one has ever found out b,
happened; that in precisely the same way the
souri, burned to death 20 men, and that not one in
steel cage escaped
hand he stands behind the breech looking down
the powdermagazines. You know he is there to
vent recklessness. Though these men are
against time he will let them do nothing foolh
Ii he errs twill be or the side of caution (2)
knowledge that thousands of times guns like this
been fired from turrets like this-and all came
alive You do not enter railway trains timidl,
cause a dozen people were killed on one year
five thousand miles away Yet when you ente
turret OF 12,inch gun
They lock you up. There is no escape. You
there nervously by the trunnion and somehow it !
like factory or railway coach or a street car o.
other modernly approved limb-mangling device.
things were built to kill and presently these fe
are going to touch an electric spark which will
enough anxious and determined gas to drive an
pound shell 10 miles and put it completely throu
steel plate as thick as the that is suppose
protect you
Yet there you are, the Thing before you, and
can reach out and pat 1t on the shiny, cold ha
II II wobbles or spring breaks or trunnon has
takenly got itself rusted or the rife barrel refus
accommodate the shell. you will be fit brother
detected cockroach. II there Is bareback you
the slightest possible chance OF escapes hold youl
over your face don't breathe. hurl yourself under
barrel and fall into the handlng-room. You may
a few bones. but IL the burning gas gets to no
than 80 per cent Of your skin you will live; tn
how the single midshpman who escaped from
Georgia saved himself. Yet one can tell how
gas gets in its work. Sometimes it burns away
flesh and never touches the clothing; again. 1t 81
on all the hair and never touches the flesh; agai
burns the clothing off clean and leaves you naked
sale.
Sol They have locked you UP In this steel
The others have some reason here. With them
work duty. contest. If killed they die nobly get
tablets in the wall with their names inscribed,
sions so to their families. the newspapers call