The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1892-04-15
HOW THE TEXAS RAN SER S
SHOOT


Richard Harding Davis, in Harper's Weekly.
The Rangers were the largest men l
saw in Texas, the State of big men.
And some of them were remarkably
handsome in a sun-burned, broad
shouldered, easy, manly way. They
were also somewhat shy with the
strangers, listening very intently but
speaking little, and then in slow,
gentle voice and as they spoke so sell
dom, they seemed to think that what
they had to say was too valuable to
spoil by profanity.
When General Mabry found they
would not tell of their adventures he
asked them to show how they
could shoot, and as this was something
they could do, and not something al
ready done, they went about it as
gleefully as school-boys at recess do
ing stunts" They placed board a
foot wide and two feet high, some 60
feet off in the prairie, and Sheriff
Scheeley opened hostilities by whip
ping out his revolver, turning it in the
air, and shooting, with the sights up
side down, into the bulls eye of the
impromptu target. He did this with
out disseminating what he was saying
to me, but rather as though he were
punctuating his remarks with audible
commas.
Then he said, Il didn't think a. you
Rangers would let a little one penny
sheriff get in the first shot ON you"
He could afford to say this, because
he had been a Ranger himself, and
his brother Joe was one of the best
captains the Rangers have had, and he
and all of his six brothers are over six
feet high. But the taunt produced an
instantaneous volley from every man
in the company; they did not take
the trouble to rise, but shot from
where they happened to be sitting or
lying and talking together, and the
air rang with the reports and hun
bred quick vibrating little gasps, like
the singing of a wire string when it is
frightened on banjo.
They exhibited some wonderful
shooting. They shot with both hands
at the same time, with the hammer
underneath, holding the rifle in one
hand, and never, when it was revol-
yer they were using, with glance at
the sights. They would sometimes
fire four shots from a Winchester be-
tween the time they had picked it up
from the ground and before it had
nestled comfortably against their
shoulder. They also sent one man
ON pony racing around tree about
as thick as q mans leg, and were dis
satisfied because he only put four
out of six shots into it. Then Gen
eral Mabry, who seemed to think |
did not fully appreciate what they
were doing, gave a Winchester rifle to
Captain Brooks and myself, and told
us to show which of us could first put
eight shots into the target.
1t seems that to shoot a Winchester
you have to pull a trigger one way
and work lever backwards and for
wards; this would naturally suggest
that there are three movements-one
to throw out the empty shell, one to
replace it with an another cartridge,
and the third to explode this cart
ridge Captain Brooks, as far as |
could make out from the sound, used
only one movement for his entire
eight shots. As | guessed, the trial
was more to show Captain Brooks's
quickness rather than his marksman-
ship. I paid no attention to the tar
get, but devoted myself aSsiduouSly
to manipulating the lever and trigger,
and aimed blankly at the prairie.
When | had fired two shots into space
the captain had put his eight into the
board. They sounded as they went
off like fire-crackerS well started in q
barrel, and mine, in comparison, like
minute guns at sea. The Rangers, |
found, after / saw more of them,
could shoot as rapidly with revolver
as with rifle, and had become so eX-
pert with the smaller weapon that in
stead of pressing the trigger for each
shot, they would pull steadily on it,
and snap the hammer until the six
shots were exhausted.