The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-07-18


TENNIS CHAMPION CHARLOTTE DoDD.
physicians and politicians, but it is also
the era of women swimmers, wrestlers,
pugilists, tennis players, bicyclists, gym
nasts, expert rife shots, bowlers, horse
dealers, cricketers, weight lifters, judges
of cattle and dogs, baseball players, fenc-
ers, billiard experts, chess analysts, ca
noeists, scullers, skaters, golf players,
club swingers. aeronauts and pedestri-
ans.
Women may lack the ability to keep
secret, but they certainly do not lack
pluck, determination and ambition when
they enter the athletic lists to show man
what they can do. They are wisdom it
self, too, for the reason that they rarely
attempt to outshine nlan-only to meet
failure-but are usually content to do
thing very well and then fall back upon
the qualifying phrase ''for woman"
This statement, however, is hardly
true Of Miss Winifred Lealeof the island
Of Guernsey, who one day shouldered
her rifle, marched to Bisley common
England's new Wimbledon-and COM
peted at the rifle butts with the best
marksmen among the citizen soldiers of
England, Canada and Australia. When
her turn came to shoot, she sat down
tailor fashion, put the rifle TO her shout
der, closed one eye like a veteran, and
although it was her first or sighting
shot" she put bullet in the very center
of the bullseye 200 yards distant. She
shot with the regulation Martini Henry
rifle, was not favored in the least, and
the emphatic 80 pound kick of the
weapon did not seem to annoy her any
more than the kick Of an ablebodied fly.
At 200 yards Miss Leale scored n out
Of possible 80, and at 500 yards she hit
the bullseye times out of possible T.
Of all the expert rifenen present very
few equaled her record. Miss Leale's
father was surgeon major of the Chan
mel islands militia, and when she dis
played such experiences she had only been
shooting under his direction for IS
months.
On this side of the water Mrs. Frank
Glass and Miss Annie Oakley are two of
the best markswomen. Mrs. Glass, who
lives in Jersey City, has frequently killed
10 out of 10 birds on the wing with her
n pound shotgun, and such scores as II
out of 90 and % out of 25 bluerocks
show that she is sure death to almost
any bird that gets up in front of her
breechloader. Mrs Glass has only been
shooting two years, but she has had the
training Of Frank Glass, the well known
-, a 11,c,,,o,, xr-L,1 how l,z,e1>a,,1
Annie Oakley is an Ohio girl, ~ years
old. When she was only 10 years of
age, she was so fond of shooting that she
would run away with her brothers mus
ket and practice in the woods. She has
broken 984 out Of 1000 glass balls and
holds the worlds record for this num-
ber She has also broken 4,772 out of
5000 in nine hours-a most remarkable
feat. She breaks glass balls in the air
about as easily with the rife as she does
with the shotgun and has record of
killing 943 out Of 1000 with a 90 caliber
rife. Sitting Bull was SO pleased with
her shooting about 10 years ago that he
made her member of the Sioux tribe
and named her Little Sure Shot There
are many other women in America who
shoot well, and the Miller Rife club at
Hoboken, N. j., has 20 lady members
who shoot offhand with the rifle and
make very creditable scores. They have
several times beaten the mems third
class.
Lady swimmers are SO plentiful they
have ceased to attract attention. Agnes
Beckwith of England, who claims the
worlds championship, once performed
the remarkable feat of swimming 20
miles in 6 hours 25 minutes. She has
kept afioat 100 hours out of 1877. Edith
johnson, another English girl, SWAN 81
consecutive hours without rest in 1880.
Although woman has done very we'll
in this speciality, she is still far behind
her masculine rival. The champion
woman mile swimmer, Miss Theresa
johnson, has record of 35 minutes 81
seconds, but the sterner sex's record for
the distance under the same conditions
| is 20 minutes SO seconds, held by J. J..
| Collier of London. On a straightaway
course r. P. Magee has swum a mile in
% minutes 80 seconds.
Fourteen men have jumped from
Brooklyn bridge into the East river, 1856
feet below, but men have not monopo-
lized the bridge jumping business. Miss