The Hays free press. [volume] (Hays, Kan.) 1908-1924, 1914-12-05


Of the enemy.
Homing pigeons have been used from time i'm
memorial, and they also were used at Santiago.
Today different condition exists AS the Ger
mans were sweeping down on Paris the operator
in EifeI tower whispered through the very air the
Germans were breathing to convey information to
st. Petersburg Petrograd.
The swish of the wireless was unstoppable. The
Spanards shot down the American signal men on
the embankments in front of Santiago, but the
rifle bullets from the Germans could not interfere
with the wireless message as it went on its way.
One of the most wonderful developments of the
wireless telegraphy came at the opening the Eu-
ropean when it became possible to talk all
the way from Berlin to Long island. Germany
talked across the British fleet to her ships
sailing the Atlantic and warned them of the
sudden tremor
The only way to stop the wireless was to de-
stroy the operator and he thousands of miles
away. In our last war wires were stretched all
over the fields back of the fighting men. Dis
patchers carried word from colonel to general
where there had not been time to string the
wires
In this war wires, too, have been stretched
the fields pigeons still have carried messages
dispatchers have galoped back and forth, but in
addition to all these messengers of war the fight
ers all depended more on the invention of Mar
conf the great wireless telegraph.
The wireless telegraph has proved its value
right on the field of battle. The in the front
ranks, or the outpost miles from the headquarters
could place himself in instant communication with
his chief. The wireless telegraph made it posi-
BILE for a German soldier fighting his way through
Belgium to talk to a German soldier defending
AIsace 1t made it possible for a soldier at Brus
sells to shout news of victory back to Berlin with
out an instant's delay
1t made it possible for the French and British
to keep in communication with each other and
map out a new line of defense when the Germans
were hurting their mighty hosts against them.
Marconi had already made himself famous be
fore the war broke out His invention
of the greatest boons to humanity because it
saved lives aboard ship in time of horror. 1t
brought rescue to the distressed and expedited
shipping. From instrument of humanity and
peace it sprang to an instrument Of war and ter
ror
Like the pigeon or dove. the personifcation of
peace it became instrument of war.
Perhaps next to the wireless stations, the most
efficient messengers of war are the homing pig
cons. These birds, the wisest Of their kind. are
employed to great advantage in English, French,
German, Austrian, Italian, Russian and Japanese
armies. Military authorities hold there is bet
ter means for small detachments to communicate
with their headquarters nor could they want bet
! ter
On the fields of Europe the flights of the birds
are in most instances short that they do not
have to stop for rest thus preventing the mes
sages from falling into the hands Of the enemy.
A pigeon in it's flight high it is almost
| invisible to the naked eye, thus it necessitates
/ the use of high power guns to bring it to the
ground And any who ever makes such
| shot well call it miracle.
The king of England and the emperor of Ger
many, well other rulers of European nations,
/ have their flying kits, and in time of peace
they enter their birds in races with birds belong
! ing to their subjects The crowned heads deem
! this royal sport
| A bird equipped for flying with message is
| encased in a bottlelike tube, the shape of its
| 6ody
A spy puts his message in his pocket proceeds
on his mission, quickly writes his discoveries on
small bits of paper and places them in tube