Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 13, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 April 1895 — POOR MARKSMANSHIP. [ARTICLE]

POOR MARKSMANSHIP.

Firing In Both Army and Nivy Less Ao < urate Than Formerly. The training of naval artillerists has, in recent years, b en given a good deal of attention, and no end of powder and sh t has been expended in target practice designed to serve a more telling purpose in actual warfare should the otca-ion present itself. It voild seen, thereto e, that the floating equipments ot naval powers of today ought to give good accounts of themselves in p int cf n arks r.anship if called into acti n, th ugh, according to Cas-ier’s Magazine, it would be presunptu us to undertake to feresha :o v p.ssibe results. If, on the other han!, past e p rience counts for anything, the e would seem to havj been a notable decline in accuracy in naval gunnery, growing with successive improvem nts in naval architect ire and naval armament. It was estimated some yea s ago, fro n data furaished by target i ractice at sea, that a heavy gun must be discharged fifty times to make < ne effective hit. The old smoothbo es were credited with killing a man by the discharge of thh gun s weight in shot: in other words, three tons of 32-pounder shot was required for the purpose. Actual service test with modern high-power guns, however-guns weighing twelve tons —has, within the past ten or twelve years, shown that it t ok about sixteen tons of pro.ectiles to ac omplish the same thing. It is interesting to note from what statistics are available that the introduction litied muskets into the armies has had a somewhat simi ar result. The oldtime muskets, it is said, killed a man by firing at him his own weight in lead b Hets, but the n odern rifle in the hands of the average soldier, so it has been figured out. does not effect a fatality until it has discharged tvice the n an’s weight in lead. Both here, as ell as in naval shooting, therefore, there has been shown to be an important demand for greater skill and care. Whether this has been met in anv measure, future hostilities only will tell.

Sowing Plants with Gunpowder Alexander Nasmyth, the landscape painter, was a man fruitful in expedients. To his mind, the fact that a thing could not be done in the ordinary manner was no leason why it should be given up. His son relates the following interesting example ol his ingenuity: The Duke of Athol, says he, consulted him as to some improvements which he desired to make in his woodland scenery near Dunkeld. Among other things, a certain reeky crag needed to be planted with trees, to re’lieve the grim barrenness of its appearance. The question was how to do it, a* it was impossible for anv man to climb the crag in order to set seed or plants in the clefts of the rock. A hap y idea struck my father. Having observed in front of the castlo a pair of small cannon, used for firing salutes on great days, it occurred to him to turn them to account. A tinsmith in the village was ordered to make a number of canisters with covers. The canisters were filled with all sorts of suitable tree seeds. The cannon was loaded and the canisters were fired up aya'nst the high face of the rock. They burst and ‘ scattered the teed in all directions. Some years after, when my father revisited the place, he was delighted to find that his scheme of planting bv artillery had proved sue essful: the trees were flourishing in all the recesses of the cliff. Beer is more dangerous than whisky. That is the verdict of the Scientific American, which sets forth that the use of beer is found to prodi ce a species of degeneration of all the organs; profound and decent!, e fatty deposits, diminished circulation, conditions of congestion and perversion of functional activities, local inflammation of both liver and kidneys, are constantly present. A slight injury, a severe cold, or a shock to the body or the mind, will commonly provoke acute diseases ending fatally in a beer drinker. Book sewing machines, to do the work of fastening together the sheets of which a book is composed, were introduced in 1872. Before that time all books were sewed by hand. The book sewing machine reduced the cost about one-halt