PROJECTILE 



4836 



PRONGHORN 



While the all-important plank in their plat- 

 form was that relating to prohibition, the pro- 

 hibitionists also announced very definite poli- 

 cies on various important questions, such as 

 finance, immigration, woman suffrage, etc. The 

 addition of other issues in their platform has 

 not always been approved by the more ardent 

 members of the party, who would prefer to go 

 before the people on the single question of pro- 

 hibition. This disagreement led in the campaign 

 of 1896 to the formation of a second prohi- 

 bition party whose platform was limited solely 

 to the issue of prohibition. 



While the party has never played a prominent 

 part in the political activities of the United 

 states, it has exerted a great influence, and the 

 principle it represented finally became effective. 

 There were many workers in the cause of 

 temperance who thought it a mistake to make 

 prohibition a distinct political issue. They 

 felt that the evils complained of could be 

 best combated locally, thus gradually embrac- 

 ing the nation. Accordingly, they adopted the 

 plan of local option, giving townships, mu- 

 nicipalities and counties the right of settling 

 for themselves the question of prohibition, re- 

 gardless of the action of their neighbors. As 

 success attended their efforts in one place, they 

 extended their work to another locality, and in 

 this way endeavored to secure state-wide pro- 

 hibition. The success which has attended this 

 effort is shown in the map accompanying the 

 article PROHIBITION. The Prohibition party is 

 given credit for keeping the saloon issue be- 

 fore the public and for hastening the day of 

 absolute prohibition. 



Related Subject*. See list at end of the arti- 

 cle PROHIBITION. 



PROJECTILE, a word derived from the 

 Latin projectors, meaning to throw forward. It 

 is now applied to bullets and shells thrown 

 forward, or fired, from firearms. 



Projectiles may be roughly divided into two 

 classes those for use on land and those em- 

 ployed in naval warfare. In naval warfare the 

 object of the projectile is to penetrate the ar- 

 mor with which a battleship is protected, and 

 sink or disable the vessel. So keen has been 

 the race between destruction and defense that 

 no sooner has a shell of great penetrative power 

 been invented than armor plate is improved to 

 withstand the assault of that particular shell. 

 However, the advantage has been for the most 

 part on the side of the projectile, and the most 

 powerful battleship afloat is practically at the 

 mercy of an enemy attacking it with guns of 



longer range than those possessed by the de- 

 fender. 



Related Subject*. The reader will find much 

 material on this subject in the following articles : 

 Artillery Grenade 



Bomb Navy 



Bullet Shell 



Cartridge Shot 



Fireball Shrapnel 



Gas Clouds Torpedo 



PROMETHEUS, prome'thuse, but com- 

 monly pronounced pro me ' the us, was, in Greek 

 mythology, a son of the Titan lapetus, and the 

 brother of Epimetheus and Atlas. To Prome- 

 theus and Epimetheus was intrusted the task 

 of endowing the animals with the qualities and 

 powers which they needed, and while Epime- 

 theus was engaged in this work Prometheus oc- 

 cupied himself with creating man from clay. 

 He found, however, when he demanded gifts 

 with which to endow his new creature, that 

 Epimetheus had been so generous to the lower 

 animals that nothing remained for man. 



To prevent his being left helpless at the 

 mercy of the lower animals, Prometheus deter- 

 mined to bestow upon man the gift of fire, 

 which would help him to subdue all things, liv- 

 ing and inanimate; but fire was possessed by 

 the gods alone, and it was necessary that Pro- 

 metheus should obtain it without their knowl- 

 edge. He stole up to Olympus, therefore, and 

 stole back again bearing in a tube some fire, 

 which he entrusted to mankind. Jupiter was 

 so enraged at this theft that he had Prome- 

 theus chained to Mount Caucasus, where every 

 day a vulture came and fed upon his liver, 

 which at night grew again. For century after 

 century Prometheus endured this agony, until 

 Hercules took pity upon him, killed the vul- 

 ture, and broke the chains which bound Pro- 

 metheus. The gods punished mankind by send- 

 ing among them Pandora. The story of Pro- 

 metheus has been a favorite one with poets of 

 all times. Aeschylus left a Prometheus Bound, 

 which was translated by Mrs. Browning, and 

 Shelley wrote a Prometheus Unbound. 



PROMISSORY, prom' is son, NOTE. See 

 NOTE. 



PRONG 'HORN, a cud-chewing animal of 

 Western North America, locally called ante- 

 lope. In point of fact it belongs to a separate 

 family, of which it is the only representative. 

 (A picture of the male and female pronghorn 

 appears in the article ANTELOPE, page 278.) The 

 pronghorn, unlike a true antelope, sheds the 

 sheath of its horns annually, in this respect re- 

 sembling the deer. Its body, which is some- 



