THE ART OF KILLING.

Evening Post, Volume XLVI, Issue 126, 25 November 1893, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE ART OF KILLING.

IX THE GOOD OLD TIMES. The' Rabbis say Cain killed Abel with a club. Projecting engines were first invented by the Greeks. The first armour used was of skins and padded hides. The military flail came into use in the tenth century. The cross-bow came into use in the twelfth century. Spears are found in the earliest hieroglyphics of Egypt. Mixed chain and plate armour was used from 1300 to 1410. Damascus blades were famous all over the world b.o. 500. Greek infantrymen were always trained in stone-throwing. The quarrels thrown by cross-bowß often weighed 6lb. Military hammers were first commonly used in the 10th century. The Crusaders stormed Jerusalem with the aid of wooden towers. In the 14th century axes were fixed on the shafts of lances. Pictures of helmets appear on the Egyptian monuments b.o. 300. The battles of Cregy, Poitiers, and Agincourt were won by the archers. 'J!he bow appears among the earliest sculptures of Egypt, b.o. 4000. The morning star, or spiked club, came into use in the eleventh century. Aucient battering rams were manned by 100 or 150 men, generally captives. The double-handed swords of medisaval times often weighed 30lb. Pliny ascribes the invention of the sling to the Phoenicians, about b.o. 2000. The battle of Hastings was won by the superior skill of the Norman archers. The cross-bow was introduced in the ninth century, and made of the best steel. Military hooks were u.sed in the seige of Tyre, 7 1 3 b.c, by Nebuchadnezzar. Stone arrow- points and hatchets have been found in every country in the world. The catapult was invented in Syracuse, 406 uc. by Dionysius the tho Elder. Egyptian bronze swords made b.c. 3200 were from two to throe feet long, with double edges. Military maces, clubs with iron heads, came into Western Europe in the seventh century. The ancient Mexicans used wooden swords in war, that they might not kill their enemies. Richard I. built movable towers of three stories high and capable of holding 500 men. The battering-ram was a beam suspended in the middle, drawn back and thrown forward. The Mexican flint knives were made so sharp that they could be used for trimming hair. The mace, once used by the cavalry of all nations, was a spiked club hung at the saddle-bow. The largest catapults threw beams Bix feet long, weighing sixty pounds, over a quarter of a mile. The Greek and Roman ships of largest size had two towers filled with archers and catapults. The Roman galleys were provided with a sharp iron prow for running down adversaries. The long bow was brought into Western Europe in the eighth century. The bows were six feet long, arrows three. The Amazon Indians use a blowpipe with which they throw an arrow 200 feet with wonderful precision. The Turks, in the final siege of Constantinople, employed catapults and balisters side by side with cannon. At the battle of Bannockburn, 1314, Robert Bruce clove an Englishman to the waist with a battle-axe. In the Greek phalanx the soldiers stood as close as possible to each other, their shields overlapping. Some of the wooden towers erected to attack a besieged city were ten stories high, about 100 feet. The armour of the fourteenth century was so heavy that a fallen knight could not rise without assistance. Pole-axes were first employed in the ninth century ; the short, heavyheaded battle-axe from very early times. Representations of slings and slingers appear in Assyrian and Egyptian monuments and paintings of at least 2500 n c. In the twelfth century a hook was attached to the footman's spear, to enable him to drag - a knight from the saddle. At the Beige of Jerusalem the Romans had a catapult that threw a stone weighing 170 pounds a distance of 500 yards. The army of St. Louis in Egypt was panic-stricken when Greek fire was thrown among the men from the Saracen catapults. The lasso is an invention of the South American Indians, and was in use when the country was discovered by the Spaniards. Metal balls, filled with burning oil and combustibles, were used by the Romans, and afterwards by both Turks and Greeks The battle-axe was originally a Celtic weapon. The ancient Irish carried axes as the men of other nations carried swords. The misericorde was a small dagger with a thin blade, made to reach the vitals of an antagonist between the joints of the armour. . Boiling oil, hot water, melted pitch and sulphur were always in readiness duriug a medimval siege, to repel storming parties. During the sieges in the twelfth and two following centuries flaming arrows were discharged from crossbows into the beleaguered towns. Gideon defeated the Midianites b.o. 1245, through fright at the sound of crashing earthenware and the flash of lamps during a night attack. — Detroit Free Press. TERRIBLE CRIME NEAR PARIS. A terrible crime has been committed at Fontainebleau, one person being murdered, while several others were dangerously wounded. It appears that while a girl employed on the estate of M. de la Ville-Herve was engaged in a stable, a discharged man-servant rushed upon her, strangled her, and stabbed her several times. Her employer noticing her prolonged absence, procee led to the stable, and was attacked in his turn, receiving upwards of 18 stabs. His wife and son proceeded to his resoue, and would probably have been seriously wounded, if not killed outright, had not the blade of the knife been broken. After dealing them some blows with the handle, the murderer took to flight. The man, who was arrested by the Fontainebleau gendarmerie, asserts that he had only gone to the Btable for the purpose of stealing.

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