Lieut. Zalinski is using a light steel tube, sixty feet long and one foot in diameter, to fire explosive shells by air pressure. Great results are expected from it, and it would save us from the enormous cost of modern cannon.
Fortunately, America, being out of the great maelstrom of war, can cultivate humane sentiments and abolish the barbarism of dueling, which still holds its ground in France and Germany in the highest ranks of society.
We have had one terrible war to demoralize our nation, but now peace is secure and the old Federal and Confederate soldiers are active in exchanging visits and generous hospitalities North and South in a permanent and peaceful Union.
“No vision of the morrow’s strife
The warrior’s dream alarms,
No braying horn, nor screaming fife,
At dawn shall call to arms.”
A re-established Union saves us from the wars and the military despotism in which other republics have perished, and all can unite now in the following beautiful tribute to the dead heroes:
“By the flow of the inland river,
Whence the fleets of iron have fled,