The daily gazette., 1878-07-16
A Human Mitrailleuse

DIR. CARvER's ACCURATE AIM-ovER
5000 BALLS BROKEN AGAINST TIME.
From the New York Times.
DR.. w. +. Carver carried out his prom
ised feat of breaking 5000 glass balls with
q rifie within the space of 500 minutes at
BROOKLYN Diving Park yesterday. The
TASK was O. great one, and opinion was
very much divided, even among the
Doctors friends, as to his ability to ac-
compllsh 1t, but his remarkable skill with
the rifle and some good luck, with no
small share OF grit and endurance, carri-
ed the Westerner to the end, and, de-
spite 722 misses from first to last, the
total number of hits was made and
a balance of forty-one and half minutes
remained t. his credit. The fiung open
ed at N.Ol a. m. DR.. Carver had on a
white merino shirt, with loose c,llar a
great slouch hat gave him a gallant ap-
pearance. "Texas jack" his bosom
friend, stood by to assist in cleaning and
loading t, six Winchester rifles that lay
upon table close at hand. A tub of ice
water was near by, and with this the gun
barrels were rinsed out, and part of the
neat generated by the rapid charges was
diSsipated. Into the magazine of each
ritte fourteen charges were inserted, and
as these were exhausted a new rifle was
seized and the fHsillade continued. Co4-
onel Fletcher acted as thrower, and,
standing from ten to fifteen feet from
the marksman, cast the balls with u
olock-lke precision into the air, aud
with an almost tequalclock-like precision
came down the pretty showers of glass
and the cloud OF feathers as the globes
were broken Early in the match
the suns rays came down with
terrific power, while later on Followed
by sharp rain shower, which was sue
ceed9d by more torrid weather. Through
1t all, however, the wiry Doctor kept
pegging ous mopping his eyes, but doing
them more harm than good by rubbing
the powder into them. The first hun
dred shots were fred in five minutes and
five seconds, whereupon DIR. Carver said
to his thrower, 81 guess we're shooting
too FAST" and taking six minutes and
twenty-five seconds for the second hun
dred, he missed only two, and closed his
first five hundred with only nineteen
misses, in thirty-two minutes and twenty
seconds. When a miss happened he
would cry out, "Whoa, Emma," or make
some other exclamation of Impotence,
but would go on without rest or later
mission. The changes on six guns kept
the barrels most intensely hot, so much
so that the Doctor found his thick buck
skin shooting gloves no unnecessary
protection.
The irritation of DR.. Carver's eyeys
began to show before two hundred shots
had taken effect, and to the end the con-
gestion grew worse, despite borax water
and other soothing washes. At times
the Doctor would make double shots, re-
Pcating shot when the first had faiied
to hit the falling object. The excellent
in the fact that there was only one miss
fire throughout the competition. Mr..
Fred Mather, the referee, kept up a
monotonous round of"Broke," ""Broke,' y
as each ball fell into a yitreous shower
but as DIR. Carver's eyes bothered him
greatly and added to the brief rests he
was Obliged to lake, the lead gained in
the beginning of the match ,was lost
DR.. Carver lost his patience, and once
when the lever failed to work IN closing
the breach, he threw the rifle from upon
the ground, and taking up another, shot
on. When the third thousand had been
completed there was lead of eleven
minutes, and after rest of thirty-two
minutes came back to the fling point
twenty-oae minutes behind time, and
shot on under no small degree of bodily
suffering TO the end, determined to carry
himself through. In this he was encou-
ragged by the applause of large number
OF spectators. In the closing thousand
the Doctor shot with surprising rapidity.
At the end of she fifth thousand he was
once more up to the schedule time OF
nine minutes five and fve-eleventh
seconds per 100, and in the closing 500
managed to get lead of nearly ten min
utes, and finished amid a great bubbub
OF cheering and congratulations, In the
midst of which he was hurried off to his
room In the hotel and every attention
given to restoring his eyes to a normal
condition