Show SMOKELESS POWDER An Important Military Experiment Experi-ment with it in France CD IT WILL NECESSITATE CHANGES In the French Infantry Uniform Impossibility Impossibil-ity of Locating a Concealed Corps byi its Fire Strange Effects N Special to THE HERALD Kxaminer Dispatch PARIS 2By cable to the New York HcralclJThe maneuvers that took place yesterday on the plateau to the east of Champigny in the presence of General Saussier military governor of Paris to test the use of smokeless powder constituted consti-tuted the most important military experiment experi-ment in France since the adoption of the Lebel rifle It was a surprise for everybody every-body and one of the results is likely to be a radical change in the uniform of the French army Themaneuvers took place on the elevated ele-vated plateau east of Champigny contiguous contigu-ous to the sweeping bend of tho Marno just before it flows into the Seine Tho Onehundred andfirst regiment and tho Twentyninth rifles and the batteries of artillery were entrusted with the defense of the little village of QueneenBrie The attacking force was composed of the One hundredandthird regiment and a battery of field artillery They utilized the farm and woods of Bordes 1200 metres distant from the position to be attacked as Jheir base of operations The infantry was armed with Lebel rifles and was served with smokeless cartridges not blank but containing pasteboard paste-board bullets These latter arc not so harmless as one might suppose for within a range of twentyfive metres they produce a shock sufficient to knock a man over The artillery was served with smokeless powder amunition The weather was superb su-perb The attacking battery thundered away at the little village and was replied to withIn vigor with-In a few minutes the Twentyninth rifles made an effective counter attack on I the right flank of the Onehundredand third regiment This was repelled and soon all the forces on the field were blazing away at each other The rapidity of the fire was like the roll of a multitude qf drums but neither its rapidity nor its intensity produced the slightest smoke The effect to military men accustomed to campaigning in other days seemed almost supernatural Companies Com-panies of infantry concealed in the brush poured a deadly fire upon their opponents without it being possible to find their whereabouts On the other hand the troops not undercover under-cover found it impossible as hitherto to conceal their movements under the friendly clouds of smoke from supporting battriss It was astonishing to see how clearly the different parts of the uniforms were distinguished dis-tinguished The great disadvantage under which the French linesman with red trousers labored in comparison with the sober hue of the riflemen was now marked All the officers present felt convinced that the red trousers of the French infantry add at least 10 per cent to its invulnerability invulner-ability Another reason for hastening the revolution in French uniform is the fact that in the German army rifle schools targets tar-gets are composed of mannikins in the French infantry uniform German soldiers are trained to judge distances for sighting rifles by tho visibility of red trousers in combination with belt plates and buttons I which give them the range with the accuracy accu-racy of range firing |