i WN AMATOR'S iy EXPERIENCE DESCRIBES A BATTLE SEEN FROM AN AEROPLANE. Surprised That Many More Hits Are Not Made By German Gunners. An interesting account of the ap- pearance of a battlefield as seen from an is 'd in/a letter from one of the aviators with the British expeditionary force. to his mother in Engla é says: I am having a grand time, the time of my life, and I wouldn't have missed it for anything. Life out here is so totally different from any thing you could possibly imagine sound of a great battle--guns firing, shells bursting; men are in kill- ed and wounded, while here 1 am comfortably writing a letter after a ---- breakfast and expect- ing an equally comfortable lunch. But that is bernie it doesn't hap- pen to be my turn for' reconnais- sance, worse luck. It is most amusing to compare one day with another, or even one hour with the hour after it. For instance, take a typical day. At six o'olock you are just finishing break- fast. In Jess than an hour you are up in the air, twenty-odd mailes away, with a battle going on under your very nose--hundreds of thous- ands of nen in various positions pegging away at each other from their various trenches (a good many of them pegging away at you). It looks so funny from the air, be- cause you can see it all and both sides, whereas, down below they can't see what they're firing at ina good many cases; it is mere scien- tific slaughter. A battery will per- haps know that some of the enemy are entrenched in a certain area. It wil! train its guns on to that urea without perhaps even seeing if their guns have effect. For -in- stance the other day I saw guns dropping shell after shell into a certain area and there wasn't a man within miles of it! Grand Sight From Above. The day before yesterday 1 saw eome German shells bursting bang in the. middle of some of our trenches--one after another. The slaughter must have been terrific. It's a grand sight from above, We have our share as well, because they have anti-aircraft guns pop- ping at us all over the place, not to mention rifle fire and shrapnel. It is awfully interesting to notice <* old positions which have to be abandoned owing to shel] fire. You can see great holes where the shells have burst all round them. I wish I could describe some of the things I have seen. The Germans have some special | guns for dealing with aircraft. | They consist of a gun which fires a kind of shrapne) shel] which bursts at a certain height. As soon as they find your height they let off their shells, about seven or eight at a time, which buret all round you. Each shel] is loaded with round bul- Jets about the size of a marble, and ese shoot about when the shell ex- plodes. Whenever we go up we have these anti-aircraft guns popping off at us. We have nicknamed one of them "Archibald." He has a very distinctive way of firing at you. He'll let off one, just to see where it bursts, and then find out his | range by it, and then let off six-- one after another. We take them more or less as a joke, but I think they are pretty sure to bring one! of us down sooner or later. It is/| really only a matter of time. Baptism of Fire. |i Did I tell you about my first re- | connaissance! It was at Mau- beuge. I started off to fly over by | Mons and Enghien and Ath--in that | direction. We ran into clouds just | beyond Mons, so had to turn back. | As we were coming back over the | French lines | saw a movement and} bustle among the troops, and then there was the noise of about 1,000 rifles cracking at us. They had mistaken me for a German because my machihe was different from most of the othera! That was my "bap- tism of fire" and J shall never for- get it. My first sensations were of sur- prise, which rapidly developed into a kind of fear, which in tura changed to fascination. It positive- ly fascinated me to see the holes ap- pearing in the planes as each bullet | fee mill, ripped its way through (although there were only a few of them). [| was looking at my instrument} ard to see what height I was, | when suddenly a buliet hit the! beard and a splinter jumped up in front of me. At the same time a} bullet pierced the petrol tank all the petrol ran out. Anether | one hit the instruments and smash- } ed it. When the petrol -ran ou there was nothing for it but to come down, so I trusted to luck, and came down in the first good field IT saw. Germans Two Miles Away. A dozen or so Belgian and French soldiers rushed out, annarently net sure' whether I was Englich or . A Tragic Scene in the Firing-Line of the French Army. photo illustrates the remarkable spirit of the French troops which has so often been the boast of ial communiques.. A soldier tries to aid a wounded comrade and with grim determination contin- This the offic: ues his unceasing fire at the enemy. German 'till I shouted, "Anglais, Anglais!" Then they bustled to and did all they could for me. I hap- pened to itgve two tanks, so I filled up the other one and got ready to start off again. The odd part of it was, shrapnel began bursting in the field next to us--one after an- other--whick seemed to poiat. to the fact that Germans had brought me down and not the French as [ had supposed. A French major came up in a car and entreated me "Vite, vite,' he said, 'les Allemands ne sont pas loin--trois kilometres!" ("Quick, quick The Germans are not far away--about two miles !") The next cétnibataaties I made I had a taste of "Archibald"--the anti-aircraft gun. We were up by Valenciennes, which was infested with Germans. Suddenly I saw five or six thick white puffs of smoke be- neath us, which were shells burst- ing. The next time they made a better shot and were on the same level, but to the left--and soon. At one time we had eight shells burst- ing round us at once. Another ma- chine was about 1,000 ft. above us at the time, and when we got back the people in it told me that they really thought we were going to be ohe in that time. Since then the old gun has been at us every day. One day I took up my camera and waited until it had sent up about six or seven shells and took a photo of them bursting. L hope it will come out well--although there won't be much to see. -- An Electrical Farm. Norway is fortunate in having many waterfalls to furnish "white coal," or electric power, at very low cost. At an agricultural' ex- hibition at Christiana, visitors saw a model farm at which es does much of the work. night, the farmhouse, yard, sichies and sheds are brilliant with electric lights. Electric stoves do al] the cooking. A small motor runs a cof- a knife polisher, a fruit parer, a sausage mill, and a bread jeutter. There is an electric dish washer, a clothes washer, a centri- | fugal drier, an electric mangle, and jelectric irons. In the workshop there are a lathe, a saw, a grind- stone, a glue heater and a soldering iron, all driven by electricity. In the stable, an electric motor runs an apparatus for rubbing down {horses and for shearing sheep. By | way of climax, the fields of the farm are fertilized with an _ artificial manure made at the Norwegian electrical nitrate works. : Three Ages. The new Berlin botanical gardens are wonderfully beautiful,. but to smal] children they are a forbidden paradise. Boys and girls under ten are not permitted to enter. Herr and Frau Muller found this out to their disappointment when they planned to take their little Paul on a Sunday trip to view the beautiful gardens; nevertheless, they gave their young hopeful a few ---- and started apt. At the gate, the porter stopped the young Muller. "How old are you he inquired. Paul answered, a for the electrics; really eight; for the botanical gardens, ten."' What Pussy Said. why did you let the cat Elsie, mamma." 97? 'She asked me to, "What do you mean, child? "She scratched at the door and said, 'Me out, me out.' "Of On Her Guess, Jail Visitor (sympathetically) -- You poor man! You'll be when your time is up, won't you? Convict -- Not particularly, miss, I'm in for life. '| general of the HISTORY OF MODERN GUNS FIRST RECORD OF USE WAS BY THE JAPANESE. Biggest Gun of the Present Day Can Throw a Shell Thirty Miles. The evolution of the big gun goes back over 600 years. The naval gua seems to have been the natural suc- cessor of the incendiary tube fixed in the bows or galleys of vessels for discharging "Greek Fire," an in- cendiary composition containing black gun powder and other ingre- dients. When guns were first use at sea is not absolutely certain, but in a celebrated old Japanese paint- ing of the repulse of the Mongol fleet off the shores of Japan in A.D. 1281, the Chinese vessels are shown wreathed in smoke from their guns. No records of the use of guns oa board ship in European naval) bat- fies. wire 8 a date for such ase earli an Of the early guns, the smaller: ones seem to have been generally forged, and the larger one built up of iron bars put together and hoop- ed like the staves of a barrel. They were nearly all breach-loading. The earlier projectiles were of stone or forged iron, but bags or bundles of small balls, stones, or bits or' iron were often used. The greater strength of the cast guns led to at- tempts to increase their power by larger powder charges. The dif- ficulty encountered of a rise in the gas pressure in the gun making it awkward to keep the breech tight led to the adoption of the muzzle- loading gun, which remained in common use unti) within the last forty years. Mounted in Ports. The guns of the early ships were earried on the upper deck and fir over the rail, the available space on deck limiting their*number. About the year 1500 a shipbuilder of Brest first suggested mounting them in ports cut through the -ship's sides. Much larger ships were then built, but during the 16th and 17th cen- turies ships increased but little in size or battery power. At the end of the 17th century the 42-pounder was discarded. As the advantage of larger calibres be- came more appreciated, about a hundred years later the 42-pounder was revived as a short gun of 57 ewt. It was inaccurate and had « very short hange, but at close quar- ters 1t was much more destructive than a long gun of similar weight. Until the end of the 18th century sighting of naval guns was effected by looking along the line of metal" of the piece, the requisite elevation being obtained by aiming at a point on the enemy's ship a suf- ficient distance above the point to be hit. Soon after 1801 fixed sights were adopted in the British navy, but the movable rear sight did not appear until much later. Explosive Shells Next, The next important' improvement was ,connected with the ammuni- tion, explosive shells being intro- 'duced in place of solid shot. The innovation was brought about by a 'rench army, and explosive shells became the com- monest form of ammunition in all navies. This inventor foresaw that if shell guns were generally adopt- ed they would compe! the use of ar- mor in ships. Armor, in turn, caused the development of the rifle gun. b Previous to 1881 all breech-load- ing guns were loaded quite slowly, owing to inefficient operation of the mechanism which opened the breech. In that year the British Ad- miralty invited designs for a gua which was to be capable of being fired twelve times per minute. This gun only fired a: six-pound shell, but it gave etimulus to the attempts to improve the rapidity of fire of guns of al! calibres. Introduction of the 'type of battleship known as the "all big-gun ship" has caused a unification in the calibres of guns, but does not reduce the number of different calibres ueed throughout a nayy. Military Cannon. Military. cannon are divided into three classes, viz., mortars and howitzers. In guns, the length is relatively great; in mortars, rela- tively small; howitzers are a class between guns and mortars. All modern cannon are rifle and breech- loading. According to the purpose for which they are intended to be used, they are further classified as machine, field, siege, and sea-coast ns. achine guns are those in which rt M the operations of loading, extract- the empty shell, and firing are olly or r Pay performed by ma- chinery, and can be worked'by one or two men. They are chiefly useful for supplementing a deficiency in infantry fire, the defence of passes, ete. The Gatling and Gardner guns are good examples of those operat- ed by hand power, and the Colt, Hotchkiss, and Pom-Pom of those operated _by the force of the power gasses. The biggest, most powerful gun being used in the present war can hurl a shell weighing one ton a dis- tance of nearly thirty miles. It is fired each time with a 1,500-pound shot of powder, at a cost of $9,500 per shot. And after 120 shots, the gun, which costs $465,000, is use- less. "WAIT AND SEE'? MATCHES. So Tommy Atkins Calls Them "Aw quiths"--Other Nicknames. Soldiers' letters from the front continue to reveal the aptitude of: "Tommy Atkins" in the invention of nicknames. There have been a number of puzzling references to "Asquiths," and the expression re- mained a mystery until one writer explained that this was the new name for French matches. They are so-called because you have to 'wait and see"--a famous expres- sion once used by the British Pre- mier when baited by the Opposition to disclose the Government's plans with reference to the veto bill. The Kaiser is now generally re- ferred to as "Crazy Bill' and the Crown Prince as "Five Bob Bie."' German snipers are known as "Little Willies The outer line of trenches, where men are posted at first to draw the German fire, 1s known as the "drawing room," and the inner line, where the attacks are really met, is called the "reception room. The ground at the rear, : here the dead are buried, is called the "dormitory.' In the navy they refer to Admiral Von Tirpitz as "old Tirps," and they have always called Sir John Jellicoe "Heilfire Jack.' Submar- ines are called "wasps.' I, | ee eee The lawyer was Scotch and. the Judge was English. The case in argument concerned certain water rights, and the lawyer had fre- quently to use the word "water, which he pronounced very broad "Mr. So-and-So,"' at last. interrupt- ed the Judge, "do you spe!] 'water' with two' 't's' in your country "Na, na, my lord, quickly retorted the lawyer; "but we spell 'mannere' wi' twa 'n's'!" POOR LOUVAIN, History of the Belgian City De- stroyed by the Germans. it is one of the-terrible ironies of this terrible war that Belgium, o nation that had no conceivable in- terest in the quarrels of Abstria and Servia, and no share in the rivalries and alliances of the great powers, should be the first and greatest sufferer on account.of it. And in all Belgium, the case of Lou- vain is perhaps the worst. The de- struction of the city is almost com- piete. Louvain is a very old city. ~ Its citizens assert that Julius Gasekt himself established a fortified camp there, and almost a thousand years ago it was distinguished as the re- sidence of the Dukes of Brabant. It was the centre of the woolen trade in that region, and a very important place when Brussels was only a village. The prosperity of Louvain began to decrease as a re- sult of years of civil strife between the nobility and townspeople. weavers, who called them- White Hoods, were early protestants against the privileges of the aristocracy, and more than once they gained the upper hand. During one insurrection, the em- battled weavers threw thirteen no- bles out of the windows of the towa hall on to the spear points of the crowd beneath. But that exploit roused the Duke of Brabant, who interfered to such purpose that thousands of the White Hoods had to.take refuge in Holland and Eng- Jand. These men were the found- ers of the woolen industry in Eng- land, for until that time nothing except the coarsest of fabrics was er outeide, of Flanders and Bra- an o @ t. The city bas shrunk so far within its ancient walls that almost half the space that the town used to oc- cupy is now given up to market . There are no modern for- tifications, and the old ramparts were years ago made into very at- tractive promenades. The University of Louvain, which occupied a venerable building of long arcades and graceful pillars that was originally Cloth-Workers Hall, was founded five hundred years ago. It is--or was until last August--still a famous school, al- though like the city, was not so great and flourishing as it once was. here was a time, century, when it was the leading university in Europe; six thousand scholars attended it, and no one could hope for a public office in the 5 N r S was then called--unless he. had a} degree from Louvain. The univer- sity, with-all its libraries and col- léctidns, is in ashes. The rector was, we are told, shot by the Ger- man soldiers; and the homeless children of the professors, many of whom are now orphans, are being sheltered in the English university town of Oxford. ARMIES ADVANCE SLOWLY. Necessary to Keep Lines Intact in Moving Against Enemy. The apparent inaction at some egg on the great 'army lines in Eur. n conflict, as reported i a the dally despatches, is apt to be confusing to peaceful citizen, but to the Seaton the art of war- fare the reason for this is frequent- ly clear, as it is explained by a military expert in the Beientifie American. It may happen that when fighting extends along a front of many miles, some troops may be more successful than others, and thus gain ground much in advance of the general kine. This, if permitted to proce any great distance, would have the tendency to leave gaps in the line, or weak spots on the flanks of the successful troops which would prove most dangerous _-- genera] line, as well as to the vanced troops themselves, if con- fronted by a tenacious and aggres- sive opponent. Furthermore, the success of the campaign does not depend on isolated advantages of individual units, but on the success- ful advance of the entire line, the several units (divisions, army corps, or field armies) supporting each other in the forward move- ment, all under the general super- vision of the commander-in-chief. herefore, it may be necessary to hold back the more advanced por- tion of the line the "< units are able to come up to it. enable them to hold what they bave in the sixteenth i g men back to st CULTURED WOMEN NURSES SCRUB GRIME AND BLOOD SWEAT FROM SOLDIERS, Women of France to Wear Tiny Pendant of White in Memory | of Their Dead Heroes, ie claim, "The women are splendid !", Not theirs the wild intoxication of the charge, the thrilling joy of riding full dash at the rows of the sabring the gunner ging lance to still the Keiser' s fine lans and stem the tide of oppressi and win glory or death in a nerve-braced with joy. ee ip ently-nurtured women b aot B English, down here mi the veuey of the Garonne are sooth- ing the anguish of the twenty-five thousand wounded French and Ger- man soldiers, privates and officers, who have been brought to the re- gion of the new capital of France. | When you have n fighting kke fury, driving or being driven, day after day, you have had no j for baths and rose water. freedom's men--have been brough here covered with blood, swest,' dust, and dirt. I have been wetch- ing them to-day gmat in = floors of trains on beds of soft hay, friend and foe. Tender women, see/ ing that the great thing needed wad scrubbing, scrubbed. e nurse's duty does not and end with the holding of a man'é hand, the cooing of soft words dnta his languid ear, the ni gee of a cool cup to his parched, teful lips. It includes this--an "moro? So women of the British colony i the French capital, and women France, are scrubbing floors men. Women Ready and Calm. Bordeaux, truly French, glorified woman for generetions her big public squares, streete, gardens, in bronze and stone. and this lavish, exultant statuary Pes, man is clothed only in beauty. In gl countless hospitals where tending the wounded and ohetee' ann. caine i eienanla: maeciariae pee ad Shi women. are cing of copying the British orang e is ready and calm. not wearing "ous tomary " of mourning for their husbands, brothers, cousins, killed in the war. Some are in fa vor of a tiny pendant of white small, modest, to be worn at the throat--simple symbol that thei men have died for freedom and for France. Wounded Mostly Recover. What the nurges and doctors fina is that most of the wounds are in the arms and and of tie twenty-five thousand wounded here scarcely any have died. So the merciful work of these devoted wo: men has all the more hepe in 4--~< that of saving fighting men to fight some of the men working the tramears in this fine city, were called up for the war, women, etepped on the footboard and filled their places. ere they are, acting as tram conductors, giving the tickets, and taking the money, and ex iting the getting in and out at the crowded times with gentle pressure of the hand, as calm and sériona about it as though they had been at it al] their lives. Thus the women are helping to keep "businevs aa usual" and earning money toward the maintaining of the children of the men in red and blue aml khakd naennee north. So, by the side of the ineoming trainload of men stretched on the floors of railway wagons or away in the scores of hospitals, among the rows of wounded getting bh gor their help, or amid the sno = garlands that make it easier for the men to leave their homes and deat ones for the stricken field, or in the jostle of the tramcar crowds, keep. ing things going with a brave heart, 'the women are splendid.' - a Yriend (gazing at new honse) -- So this is your last house? Builder won the-advanced troops will en- (sadly)--Yes: last, but not le raed | trench. The line or line 'of trenches are | Singleton--: 'Do vou believe in not necessarily continuous. They /| erat F the old adage about marrying in usually form irregular groups of | d " qr entrenchments distributed along| haste an ono. ating 7 "af aja the front of the position, the firing | Wedderly--'"No, I don't. after' a trenches facing the acca 's lines ot) man marries he has ne leisure the avenues of appr< It would be well oa note at this | Mothér---Johnny, stop using such point that this advanced) "part of | dreadful language ! Johnny-- Well, the line, while still a factor in the | mothgr. Shakespeare fises it 0- general offensive movement, 1as | | ther SThen don't play with 'him' now assumed a defensive attitude | he's no fit companion fer yeu "seeking a favorable decision,' , wuich means that it is simply waite | a ing to resume the offensive, and! "Does baby talk yet? asked a that i is the only form of defence that | friend of the tamil v of baby's little can secure erwin results, | brother, "No."' rej ied the @ little fellow dieriavediy. 'he doesn't It is only by living up to the fu-} need to talk. All he has te do u ture that a man can live down al yell) and he gets everything wort past. | havi ing!"'