Democratic Sentinel, Volume 18, Number 9, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1894 — France’s Deadly Rifle. [ARTICLE]

France’s Deadly Rifle.

The Mannlicher rifle, which has just been tested in Europe, is declared to be inferior to. the French arm. If that is so, our own troops would have a rather meager chance if opposed to any of the crack army 1 corps of France. This rifle is smokeless and has a range of ,three miles. An American naval officer who has written an article upon the comparative power of European arms, said that a skillful marksman could create havoc in an army with the heyv; rifle at a distance of two miles, ana that in an unsettled country it (Would be impossible to tel! from which point the attack came. This would seem to indicate that cavalry will be a tradition herafter. When the enemy can lie in ambush and mow down horses and men two miles away there will be no more stirring scenes or stories of carrying forts and other strong positions by a rush of cavalry. A two-mile rush in the face of a storm of bullets coming from an unknown quarter would have results compared with which the charge of the Light Brigade seems like child’s play.—New York Sun.