The Fielding Star. THURSDAY, JAN. 29, 1891. Smokeless Powder

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 93, 29 January 1891, Page 2

The Fielding Star. THURSDAY, JAN. 29, 1891. Smokeless Powder

I The Emperor of Germany, who command the largest and best organised army in the world, is reported to have said that the recently invented smokeless powder will make war impossible. The assigned reason for this opinion is that as the men will not be able to " make each other out" nobody will be able to be killed. Another authority on the subject said that the soldiers would not fight half so well as they now do when enshrouded in smoke, because they would see the effects of war in all its bloody horrors too closely. As far as the statement of the Emperor goes we are prepared to accept the insinuation that modern generalship is so indifferent that two opposing armies could not be brought within view of each other — unless by mistake— but, as for the other warrior who prefers to "fight in the smoke" we think his opinion will not be borne out by past historical experience. In the good old days of Cressy and Agmcourt the English " cloth yard shaft did good work. The men were standing so close to the euemy that they could see into their eyes, while not a man fell out of the ranks wounded but was clearly visible to his comrades on either side of him, yet history tells us that each bowman was so intensely interested in the pleasant occupation of slaying his fellow-meu that not a sign of flinching wao detected. These men did not tight a bit the worse because they were not " enshrouded in smoke." In the hand to hand combats of those " merry old days" the wounds inflicted by the terrible double-handed swords, or bone crushing maces, were horrible to see, yet both combatants and spectators delighted in the sport, while the latter would have certainly made a fricassee of anyone who had even hinted that the warriors would have fought better if they had been "enshrouded iv smoke." The fact is that modern generals have came to regard smoke as one of the necessary accessories of a battle, forgetting altogether that it is, after all, a modern innovation, com paratively speaking. By the introduction of smokeless powder, nations, when at war, may be compelled to go back to first principles and fight hand to hand, which has always been recognised as the most satisfactory way of committing authorised murder. Long ranged rifles, with a low trajectory, are only the creations of miserable scienhists who, with little or no real experience in killing, seated comfortably by their fire-sides, invent new instruments for destroying life without actually realising the fact that they are as a natural consequence, accessory before the fact to manslaughter; However, that is merely by the way. We do not think that human nature will ever be changed by a paltry chemical device such as smokeless powder. The innate desire, to shed blood, which is dormant in all men, will require more than that to prevent it coming into" activity on very little provocation. Chemistry cannot hope to succeed where Christianity has failed.