The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1914-10-27

sword. dagger. spear and battle AK
were used almost exclusively. as many
pairs or enemies made as many duels
one man Of every two
was killed. II was so per cent of
losses, and the cost price was cheap.
cheap, cheap. Naturally, the duelist
or force and address massacred sue
cesSlvely a number of adversaries. un-
less they ran, as they oftenest did, in
the disorder Of a rout, which was
equivalent to death without defense.
FROM all which it is easy to believe
the enormous figures of killed cited by
the historians of antiquity. The so
per cent was only a minimum.
Firearms, in leading the combatants
to attack each other at a distance,
transformed the conditions. Progress
slVe1y. the losses Of men grew less, in
proportion to increase Of range and
decrease of h~and-to-hand fighting.
OFTEN the adversary who knew him
self to be inferior in number, or
imagined himself to be SO, turned his
men round and retreated n con-
tact.
Intensive Killing.
This sort Of warfare lasted On UNI
der Frederick the Great. After the
first firing, the lines of infantry
passed in front of the c~annons, behind
which they had been ranged. and
attacked with the b%ayonet, bringing
back, to a certain extent, the condi-
ions Of the antique battle. Cavalry
charges dashed into the mele Of foot
soldiers, and, during the pursuit as
we'll, the saber completed the work
of the ~bayOnet. During the seven
years war the statistics show AZ per
cent of killed and wounded.
During the campaigns Of Napoleon
the proportion fell to 35 per cent.
Musketry fire often began at 200
PAGES, n prolonged firing combats
and artillery duels preceded the at
tack Of the deep columns.
In 1854 the Crimean war showed
fire preferred enormously to shock.
The losses fell to Is per cent. and the
war of 1870, of which the exact sta
tisticS exist only on the Prussian side
brought the proportion down to IA
per cent.
With respect to the recent Balkan
wars, the Archives de Medicine ct de
Pharmacie Militaires contain the com
plete statistics Of Bulgarian, Seryiar
and Greek ambulances, DR.. Cousergue
in charge Of the French mission, indi
t Gates IL per cent as the losses Of thu
BulgaTians against the Turks, 10 pc
cent as those Of the Servians agains
the Turks and 5 per cen as hose o
the Greeks against the Turks.
The l~essening Of losses is, indeed
SAS COX y A1AN
t except during the Manchurian cam
paign, which brings US back to tn,
, IS per cent Of Napoleon. This phe
4 nomenon has already been explaine'
by the great number of the Manchu
rian battles, and the long duratiOl
of the battles themselves.
So, we ask, is Europe going a.
5 to the intensive slaughter of the an
r clients? Or does science continue t
make warfare more humane? In tn
e present war all the cOmbatants ar
armed with the most perfected rife
: and Their range goes be
yond the limits of possible observa
e tion-because the eyes of the infantry
n man have not changed since FredeI
lex the Great. We ought, therefor,
see the curve Of decreasing percent
r ages get its work in.
n All Kinds Machine Guns.
n Alas, no! The machine gun is be
ing worked in these wars as it neve
It was worked before!
If They have all kinds of machin
: guns, Maxims, Hotchkisses, Lauer
d Schneiders on carriages and 1ittl
portable devils that fairly squirt dealt
6. In the fighting retreat OF the Englis
after Mons an entire German Unfair
Re try brigade, advancing in close ranl
I, along the high road. was literal
n moved down by the English Maxim
" IN the tOSScS, ldySIS VI 4,oVO, L,cN
: and 1000 dead have been found lyir
US so thick that they touched one al
D. other continuously. At Charlere
both German and French, chargir
Of with the bayonet, climbed hills
n The first news seemed te
ID rible. Now such things are commo1
ly place.
as Thousands, literally, on both sid
are armed with new and Zig
types OF machine guns, not much Oh
m ferent in look and size from a cfumi
old fashioned muske1 on folding leg
~, Strong men can even shoot them fro
"a the shoulder. Those Of the Frenc
in particular, use the new ambri
-, cartridge, one of the two sensation
inventions of Turpin, kept secret
,d the French chiefs.
:. The field artillery OF I
automatic, fire twenty times per mi
- ute. and each shot throws 2o0 pr
i~ectiles on the enemy. Judge the ca
mage when they are attacked in