r crew which would render
them comparatively helpless and innocuous; but in combination they
possess all the travelling capacities of a large warship, conjoined
with the deadly powers at close quarters of a number of torpedo boats,
all acting closely in concert upon a single plan.

The chief naval lesson taught during the Spanish-American War was the
need for improving the sea-going qualities of the torpedo-boat before
it can be regarded as a truly effective weapon in naval warfare. It
was announced at one stage that if the Spanish torpedo-boat fleet
could have been coaled and re-coaled at the Azores, and two or three
other points on the passage across to America, it might have been
brought within striking distance of the United States cruisers
operating against Santiago. This hypothetical statement provided but
cold comfort for the Spaniards, who had been persuaded to put so much
of their available naval strength into a type of craft utterly
unsuited for operations complying with the first great requirement of
naval warfare, namely, that the proper limit of the campaign coincides
with the shores of the enemy's country.

But when the naval architect and the engineer have evolved a class of
torpedo-using vessel which can both travel far and strike hard, and
which, moreover, can stand a few well-directed shots penetrating her
without succumbing to their effect, a new era will have been opened up
in naval warfare--an era of high explosive weapons requiring to strike
home with dash and bravery in spite of risk from shot and shell; but,
like the bayonet on land, capable of overthrowing all war-machines
which can only strike from a considerable distance.

CHAPTER XII.

MUSIC.

A perfect _sostenuto_ piano has been the dream of many a musician
whose ardent desire it was to perform his music exactly as it was
written. A sustained piano note is, indeed, the great mechanical
desideratum for the music of the future. In music, as at present
written and published for the piano, which is, and must continue to
be, the real "King of Instruments," there is a good deal of
make-believe. A long note--or two notes tied in a certain method--is
intended to be played as a continued sound, like the note of an organ;
whereas there is no piano in existence which will produce anything
even approximately approaching to that effect. The characteristic of
the piano as an instru