Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 31, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1893 — GUNS AT THE BIG FAIR [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

GUNS AT THE BIG FAIR

TOOLS OF WAR ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR EXHIBITS. Even Apostles of Peace Feast Their Byes on the Terrible Krupp Gun—Great Progress In American Ordnance—We Are Behind In Small Arms. They Catch the Crowd. World’s Fair correspondence: The great Exposition was conceived and is being carried forward with a view to show the development of the world’s inhabitants in the arts of peace. It is essentially an exposition of the industries, the arts and literature, the mechanics and all other fields of expansion in human endeavor. Its whole scope and purpose is to glorify the peace, prosperity and welfare of mankind . And yet there are no more popular or eagerly sought for exhibits in the whole Exposition grounds than those which illustrate th edevelopment of the science of war and the improvements made in the last quarter of a century in all the implements and appliances of death and destruction. Men who have never heard more than the discharge of a fowl-ing-piece will stand by the hour and look at the huge steel monster cannon which represent the development in the science of ordnance in the past twenty-fives years, and women who would shriek at the sound

t! a pistol will peor curiously into the muzzles of these monsters and with a shudder turn away. All these people are apcstles of peace, yet thoir keenest appreciation and greatest curiosity is expended upon implements of war. It is a strange paradox, but it is eminently characteristic of the race. We are born of a fighting race of people, of battle-giving fathers and of enthusiastic flag-waving mothers, and tho human instinct so inspired is not to be suppressed by simple emblems of peaco and prosperity. If we have no

opportunity to fight we like to look at the things people do fight with when they get a chance, and hence it is that the war department exhibition in the Government Building, the battle ship containing the naval exhibit, the German and French ordnance exhibits in the Manufactures Building, the English naval models and the rapid-fire ordnance which they exhibit in the Transportation Building, the Spanish, Italian and Austrian military exhibits, and finally the great Krupp gun pavilion, are to thousands of people the chief points of interest on the Fair grounds. Throws a Ton Twelve Miles. Naturally the American exhibit is the most complete, though the Krupp exhibit is the most startling to the plain untutored child of the prairie. The human mind can conceive of 10inch guns, 206-pound projectiles, armor plates of twelve inches in thickness and all there simple things of warfare, but when it comes to a gun which requires 500 pounds of powder, which carries a projectile which weighs a ton from ten to twelve miles, that is an instrument which makes the mouth open involuntarily. The Krupp gun does that; Tho spectacle 'of the big gun, which weighs 12-1 tons, with its massive and complicated carriage cr mount, as it is called, is really Vreat. One stands at the base and looks upward at an angle of 45 degrees to get sight even of the under surface of tho gun. Its- known enormous weight, the tremendous machinery of its surroundings, the awful energy of steam and electricity to work its functions and bring its awful power into service is calculated to appall the human mind. People caunOt fail to

wonder what would bo tho effect of the explosion of 500 pounds of the new high-power powder, the instantaneous propulsion of a ton of metal starting on its jou'ney of twelve miles, and, wondering, they almost involuntarily shudder and clap their hands to their ears. Tie biggest gun in the American exhibit is the 12-inch breech-loading loading rifle made at the Watervliet arsenal for coast defense. This gun is not mounted for the reason that no carriage has yet been made for it, but it has tremendous interest for the crowds at the Fair. The people gaze at it, they crowd about it, they pat it with their gloved hands, they 6tudy its intricate machinery and then they turn away with gratified looks, take a glance or two at the stars and stripes and mentally observe,“Let Uncle Sam’s enemies come on, and let them come all at once.” • Old and New Death Dealer*. Those in charge of the military exhibit made a happy hit when they placed side by side an ordinary sixpound brass cannop, used in the Mexican war, and a modern thirty-two-Doundar rapid fire gun of the Hotch-

kiss type. The old Mexlo&n war gun oould throw a shot about 1,200 feet and oould be fired oaoe in five minutea if its crew waa active. The new thirtv-two-pounder Hotchkiss Area thirty shots a minute and emphasizes its usefulness in a blaze of death and destruction at a distanoe of from two to four miles. These rapid fire guns are of all calibers, the lighter ones are for field service and the heavier calibers are for siege and fortification oj e rations. The same class of gun, too, is used in the navy and is there known as composing the rapid-fire battery of the ship. In the groat field of small arms the exhibit is illimitable. The varieties

are so great, the course of development so varied, that if one tries to enter this field of investigation he soon finds himself in a maze. In the American exhibit there is every small weapon from the earliest musket to the latest magazine rifle. But in all small arms the foreign governments are ahead of the United States. We can beat the world in the manufacture of high-power ordinance, both in point of cost and efficiency, but we have not yet reached that

stago when we can arm an Individual soldier as can most of the countries of Europe. Wo have a bettor display of rapid-fire guns for field and shipboard service than any or all of tho countries of Europe combined. Wo have a moro notablo torpedo exhibit than any European country, and when it comes to tho manning of ships in war and the equipment of swift cruisers, we are away ahead of anybody. The battle ship alone is a wonderful study and impresses even the most experienced of naval and military mon. In the matter of military equipment for troops in tho field there is less progress shown by far. From models oxhibited in tho Federal Building there is no apparent change in methods of transportation and mothods in the quartermaster’s and commissary departments. Nor is there any great change in the military system on the tentod field. The soldier’s tent is the samo old canvas tout. Tho litter which carries him from the field is the same old litter. Tho canteen which be fills at the muddy stream is the same old canteen. Tho kettle in whioh he makes his coffee and tho oven in which he bakes his bread are tho samo old kettle and the same old oven. They may make guns which carry twelvo milos and use 500 pounds of powder, but they have never yet made a camp-kettle that will turn chicory and rye into coffee and plaster boans into palatable fcod, and so when the private soldier visiting the Exposition gazes upon tho enormous progress made in the implements of destruction, he cann< t be blamed for marveling as he does why something more has not been done for the protection

of the Bcldier’B health and comfort and the general welfare of his stomach.

A REBEL TORPEDO.

EXPLAINING THE WORKING OF THE HOTCHKISS

THE OLD AND THE NEW.

A MODERN MORTAR.