The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1919-04-12
Henry Johnson, CoIored Soldier,
Split a Lot OF Hun Skulls
With the Weapon.
WAS ADOPTED FROM MOROs
War Department Now Issues the Ter
rible Cleaver to Some of Our
Troops, and the Germans
Don't Like 10 at All.

washington year ago Henry
johnson, a colored citizen of Albany,
N. Y, was peddling ice. coal and wood
In contented obscurity. Today Henry
Johnson, soldier of the United States,
Is wearing the coveted French war
cross with palms, because he proved
himself brave man, and because at
the critical moment he got his hands
on a bolo knife.
The cable has told of Henry's ex-
ploit-how on night duty with COM
panion in an American listening post
he ''toot on" "a marauding Germans
In swift ough-and-tumble, killed
some of them with his rifle, bombed
others from his basket of grenades,
and then, even after he had been
wounded, split so many skulls with his
bolo that all the enemy left on their
feet after meeting Henry became sud
denly and violently homesick.
The bolo knife which Henry welded
so well weighs one pound and three
ounces without it's scabbard, and has
a broad 14-inch blade. 1t is sharpened
to razor edge, and near the end
runs abruptly to thrusting point. But
one of its chief virtues as a small-arm
is it's cleaving power. Most of the
weight of the knife is distributed along
the back of the blade.
Americans first ran up against the
bolo in the Philippines. Over there it
was originally an agricultural tool, just
as the machete was in Cuba, and
blacksmiths at country crossroads ham
mered it out infinitely and in all sorts
Of forms. The "kris" with it's curly
blade is a form of bolo, and the 'cam-
pilan' is bigger bolo.
Was Weapon Of the Moros.
1t was up. among the Moros that it
was developed for war purposes, In
the underbrush it proved very ter
rible weapon, as many a trooper found
to his cost. A stroke in the tropical
night-just one-counted for major
American casualty. After while our
soldiers found there was no particu
alar knack in the Malay use of the bolc
~ ay carId- not master. Then they be
gan to capture bolos. And so, after
| the war ended, bolos kept coming back
to the United States as souvenirs.
But it was not until 1910 that the
war department tried the experiment
| of issuing the bolo knife as regular
part Of the American equipment. i
was used and tested by our men il
Mexico, but there it was employed
chiefly as tool rather than a weapon
| 1t was not until our khaki-garbed boys
went down into the French trenches
that the bolo knife proved it's right tt
be considered "the last line of defense
and life-saver to the man who TN
| sheathed it,
Our colored troops display specia
aptitude and affection for this weapon
/ The white fighter is inclined to rel
| upon his automatic pistol in an emer
gency at close quarters, but the col
ored man in uniform takes as natural
ly to the bolo knife as he does to-
well, as he does to the name Of mi
Johnson"
Issued to U. S. Troops.
The bolo knife is issued to gu
troops in two sizes-the smaller siz
of the type which Henry johnson USED
and a larger knife employed exclusive
| " by field artillery batteries. Thi
latter is practically a short swort
comparable to the principal weapo
i of the old Roman DICTIONARIES. 1t
two feet long and weighs betwee
three and four pounds. Of course, bt
| ing issued only to artillerymen VIII
are not ordinarily actually at grip
with the enemy, it is intended mainl
as a sort of underbrush cutter. Bu
In the hands of desperate man fgh
/ ing for his life "a is terrible pei
suader.
4 The bolo is in no sense a trenc