The Tomahawk. [volume] (White Earth, Becker County, Minn.) 1903-192?, 1916-09-07
COMING straight up out of the
sea the rock Of Gibraltar
. stands today as it has stood

two centuries in the grasp or
Britain. Never ceasing in her vigil
lance Britain's thin red line Of soldiers
has held this well-nigh impregnable
fortress year in and year out. Wars
have come and wars have gone, but no
power for a century has even threat
ened the looming, forbidding rock.
They say the central powers of Eu-
rope offer to give the frowning rock
back to Spain if Spain will cast her
lot with them. But before the gift
may be made by the AustrO-Germans 1t
must first be won. You have to catch
your rabbit, you know, before you can
skin it.
And in the meantime Great Britain
keeps her never-ending watch over the
portal of the Mediterranean.
Every moment, day and night, IN
times of peace, as we'll as in times OF
war, for upward Of 100 years, line Of
British sentinels has stood on the shore
side Of the rock watching out over a
narrow strip Of low lying neutral
ground toward the shore Of Spain to
guard against surprise. And every
moment, for over 100 years, Il sentry
has stood upon the highest pinnacle of
he rock and gazed out over the sea.
Generations Of sentinels have lived and
died and been replaced by others;
wars have come and gone; no attack
has ever been made or even threat
med against the rock, but the eternal
Iigilance has never relaxed, not icr
me minute in the last 100 years.
The sleepless vigilance through the
century may we'll be taken as typical
If the bulldog temper Of the British
PEOPLE. They have sailed this rock
!Own with their blood and bones. They
ave given too many lives for it to
.ver give it up now so long as Brit
sh soldier lives to fight for 1t. And so
his precipice Of rock, looming out of
he sea, looking out across the strait
O the shore Of Africa, the mysterious,
Keeps on brooding there in grim 81
ence, with it's thousands of guns
;hotted, always ready, ever watching
md waiting through the centuries.
Honeycombed With Tunnels.
Britain has held the Rock of Gibral-
tnr for 200 years and has fortified
it so strongly that it has been known
for a century as ''impregnable Gil
1raltar." To capture it an attacking
force would literally have to pound the
vast rock to dust. Gibraltar is honey
cOmbed with tunnels and the muZzes
of the greatest guns in the world
bristle from thousand openings in
the face of the rock, like pins stuck
in paper. What would those guns be
doing to fleet or land force that got
close enough to throw shells against
the rock?
It Is very well to state, as some mill
tary men have said these past two
years, that modern guns which can
shoot more than the 20 miles across
the narrow gap that divides Europe
from Africa could render the place I'M
tenable, but no power yet has seen fit
to try it out. The odds are too great
and the prize too inconsiderable for
the price.
FruitIess Siege Of Four Years.
The last time an attempt was made
to take Gibraltar was 100 years ago.
France and Spain together undertook
to capture Gibraltar from the British.
Inside the rock, hidden in the tunnels
like ants in hill, were 5000 British
soldiers. Attacking them were 61,OOO
Of the best trained fighters in the
IF 7t,1,
years the siege went on. It was one
of the greatest sieges in all history
and there were many deeds of daring,
but the $1,000 had never chance
against 5000 safely hidden in their
rock cells, just the muzzles of their
iron shot.
That was q century ago. Ever since
then the human mOles garrisOncd there
have been boring and burrOwing deep
er into the rock, storing food and am
munition in great chambered galleries,
even below the sea level; mounting
larger guns and making the rock as
nearly unconquerable as possible. They
are never idle, those human mOles.
They are always making the place
stronger.
Gibraltar has been the scene of 10
sieges and many battles. It's rocky
slopes have run red with blood. Early
armies rained their arrows against it
and their battering rams tried to pow
der it's natural walls centuries before
the age of powder and iron balls. For
this is one of natures strongholds, this
western gate Of the Mediterranean.
This cliff of solid limestone was one
of the Pillars Of Hercules, beyond
which it was though anc;ently no man
might venture and live. Beyond was
Ultima Thule, the last island, the end
of all. Later the Phoenicians, ventur-
Ing out into the Atlantic to the tin