Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 165, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 12 July 1913 — CORDITE AS CHEWING GUM [ARTICLE]

CORDITE AS CHEWING GUM

Many Boldlers of European Armies Victims of Perilous Habit—Three Blown to Atome. One of the troubles of most European armies Is that those soldiers who can get hold of it insist on using that terrible’ explosive, cordite, as if it were a sort of chewing gum, says Pearson’s Weekly. Its popularity is due to tbe fact that when chewed in small quantities it has a stimulating and exhUarating effect, like small doseß of tycohol. Its taste, too/ is sweet, cordite being three-fifths nitroglycerin, an explosive which is sugary to the taste. When chewed in large quantities cordite becomes more powerful in' its effects, bringing on a blissful state of ecstasy and sometimes making the victim Of the habit see visions. But the real danger of the habit lies in the fact that though nitroglycerin will explode only when given a very hard blow or touched by an electric spark, there is always a possibility that tbe grinding of exceptionally bard teeth might provide the necessary blow. Within the last few years at least three soldiers—two Germans and one Austrian—have been blown to bits, the use of cordite as a chewing gum being the suspected cause