The Noiseless, Smokeless Gun
Among the wickedest inventions of the present strenuous age, it seems to us, is the new noiseless, smokeless gun. It is described in detail in newspapers and other journals, welcomed of course by the hunters because it makes no noise when they kill their victim. It would be welcomed also by the vast, increasing, growing, turbulent murderers in the various nations. Mr. Maxim probably invented the gun as a mere matter of scientific pleasure, but we may well believe that behind him was a grinning demon. It was stated that the sound of a thousand or ten thousand of these rifles fired at once would be so slight as to make it possible for all orders to be heard by a regiment if given by its officers in the regular way. One can be fired and the noise not be heard a hundred feet away. It seems to us that the bigger the noise a killing instrument could have, the better it would be for humanity.