Show f the pool who looked on forbid den things we are on the range some one calls starting buoy and you know that in another minute this double twisted original imitation ot billy bl ie hell will commence you reflect that a blast press ire of 12 pounds to the square inch will kill a man you know tint the pressure on the air near the muzzle of this gun whose breech you are beside when it Is fired is several tons to the square inch you remember that only a few years ago a green sailorman stood oft side 16 feet that some one called to him to lie down just as the gun was fired that he was in the act ot lying do when it was fared but that the suction of the air going with the shell drew his head from his body and brol e his neck this does not add to the pleasure of your situation for you can easily reach out there if you dare and pat that cold haunch companions in the familiarity 3 Us said breeds contempt but I 1 have an extreme respect for a 12 ach gun on a battleship the very last thing I 1 care for in that connection Is either familiarity or contempt the men who work it who some day will ight with it let those men explain ho v innocent such a gun is how facile its manage ment how bland its temper how esq its adjustment not I 1 I 1 isten to those men a while and you will believe that it is less dangerous to be locked inside the turret while a big gun Is being filed than it Is to cross broadway at twenty third street perhaps it Is b it I 1 prefer broadway and yet the fascination A great gun has tor the imagination the potency of evil itself emblem of force symbol of destruction it stands serene majestic white round its muzzle gather all the forces of the races struggles and its breech march hate pain grief ambition power and death the torpedo baid the captain of a battle ship to me one night at a dinner is more or less of an expert ment a toy it would be practically impossible for one to ink a big ship athe only thing I 1 am really afraid of Is a 12 inch gun the next day I 1 went into the after turret when the ship was on the range and in full and sympathetic ac cord with the captain stood beside the breech of one of thoe guns while it dropped four shots into a target a mile away stood there with my cap in my ready to clap it over face in case of accident ident cursing the curiosity that led me to that lethal chamber then the wonder ot it came over the silence of the the stealth leap of the rifle barrel like the spring of a grasshopper the quiet dull report which scarcely trembled that stately moving fortress the sour egg smell of the nitrocellulose stimulate sti mulat ing the nerves the sweet sick subtlety of ether lulling the overwrought brain when they shut the steel door that caged us in I 1 slipped into a funk and until the first shot was fired ray nerve was gone the sides of my courage account footed up debit 1 imprisonment in an oval case the shape of a cofan tl e sides formed of solid steel nine inches thick and the top of steel just a solid and live inches thick 2 filling a quarter of thit case the back third of a 1 inch rifle bar rel ready for action 3 below an open chute with a steel car bringing the shells and powder from the magazines sull farther below 4 the stern si ent faces of the gun crew which exactly resemble those faces seen at places of execl alon to memory the knowledge which vou cannot ight away that in just such a situ anon as tins turret crew or the georgia went to death ard that no one has ever found out how it zippered hipp ered that in precisely the same way the mis couri burned to death 29 men and that not one in that steel cage escaped credit 1 the face of the umpire stopwatch in hind he stands behind the breech looking down into the powder magazines you know he is there to pre vent recklessness though these men are faring against time be will let them do nothing foolhardy it he errs twill be on the side of caution 2 the knowledge that thousands of times guns like this have been fired from turrets like this and all came out alive you do not enter railway trains timidly be cause a dozen people were killed on one a year before five thousand miles away yet when you enter the turret of a 12 inch gun they lock you up there is no escape you stand there nervously by the and somehow it is not like a factory or a railway poach or a street car or any other modernly approved limb mangling device these things were built to kill and presently these fellows aie going to touch an electric spark which will loose enough anxious and determined gas to drive an pound shell 10 miles and put it completely through a steel plate as thick as the one that is supposed to protect you yet there you are the thing before you and you can reach out and pat it on the chiny cold haunch it it wobbles or a spring breaks or a has mis got itself rusted or the rifle barrel refuses to accommodate the shell ou will be fit brother for a detected cockroach if there is a flare back you have the lightest possible chance of escape hold your cap over your face don t breathe hurl yourself under the burel and fall into the handling room you may break a few bones but it the burning gas gets to no moie than 30 per cent of your skin you will live that is how ingle midshipman wh escaped from the georgia gavid himself yet no one can tell how that gas gets in its work sometimes it burns away the flesh and never touches the clothing again it singes off all the hair and never touches the flesh again it burns the clothing ott clean and leaves you naked but sate so they haqq locked you up in this steel cage the others have son e reason here with them it is work duty contest if killed they die nobly get brass tablets in the wall with their names inscribed pen eions go to their families the newspapers call them beroe if you die they will cut on your obscure tomb lethal chamber they are eleven two trainers tia iners two pointers one and two loaders a ramn er and a tripper hoisin an one the outsider he Is the other the eleventh the unnecessary one ump re he wears the single stripe of the ensign a commissioned officer and he is just as keen as you are to keep things straight to omit flare backs bide step the bursting of powder bags baith there let this umpire be and lasso oer speed tiou pin your the sky pilot of the turret the tripper Is a slight lad a boy ot perhaps 18 years neither and he is to stand there and anred yet has he ever seen a big gun pull the lever that thrusts the shell and its following powder bags before the breech in an undershirt a pair into the carrying cae of trousers and a thin smile he waits the word he was caught streets of minneapolis whither he had come the only a year ago on fresh from the farm far up on the ifft of the barrel encased in a leather head dress to the telescope that pro locked is the turret trainer his right eye ejects from the hood abo e h m he might be a diver with that curious jumble of intricate wires and the green speaking tube trail ing aft he grasps a b g wheel as a chauffeur his steering gear its barbette the ton turret below him and moves easily on between his legs his assistant sets his sights they be rid ng aback these two up along the slope of that sleek steel haunch on the other side the pointer with his assistant also ride here is the eye for which abia whole ship was built here the nerve and quickness for which the tons the seven millions of dollars tl e five years of making hae spread their august be ng his accuracy may sink a warship his weakness ruin a nation to and him and his like half a mill on OF A melve dollars has been spent in a single month in three minutes now he can quality and have 10 a month added to his pay for a year for we have penetrated to the ery viscera of war s na ture here 1 the man behind the gun he does the trick his eye searches the telescopic sight his left hind turns the wheel that raises and depresses the muzzle of his tie whistle time begins the umpire snaps his stopwatch and grasps firmly in his hand the little red book which defines to the farthest nicety the rules that govern this expensive foolery in the following three minutes this crew will try to put five shots through that flimsy canvas target a mile across the quiet water and the mill pond is worthy of its name the bay of the magdalene a haven of refuge the ship glides along like steel through flesh silence the gun coptain one of the loaders speaks what a jorj it is silence it precedes and closes every vital action in the nav in it lies such potency of command such aug gest ions of obedience ds is needed in the anteroom of death once a recruit saw fit to chaff his mate after that command silence had been given the gun captain stepped to him without anger and struck him a 1 eivy blow across the face with a gnarled wet hand the t carried the welt tor a week by no one was a woid said now until you hear again that command silence will hear only two words commence tiring rumbling from below with a grating crash the au shutter drops in the ammunition hoist and the shell car climbs its grinding steady way to the top sud denly vou realize that the machine is working of its own accord you saw no movement on the part of any on to set it going except for that umpire who like the man that the fool killer will doubtless some time get has really no business there the turret contains but one kofl a midshipman and he Is with the other gun all here are enlisted men the officers are aloft spot ting the shells as they strike or below setting the ranges with anti inti cate instruments and delicate adjust me ts about the gun itself the men and the machinery move a drilled to a precision their last instructions were to take it easy consequently they e b in a shirt tie plug nan pulls open the breech the locks the car the loader completes the passage car to open breech with a ring of po brass the boy tripper jerks down his lever and the huge shell nearly halt a ton in drops to its all but anal resting place tl e rammer holds down on his long release as a cable throws back his lever and the smooth u head forces the shell up till its soft copper rim takes on the ng of the gun when a shell is not properly placed in this way if its collar does not take it will surely be a mis and if the powder bags are placed wrong ei d to there is grave danger of a ai d a halfre is worse than a miss fire almot is bad as a Ha and a as every one ki ow is wl it probably did up the georgia s tur ret one of theae hells is about the size of a three year old boy and the powder bags look very much the same as a hundred pound sack of flour cylindrical in shape and studded with lumps where the sticks of nitro protrude the tripper p the lower lever from his car the first powder bag falls another lever and the second is in ahe briss rammer forces them behind the shell the gives a huge wrench to the breech and its mushroom head slides up on the powder bags the loader blips a primer in the to ich hole then folds down a tiny ilece of steel that forms the electrical con lection all is ready these are the hard moments you clasp your cap tightly in your hand you become rattled though you are locked in the coffin there might be a heay breeze blowing the way your troupers flap against your legs the car has groina its way back the shut have closed the crew it at attention the p ace is as clein and neat and silent as at an inspection it is now up to the pointer he grasps his unwieldy mechanism he closes and wrestles with the vast and complicated pom steel the ship moves on her stately and predetermined dav while the seconds fly and every sec 01 d counts against the prize money this pointer may earn against the this ship may win the barn big b ill s dances fantastic across his magnified field of vision he twiste the wheel a hair and the muzzle of the gun responds by an inch he reverses and up up she surges viv imperceptibly the ship is waiting SK lj gj all EFFECT OF A TWEL 01 stall apoi THE ARMOR PLATE OF A CRUISER time he not has passed and still that flimsy canvas throws forth its sinister challenge to be hit but the j crossing black lines of his telescope must place S bull s eve before he presses the trigger they must he pulls a easily as a child cracks a toy revola look the gun is discharged yes it went off just now I 1 swear it did sure enough the great breech sinks through the floor the sleek shiny haunch slips be neith bour grasp welches away there in the glazed light of the lethal chamber drops till ts crest Is as low as its belly lay then recovers poised slips to its first po s tion lies patiently modestly for the next charge as graceful a spring as a tigress ever made on moonlit road feline with stealthy swiftness decisive as oiled piston strokes and your hand has been 12 inches from the launch ing of that thunderbolt oh well this is easy who need be afraid herec this Is a place tor a grand stand here may gather all lovers of royal sport great sport indeed it is for now we can watch the precision and swiftness of that silent crew working against time the unlocks the breech and pulls it open the loader leaps across the chasm flips up the tiny guard that breaks the electric connection and so ex tracts the used primer automatically the air blast works and you 1 ear the swift escape as of steam as it cleans out the rifle blowing away gas and stray pow cpr grains tl e egg smell of the nitro comes and the sweetness of the ether then the grind from the hoist the shutter opens and up springs again the car 1001 ing down ou see there the menice that lies in all our ships the direct location of the gun breech over the powder n inea A burnt grain fall ng do there with an ent shutter the only protection is a constant danger over the building of the ammunition hoist directly above the maga the navy has fought one of its sternest inter nal wars and the war Is still far from finished nor will it be over until a sealed tube has been substituted the umpire Is only too well aware of this danger as he watches every move of the crew the utter silence still prevails the gun has been once fired and is being loaded for the second time the first minute has not passed and still not a word the second sl ot ii fired again the easy liev able recoil less than anywhere in the ship do you feel it here at the of the gun always so in storm centers is the calm in the core of the acorn dwells the germ As disraeli aid the only joy ao 10 being prime minister lies in the certainty of your knowledge that nothing Is happening on the inside here in the lethal chamber at the nerve center of destruction pre vail only silence and quiet A third and fourth time the smooth recoil the crew works with the serene delight of a geneva clock vastly complicated but of a single purpose and a single thought you are locked up with a single gun sepa rated by a ekin of steel is its mate when that speaks the turret is jerked on the barbette and the unfired gun ing e the q ick flush of a nervous womac s face the snap of the silence cuts like a whip As though paralyzed the action of the turret dies the loader pauses in the act of inserting the brass con necking tray the hand of the tripper falls from its lever the sight setter slips from his headdress the crowds up in front of the umpire the open breech of the gun exudes the cirrus troth like the first wreath of emoke from a choice pinar del rio the points sternly below it Is he who has called the and the loaders climb down the hoise ind pick up some light brown chunks that look like broken sticks of horehound candy pierced with air holes es M the long the umpire auve broken a powder bag indignant protesting the three men quickly pick up the scattered grains each as big as a man s middle finger they look carefully all about then rush back quickly to their stations ions eager to continue they look to the umpire with the expectancy of dogs asking for crumbs every is eating into their record this rotten powder bag bill cost tl em a penalty they may not |