San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-02-05
A CHAT WITH DIR. GATLING.

The Story OF the First Order HI
Received FOL His Famous Gun.
New York Times.
The mar who chats with DR.. r. j
Calling, of Hartford, for an hour o.
even half al hour, comes to know the
secret of the success which the famous
Calling gun has achieved. The gun
is, of course, a good one, u lts
excellence alone is not the thing thai
has created a demand for it In every
civilized country in the world. Ii
NAV rather be said that the irresisti-
bleness of Its inventor has forced the
sale of this great exterminator. A
person can not talk with DR.. Calling
five minutes without acquiring an in
clination to draw his wallet and buy
as many of the Calling guns as he
can pay for, and if the Doctor affects
people in this way whom he talks at
| with no other wish than to entertain
| them, what can not he do when he
means business when he goes a-gun-
ming?
Inc Doctor is 70 years old now,
with snow-white hair and whiskers,
but he can talk rs fast, as smoothly,
as entertainingly, as persuasively as
ever, and he is-to use u coed old
Connecticut p~hrase-"as keen as q
hrier." Tall, straight, gracefully
proportional and of easy Carriage, he
is also an interesting and pleasing
person to look upon
"Good evening, Doctor" said a
Times representative, who a few
evenings ago encountered the gun
man In the office of the Hotel Nor
msndIe. The Doctor responded with
q warm grasp of the hand and a
"Well, we'll, 1 am very glad to see
you. Come in here and sit down."
lie said, and he led the way to the
reading room.
"No." he said in answer to a cues
ton, "I'm not in the air.ship bust
ness. The story that 1 am is a news.
paper yarn. 1 have had all manner of
funny things said about me. One
story was that l had a shop in my
back yard, and that l was out there
in it at 5 o'clock every morning
working behind locked doors. Well,
there is a barn out in my back yard,
and a hen house, but there's no shop
there, and then again, if there were a
shop there I wouldn't be at work In
it at 5 o'clock in the morning, for
really l never think ofgetting out of
bed before Z.
"Once / read in a paper what pur-
ported to be a report of an interview
with DR.. Calling. The newspaper
said that the Doctor was a tall, thin,
beardless man, with snow-white
hair, aged SO. Now as I am but 70
years old and haven't shaved for
forty years, l would have been justi-
fed IN branding that newspaper story
false, but I didn't 1 just let it 60.
No, l don't believe In flying mach
ines, and have eve had anything
to do with experimentation under.
taken in the hope of getting II
up.
1--WE devoted myself almost ex-
clusively to the Gattling guns 1 built
in Cincinnati. There were six of
them, and they were no sooner nice
ly made than they were nearly de-
stroyed by fire, along with all my
patterns. Then / went to Indianapo-
lis Type Foundry and placed an or
der for thirteen guns, and these, as
Sooi al LllcN "CIo uODO, Il pun Ill IIlt
charge of a man named McQueeney
and sent him off to Washington to
sell them. When he got to Baltimore
he lett all the guns except one. That
one he took as a sample.
"Old Gen. Ripley was at the head
of the Bureau of Ordnance, and he
"a about the most perfect old fogy
that ever lived He refused to
look at the gun. We don't want any
new-fangled guns he said, The
old muZzle-loading musket is good
enough. That's what Gen. Scott won
the battle of Lundy's Lane with, and
we don't need anything better now.
There's nothing like handling a ram
rod in the face of the enemy to give
men courage and nerve No, sir, we
don't want anything better than we
we got now.'
"McQueeny started for home in
disgust. At Baltimore he met Gen.
Butler, who was Fastening to the
front. He showed the General the
new gun, and the General said:
What do you ask for the lot?'
asa thousand dollars apiece an
swered Mr.. McQueeney.
"'I will take Them said the Gener-
al, the whole outfit, and give you a
voucher for Them He did it, too,
though he hadn't any authority to
make the purchase.
"Well, Butler took the guns south
with him and used them in the next
fight. The rebels didn't know what
to make of them. What kind of
guns have you here,' n of the pris-
oners asked. that load all night and
fire all day?' Butler used all his am
munition in this fight and made a re-
QUESTION for more, but he couldn't
get it. Stanton absolutely refused
IN alIow IL He said that tha pun