Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-10-01
RIFLE PRACTICE AT oRDWAY
Official Scores to Be Made by District Ma
tional Guardsmen.
Those Who Were SlOthful in the GAL
lery VIII Be Shut Oht-The
Safety of the Range.

ticnal Guard commenced this morning at
the range at Ordway. Practice will be by
tattalions, beginning with the first bat
talon. The progra m runs as follows:
First battalion, Tuesday, October !. o..
Second battalion, Wednesday, October 9.
Third battalion, Thursday, October 3.
Fourth battalion, Friday, October 4.
Fifth battalion, Monday, October Z.
Sixth battalion, Tuesday, October s..
First separate battalion, Wednesday. Oc-
tober 0.
Thursday, October 3.
Engineer corps, Thursday, October 10.
Battery A, light artillery, Thursday, Oc-
tober 10.
General staff, general non-commissioned
staff and the field and staff and non-com-
missloned staff of regiments and battalion
inspectors Of rifle practice, Friday, Octo-
Der II.
Who May or May Not Shoot.
According to General Orders No. IA organi-
cations will be reported at the Pennsylvania
railroad station promptly at $50 am. in
undress uniform, armed and equipped, which
means precisely at $50, and not at s:35 or
$40 or S:45, and 1t also means in undress
uniform Of the Matte nal Guard with leggings
-leggings for the officers as well as for the
men. One of the paragraphs of the order
says very pointedly that officers or enlisted
men not properly uniformed will not be per-
mitted to pc rticipate in the regular practice
and that provision will be strictly adhered
to, say some Of those officers who are sup
posed to know what they are talking about.
It Is also provided in orders that officers or
enlisted men who have failed to complete
the gallery practice prescribed for the cur
rent target year will not be permitted to
participate in the official practice at Ord
way. The reason for this is obvious. If the
gallery scores are incomplete, it makes no
difference how much shooting may pe done
on the range, man cannot possibly be any
thing more than a third-clasS man, and he
would be no less than that If he did not fire
shot on the range Practically. therefore,
1t would be a waste of ammunition to issue
it to persons who could not by any posi-
bility qualify, for, when the Official work of
command commences on the range. there
will be no possibility of repairing an I'M
finished gallery record.
In order that there may be no error as to
the identity of those who have or have not
completed their gallery practice, each of the
inspectors of rifle practice will furnish to
the inspector general of rifle practice before
the morning on which that particular in
spe ctor's battalion proceeds to the range
an alphabetical list by companies of the
men VINO are entitled TO transportation and
range practice by reason of their compile
ton of gallery scores. This roll will be
called at the railroad station, and officers
and enlisted men whose names are not
recorded thereon will not be given trans
portation, nor will they be permitted to
practice even, should they elect to pay their
own railroad fare This entirely business
like economy is said by officers at head
qrarters to be especially necessary at this
time because Of the shortness of funds.
The Safety of the Markers.
| Coincident with the publication Of the
paragraph requiring battalion commanders
to detail as markers on the range twenty
men for each days duty. there were re-
marks around the armory as to the
dangerous character of such service" and
some officers even went to the extreme Of
declaring that they would not assume the
responsibility of ordering any of their men
into the pts. The attention of the inspector
lfgeneral of rifle practice being called to
these statements, he said: Il fail complete
ly to understand how any officer Of the Dis
trict National Guard can be so foolish-a
milder term would be out of place-as to
imagine that provision would be made in
general orders for the detail of men to duty
in time Of peace where their lives or limbs
would be really endangered. Any one who
has seen the construction of the pits would
surely refrain from saying anything about
the possibility Of injury; those who have not
seen the pits ought. for their own sakes. to
maintain silence. 1t is utterly impossible
| to drive a 45-caliber bullet more than a few
inches through sand; even the new Social
Der bullet stops in a little more than thirty
inches Of sand. The markers are protected
by sand confined in cribs of solid oak, fif-
teen feet thick at the base and nearly nine
feet thick at the top, with two inches of
solid timber revetting the inner face OF the
work. A two-inch Hotchkiss field gun might
be fired at one of those pits for half day
and there would still remain shelter enough
for as many men as there are markers in
| the pit. 1t is true that there is always
no matter where we are-the possibility of
sewer traps will blow up, and boats will
| leak, and feet will slip, but the chances for
| accident to markers in the pits at ordway
| are infinitely less than they are right here
! on the streets of Washington. l, for one,
am sorry that there are officers in the Dis
| trict Guard, who without any shadow Of
| reason, will endeavor to discredit one Of the
| safest rifle ranges ever constructed"