Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1890-04-26
NEW WORKERS WITH PISTOLS.
Men Who Promenade Broadway With
Eevolvers i'm Their Pockets.

From the New York Tribune.
very fair percentage of the men one meets
on the streets of New York have revolvers
slowed away somewhere about their persons.
PROBABLY too. larger percentage of those
one meets on Broadway are thus equipped than
those encountered on that less pretentious
thorouyhfare known Cherry street Let n
mad dog. for instance, take turn around
Union square and the spectator is astonishei
to see the number of men vino will produce
pockets with which man. as constructed
by the tailor. is endowed. The spectator
may. If unintiated. also be astonished to see
ninctI out of hundred OF them miss the
dog. and marvel that the hundredths shot does
not apparently produce any effect on the
nine with mind diseased beyond making him
''yelp little louder. and if he is an observ-
ing spectator lie Will notice that about 10 per
cent OF the men shoot some other fellow man
through the legs. usually. however. with no
more deadly effect than obtained by the better
marksmen who hit the dog. For it is an I'M
denlabIe fact that the average New Yorker who
carries pistol cannot hit anything with it; he
shoots more wretchedly, if it lis possible. than
woman throws stone Want of practice is
probably the main reason for this-and it
Is hoped that If he ever concludes to practice
he Will go into the country to do it. But, as
ntlmated above, the average pocket pistol is
not usually very deadly weapon except. of
course. when it goes off by accident and hits
friend. or something of that kind. Like the
revolver which Mark Twain carried when he
first went to Nevada. it shoots pellets about the
size OF homeopathic pills and 1t takes the whole
seven for Il dose for an adult. Take. for in
stance. the 2Z-callber revolver, the smallest
made. With 22-cahber pistol you may per-
hapS. as Hamlet would Say. fret man Il little
put you cannot play upon him with any
marked effect Still there are exceptions
to this; 1t is much easier to revile the %
callDer when there Is none visible than
whensan excited man is pointing one at Won.
man committed suicide with one in 10th
street not long ago. Indeed il is a favorite
callDer with suicides. But generally speaking
the 22-callber may be said to lack emphasis;
1t cannot command the respect accorded to
the 32-callber. nor rivet the attention like the
3S-callber. nor depopuate the neighborhood
as can the A and I5-caliber. These last two
sizes are the ones affected i'll Kentucky and the
boundless west. There are. too, vast number
OF cheap revolvers carried in New York, which
can never be looked to for any damage except
when they explode i'll the hands of their own
ers-aiways, of course, excluding the times
when they are humorously snapped at friend
1t furnishes an element of surprise, too, for the
man who Carries one OF them when it playfully
goes of III his pocket, as they sometimes will.
rev things can be more embarrassing than to
have a cheap revolver strike SIX i'll your over
coat pocket after you have sat down in a
crowded elevated car
But Is there any excuse for carrying a deadly
weapon III IL civilized community like New
YORK! No one has ever presented one. 1t il
safe to say, probably that not over one man in
hundred of those who habitually carry a dan
gerous weapon in New York has even fairly
good excuse for his practice. The fact that
you may be sandbagged and robbed is no rea-
son for carrying revolver; ii only makes an
other thing for the robber. Then, after he
gets it. he may shoot you with it, and besides,
we should not put arms into the hands
of the dangerous classes. Not one man
IN ten who carries pistol has it where
he can get at it quickly enough to be of any
use to him. as a general thing. The sand
bagger is quick and impulsive and seldom
waits for his victim to unbutton his overcoat
and Prince Albert and drag out nickel-plated
revolver. Then not one man in ten can hit
the Produce Exchange building after he does
get his pistol out The final result usually is
that he shoots himself in the foot and is fined
$40 for carrying concealed weapons. Better
sink your pistol in the North river and hire a
cheap but stalwart pugilist to go along with
You and protect you from the superfuous foot
pad.