Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1893 — Chinese Warfare. [ARTICLE]

Chinese Warfare.

. The methods of warfare hitherto practiced by the Chinese have been the most primitive imaginable. Having thrown up intrenchments, posted their men to slaughter the enemy in front, they have regarded an attack on the flank as nar-row-minded and cowardly—very much as an American boy would consider a kick in the stomach as an unallowable diversion in fisticuffs. When they fought with the British they were astonished to find that their tiger-faced shields and the clanging of the gongs, cymbals and other strange instruments played by their regimental bands, failed to terrify their European enemy. Their long-respected books on tactics prescribe, with illustrations, certain specific grimaces which must accompany each attitude with the gun oi spear drill. These “mugs" are supposed to frighten the foe. At Canton, where arms of American patterns are now being manufactured, the Remington and Spencer rifles have been enlarged to a caliber of one inch, with barrels six feet long. On being told that such a length was excessive a Chinese gun factory superintendent replied that “he knew it, but the increased size gave the weapon a more formidable appearance.” China is the only country in the world where the profession of firearms is not honored. There, on the contrary, it is held in the utmost contempt. The people have a proverb that says: “As one would not employ good iron to make a nail, so one would not use a good man to make a soldier.” Branded as the refuse of society the warrior class has been condemned by Government policy to hopeless ignorance.—[Boston Transcript.