BACK TO THE STONE AGE.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 6, Issue 284, 15 June 1917, Page 1 (Supplement)

BACK TO THE STONE AGE.

CHANGING WEAPONS OF THE FIGHTING OFFICER. DISCARDED SWORD. By JOHN BLUNT. Thero was a time, not so very long ago, when an officer could be distinguished from lis men even in the toughest battles. This was by reason of his conspicuous uniform and his highly decorative arms. To-day the officer, bo he second lieutenant or senior major of his abttalion, looks practically the same at thirty yards distance as his men. Both officer and man are clothed in khaki and the mud which sticks also to tho lieutenant. The collar and tie alone distinguish the officer from the man. Both use the rifle and bayonet, the officer alone (in infantry units) having a revolver nominally as his primary weapon of offence and defence. Bom bo, the most cruel and beastly of all the inventions of modern warfare, are used by all.

CAVE MAN'S CLUB.< In the very dark ages of long ago there wlas nothing romantic about war —perhaps even less than there is today. The officer was the mon orf greatest "beef." He wielded~the heaviest club or stono axe, and, it hoped', bashed the toughest heads. He had no distinctive uniform. Maybe his club had a few strands of copper wound round the handle for decorative and non*slippmg purposes; otherwise, your " officer" of the dark ages was identical with the "Tommy'' of his day. After the club came the stone>iaxe, but the club was not yet doomed/ The wars of the cave men and the tree and forest dwellers went on without ceasing, until one fine day someone discovered the bow and arrow. Then it was that tho man with the hairy arms an dt'io big club and the stone axe received a nasty 6hock. He found that his enemies in the trees could hit him in safety from afar off (a.nid that he could not hit back...

This was nft to his liking at all. Be had to st and think. So he sat himself down, and ruminated, and got the cog whee's of his sluggish brain to movo, and after many years came the chariot as a result of his calculations. Ths fm-t chariot was no prettier than our tanks of to-day, but it is more than probable that it caused just 'as much sensation. It must have been a fear-' some eight—just a wooden platform, with a "gunwale"' c,f tree trunks and heavy shields, with round discs for wheels, from which projected greatspikes of sharpened stone.

WAR CHARIOTS. We can easily ] icture ourselves such a cha.iot going into action —the charioteer,. all hairy and bearded and muscular ,tho great- horses, land! tho crew of two "beefers," equally hairy and repulsive, armed with cjubs, stone axes, and bows arid arrows. Here was tho method of combating the men who slew from the trees with flying arrows. The chariot eouM drive on within bowshot of the forest, and with luck and good shooting bring the tree-dwellers to earth. Then the club and the axe would ecrne into their own again, and tho cracked skulls would equal the number r,f arrow-turn ! o lie.s. and every man would be satisfied —provided he got his blow in first.

It was just about this time that in Japan the mythical Susano Mikoto was cutting up e'ght-headed dragons with h's ten-grp swi-rd," birfc in Great Britain, at any rue, the sword was in is infancy. Steel was not understood, tho stone axo was unsatisfactory, and the first attempt i.t a sword found more than its match in trying conclusions with the club. Nevertheless, the club had to go. It was too much to carry slreld, low, arrows, and club; and the off oer all over the world, then as now, carried less equipment than the man. Times changed. The club at length disappeared altogether, and it was only many years after that it came int-o use again by officers, in the shape of tho niaco of the Norman period.

After the Middle Ages the sword and lance became the chief weapons of th? officer, and with the perfection of armour tho bow end arrow gradually disappeared. The days of the sword tnd lauce were real days of romance. Tilting at the ring v.as one of the chief events in the career of tho young kirgl.tt; who had not won their eovoted spurs in actual warfare. The gorgeously clad knights, superbly horsed, thoir armour and swords glittering in the sun. were themselves men of a romantic turn of mind, as the coloured scarveswhich they woro over tho sleeves of, their armour testified. But armour was heavy, and with tho dawn of powder and the invention of the pistol it was gradual!}' die.carded.

POSTOL AND CANE. j It was the pist.il that revolutionised the weapons of both officer and man rn much ;« any other weapon which can be directly ascribed to the invent'oit a! powder. The sword remained, it is true, but it war, not tfc® sole weapon of tl:o nffiwr. The Catalan dag, an Elizabethan form of p'stol. .wompanied t':o rapier and dagger of the tinier of Drake and Frob slier: later, the wheel-lock, the potromM, and the flintlock w< ro each in turn worn a.s fitting cniiipsaiions to the sword. Thii-i weapon v.., 3 always rel ab'e, whereas the p'stol, even it' it were carle by lie hand of Commazzo, the famous Italian, was ji ibTe to nr-fire at the wrong moment. It is only to-day that the infantry officer h.t.s discarded the sword a« a fighting weapon, for at the I eginning of the. present war many officers took their swords with them, .sharpened for actual f.o-hting. However, the world is now si">p<«ed to be move advanced, and, I ke tin dweller* in the tree? and forests. we kill from flfnr off, but not with bows and arrows. o'ir L'reat howitzers hurt shells for , i; i".. ; cm>s sei, and faun land, and tie tron'luv are 1.0 place for the o d A rifle is a heavv and eumbersonit. thng to carry when leading men. Whei\ th" offi'-er of to day ha.s exhau.'t,.,l hi; revolver ammunition ho refiorta I, t' o "tick wire'? li-.insn en h : s wrst bv httl.i Irwther stia't. Tlw «tick shops 0 f R-wd Streei and Piccadilly call those stick ; loaded mno;. In red tv they are ■liibs. And so wo go back to the pr rrn'val.