The Knoxville independent. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1894-current, 1919-04-19
Henry Johnson, Colored Soldier,
Split a Lot of Hun Skulls
With the Weapon.
WAS ADOPTED FROM MOROs
War Department Now Issues the Ter
ribie cieaver to Some of Our
Troops, and the Germans
Don't Like 1t at All.

Washington year ago Henry
N. X, was peddling ice, coal and wood
In contented obscurity. Today Henry
johnson, a 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 stook 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 it's chief virtues as small-arm
is its 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
Twas originally an agricultural tool, just
as the machete was in Cuba, and
Iblacksmiths at country crossroads ham
Imered it out infinitely and in all sorts
of forms, The ''kris" with it's curly
4 blade is a form of bolo, and the cam
pilan" is bigger bolo.
i Was Weapon of the Moros.
/ 1t was up among the Moros that it
i 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
j night just one-counted for major
/ American casualty. After while our
/ soldiers found there was no particu-
Y lar knack in the Malay use Of the bolo
taAg could not master. Then they be-
4 gan to capture bolos. And so, after
the war ended, bolos kept coming back
j to the United States as souvenirs,
j 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. 1t
was used and tested by our men In
Mexico, but there it was employed
chiefly as tool rather than weapon.
It was not until our khad-garbed boys
went down into the French trenches
that the bolo knife proved its right to
be considered "the last line of defense
and life-saver to the man who I'M
sheathed it.
4 Our colored troops display a special
4 multitude and affection for this weapon
The white fighter is inclined to rely
4 upon his automatic pistol in an emer.
4 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 MIR
Johnson
i Issued to U. S. Troops.
i The bolo knife is issued to oul
troops in two sizes-the smaller size
Of the type which Henry Johnson used
4 and larger knife employed exclusive
ly by field artillery batteries. This
latter is practically short sword
4 comparable to the principal weapon
of the old Roman DICTIONARIES. 1t Is
tive feet long and weighs between
three and four pounds. Of course, be
i ing issued only to artillerymen who
are not ordinarily actually at grips
i with the enemy 1t is intended mainly
ais a sort of underbrush cutter. Bu
Id the hands of desperate man fight
ing for his life 1t Is terrible per
suader.
THE bolo is in no sense trench
FTNko+ to- icc,1n1 fn nunrU m n r