powerless to detect the wrong-doer. A general remedy is to get rid not only of the men guilty of hazing, but also of the kind of men who are likely to take part in it. Usually a ruffian is known as such by his character as well as by his acts. If the ruffians are eliminated on general principles, the residue, being gentlemen, will act like gentlemen.

A form of hazing just now prevalent is the "rush." This name is applied to a rough-and-tumble fight, more or less premeditated, between the freshmen and sophomores. The "rush" may be of two sorts, the one an unprovoked attack taking place on the staircases, in passage-ways, or in the class rooms, or on the streets at night; or it may be a sort of match game on the open field, resulting from a challenge from one class to the other. The first form of rush is intolerable, and could hardly take place more than once in a well-ordered institution. The second has some redeeming features, and is not without its defenders as a "manly sport." It is, however, often dangerous in its violence, much more so than football and other orderly games. In all legitimate games there is some sort of time limit, and some rule as to fair play. Training of some kind is presupposed, and those of frail physique may keep away if they desire. But not so with the rush. Class spirit impels every young man to stand by his associates.

The rush, moreover, is likely to leave an aftermath of guerilla warfare or of attempts at retaliation, and some cases of personal hazing can be distinctly traced to it. In general, any performance of college students which tends to loosen the bonds of personal courtesy has a bad effect. The rush in all its forms makes for rowdyisin. Rowdyisin is not the worst of vices, but it is a vice, and its influence is always and everywhere opposed to manliness.

DAVID STARR JORDAN.

TORPEDO BOATS IN NAVAL WARFARE.

BY BENJ. MICOU, FORMER CHIEF CLERK OF THE NAVY DEPARTMENT.

THE fifty-third Congress authorized six torpedo boats, some of which are now completed, and since then thirteen more have been authorized and contracts for them awarded. This means that a new element of strength, and one of great value, is to be added to cur navy. Torpedo vessels furnish the most destructive means of attack known, cost less and can be constructed more quickly than any other modern warships, yet we are in the number possessed at the bottom of the list of naval powers, and will still be when we have completed our present building programme.

We have now but five torpedo boats, the "Cushing," with a speed of 22.48 knots, the "Ericsson" and "Foote" with a speed of some 24 knots, and the "Porter" and "Dupont" which are 26-knot boats. So, when the ones now building go into commission we shall have 21; quite an increase over five, but still very few in comparison with other countries. Taking last year's figures, England has 256, France 244, Russia 185, Germany 155, and Spain 46. Of England's 256, 42 are of the class known as torpedo-boat destroyers, or vessels which, in addition to being equipped for attacking with torpedoes, are specially designed to destroy other torpedo boats. The trial speeds of these 42 boats vary from 26 to 28 knots. England also has 28 torpedo vessels building, designed to attain a speed of 30 knots, and has just let contracts for several others designed to attain a speed of 32 knots.

A torpedo boat is said to have been launched in New York harbor in 1776, but if this be true the history of the craft did not survive the launching, for it does not appear to have ever

been heard from again. A drifting torpedo directed against a frigate, but which missed its aim, is reported to have destroyed a schooner at New London, in 1777, and we know that in 1807 Robert Fulton invented a torpedo and experimented with it, though these experiments led to no immediate practical results.

It was not until our Civil War that the world received its first lesson in this novel and destructive method of fighting. We did not, however, follow up and develop the new mode of warfare we had introduced, for after 1865 the navy stood still for nearly seventeen years. Our people seemed tired of all that related to war and nothing modern was undertaken. In 1882 we did not have a modern vessel, and thirteen single-turreted monitors built in 1862 and 1863, armed with old-fashioned, muzzleloading, smooth-bore guns, and thirty-seven unprotected wooden cruisers, composed our entire fighting force.

It was in 1883 that we commenced a modern navy. Vessels requiring most time for construction received the first consideration, and those which, no matter how destructive, could be built in a year had to wait until cruisers and battleships were secured. Thus it is that Europe has outstripped us in all that relates to torpedoes.

The torpedo boat is merely an agent for rendering more effective the torpedo, and need of it was felt long before the idea was conceived of designing a boat for this special purpose.

The mobile torpedo, when first invented, was used on a spar attached to a large vessel, but this offered no possibility of attacking an enemy unawares. The attack must always be open, and it was soon discovered that an open attack greatly circumscribed the possibilities of the torpedo. To overcome this difficulty, and increase the scope of torpedo operations, smaller boats were used to which to attach spars, and the steam cutters carried by our larger vessels, being the only small boats available, were pressed into service. It was from such a cutter that Cushing exploded the torpedo which destroyed the Confederate ram" Albemarle " in Roanoke Sound, and the practice continued in our navy of equipping all ordinary steam cutters for torpedo service until within the last ten years. This, however, was only done in the absence of a more desirable boat, for the noise of the machinery and the lack of speed very soon marked the cutters as unsuitable for this class of work.

The torpedoes used during our Civil War were the offspring of emergency. Haste in manufacture and scant knowledge of the science of torpedo construction resulted in producing very imperfect weapons, which sometimes failed totally to accomplish what was expected of them. The chance of such failure was increased by a lack of experience in operating torpedoes and the inadequate appliances at hand for that purpose. These torpedoes, when not defective, were, however, most destructive when skillfully handled, and one writer, Mr. J. F. Scharf, attributes the loss of thirty-one vessels to torpedoes exploded by the Confederates.

The deepest interest was awakened among the maritime nations of Europe in this deadly method of attack, and they began at once the development of the torpedo and all that was necessary to render it a reliable and certain weapon. With better torpedoes and wider experience in controlling and guiding them came consideration of the character of boat best adapted for their use. Such a boat must avoid observation as far as possible and therefore should not be conspicuous. It must offer a poor target to an enemy's guns and therefore should be small. It must escape pursuit and therefore should be fast. Keeping in view these general requirements, Thornycroft built for the Norwegian government, in 1873, the first vessel ever constructed solely for torpedo service. This vessel, which is still in existence, is 57 feet long, has a displacement of 7 tons, and has made a speed of 14.97 knots. Her present remarkably good condition argues well for the lifetime of this class of vessels. Though she proved highly satisfactory, and met fully all that could be hoped for from the first boat representing a new departure in naval construction, she was regarded for four years as an experiment, and during that time no countries followed where Norway had led. In 1877, though, Russia commenced in earnest to build torpedo boats, ordering as many as 100 during that year, and England built one, the "Lightning," which proving satisfactory, she ordered twelve others. One of these twelve attained a speed of 22 knots. She, however, practically stopped at this point, and for seven years continually decried torpedo boats and stubbornly refused to treat them as worthy of her consideration. In 1884 she only had 19 as against Russia's 115 and France's 50, and it was not until she was driven to it by this activity upon the part

of her neighbors that she entered upon the building programme that gives her to-day more torpedo boats than any other nation. In naval warfare the powers of destruction and protection have held each other a close race. Whenever the penetration of the projectile has been increased, the armor plate has been thickened or hardened or both. The torpedo is the only weapon that stands unchallenged by the art of defence, and for this reason it is hard to overestimate its value.

Nothing so deadly has ever been introduced into warfare. It offers but two alternatives-avoidance or destruction. In it powers are concentrated that do not admit of defence. The torpedo net, a steel netting arranged to be hung around a ship from spars, is probably more effective than any other defence that has been tried ; but these nets are very difficult to handle, impede the speed of the ship, and have been rendered vulnerable by a device attached to the torpedo, and known as a "net cutter."

As with artillery directed against unprotected men, which must be silenced before it becomes ineffective, so it is with the torpedo boat, which must be put out of action before it is inoperative. There is no protection against a torpedo if it strikes its mark and explodes. The most powerful battleship ever built may become its victim as readily as the lightest tug. When the torpedo boats of France became a menace to England, she quickly saw that she could not rely on nets, or any of the devices for defence that had been proposed. There was but one means of protection and that was to hunt down and destroy the torpedo boats of the enemy. This means that she at once directed all her energies to securing a vessel that could be relied upon to run down torpedo boats. She built a number of vessels designed to do this and these have become known as torpedo boat catchers. They all, however, proved utter failures, for as in nature so in naval architecture there are some inexorable laws. One of these is that within certain limits speed is not appreciably affected by size, and to secure greater speed the size of the vessel must either rise above or fall below these limits. To rise above makes the vessel so large as to be suitable only for a heavy battery, and to fall below brings it within the dimensions of a large sized torpedo boat. Though this law was well known as a matter of theory, it took England six years to learn that she could not disregard it in practice, and during that time she