The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1879-07-10
A MARVELLOUS PISTOL-SHOT

Almost any evening may be seen, at
the gallery Of Jas. S. Conlin, feats Of pis-
tol craftsmanship which would make any
OF the old style off-hand shooters stand
IN wonder. The marksman is Mr.. Frank
II. Lord, the most expert and finished
pistol shot in the country. He is a young
man of thirty-two, the youngest son of
| the late Thomas Lord. He is an athlete
and gymnast, and about 1867 began to
| try his skill as shot at the old Conlin
gallery. The feat of Captain John
lravers, now of Cleveland, had become a
tradition, though when Sandy Lawrence
kept ten pin alley on the site of the
present Astor House, Travers' gallery at
| tached to it saw some wonderful exhibit
| tons of steadiness and skill with small
arms. One of Captain Travcrs' feats was
10 shoot away silver three-cent bit plac
ed between his toes, and when Blondin
| crossed the Niagara he allowed Captain
Travers to put bail through his hat,
From doubling friend Captain Travers
won diamond ring by putting a shot
through the ring, and his feat of picking
an orange from his sons head was tried
again and again. Since Captainn TRAY
ers' time billiards have driven out ten
pins, and ritie-shooting at long distances
has crowded pistol shooting at twelve
PAGES into disuse. Mr.. Lord, however.
confines his sport almost entirely to the
smaller weapon, though he is fiue rife |
shot. He is member of the New York |
Club, and his bachelor chambers are |
adorned with curious stock of pistols. |
In Paris he has met Paul de Cassaonac |
and others of the French dueling CLIQUE. /
and astonished them by the certainty os
his aim. The Forest and Stream, in an
article enriched with drawings of Mr..
Lords targets, says:
For ten seasons PAST he has been chos-
en- by the English-speaking residents of
Paris as their champion, and a well chos.
en- representative has he proven. On
one occasion he performed, among other
feats OF accurate craftsmanship, the fol-
lowing: a cap of an ordinary musket
was placed upon the neck of cham
pagne bottle, and Mr.. Lord standing at
thirty-six feet, or twelve PAGES, with an
ordinary dueling- pistol, picked off the
cap without scratching the glass. The
same feat was repeated, but with the
pistol transferred from the right to The
left hand. Two more caps were picked
OH with right and left hand firing respect
lycly, but III these instances the pistol
was held in reverse position, with the {
line of sight below instead of above the |
line of fire. The next shot was a fancy
fore. The last OF t1is 5z suJ5J bsa ba4A aI4lAtte te
sitting in o chair, again witE back to
target and leaning back until the target
could be seen by the head and eyes bent
back 1t is a fayorite feat to suspend
his watch-a fine imported piece, costing
S250--and put shot after shot through
the loop at thirtysix feet. A match OF
wooden toothpich laid across the opening
of the golden loop is cut cleanly through,
and though the watch has been under
fire scores and hundreds of times, it still
ticks on toward the day which may come
when bullet fraction of an inch out of
the way, may scatter the works IL q
shower of wheels and pinions.
In shooting at the word of command
as III dueling, where the seconds cry out,
care you ready?" Ready 'Fire-
one-two-three, the shooter being re-
quired to shoot between the words ''fre"
and 'three," Mr.. Lord, with a dueling
pistol at twelve PAGES, struck down six
3inch bullets hung up by threads. Such
an adversary on the field of honor would
satisfy the ehivalric yearnings of about
any mortal At the word zone" Mr..
Lord fred ten consecutive shots into 4
1Jinch circle, same distance.
In Paris, where fantastic shooting is
very much in vogue, he is known as Gle
diable Americain. He has time and
again at fifteen PAGES put 100 shots con-
secutiyely into space of an ordinary
playing-card. On recent date, as show
ing his ability for long range firing with
the pistol, he struck two caps out of three
shots at distance Of sixty feet. AS the
ordinary musket cap is about one-eighth
of an inch across, the mere seeing of the
mark was somewhat of feat, but to see
and hit rs well was something entirely
beyond the common. Yet it wassdone
at certain hour previously agreed upon
before large number of marksmen, in
Guiding many members Of the New York
and Zettler Rife clubs. With a Stevens
12-inch barrel pistol, distance 125 feet,
Mr. Lord picked off couple of 3-4inch
bullets, using right and left hand in turn.
Three consecutive 3-4-inch bullets fell at |
45 feet before shots from large sized
Smith q Wesson revolver, Russian
model, heavy trigger pull.
Many attempts have been made to
bring together Mr.. Lord and Recorder
Hackett, and the clubmen have backed |
these famous pistol-shots on several occa-
sions, but the Judge is somewhat wary.
General Sherman said at military |
academy at Orchard Lake, Mich, the
other day, that he is frequently asked
by young men what course of study,
what books will best ft them for the
military profession. He called this a
very hard question to answer, and added
that it reminded him Cf n similar one