The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-17
CRACK SHOTS COMING.
Pretty and Sensational Workmanship
at Concert Pitch.


Stimulated by the Wild West show Eu-
ropean young men have taken to mark
manship. and a quartette now astonlsh-
ing Vienna have determined to come TO
America to ontdo Buffalo Bill on his ma
tive heath. Mr. Martin and Mr.. Western,
two Of the company. excel In trick shoot
ing. one of the first numbers on their
programme is shooting marbles from off
long slender neck glass bottles. The bot
ties are placed in irregular rows about
four inches apart and are Of different
nights. Instead of having cork a marble
of ordinary size is placed on the mouth
of the bottle The marksman must pick
off the marble at a single shot without
SCATTERING the bottle or hitting one in
another row. IL Is very pretty perform
ance and generally a successful, though
very exacting one.
Then came breaking of glass tubes.
placed at narrow intervals between a row
of eggs. The tubes and eggs were placed
in sort of a screen and the performer
picked up a revolver and blazed away at
the tubes. breaking a dozen or more in the
twinkling Of an eye without damaging the
eggs The tubes were painted black, 50
that they were very conspicuous between
the white eggs.
A very novel number was the driving of
nails by bullets. A stout, good-sized
square built of planks was put up at the
end of the range. The surface of this tar
get was black without rings or markings
Of any kind. An assistant now took
handful Of good-sized nails and arranged
them in a circle about where the bulls
eye should have been. All the nails heads
were painted a bright white. They were
put about a quarter of an inch into the
g ~.
men now picked up a rifie-bang and be-
hold one of the nails was driven into the
plant as neatly as If done by a journey
man carpenters hammer In this way nail
after nail was driven in during the fire.
quent outbursts Of applause from the spec
tators All these feats are not exhibited
on the same night, but are only mentioned
as their most attractive numbers.
Splitting bullets on the edge of a knife
is also a splendid test of an accurate aim.
To do this a few long-bladed knives are
fastened 20 the target. some horizontally
and others I'm a perpendicular position.
The knives are arranged so as to present
the edge to the shooter. From twelve to
twenty PAGES is the distance at this per-
formance a small-bore rife and a very
light charge of powder is used so as not
to give too great a force to the bullet.
Mr.. DeVismes is the most expert in this
line. He seldom failed to clearly split the
bullet or the edge of the knife he aimed
at, while the others did not fare so well
in their efforts The divided bullets are
picked up by an attendant and distributed
among the audience as souvenirs. Shoot
ing backward with rifles and revolyers at
swiftly moving objects which swing from
side to side or are kept bobbing up and
down is a favorite sport Of these lightning
handlers of firearms.
one would think that to fire two pis-
tolls simultaneously at different objects
and never score miss would be impos-
sble except for a cross-eyed man who
could squint along a barrel with either
eye. Mr.. Western, one Of the performers,
Is far from being eross-eyed. but he new
erthNiess pumped bullet into the BULLS
eye OF two targets at the same time, and
did ii with such an easy grace that you
thought II the simplest thing IN the world
till you tried Il yourself. Jet anyone take
pistol in each hand and try 70 simply