Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 177, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 July 1915 — Didn’t Know It Was Loaded. [ARTICLE]

Didn’t Know It Was Loaded.

The big battleship was at target practice. There in the 12-inch turret for which the $10,000,000 floating fortress was built, were 12 men. Eleven were there on business —the grim and dangerous business of firing the monster guns. The twelfth man, also was there on business, but of an entirely different nature from that of the others. He was bent on filming what happened when the latest and largest big guns “spoke” in unison—“salvos” they call them. The others did their best to discourage him by telling him their harrowing experiences and how many men had been annihilated in just such a place at just such a time on other battleships. But the photographer was not to be discouraged. So while the men behind the guns were very busy, the man behind the camera was equally so. Unfortunately he was more fearless than discreet for after obtaining some of the most startling and spectacular scenes he became a little too thoughtless of his surroundings. A shot was fired when he wasn’t looking. He did not know that particular gun was loaded. They discovered him —unconscious —under the gun-camage and took him limp and maimed to the hospital. Upon recovering consciousness, his chief concern was not as to his own injuries, but rather as to how did the film develop. This incident was one of many that occurred during the past two years while Lyman H. Howe’s camera men were filming, by authority of the secretary of the navy, .Mr. J osephus Daniels, the complete pictorial story of the life in our new navy which will be presented at the Ellis Theatre on Tuesday, Aug. 3. Uncle Sam’s methods of transforming the wild tribes of the Philippines and getting them to adopt the ways of civilization comprises another exclusive feature. From head-hunting to wedding cake is a far cry, but the film shows how it has all been accomplished.