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The Clinton New Era, 1915-12-23, Page 4'Detedieber 23ed, 1915 esiemselmesese TER CLINTON NEW BRA PAG: THREE Manhoo�� . to Insti tib'` ver nes ices Superior f Se1I resew ti r'n ct British Medical Man at Front Finds That no Two Men Describe Their Feelings Under Fire in the Same Way—Some Frankly Admit. Desire to Flee But "Second Courage" Gomes The man who has not been under fire always desires eagerly to know what were the feelings of the man who has been during this ordeal, says the .medical correspondent of The London Times, in an article dealing with the :psychology of courage. It ie probable, 'says the writer, that he does not fre- quently find the information given by veterans either satisfying or enlighten- ing. Being under fire for the first time exists, as a psychological prob. lem, only in the most shadowy form until the idiosyncrasies of'the indi- vidual man have been taken into ac - ••count. • It has •been my good fortune to en- joy many opportunities of talking with soldiers who have been wounded in action. I have visited Belgian, French and British hospitals at arlous periods, and, as a medical man, have been af- forded special facilities for study. These opportunities have convinced me that no two men feel quite the same sensations whilst under fire for the first time, and also that a man is capable of experiencing quire different emotions at different periods ot the • same day, though his circumstances 'have not changed. For examples, from the statement of a man who experienced shell fire for ikon firms; time in his life in the neigh- borhood of Areas, I gathered that hie first feeling had been one of great in- terest and curiosity. A "Black Maria" felL some hundreds of yards away and sent up a great column of smoke, .and at the same time shrapnel was ibereting at no long distance. But sud- denly there came home the realization 'that these shells' were intended to work havoc, and that, in fact, the position occupied was full of danger. �,. 'Then I felt exactly as anybody would feel the moment after he discovered that he was in a field with an angry bull. Every instinct of mind and body prompted flight." Terror of Anticipation A second man told me that from the moment he came under Sri --in a trench—he experienced the most lively terror. "But the feeling passed away after a while, leaving me rather tired and only a little anxious." A third de- clared, that he had been so nervous be- fore going into action that the event put the anticipations of it to shame. He had regarded himself as a dead man, and woke up, under fire, to the realization that his chances of coming 'through safely were really very good. Each of these men acquitted himself bravely; two of them were wounded. e4early'when physical instinct played me" -the coward (I use the word in no cen- 'sorious sense) moral restraint effected victory. There came a second courage . s, courage open-eyed and of clear vision which, whilst not despising' dan- Igr-r, etas able to discount It. Under lire these men found a self hitherto un - :suspected, that elusive quality which for want of a better title .s called man - 'heed. 'The achievement of "second coo?, 'gage" is of course a well-recognized cetage in the seasoning process of war. I heard a little story from the lips a British' omeer which seems ,to .me 'to illustrate the genesis of it very con- vincingly—and the story is worth tell- . erg for its own sake. At a certain period of the present war some new troops were soot to hold a particular trench. They suffered a really terrible 'bombardment with shells and shrap- nel and at lest about .100 of them ted the position and retired. Y•evacua Presently they met a senior officer, :who stopped them and inquired what Aad happened. Courage by Suggestion 'On being informed the officer looked ;grave and told the men he would be very sorry to have to use any coercive measures with men whom he knew to be brave fellows. He .spoke to them for a short time and steadied them. Then he pointed out that the wag of •duty lay backwards towards the posi- tion they had left. 'Illi walk back a part of the way with you." He did eo. 'The men returned to their posts and ;gave a good account of themselves, en the words of my informant, they "ewer° all right after that." ee,e.n officer. who had 'himself seen much, service :told me before the be- ginning • of the present war that the ,soldier who said he was indifferent to fire was merely a braggart. That le generally true, though I personally APeW of a few exceptions. But equally true it is that a man develops S cer- tain callousness, or rather indifference. He learns first to control, ther to measure, his fear. He learns to dis- count possibilities just as tbe ordinary re way traveler does. And the work in hand gradually engages and holds more and more of his attention. There comes a time when, in the words of an army doctor who was wounded near Ypres, "You want to go back not be- cause it is pleasant there, but because staying away is just impossible." While therefore the man who has not been under fire cannot safely -.ount upon experiencing this or that particu- lar feeling when his hour comes—this depending so much upon temperament and circumstance—he can, 1 believe, count upon achieving the second cour- age which is the priceless possession of the veteran. He can count upon "making good" in a moral ard spiritual sense;; upon reaching courage even through the deepest valleys of mis- trust and fear. Under fire he may lose every preconceived notion he ever cherished or shunned, but it is at least in the highest degree probable that be will find lmself. And it is also probr.ble that that self will be worth the finding. THE SUBMARINMEYE I The submarine's two great assets in warfare are her invisibility and the possession of those terrible organs of destruction—torpedoes. Yet her invisibility to others would be useless if she herself 'ould not see, and this faculty is made practicable by the periscope. Immense strides have been made in the improvement of this medium of sight. The first one was a short tube capped by a reflecting prism, which threw horizontal rays downwards through the tube on to a foous. This focus was opposite an eye -piece, on which an observer was obliged to keep his eye concentrated. On the telescopic principle, the periscope's length, was increased, and then the introduction of the well known camera-obsoura idea enabled a picture of the sea's surface to be re - fleeted on a piece of paper laid Sat near the steering wheel. The order of the Victoria Cross was founded by the Queen after whom it Is named on January 29th, 1868, at the termination of the Crimean War. The first colored soldier to be made a V.C. was William Hall, a member of Sir William Peel's Naval Brigade in the Indian Mutiny, , Aviators and Artillery Co-operate in Warfare The Flying Man Plays a Big Part in Modern Battles—Gives In- formation as to Range and Direction to the Gunners. That the close co-operation between aircraft and artillery is one of the most remarkable developments of .nodern warfare must be admitted by every- one who has followed the progress of the great European conflict. We read of how flying machines, scouting or the enemy's position., have enabled the artillery to locate batteries and. regiments, with the result that the latter have been decimated or forced to retreat by the big opposing guns, To the layman it may seem a .'ery difficult matter for an aviator at a height of perhaps 8,000 or 4,000 feet t communicate at once to the artillery any discoveries he may have made. The method employed, however, is really simple when erdperly under- stood. As soon as the artillery commander to whose batteries the flying machine is attached has secured his position, he explains to the pilot and observer presuming the machine is a two- seater—the direction of the enemy and what he wi hes to be discovered. The aeroplane at once .rises to the necessary height and flies out over the batter; to find out the exact posi- tion of the enemy's guns. Mean- while, two large strips of white cloth are laid on the ground to indicate the supposed direction of the enemy. There are three kinds of observation to be carried out by the aeroplane be- fore the battery can 'ring its fire to bear on the exact point deeired. These are, direction or line of fire, ranging or (list -mice, and calculation as to the point at which shells should be timed to burst. To determine the direction of fire the pilot steers hie machine in the form of an elongated ellipse, closely watching the buret of kis bat- tery's shells on each outward jour- ney, and signalling the result by means of colored lights or by dropping messages on each return over the bat- tery. The course of his flight will always be on that side of the battery which 1s farthest from the sun, in order time his signals will be easily Been. The direction having been satisfactorily reached by those methods, the ob- server reoeives a signal from the bat- tery, communicated by strips of white cloth laid in certain combinations on the ground, to observe for range. He now steers his machine in the form of a figure eight, always turning toward the target, signalling the result in the manner already described. The timing of the fuse is then ob- served from the same position, and when this ieformation is obtained and communicated to his battery the ob- server will fly to a position vertically over the target and watch the general results of the fire, reporting his obser- vations from time to time by flying over the battery and dropping mes- eages. • The code of signals from aeroplane to battery is formed of red, white and green lights in various combinations. As an instance, one white light signi- fies, "I am overthe target," and one red and one green indicate that the range, direction, or timing of tho fuse, ac- cording to whichever is being observ- ed, is correct. The code of signalling from battery to aircraft is equally in- teresting; the white stripe of cloth al- ready mentioned are roughly arranged in the shape of lettere wtth their heads to the direction of the enemy's lines, each of which conveys a differ- ent ifferent meaning. The French army bullet is not made of lead' at all. It is solid bronze. OUR NEW DESPOT TENDER SOLICITUDE Private Smith (gctteng anxious over the non -arrival of a German attack which his company had been, to Id to expect) : "I•Ione nothing's hap- pened to the bldghterela0114 chael, iu London Cptufon. (The new Defence of the Realm Act permits the suspension of all the or- dinary law of the land: Right of Property, Freedom of the Person, Liberty of Opinion, are all :.t the mercy of the War Minister) Lord Kitchener: "You have given me a giant's strength, and it is rp to me to see .that I don't use 1t tyrannously like a giant."—Bert Thomas, in London Opinion. LIFE ON MODERN WARSHIP WHEN W[ATh[ S ROUGH Four Chief Qualities Soldier Should Have Jack Tar of To -day is Not so Well off as His Predecessor of the Time of Nelson—Unwieldy, Low -set Fighting Machines Very Uncomfortable in a Heavy Sea "Battened Dewn" means much more to the modern sailor than to him of Nelson's time. Ln weather of which the old ships, with their high free- boards and protecting bulwarks, took little notice, the modern ship is bat- tened down. The open, unprotected upper deck is swept fore and aft by Courage, common sense, cunning, and cheerfulness! The cultivation of these four attributes is, in the opinion of Sir Robert Baden-Powell, quite as important as drill in the making of a modern soldier. The queetion natur- ally arises can courage be oultivated? In the opinion of Sir Robert it can, and without it a soldier is practically useless in the field. He tells a story to illustrate his point of General Nogi, the great Japanese leader, who displayed in hes life and in his death the highest per- sonal courage. General Nogi once said that, though timid by nature, he had developed this quality by stern self- discipline. When he found a job which caused him appreheneion or fear, he forced himself to face it, and to re- peat it again and again until it no longer had any terrors for him. "It is that taking oneself firmly in hand," says Sir Robert In his book: "Quick Training for Was," "that enables a man to stick it out against the impulse of his knees to give in or to run away to a crisis." Courage is born of confidence, and no matter --nw timid a soldier may be at firet, if he knows that he can handle a rifle and sword well, manage a horse, has some good oilieem, and is healthy enough to march with the beat, he ma very soon cultivate it. In regard to the second of the C's-- common 's—common sense—Bir Robert points out that, although 'the science of strategy and tactics looks formidable in the text -books, these really only lay down defln)te principles and examples which serve to guide the leaders when apply- ing their common sense to the situ- ation in hand. "No two situations," he says, "are ever precisely the same, and it is therefore impossible to lay down exact rules that should guide In every case." They have an effective way of teach- ing common eense among the South African police As a rule, the police patrols go about the districts in pairs. When, however, a man 15 not suf- flelently intelligent or self-reliant, he is sent alone on long -journeys in or- der to cultivate and develop his com- mon sense and self-reliance. "De- velop," says Sir Robert, "the intelli- gence of the individual, and the whole unit will. lee efficient." One of the secrets of N&poleon's high seas, and the smaller the class of ship the more is she affected. Everything teat science can contrive has been done to alleviate the dis- comforts of "battening down," which is closing til upper deck hatches to keep the seas which sweep over the deck troru penetrating to the interior of the ship, but even then the mess decks are often awash. However, it is the lack of exercise and fresh air that tell most heavily on the health of the crew. The difficulties with which old-'ime Admirals had to contend, as far as the health of their men was concerned, were not bad weather but lack of fresh provisions and fresh water. These do not affect the modern sea- men at all, as plenty of fresh water can be distilled and fresh provisions can always be replenished at the same time as the coal bunkers ere refilled. An old-time sailing ship would ride out the heaviest of gales without tak- ing much water on board, and even when forced to batten down the dis- comforts of between decks were in- finitesimal compared with those of to -day. It may not be generally known that with nearly every new type of ship the living space afforded to the men has grown less and less. This is due to a multitude of causes—in- creased speed, increase in tbe size of guns, and the multitude of auxiliary engines with which a warship is fitted —so we no longer find the great, airy mess decks of ever thirty years t.go, but a multitude cf iron boxes which, at the best of times, have to be ar- tificially ventilated. When all natural ventilation is stopped the iron beams and sides begin to sweat and the at- mosphere becomes foul and rank. Yet it is doubtful if in a general way the men trouble much about these con- ditions; cards and other games are played or sleep is wooed; the sailor now has a little motto of his own: "More wind less work," and it really works out like that when the upper deck is merely a mass of tumbling waters. As a spectacle a modern fleet in a gale of wind is an imposing sight, and one hardly knows whether to give the palm to the stately leviathan or the perky torpedo craft. A battleship can hardly be called an ideal sea -going success was his abnormal cunning, which enabled him to formulate plans or his own :lir counteracting those of the enemy which were reported to him by his intelligence officers. For quick training in cunning the best echool Is that of scouting. "The first steps," says Sir Robert, "In making a good scout are to teach him obser- vation- and deduction, noticing every detail about the enemy and deducing a meaning from the points observed. Then, by a little imagination, the enemy's movements or intentions are read and counteracting steps can be taken with every advantage." The Boers, during the South Afrisan war., won many a fight through their cunning. Ltke the Germans in the present war, who have scored in the vital manner of concealing their ar- tillery, they were clever in hiding their field guns, when they were able to shell the British troops for a con- siderable time before the latter could locate the position of the Boers° ar- tillery sufficiently well to reply to it etfeotiveiy. "The Hero of Maleking" lays great stress on he value of cheerfulness. "The spirit," he says, "which posses- ses the men is a tremendous factor for success in war, and the presence et a few infallibly okeerful men in the ranks, and more eepecially among the leaders, is o1 a value that cannot be over-estimated' in an arduous cam- paign or when things are going against you. , . . I have known of more than one officer who was ac- cepted for service, not so much on account of his military ability, as for his undampable spirits, which invariab- ly develop a brighter feeling among those around him:" German Hlstoryin Three Lines "The following 'History ot the Ger- man Empire it Three eines' deserves mention," says a Petrograd corres- pondent: "'Kaiser Wilhelm I. was its maker, Friedrich Wilhelm, his hair, just its taker, And Billy, the grandson, its breaker.'" A Versatile ,Monarch" He was an ordinary newspaper man Lor a long time, carrying a pollee card, 'visiting police stations,, and doing what would be known here, est "ship news." JELLICOE A BOXER i in the Britirh army and navy the great game of boxing has long been the most popular sport of both officers and men, Perhaps a majority of the officers and tars of the British navy to -day are clever boxers, but, age and weight considered, there isn't a better Citic gladiator in His Majesty's navy wee can give a better account of himself than Vice -Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, the commander of the North Seat fleet. The admiral has passed his fifty-fifth milestone, but he is still active and strong and fond of -,, stiff bout -vith the mitts. In his younger days the little sea fighter—he is only five feet four inched in height—was the bantamweight champion of the British navy, Stories of his fistie prowess are still ourrent, and it is said that he scored many' victories over lightweights and welter- weights. In those days "Jelly," ss he was popularly called, always entered the ring a favorite. At Rottingdean, where he received his 'and education, he was a famous 'football player, al• though he weighed only about 116 pounds. Through his fondness for strenuous sports he developed a constitution which was strong enough to bring him through many perils on sea and land, and without which he would never have lived to reach the high honors he holds to -day. craft; she is much too massive to be buoyant and too cnmbered with top hamper to recover herself easily. So she staggers along butting at the seas but never trying to ride them; down will go her nose right up to the fore turrets, then, as she rises, hundreds of tons of water are lifted to be flung aft in great torrents. And yet for some reason known only to itself the navy prays that when it goes into action it inay be in a gale of wind„ Our men believe, rightly or wrongly+ that no other navy has had so much sea training as itself, and that, therm fore, the worse the weather conditions the better it will be for them in action. The small cruiser_ and torpedo crate have nothing to do with weather;' their job at sea is to get from one destination to another es quickly as possible. How they live through it is a mystery, for very often the only things above water are the bridge and the funnels; then one may see them poised on the crest of a wave with fifty feet of keel showing at each end.' —Navy and Army. Candid German Editor Admits Cause of War' His Country Wanted it, He Says, and There is no Use of Trying to Excuse the Action. Maximiliea Harden is about the only German editor who Is well known out- side of his native land. Before the war broke out he was the steadfast critic of many German inetitutions, Now he says boldly that Germany brought on the war because she wish- ed to do so. She dentee the right of the world to judge her. So long as Germany approves of Germany's ac- tions no more ie to be said. He asserts in a, recent article that, however terrible is the scourge of war, it Is less terrible than other scourges that threatened Germany, though what these are he fails to men- tion. War was a Divine necessity for Germany. Therefore he bids those who attempt to argue about it to be silent. "Therefore cease the pitiful attempts to excuse Gerrnany's action, No lon- ger wail to strangers, who do not care to hear you, telling them how dear to us were the smiles of peace we had smeared like rouge upon our lips, and how deepliy we regret in our hearts that the treachery of conspirators. dragged us, unwillingly, intoe forced war. . "Cease also, you popular writers, the degraded scolding of enemies that does not emanate from passion, but out of greedy hankering for the ap- plause of the masses, and which cons tinnally nauseates us amid the eiet7 of this hour. Because our statesmen failed to discover and foil shrewd plass of deception is no reason why we may hoist the iiag of most pious morality. Not as weak-willed blunderers have we undertaken the fearful riek of Milt war. We wanted it. Because we had to wish it and could wish It. May the TeutonDevilthrottle those whiners whose pleas for excuses make us ludicrous in these hours of lofty 01' perience. We do not stand, and shall not place ourselves, oemore the court of Europe, Our power shall create new law 1n Europ. Germany strikes: It conquers new realms for its genius, the priesthood of all the gods will sing songs of praise to the good was" Germany wages war, he says, be- cause she believes that as a result of her achievements and in proportion to them she is entitled to a wider field for the exercise of her genius. There was no room there for Germany. "lie hoist the storm flag of the empire on the narrow channel that opens and locks the road into the ocean"—this, says Harden, is why Germamy is at war. With the Belgian coast in her possession, and with German mortars pointing at England, the British Em- pire would have to come into a friend- iy agreement as a power of eaual strength, entitled to equal rights. 0 The campaign which produced the most V.C,'s was the Indian eptly, gas which 182 were won.