WAR ITEMS.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3121, 6 April 1915, Page 2

WAR ITEMS.

According to the theory of a famous surgeon, apart from the risk of being hit in a vital part, present-day bullet wounds are, a«s a rule, not at all dangerous. The principal reason for t hip is that a bullet, by tlie time it reaches its vietiin, has through the enormous heat it has acquired in its passage through the fl'r, become quite sterilised — that is to say, unless bits of clothing or other are carried into the wound, it is entirely antiseptic, and thus heals easily.

Another characteristic story of Lord Kitchener is going the rounds. During the. campaign in the Soudan he became t'red of having his messengers 6tiiped at by the enemy, ana ordered a telephonewire, to be laid across a certain tract of the desert. A.s it was generally felt to bo unless, as the enemy would be sure to cut the wire. And that is what happened time after time. Kitchener never complained, ho simply ordered the wires to bo repaired. Later on, to the surprise and admiration of his men, they discovered that he had ordered the real wir e to be laid underground.

The Coldstream Guards, who have fought gaHantly and suffered heavy losses, are the senior regiment of the British Army, though ranking second on the list of infantry. They were or'ginally raised at Coldstream, under Cromwell's order, by Colonel Mouck, some years before tlio First or Grenadier Regiment fought gallantly at sen in Jun<» and July. 1666. The regiment bears the proud motto, "Nulli Secundns."

The Iron Cross of Prussia, whioh the Kaiser is reported to be distributing, among nis troops so lavishly, is, in some respects, similar to th© Victoria Cross. Each is the reward for personal bravery on the battlefield, and each is in the form of a Maltese cross —our own famous honour in bronze, fashioned from canon captured at Sevastopol, and the other in iron, edged with silver. The Iron Cross was instituted in 1813 by Frederick William 111. (the Kaiser's great grandfather), for use in the Napoleonic .struggles, and was revived by his son. the first German Emperor, in 1870, just before the commencement of the Franco-Gorman campaign.

The Gorman soldier keenly prizes the Iron Cross. Upon one occasion, in 1870. Bismarck was commissioned by King William to give the cross to a Bavarian who had been wounded while performing an heroic action. By way of a joke. Bismarck said to the'man: "Ihe King has requested me to present you with* this cross, or with a hundred thalers, whichever yon perfer." The sourer was much troubled; but at hut ho asked how much the cross was worth. "About 75 thalers," replied Bismarck! "Well," said th e Bavarian, "give me the cross and 2") thalers besides. That will make it right." Bismarck, farly beaten for once, complied.

Russian papers relate a touching story of a Russian artilleryman who rescued a child from death. Th* artilleryman, who is now lying in hospital at K'eff, brought with him, to the astonishment of the nurses, a baby girl of eighteen months. The man's battery had been all but pulverised by the enemy, and at last had been ordered to retire. As the solders suddenly retreated, the artilleryman saw a "baby girl creeping from the doorway of one of the houses of the village into the path of the battery. Amid a rain of .shell and shrapnel tho brave fellc.v went to the baby's rescue, whilst his comrades gave km up for lost. As he reached the child, a shrapnell shell burst overhead, and,, throwing himself down, the man shielded the ch Id's body with his own. One bullet passed through his back, injuring him so badly that he could not regain bis feet. Two of h' s comrades immediately went to his assistance and carried him, with his little protege, to the battery, whence they were removed to the hospital. All throe men have received the Cross of St. George for their bravery.

The electro-magnet seems destined to play an important part in facilitating tho location and extraction of bullets. The envelope of the German bullet in magnetic, and the military doctors, taking advantage of this poi-perty, have succeeded, by means of an electro-mag-net, in extracting a from a depth of more than -tin. in a case where tho operation would have been extremely delicate by any other process. It wna by means of an electro-magnet that the United States Steel Company rocently recovered from the bed of the 'Mississippi a cargo of bolts and nails whicn had gone to the bottom. The magnet used in th's case was 3Jft. in width, and weighed 3,0001b. Tlie ease with which the cargo was brought to the surface gave rise to the suggestion that, given a sufficiently big magnet, sunken submarines might bo s'nnlarly salved at short notice.

We think of Warsaw as Poland's cap'tal; but Cracow is the real metropolis of Poland, tho enduring home of tho Polish national spirit. At Cracow Vhe Kings of Poland were crowned. In the cathedral 0 » the rocky hill abpve fciu* Vistula l : e buried St. Stanisla'us, the patron .saint of th Poles, and John Sol.iski, who hurled back the Turks from tho walls of Vienna, and Thaddeufi KoseUisko. the last champion of Polish freedom, and many another national hero. There are 130,000 }Vx»ple in Cracow, and 110.000 of them are Pojes. It was only quite recently that the ancient city fell into the power of a Teutonic dynaotv. and Iwcame part of the "ramshackle empie" of Austria. In 1846 Cracow was still her own mistress, the last relic of the great Polish Kingdom. Then Austria tore up tl»e "scrap of paper" by which vshe had'guaranteed the town of Cracow " for ever a free, independent and strictly neutral city," and marched in an army corps "for the protection of the inhabitants."

There is nothing new under the 6un; but it will surprise many people to learn (on the authority of a \ankee scribe) how the fruitcanning trad© was started. Years ago, he tells us. when the excavations at Pompeii were just starting, a party of Americans found, in one of the houses, a number of jars of preserved figs. One of the jars was opened, and its contents proved to be perfectly fredi and good. Investigations wore made, and it wars proved that the figs were put into the jars while hot, and that an aperture was left for th« steam to escape, which was afterwards sealed down with wax. The hint wa? taken, and the., following year saw the l>eginning of ITie fruit-canning industry in the l T n ; ted States, the process Wing that in vogue hundreds of years before at Pompeii (?) To us to whom tinned fruits seem a comparative novelty, it is difficult to realise that we are indebted for them to a people who were literally a.shos a few years after Christ. We ngree with our American friend—it is.