Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1879-04-11
The Most Marvellous Shooting on Record.


They had been talking about the re
markable performances of DIR. Carver
the marksman who shoots with a riil
glass balls which are sent into the air n
fast as man can throw them. Present.,
Abner Byng, who was sitting by said
That's nothing"
"What is nothing. ?"
why, that shooting. Did you eve
know Tom Potter?'
| "No."
"Well, Potter was the best hand with :
rifle l ever saw; beat this man Carver al
hollow. I'll tell you what I've seen thi;
man Potter do. You know, may be. a
long there in the cherry season, Mrs. Pot
ter would want to preserve some cher
ries; so Tom would pick 'em for her, and
how do you think he'd stone 'em?"
IL don't know. Howe
"Why, he'd fill his gun with bird shot
and get boy TO drop half 4 bushel of
cherries at one time from the roof of the
house. As they came down he'd fire and
take the stone clean out of every cherry
in the lot It's positive fact He might
occasionally miss one, but not often
But he did bigger shooting than that
when he wanted to-
"What did he do ?''
"Why, Jim Miller-did you know him
No? Well. Tom made bet with Jim
that he could shoot the button off his own
coat tail by aiming in the opposite direc-
ton, and Jim took him up"
did he do it p"
DO it! He fixed himselfin position
and aimed at a tree in front OF him. The
hall hit tho narnrnn1 Ii, tbn
of house. caromed, struck lamp post,
caromed, and flew behind Tom and nip
ped the button off rs slick as whistle
You bet he did it :"
THAT was fine shooting"
"Ies, but I've seen Tom Potter beat it.
I've seen him stand under flock of wild
pigeons, billions of them coming like the
wind. and kill EN- so fast that the front of
the flock never passed given line but
turned over and fell down, so thatit look
ed like land OF teathery Niagara. Tom
did it by having twenty-three breach-load-
ing rifles and a boy to load 'em. He al
ways shot with that kind"
And You say you saw him do this kind
of shooting?'
Yes, sir, and better than than too.
Why, I'll tell You what have seen Tom
Potter do. | saw him once SET up an
Indian rubber target at 300 feet and lit |
the bulls eye twenty-sevcn times a min |
ute with the same ball, lie would hit
the target, tie ball would bounce back |
ri ght into the rifle barrel Just As Tom had
clapped in fresh charge OF powder, and
so he kept her going backward and for
ward until at last he happened to move his
gun and the bulle; missed the muzzle OF |
the barrel. 1t was the biggest thing | |
ever saw the very biggest-except one"
"What was that ?n
why, one day was out with him |
when he was practising, and it came on
TO rain. Tom didn't want to get wet,
and we had no umbrella, ami what do |
You think he did -
What ?"
Now, what do YOU think the man did |
to keep dry ?"
Il cant imagine
We'll, sir, he got me TO load his weap- |
on for him, and pledge you my word.
it began to rain hard, he hit |
every drop that come down, so that the
ground Tor about eight feet around was as
dry as punk. 1t was beautiful, sir-beau-
tiful."
And then the company rose up slowly |
and passed out one by one, each man eye
ing Abner and looking solemn as he went
1y; and when they had gone Abner look
ID queerly for moment, and said to
ne:
There's nothing hate so much as a
lar. Give me a man who is a friend of
he solid truth and III tie TO him."