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Show I WITH PEN wcz CAMEILA I. "MM'" ... . i I r j-- H ;'Mt ill asjSSEV m mi e I BHi JKrtBBMff&T ' II 'are crossed and recrossed and twisted Copyright 101. i. br Tr, International I ilHl I " ill BB . K WBBjJKB9milSSmW''i '111 SS!SSS2mBmS BMP" -II Into circles and diamonds, making It synaicnta. How This Thorny Wire, The Invention of An i American Farmer, Is ! Being Used In the European Eu-ropean War. IN time of peace nations meet In conference and adopt laws and rules to mollify the horrors of warfare, and whilst much Is accomplished ac-complished In this way In the preser-I preser-I vatlon of human life, yet when actual ! warfare breaks out It Is generally found that the participant use every j possible means known to the ingenu- lty of men to Injure the enemy or Impede Im-pede his progress and little heed Is j paid to the dreadful consequences re sulting from the use of such means, : In the present war new implements and strange devices have developed, . and among them la the barbed wire. Rapidity of movement Is regarded as one of the principal strategies of ' warfare. To successfully work out a definite plan of campaign quick action Is necessary, and the more mobile an j army the greater Its chance of vie- I tory. An Interference with this on ! the part of the enemy is a partial ; : victory, and If the obstacles thrown in tho way come as surprises It has the twofold effect of Impeding the progress of the oncoming army and i of disconcerting It on account of the sor'in of some means not antlcl-! antlcl-! pated, creating In addition tho fear that other and stranger devices may I i be encountered. It must, therefore. ' B" cause the Invaders to proceed with I j! great caution, thus giving more time I ' i to those acting on the defensive for ! X i preparation. Such obstacles disturb m the plan for rapid mobilization of ' M troops toward some advantageous ob- H jectlve point, for one of the great , m aims of a general is to seize, before I his plans are known, strategic points, cut off the enemy's line of communl- cation, and to do these things rapid movement 1s necessary. Quick action must bo used for tho concentration to strike a decisive blow, otherwise the enemy has time to mobilize and resist re-sist with superior numbers. Quick Action In 1870. To these two characteristics of warfare war-fare more than any other did Germany Ger-many owe hor rapid successions of victory in tho Franco-German war forty-five years ago and the early termination of the struggle. But In the present war the onrushlng of her seemingly Innumerable troops was arrested ar-rested at various places and at most Important points, perhaps at a critical period of their plans, by tho simple device of barbed wire stretched across roads and In the streets of cities and villages, besides being used with good effect before the fortifications. These devices were executed In a variety of ways. In some Instances before a spiked wire fence would be driven hundreds of stout poles resembling re-sembling piles projecting from tho water or rather tho stump of small trees sawed off two or three feet above the ground, and from one to another strong barbed wire would be strung thus preentlng the close approach of the enemy or a storming of a fort by assault at close range. In many cases Iron posts are used Instead of wood us tho latter substance bclnc Inflammable could easily be set afire, thus loosening tho wires and destroying destroy-ing much of its effectiveness as a prevention. pre-vention. Barbed Wire In Belgium. A largo amount of barbed wire is manufactured In Belgium, and the factories were well stocked when war was declared. The military authorities authori-ties at once decided to use it as barricades bar-ricades to prevent tho Germans from entering their cities, with the result that hundreds of German soldlors arc suffering from wounds made by the thorns of the barbed wire fences hidden hid-den beneath the tall grass. The wounds made by these wire thorns arc far more painful than those made by bull' ts, as they frequently result In blood poisoning. In the olden days the Roman iol-' iol-' dlers felled trees and, sharpening the I points, hid them under the leaves In I such a fashion that their enemies were badly wounded or killed as they rushed rush-ed against the points But the Belgian knew a better way to stop the Germans, Ger-mans, for they wound thousands of feet of this flesh-tearing wire through i the forests and barricaded their streets With the awful thorn-covered stuff. In many places they built a maze which nearly drove the Ger- 1 mans Insane, for several times during a cavalry charge men and horsea be-i be-i came enmeshed In the sharp wire and ' VwffiHw. 'JflHHHHHHHBBB the horses, suffering terribly from tli j sharp pricks of the wires, tramph i many of the men to death. Tho military engineers have a cu rlous way of twisting the wires am j forming zig-zags so arranged that every strand must be cut before one , may pass. Some of tho street barricades, barri-cades, especially at Antwerp, wero works of art In this lln and It took the Germans soveral days to clear the streets so that a single wagon might enter. Then France began to use wire entanglements en-tanglements and these were even , worse than thoso used by the Belgians, Bel-gians, for they were crossed and re-Crossed re-Crossed and strung from post to post I and fastened with staples. Tho wires were run In various directions high 1 enough above the ground to throw a ; horso or man. and when they fell It : was like falling on thousands of unbreakable un-breakable thorns, for the patches were at least thirty foot square. There is a shock to the nervous system at the first fall among these wires which Increases as the man fights about theso loose wires as they tear his flesh at every turn. Tho engineers know that taut wire can be cut wlh a sword so they string them loose. Wire Cutters. This stale of affairs soon led to the equipping of every soldier with a pair I of nippers, but as the wires had been I so arranged that overy strand had to be cut the charge was somewhat de- I layod. The roads, too, wero barrl- I caded with wire, but some German i invented a wlro cutter In the shape of a saw knife which could be attai.hcl to the front of an automobile, and i jBHsfclfr;' I Vr .w (ZGr?2Qa?j :72rv fyxYG. 77GBtlr many of tho road barricades were destroyed de-stroyed by this instrument. The wire knife Is attached to a high-speed automobile au-tomobile and the wire, If thin, Is clipped clip-ped as tho machine runs Into It. Sometimes the automobile is run backward and forward until the saw finally cuts the wire Nearly every automobile now In the use of the Gorman army la equipped with theso wire cutters. Tills works well where the barricades barri-cades aro on roads, but it Is valueless value-less where the wire is In ditches or marshes and tho engineers have devised de-vised other ways of tearing out the wire. All of the armies are now using long poles to the end of which a head containing a high explosive Is attached. This pole Is pushed against, or thrown on. the entanglement and r-et off with a fuse. The soldiers are not allowed to stand within 160 feet jf the poles, as the explosion ts terrific, ter-rific, one pole alone tearing a hole in the barbed wlro about 13 feet wide. Perhaps the most terrifying use of barbed wire is the placing of colls if it in what Is known as "wolf pits" holes dug In the ground and covered cov-ered with dry grass When the sol-llers sol-llers charge over these places the men and horses fall Into these holes and In many Instances the horses, maddened by pain from tho pricks, struggle to free themselves, killing ! the hclpiess men beneath them. The "wolf pits" are almost as fatal to the Infantry, for the men fall headlong head-long upon each other on the thorns. "Surely barbed wire In warfare is the devil's own Invention," declared one of the Red Cross nurses who has recently come from a field hospital. "The men who go up against this wire," she continued, "usually have their flesh torn, and the wounds aro not easily healed The rain frequently frequent-ly rusts the wire and all sorts of dirt settles there. This dirt is; of course, carried into the wound and an lnfec- I Hon results The severe pain, too, Is I a shock to the system." For Prison Camps. Barbed wire al6o plays its part at, the prison camps of the Allies, es-1 peclally In England, where It is used to keep several thousand German prisoners from escaping This prison ramp embraces several thousand German Ger-man soldiers, and they have already had to quell several mutinies in which a number of prisoners were killed. This camp Is surrounded by u fifteen-foot barbed wire fence heavily I charged with electricity. The wires practically impossible for anyone to escape. The English cover their armored ammunition cars with wire rope, recovering re-covering It with a netting of barbed wire. This precaution is used to kesp penple away from the car, while the wire ropes In a measure will prevent the shells from flying should the train be attacked and the shells explode. To Deaden Shell Fire. Plain wire, too, plays Its part In war, as tho Germans are using it to protect their trenches. It Is cialme-d by military experts that the force of shell fire can be deadened when they fall upon iron wire. The German trenches at Melle, near Ghent, were covered with tons of great Iron colls sent all the way from Hamburg. The fact that the Germans lost few men at this point proves the value of wire In this line. After the battle It was found that the fragments of the shell were confined to a more limited space. Shrapnel, too, loses Its value as an agent of death when It fallr on the wire colls. An American Invention. Barbed wire Is an American Invention Inven-tion and came Into existence in 1372. About that time an Illinois farmer named Glldden conceived the Idea that wire with spikes twisted about the Btrands would keep cattle from pawing wire fences and straying away, and he 6et about to make a fence of this type. He applied for a patent but It was not until 1 8 "j 2 that his rights to the patent were granted, and this was given him after a long litigation. The old farmer died in 1906, before the real value of his Invention was fairly demonstrated. American military men recognized Us value at onco and they have been quietly making experiments with It. L,ittlo did Farmer Glldden droam that his Invention for the protection of the farmer from cattle thieves would In time be used to surround pens where human beings were held prisoners or to lure men to their death by having them unconsciously fall upon Its thorns. |