The Wellington enterprise. [volume] (Wellington, Ohio) 1867-188?, 1879-07-03
A MARVELLOUS PISTOL SHOT.

/ Almost any evening may be seen, at tn
gallery Of James 8. Conlin, !, ,222 Broad
way, fessts of pistol marksmanship whicl
would make any of the old-style, off-hant
shooters stand in wonder. The marksmal
is Mr.. Frank II. Lord, the most exper
He is young man of 81, the youngest s,,r
of the late Thomas Lord He is an athlet,
and gymnast and about 1867 began t.
try his skill as o shot ut the old ConliI
gallery. The feats of Captain John Ira
vers, now of Cleveland, had become a ira
ditiOn, though when Sunday Lawrence
kept ten-pin alley on the site of the pres
ent Astor House, Travers' gallery attached
| to it saw some wonderful exhibitions OF
steadiness and skill with small arms. One
of Captain Travers' feats was to shoot
away q silver Scent bit placed between
his toes, and when BlOndin crossed the
Niagara he allowed Travers to put a ball
through his hat. From doubling friend
Captain Travers won a 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
Captain Travers' time billiards has driven
out ten-pins, and rife-shooting at long
distance has crowded pistol shooting at
twelve PAGES into 'disuse. Mr.. Lord, how
ever, confines his sport almost entirely to
to the smaller weapon, though he is a fine
shot. He is a member of the New York
Club, and his bachelor chambers are
adorned with curious stock of pistols.
In Paris he met Paul de Cassagnac and
others of the French duelling clique, and
astonished them by the certainty of his
aim. The Forest and Stream, in an article
enriched with drawings of Mr.. Lortl's tar
gets, says: 8! -
For ten seasons past he has been choeen
by the Englishspaking residents of Paris
as their champion, and well-chosen rep
resentative has he proven. On one occa-
sion he performed among other feats of
accurate Workmanship, the following; A
cap of an ordinary musket was placed up
on the neck of champagne bottle, and Mr..
Lord standing at thirty-slx feet. or twelve
PAGES, with an ordinary duelling pistol
picked off the cap without scratching the
glass. The same feat was repeated, but
with the pistol tran ferred from the right
to the left hand. Two more caps were
picked off with right and left hand firing,
but in these instances the
pistol was held in a reverse position, with
the line of sight below instead of above
the line of fire. The next shot was fancy
one, Mr.. Lord standing with his back to
the object fired at, leaning far forward, and
then, with pistol pointed back between
The last of the six shots were made sit
ting in chair, again with back to target
and leaning back until the target could be
seen by the head and eyes bent back. 1t
is favorite feat to suspend his watch--a
fine imported piece, costing $250-and put
shot after shot through the loop at thirty
six feet. A match or wooden tooth-plck
laid across the opening of the golden loop
is cut cleanly through, and through. the
watch has been under fire scores and hun
dreds of times, it still ticks on towards the
of an inch out of the way, may
scatter the works in shower of wheels
and pinions.
In shooting at the word of command, as
in duelling, when the seconds cry out,
AAre you readyT Ready" -Fire!-|
the shooter being re-
quired to shoot between the words "Fire"
and three" Mr.. Lord, with u dueling
pistol at twelve PAGES, struck down six
inch bullets hung up by threads. Such
an adversary on the field of honor would
satisfy the chivalric ycarnings of about
any mortal. At the word "one" Mr.. Lord i
fired ten consecutive shots into IL inch
circle, some distance.
In Paris, where fantastic shooting is
very much in vogue, he Is known as lie
diable American" He has time and again |
At fifteen PAGES put 100 shots consecutively |
into space of an ordinary playing-card.
On a recent date, as showing has ability |
for long-range firing with the pistol, he !
struck two caps out of three shots at a
distance of sixty feet. As the ordinary
musket cap is about oneeighth 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 was done at a certain |
hour previously agreed upon before a |
large number of marksman, including |
many members of the New York and |
Zettler Rifle Clubs. With Stevens |
barrel pistol, distance 125 feet, |
Mr.. Lord picked off couple of Inch |
bullets, using right and left hand in turn.
Three consecutive A-inch bullets fell at
Forty-five feet before shots from a large |
sized Smith & Wesson revolver, Russian |
model, heavy trigger pull.
Many attempts heve been made to bring |
together Mr.. Lord and Recorder Hackett, |
and the clubmen have backed these |
famous pistolshots on several occasions,
but the Judge is somewhat wary. New
York World