The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1891-01-27
DIX. RICHARD ]. GATLING.
He Tells the Story of the First Order He Re-
ceived for His Now Famous Gun.

The man who chats with DR.. Il. j. Cat
ling, of Hartford, for an hour or ven half
an hour, comes to know the secret of the
success which the amous Calling gun has
achieved. The gun is. of course. a good one.
but Its excellence alone is not the thing
that has created q demand for it in every
civilized country in the world. ltmay rather
be said that the irresistibleness of its in
ventor has forced the sale of this great ex-
terminator. A person cannot talk with Dr..
Calling tive minutes without acquiring an
inclination TO draw his wallet and buy as
many of the Gatling 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 cannot he do when
he means business when he goes a-gunningi
The Doctor Is seventy-two years old now,
with snow-white hair and whiskers, but he
can talk as fast, as smoothly. as entertain
ingly, as persuasively as ever, and he is
to use q good old Connecticut phrase-"as
keen IS a brier." Tall. straight, gracefully
proportiOned, and OF easy carriage. he is
also an interesting and pleasing person to
look upon.
Good evening, Doctor" said q Times rep
resentative. who q few evenings ago en-
countered the u man in the office
of the Hotel Normandie. The doctor
responded with q warm grasp of the
hand and a Well. well; am very, glad to
6co lOu. SOulOl II hOlOo ~ u w w. A0 III
and he led the way to a readlng-room.
No. he said, in answer to q question,
"Tm not in the air-ship business. The
story that l am is o newspaper yarn. /
about me. One story was that l had a
shop in my back yard, and that / was out
there in it at 5 O'Clock every morning work
ing behind locked doors. Well, there is q
barn ont in my back yard. and q hem
house. but there is no shop there. and then,
again. if there were a shop there, / wOuldn't
be at work in it at 5 o'clock IN the morning,
for really 1 never think of getting out of
bed before Z.
.'Once / read in a paper,what purported
ling. The newspaper said that the Doctor
was q tall, thin, beardless man, with snow
white hair, aged eighty-six. Now, as l am
but seventy-two years old and haven't
shaved for forty years, / would have been
justified in branding that newspaper story
as false, but / d idn't; l just let it GO. No. 1
don't believe in flying machines. and have
never had anything to do with expert
mentation undertaken in the hope of get
ting one up.
'Pve devoted myself almost exclusively
to the Calling gun. The first Calling gunS
/ made l built in Cincinnati. There were
six of them, and they were no sooner nicely
made than they were nearly destroyed by q
fire. along with all my patterns. Then l went
to the indianapolis type foundry and
placed IN order for thirteen guns, and
these, as soon as they were done, | put in
the charge of a man named McQueeney and
sent him off to Washington to sell them.
When he got to Baltimore be left all the
guns except one. That one he took along
as a sample.
"Old General Ripley was at the head of
the Bureau of Ordnance and he was about
the most perfect old fogy that ever lived.
He refused absolutely to look at the gun.
We don't want any n~ew-fangled guns re
said. The old mnzzle- loading musket is
rnAd AnnDOh Thofa that nor Snnff
won the battle of Lundy's Lane with and
wedon't need anything better now. There's
nothing Il handling a ramrod in the face
of the enemy to give men courage and
nerve. No. sir. We don't want anything
better than we've got now
"McQueeney started for home in disgust.
At Baltimore he met General Butler. who
was fastening To the front. He showed
said: What do you ask for the LOTT
"a thousand dollars apiece answered
| Mr.. McQueeney.
81 Will take them.' said the General, the
ths%.' 0p He ai spd II. s soo. s sftho 3 yoq ha ssd 1Gs
any authority to maket the purchase.
well. Butler took the guns south with
| him, and used them in his next fight. The
rebels didn't know what to make of them.
What kline of guns have you got here one
of the prisoners asked, that load all night
and fire all dayp Butler used all of his am
munition in this fight and made q requisi-
ton for more, but he couldn't get it. STAN
ton absolutely refused to allow II. lie said
that the gun had not been adopted by the
department. OF course, that settled the
case.
when the wal was over my friends told
me to drop the gun business. but / wouldn't.
1 went to Washington and asked for an
other firing. Ripley wasn't there any more.
In his place there was q w~ide-awake man,
General Dyer. q man who wanted to keep
up with the times, aud he showed q great
interest in the Calling gun. Through him,
ultimately, / obtained an order for the trial
of the gun with canister cartridges. In COM
petition with howitzers at Fortress Monroe.
when l got down to the place of trial /
found that some Of the officers had put mp