Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1875-07-04

New York World friday
Our champions have won by so decisive
a sc1re that no one can even hesitate 8
doubt or a criticism about them. The
shooting was fine on both sides, the Irish
team improving upon their excellent
Creedmoor record, though not very ma
terialy; and the American team greatly
outdoing all the expectations of their
best friends. We have no doubt that we
shall hear in good time several score IF
excellent secondary reasons for the result
which has been hailed with such delight
in this city. Perhaps some OF these rea-
SONS may be found worth considering.
II is quite likely, for example, that tbe
substitution Of two new men in the Irish
team for Mr.. Rigby and Mr.. Walker,
both OF whom scored very high al Creed
moore, may have he'd something to do
with the defeat of the Hibernians. New
ertheless, 1t should be noted that
Mr.. Miner, who did great
service at Creedmoor to the Irish team
lalthOugh his unlucky mistake in hitting
the wrong bull's-eye gave the technical
victory then to ourselves), was in the
shooting of yesterday, and seems TO have
shot worse than either of the new men,
no luck, and il any member OF the Irish
team could regard yesterdays result
with even semblance of bitterness, Mr..
Miner might be allowed to do so. But
we don't believe this possible, we repeat,
OF any Irishman. The Irish rifiemen
sent America fair challenge in friend
ly spirit. 1t was accepted in the same
spirit, anu now after two trials the
American riflemen have plainly and IN
questionably put themselves at the head
OF the school, We are heartily glad of
it as Americans, and our Irish friends
need have no unpleasant feelings about
contest in which they have been
worsted only by the extraordinary skill
of their opponents, and IN which they
have displayed all the best qualities of
riflemen and Of men. Furthermore, if
they like to look for consolation so far,
it is open to them to reflect that
there was probably more true Celtic
blood in the American team that
won than in the Irish team that
was beaten; that is, if pstronymics
prove anything. Yale, BOdine and Da'
kin are all Celtic names, we believe.
Yale certainly fiourisbes now in Wales,
aud Dakin in Cornwall, while B0dine is
emphatically Erse. The FultOns, too, if
we mistake not, are people Of Antrim.
On the other hand, Wilson, Miner and
Johnson are obviously Teutonic, not to
say Saxon names, We don't insist upon
this little bit of chronological comfort;
but our Hibernian friends may, perhepj,
make something out Of it, If only by
maintaining that g larger proportion OF
O's and OF Macs iG the Irish team would
have changed the ''upshot in the end"
Il pc-o Of
arms" though, whatever we may choose
TO ssy Of it snd to feel about it. Such
| tournaments Gs these, it must be ad.
mitted, are a vast improvement upon
the charging and shifting Of knight
against knight i'll cSnopied lists OF me-
| diaval competition, where men could
only prove their skill and their superior
| ity by cracking the skulls and dislOcat-
| ing or coming near to disl9cate the gen.
eral anatomy OF their antagonists, The
contest at DolIymount will not only
| give Lively impetus to the manly and
useful art of Titie-shOoting on both sides
of the Atlantic. II will make AmeIi-
cans better understood, and, we trust,
not less liked than heretofore by peO
ple among whom the United States
| for long years have been loved and
cheIi-hed IS the earthly land of
promise. 1t will introduce Ireland and
| the best sides OF the Irish character for
the first time fairly aud clearly to hun
dreds of Americans. Nor is this all. 1t
should also put both Ireland and the
United States, both Irishmen and Amer
leans, in a better and trueT light before
| the people of Great Britain. Between
the English and the Irish people there
yawns deep, dark guilt of fierce pas
siOns and eXasperating traditions, gulf
more gloomy and more full ofperils than
he stormy sea which rolls between the
greater and the lesser island. Ordinary
Englishmen know no more really Of
Ireland and the Irish than ordinary
Frenchmen. They know less even of
Ireland and the Irish than ordinary
Americans. which is a very strong thing
to say. Twenty years ago--yes, ten
years ago, the proposition to allow the
gathering of great crowd about Dublin
for the purpose of exhibiting to them the
skill of certain Americans with the rife,
would have thrown the British govern
ment into spssms of smazement not I'M
mingled with alarm. 1t was the favOrite
theory then of British public men that
neither Ireland nor the Irish could be
trusted. That theory has not been aban-
dOned yet. A few such snectscles as
that which was yesterday presented in
and about Dublin ought to make an end
of ii with every clear-headed and right
thinking British statesman. Our trans
atlantic friends in the green isle.of Erin
may well afford to let us carry away 8
few points in ti=mstch il cons dera-
ton of the serious political affect upon
the destinies of Ireland which Will
sooner or later be seen to have been pro-
duced by our frank, open and pacific
recognition of Ireland as great people,
and by the unhesitsting andungrudgiDg
acquiescence of England in that recog-
milton.