South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1918-03-01
Eyes and Arnor
by Woods Hutchinson. VI. ID.

That often mistaken and very
conceited saying: There's nothing
new under the SUM-" is sometimes
not so very far wrong, especially IN
the oldest of human pastimes. war.
The latest. and it is TO be hoped,
most successful method of protect
ing our soldiers from the ever-pres-
ent and distressingly frequent dan
ger of being blinded by shell frag-
ments, is in the form of a sort of
steel mesh work which hangs down
from their steel hats and covers the
upper part Of the face.
other forms of protection, such
as chain ringlets. perforated steel
masks, etc, have been tried, but
without much success. because,
while they would protect the wear
er from the smaller shell fragments,
they were practically useless against
the larger pieces. and, moreover,
impeded the vision TO such an eX-
tent as 10 make their value rather
dubious.
These various new forms Of he'll
NETS and visors of the knights Of
olden times. when lighting was the
order of the day, and man was
taken to be enemy until proved a
friend.
The knight of olden times wore
his helmet pulled down his visor,
and put on his other forms of per-
sonaI "armor plate" for precisely the
same reason and i'm almost the same
way. and his modern successor, al
thought the missiles against which
the knight guarded himself-swords,
iavelins and arrows-were far less
numerous and deadly than the
"Whizz- bangs" Jack Johns" hand
grenades. shrapnel. and shell frag
ments which must be faced and
guarded against by his goth century
emulator.
The Sits in the ancient visors
were made long. but exceedingly
narrow. so that arrows, unless they
managed 10 strike precisely in the
center Of the opening would be de-
Elected TO one side or the other and
the spaces between the Sits were
made very wide and thick. so that a
heavy spear thrust would not break
through between them. These Sits
i'm the visors and the joint in the
armour beneath the arm were the
two most vulnerable spots of the
body. and upon which the hottest
fire of arrows and javelins was con-
lcentrated
As a result. many of the skilled
archers Of the early. middle ages. no.
tably the famous "lOngbowmen' Of
ENGLAND. became so unerring in
their aim. and could send their shots
so strongly and rapidly good
archer could keep four arrows in
the air at once-that II was virtually
impossible 10 face them. and the
French knights, in the immortal
battle OF Agincourt are said 70 have
advanced 10 the charge with their
heads bowed down on their chests,
because TO strai Shten up and expose
the Sits Of the visor TO the terrible
hail OF arrows was TO court instant
death
This battle is the more important
because il was the first time that
unarmed footmen. almost without
support in the way OF armored
knights had overwhelmingly de-
feated a large force of heavily ar
mored knights who were the flower
Of their country and It's nobility
The men who SO crushingly de-
feated the highest nobility Of that
dav were common. ordinary men,
far removed from the nobility. and
il is similar set Of men, with rifles
instead OF lonebows. and bullets in
stead Of colthyard shafts. that are
now engaged I'm teaching another
man in armor" and another high
nobility the extreme unwisdom OF