Show £ MULE DEFIES RIDES EKGIHE OH AMERICA READY GOWITGIIER WHEN DOGS OF LOCOMOTIVE RUSH DOWN ON HIM AND STEPS ON PRO- SEES TECTING PART Atlanta Ga — Struck full amidships by the most powerful mogul engine of the Western & Atlantic railroad a little Georgia mule thoroughly convinced that he could not kick the locomotive off the track calmly stepped on the cowcatcher to safety The mount of Balaam remained there until the engine came to a stop He then stepped to the safety of the road and soberly trotted back to his master who was wondering as to the number of pieces “dat fool mule” was ground into Neither mule nor cart he was drawing was injured The master of the hero of the incident is a negro farmer living a few WAR ARE LOOSED Bay Is Compl&lply Forts and Batteries ivith Equipped That Guard the ((Back Door of New York”— The Nation9s Great Drilling Place Narragansett YORK—If one were to which port on the coast has become most important center joint arhiy and navy maneuvers which is regarded as being the most important which from a strategic standpoint contains the most numerous stations for the advancement of the science of war and which is now the most strongly fortified probably very few persons outside of the “regular establishments” the army and navy could give a correct reply Quite certain It Is that very few would even think of the leading summer resort of the Atlantic coast as combining all of these grim equipments and combining them on a greater scale than does any other city Yet this is on the eastern seaboard just now what Newport does — the same Newport that is the summer home of the fashionable world the Newport of cottages villas ’bathing But incongrubeaches and yachts ous as ft may seem and surprising as may he the statement yet Newport today is one of the strongest fortified posts il not the strongest on the seaboard possessing a long line of massive grim' defenses most of which have been constructed since the Spanish war fortresses which not only guard the city and the vitally important entrance to Narragansett bay hut also protect the torpedo school wLtre the seamen gunners of the navy edutheir course in receive the final cation the torpedo station w here these the naval missiles are constructed training station the Naval War college the navy wireless plant one of Hie most powerful cm the coast and also the fields where mines would be laid in time of war Defenses of Highest Order “I would not call the defenses impregnable” said Col Walter How-commandant of Fort Adams and of the Narragansett district “Perhaps no deIt was once fenses are impregnable thought that Port Arthur was impreg still being mounted in the batteries which adjoin it along the shore But although ready for use and turned over by the engineering corps to the fighting branch of the army needing only barracks for the troops to complete its equipment the fort which is destined to be the strongest and most important of the Narragansett bay defenses has not yet been put into commission owing to a lack of men At piesont it is’ guarded by a small detachment of troops from Fort Adams which will be kept on duty there until more artillerymen can be provided It was for the purpose of remedying this grave defect in the system of coast defense that the war department adopted the plan of requiring the militia forces of the sea' coast states to spend ten days or ipore in duty within the summer encampforts instead o? ments as had formtiStjLlen the rule This change was for the purpose of with the familiarizing the militia handling of the big guns thus forming a reserve that might be quickly utilized tn case of some sudden emergency "Man New Forts This Year In accordance with this general plan the infantry and artillery of the Rhode Island militia will this year man the forts in Narragansett bay and Fort Mansfield below Watch Hill The latter is in the New London district and the men assigned to That post will be doing the same work under the commandant of New London that the bulk of the state troops will do at the Narragansett bay forts under Col Howe in June "By reason of the great shortage of men only six companies of coast artillery are now stationed in the forts 97 110 117 These are Companies' 129 and 130 But that the war department contemplates making this region around Newport and Narragansett bay chief drill ground of the department of the east is shown by the fact that a board of army officers recently made an elaborate survey of the shores of Narragansett bay and nable but the result ct the attacks made upon It showed that it was not But I have no hesitation in saying that tho present 4efenses are thoroughly efficient and adequate in every re- mapped out camp sites sufficiently extensive to encamp an army of 500000 men This board alsb selected places where additional baiteries could be placed if need be and where signal stations and searchlights could be installed Report had it that some of these sites included some of those occupied by the summer colony in the vicinity of Ocean avenue The report so much exercised some of the land owners that a delegation of these went to Washington to make inquiries at But following the war department its usual policy the department kept its plans to itself If it ever becomes necessary to use the sites it will use them no irai'er what landlords may say or think No Real Cause for Worry “Heavy firing heard off the New England coast” was a 'newspaper headline that had frequent employment in the early days of the war As a matter of fact there was no firing there at all but Newport as well as other seaports trembled every time the report was made If the city only had known it its defenses even then were puissant enough to fend off any attack that But poor Spain could have made while the army and navy knew this the average citizen did not And until NEW The Mule Stepped on the Cowcatcher to Safety miles out of Atlanta Early the other morning he started to the city to make purchases and according to his custom “Jerusalem” was the tTusty animal to haul him At Howell's station Ire attempted to cross the railroad tracks when to his horror he saw the hig switching engine a few feet from him and coming Jast The negro gave one wild yell prayer and jump and sat down in the fcalety of a sand bed Jerusalem was equal to every emergency His elongated 'ears shot forward and as the engine puffed down on him he gracefully stepped on the cowcatcher knowingly protecting winking his other eye at a startled switchman who Witnessed the At the Simpson street station the engine stopped and the engineer went Into paroxysms when he saw a mule step from his cowcatcher hee haw thrice triumphantly and trot away STARES AT DEATH 12 HOURS Sinks Into Soft Mud — Help rives When Only Head and Shoulders Remain In Sight Man ' Ar- San Francisco — Mired in the mud of the flats near Lake Merritt in Oakland James L Aguilar a watchman was rescued just in time bo save him from being drowned by the rising tide For 12 long hours Aguilar struggled to free himself staring death drawing near by inches but every instant he sank deeper and deeper into the eoft mud until when help arrived shortly after daylight only his head and were above the surface Slowly the tide was coining in and death was creeping stealthily tauntingly upon the man whose cries Tor help had dwindled into a feeble wail as a result of hi3 terror and exhausWhen he was finally dragged tion from his perilous position and taken to the Oakland Receiving hospital he was in a state of almost total collapse and the physicians who are attending him fear that the shoti" he suffered from his night of horror may have serious results Aguilar’ cries for help were heard throughout the night by persons living in the vicinity of the east end of Eighth street but all attempts to locate the sound failed Even after daylight came he w'as not able to attract attention from the bridge for some time At last A W StocJer saw the unfortunate man’s head projecting barely a foot above the black burface of the mud He ran for help and returned with Policemen Murphy and McKee-gaand a score of men from nearby and houses Ropes were obtained passed about Aguilar’s body beneath his arms and he was finally dragged out of the treacherous mire Responsive Trades is your eldest son getting on?” “He has a soft job He makes feather beds” “And your younger son?” “Oh he has a snap lie makes steel traps”— Baltimore Aqe rican “How te spect" In the system of Atlantic coast defense the strategic value of Newport ard cl defenses that could guard the eastern entrance to the sound was iong ago recognized by the military For in a military sense authorities this entrance i3 literally the back door to New York a door that it Is necesA hossary to keep strongly guarded tile licet that could force its way through this entrance and past the several along the sound might reach within striking distance of the metropolis and place New York and Brooklyn under a ransom past the counting of man Five forts constitute the chain of land defenses which now guard the entrance to Newport and the sound Adams These are Forts Wetherill Getty Phil Kearney and Greble They are equipped with numerous batteries rifles of of the latest model the main armaments and consisting of rifles Fort Wetherill on Canonicut island w as begun five years ago and is now in lighting trim although guns are Cer era’s fleet was blockaded in Santiago the average seaboard citizen was generally obsessed with a notion that he had cause to worry But thanks to the awakening which that little war brought about and to the great impetus which it gave tovthe upbuilding of the navy and to the establishment of an adequate system of coast defense the resident of the Newport littoral has no longer any need to raid from worry over any sudden over sea Even without the aid of that strong right arm of national defense the United States navy the forts alone could keep at bay a half dozen fleets of the size of the one which caused bo much uneasiness to the city and its neighbors during the early days of the Spanish war Need Fear No Foe The chain of forts which has been strung along the approaches to this eastern entrance to the sound comprises in its martial links Forts Wetherill and Adams which guard the middle channel Fort Getty on the westFort Phil ern shore of Jamestown Kearny on the mainland opposite and Fort Greble on Dutch Island The so emare rifles of Fort Wetherill placed as to sweep the approaches fire The with a destructive fort is flanked with numerous batteries of guns designed for repelling attacks from landing parties The ten and twelve inch rifles of the fort are of the disappearing type being mounted on carriages which lift them into firing position at the moment wanted the heavy rifles sinking back to the shelter of emplacements after their missiles have been sped on their way The mortar batteries that have been imbedded in Forts Adams and Greble can be reckoned as powerful adjuncts io the defenses of the place For one ihing no missile from any gun can reach them and amply protected by superb batteries of guns the artillerymen who man them have nothing to fear from any assault chance that And it is no these mortar pits take when they become irruptive In each is a group of each 16 mortars of the type throwing a shell whose impact on the deck of any ship would be sufficient to send that vessel to the bottom if the shell be lucidly or on the other hand unluckily placed Poor Show for Attacker If one could go down into the inner forts and gain l encases of these two and access to the charts and plans maps which are guarded there as a miser guards his gold he would undoubtedly come across a chart of the approaches to the liaibor and find it Mocked off into numbered squares And it he was in the confidence of the commanding officer he might be told the of the system by which gunners tf the mortar batteries are Informed of the exact squaie in which their unor the square toward seen target lays if it be under which it is traveling way and the speed at which it is goThe instant and almost autoing matic means of communicating and registering this intelligence might also Then the visitor would no be learned longer wonder at tlm seeding impossibility of firing mortars fiom a pit at an unseen target and hitting it almost every tiitoe In addition to its mortar' battery the armament of Fort Greble includes of a battery rifles two rifles three rifles and a rapid-firbattery Its supply of water is taken from the submarine pipes running under west passage of Narragansett bay from Saunderstown where the war department under the supervision cf the army engineers’ office last year completed what is considered the most complete water system any post on the Atlantic coast possesses Fort Getty on Fox Hill which is the flank line for Fort Greble and in the west passage is being made ready post and has a for a rifles and a fine batguns of Torpedo Station The torpedo station at Newport is the only one of its kind in America Here the seamen gunners are trained for the work of manipulating these machines taught how to build and how to repair them - Here also the submarines and the destroyer flotilla customarily rendezvous for the greater part of the year Adjoining the torpedo station lies Rose island commonly known as the torpedo station annex where torpe docs war heads and other deadly products from the torpedo station are stored under charge of a warrant officer of the navy who la under the command of Lieut Commander Bristol the commanding officer of the torWhile the capacity of pedo station the torpedo factory is but liO a year at present all departments at the torso pedo station are being increased that the time is not far distant when the capacity will be 300 and more At present the station is turning out and a seWhiteheads cret torpedo known as the Wilson but nothing can be learned of this or the other work which is being carried on whistle there When the knock-of- f blows at the station each afternoon the number of civilian employes who come streaming out gives the appear battery tery of of rapid-fir- Work ' ance of a navy yard force ending Its day’s work so numerous are the civilians that are now employed Made Into Torpedo Factory Up to a few years ago smokeless powder and gun cotton were made al this station but this work is now be lng done by private firms and one ol the large buildings formerly used foi this purpose is being transformed into a torpedo factory An Immense steel crane is in use at the wharf front oi the station with a railroad running over the station to transport heavy material used in the several departments One of the features of the station is its pattern department and its draughting rooms where some of the most important works in these lines are perfected At Newport also is located the Naval War college one of the most important adjuncts of the naval establishment As an illustration of how practical is the work of the college it is related that the late Rear Admiral Sampson one day visited the college after the close of his victorious campaign In Cuban waters and there saw suspended on the wall a large chart of the Cuban coast It bore certani markJV that denoted the movemertta of jfrtfr vessels The admiral took it fjTje a rhart that had been recent!fuepared for the purpose of illustrating certain features of the Spanish war It turned out as a matter of fact that he was looking at a working model that had been put to use two years before the war in the study of an imaginary campaign against Spain The college is in charge of Rear Admiral John I’ Merrell U S N who ' retired last September but was to remain in charge until next he relieved by October when he 'v Rear Admiral Raymond Perry Rodgers U S N at present chief naval intelligence officer Ungsllant Bostonians A few old timers from the South end were handing out some reminisSaid one of them: “I cences iceently knew Mmc Nonlica years ago when she was Mary Norton and lived over I used to call regon Warren street Afiother of the old timers ularly” said he could remember when Lillian Russell was a domesticated resident of Boston — Boston Record Defined "A pessimist” says Andy “is a man who turns off the he can look on the dark things Flower lights so side of |