Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-03-01
SHOOTING IN A GALLERY,
1t Uses Up Lot of Raw Material-Curi.
Gus Things About the Business.

"You would be surprised 10 know what an
enormous quantity of raw material is used up
In this establishment in the course of wear :"
said Pennsylvania avenue shooting gallery
keeper. ITO begin with, one million rifle car
tridges are consumed here in a twelve-month
At cost OF $3.50 per thousand that number
represents an expenditure of q 600 Add to
these 100000 revolver cartridges of 81 caliber,
at $3.50 per thousand, making $1,000. Besides
we use countless glass balls, at SIP a thousand.
They are not very expensive where ordinary
shots are concerned, but when, as often hap
pens, an expert comes in and pays at the usual
rate $40 for thousand shots and breaks SI2
worth Of balls, or nearly, my profit is dlmin-
ished amazingly. You see / have the glass
balls twirling about on wires over the targets
They go pretty rapidly, but skilled marksman
can pick them off by one with as many
shots as there are balls. In fact can do il
myself. Look here"
BY WAY OF ILLUSTRATION.
Whereupon the man took down a magazine
rifle from a rack near by and with eight bull
lets fired in quick succession demolished the
eight balls which were circling about with
quick motion that would have defied the efforts
of any one not an adept.
The STAR writer looked on aghast
II am not much of a hand with the rifle"
WedDOn
is the revolver. 1 can empty the five barrels of
this pistol in three seconds and place every
ball within that target at the other end of the
gallery. Or can take five seconds TO perform
the same operation and make four bulI's-eyes
out of the i've shots. Now see me do it Bang
bang -bang-bang-bang counted the bell
then five times, you see; but, as you remark
took half a second over time. When you can
do that you need not be afraid of any man
thoroughly believe in the policy of carrying a
NJ lua he IL ~
of the strong. The first rule to observe how
ever, IN carrying pistol is never to draw it
unless You mean to shoot, and that as quickly
as possible. Furthermore. if You intend to
shoot man do not threaten him beforehand
or advertise your intention among your ac-
quaintances, for then he will be supported by
law in lying in ambush for you and killing you
first, which would be unpleasant"
WOMEN OUGHT TO SHOOT.
"Do women often come here TO shoot?r
"Not often; more's the pity, / think Nv
opinion is that every woman should learn how
to shoot. For instance, am away from nv
wife by day and during the evening and for
the greater part of that time she is left entirely
alone. But she is not afraid, because she knows
how TO shoot. II the house we're entered by
burglars during my absence she would not be
seriously alarmed, because every shot In her
pistol would mean a mans life. She would
not crawl under the bed or howl out of the
WINDOW Tor nelp-thOse being the two courses
which women ordinarily choose between under
such circumstances. Within five seconds she
can empty the five chambers of her little self
cocker accurately, and within another FIVE sec
onds load again. Men as q rule have to leave
their women folks unprotected at home for SO
much of the time that wonder they are not
afraid. The sort of pistol to carry or to have
for any other purpose handy is 32-caliber. A
ball Of that size will kill anything that walks.
Bigger bullets are not undesirable, but large
caliber pistols are never accurate Your re-
volver should always be made on the pattern
that throws out the empty cartridges automat-
lcally. When you want to shoot you are too
busy to stop to- take out the empty she'll"
LOOKING OUT FOR cRANKs
81 have heard of suicides in shooting GAL
leries Did any one ever try such a thing
here?"
mo; the weapons are never so much at the
control OF the customers as they themselves
imagine. In handing a pistol, for instance,
across the counter l am always on the alert as
matter Of habit, to grab the barrel il 80 much
as movement is made to turn it away from
the direction of the target. We use iron
targets, you observe. and often they will last in
definitely, though now and then two or three
will be broken in q day. When one is cracked
it is usually because Of too heavy q charge of
powder"