The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-12-29

HAskl ~
l. Tanning the hammer 2. Curly Bills trick,
first position. 3. Twirling the gun. 4. Curly
Bills game, last position.
This has been brofght about by that quick
ness which is essential among people who
don't trouble the law TO take care of them,
but do it all themselves. The question often
arises between two men, (Which of us Is to
dieg' The matter is settled by the time taken
by each to lodge bullets in the others person.
Scientists have measured personal equa-
tion," which is the time taken for the brain
to convey an order through the nerves to the
muscles and for the muscles to execute the
order. Perhaps the western cowboy will
soon bring his firing down to so fine a point
that his personal equation" will settle the
matter. Then he need only send to some
college professor to measure it and the other
fellows, to know whether to arrange his af-
fairs for departure from the world.
When the self cocker came out it bid fair
TO be immensely popular About this the
= aforesaid writer says:
''The makers of pistols thought they had
produced perfect weapon-one that met all
the demands of gentlemen in the killing line
when they devised the double-action revolver,
and for a short time the self-cocker had a
great sale on the frontier. A few years ago
20 Texas cowboy or ranger, no Colorado
sheriff, Arizona rusUler or Panhandle tough
considered himself correctly dressed unless he
had a double action frontier six shooter or
two at his belt.
But time developed the imperfections and
shortcomings of the self cocker. Theoreti-
cally, it seemed perfect but in actual use it
developed a dangerous tendency to get out
of killer. Its mechanism was too complicat-
ed and delicate. After little wear of the
lock, when a gentleman desired to assassinate
an acquaintance, he was likely to be disap-
pointed by the failure of the trigger to carry
the hammer back to the proper notch, or
perhaps the cylinder would forget to revolve,
and the acquaintance would have time to in
sert a knife into his stomach or cave in his
head with club, which was very unsatis-
factory. Thus the self cocker incurred the
deep displeasure of the fighting men.
They jeered at its eccentricities, abused it
for its little weaknesses and discarded it from
their toilet The windows Of pawnshops and
second hand gun stores were filed with large,
dangerous looking double action revolvers,
which thereby were made familiar to the
eastern tourist and the globe trotter. The
faster the cowboy and the sheriff threw away
these guns the more firmly fixed became the
belief in the lay mind, so to speak, that the
self cocker was the favorite weapon of the
frontier, because that style of gun was most
frequently seen in the dealers windows
While the western gun fighter was ordering
plain, single action revolYers, the makers
were diligently unloading their stock of COM
pIcated self cookers on the tenderfoot"
But where life depends on a fraction of
second the man whose life is at stake will
naturally be hunting for some way of steal
ing q march on his antagonist. Some one
interested improved upon the makers method
in the single action pistol by what is called
flaming the hammer" This is holding the
weapon firmly gripped, with the forearm
pressed against the side of the body for stead
iness and keeping the trigger back against
the guard with the forefnger, so that it
never engages with the hammer, and rapidly
striking the thumb-ear of the hammer with
the edge Of the left palm. This discharges
several shots in quick succession. The trick
was first introduced in New Mexico. Ex-
travagant yarns have been told about the
unerring precision with which the cowboy
will shoot by flaming the hammer" but
these stories are exaggerated. The trick does
quick WORK, but not accurate work.
SIN 1881 u cowboy named Bob Sinclair
worked the new trick in Albuquerque. For
some reason or other he had concluded that !
Jack Riley was an improper person, and that |
the continued existence of MIR. Riley was an
not to be tolerated Wherefore |
he famed the hammer ut Riley. There is no |
doubt that Mr. Sinclair made great deal of |
noise in n very short tiino His performance |
on the six-shooter was rhythmic and inspir- |
sIag, and the sweep Of his left hand was a |
Spem. A carpenter Singing the roof of the |
new hotel received one bullet III his right |
heel; some glassware behind the bar of the |
corner saloon was broken; an Indian card |
party behind 4 lumber pile two blocks up the |
street was dispersed with the loss OF enc buck; !
a fourth ball inserted itself in Mr.. Sinclair's |
left foot, and the other two escaped in the /
confusion and are still at large. After the !
smoke OF battle had cleared away Mr.. Riley |
picked I'D q board and swatted Ir. Sinclair
on the ear"
1t is not claimed that this is the ''Mr Riley |
they speak Of 50 highly" but he deserves all |
the encominms any one of the name ever re-
ceived
ssWhen the novelty had worn of this |
Brick the writer goes on, 'the men who car
ried guns for business purposes and had a
serious aim in life, viz, the shortening of it
for other people-the men who wero not en-
aInorcd of mere noise end piston pyrotechnics
took the triggers out of their guns or
dashed them firmly back against the guards,
thereby throwing them out of commission.
The adoption Of the tI,iggerless gun made
necessary the requirement of skill in new
methods of handling the weapon.
The first and most obvious scheme was to
yorl, the hammer with the thumb in the or
binary way, letting the hammer slip and fall
when the aim was secured. Anybody who
triSp this for the first time will discover that
It IL not easy TO shoot where he looks or to
hold the weapon steady. In quick firing, the
pistol is raised and carried back over the
shoulder, and then thrown sharply forward
and downward. The thumb, grasping the
hammer, cocks it during the downward
and when the barrel is at the de-
sired position the hammer is released and the
weapon discharged
"a revolver can be fired very rapidly in