The Belgian Muskets.--Are we to have an end of the severe and dangerous swindle, the Belgian muskets?
An inquiry should be instituted as to how many of these double-acting shooting-irons we have in the country — double-acting, because about equally dangerous at either end. A good story is told of one of our
Illinois Colonels, who was heard praising the arm. Says he: “In platoon firing with the Belgian musket, I can tell what I cannot with any other arm, and that is, how many pieces have been fired.”
“ How can you tell that?”
“ Oh! I count the men on the ground. It never deceives me. It is ‘fire and fall back’ flat.”
One of these Belgian muskets will kick like a mule, and burst with the greatest facility.
Several soldiers in our Illinois regiments have been killed in this way. The bayonet, too, is a novelty — a soft iron affair, apparently designed to coil round the enemy as it is introduced, thus taking him prisoner.--Chicago Tribune.
