The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1897-11-16
SHOOTING THE GLASS BALL.
The Trick is in PAPER Mache Cart
ridges and a Load of Fine Shot.


ridges and Load of Fine Shot.
New York Journal: 1.-THE trick rifle
shooting seen on the stage" said Cap
taia Jack Crawford, the poet scout"
docs not in the least indicate that the
shooter is a Skilled marksman. The
feat of hitting a. small object placed at
| 20 feet distance can be performed by
80 h"F- V-ith very little practice, and
right here let me tell you that standing
with the back to the object aimed at
and catching the sight from the reflec-
tfon III q small mirror is far more easy
of accomplishment than facing the tar
get and shooting in the ordinary man
ner. The gun is laid upon the Shout
der, which makes a firm rest, and the
eye can be sighted along the reflection
| Of the barrel at the reflected target as
readily as along the barrel itself. The
country is overrun with men, women,
boys and girls who do this fancy childs
play on the stage, but experience at
that kind of work does not prove the
| shooters to be marksmen anY more
than the ability to sail around a cir
Gle on wooden horse at a country
fair would prove the rider to be an
expert horSeTnan."
How about the glass ball shooting
! from horseback that is such a feature
"Well, that is a trick pure and sim
pie though it is a trick not generally
! known. There are tricks in all trades
and more of them in the show business
than the American public, whom Bar
mum once said delight to be humbugged,
dream about. 1 can confidently assert
/ that there is not a man on the face
of the earth Who can ride a galloDing
horse and break glass balls thrown into
the air, using bullets. That assertion
! may surprise you. but | know what
am talking about. DR.. Carver, with
! whom [ once Travelled, and whose rifle
I often loaded for the performance of
his wonderful shooting, can certainly
strike any small object thrown into the
air with a bullet, but he must have his
feet firmly planted on the ground to do
it. He is, without question, the most
marvellous shot on earth but he could
not sit on a running horse and even
hit demijohns if they were thrown up in
front of him. 1t is absurd and ride
ulous for any one to believe that the
fine sight necessary to hit a glass ball,
Itself in molten, can be caught instan-
taneOusly, as such work would re-
quire, while the rifleman svas bobbing
up and down with the motion of a run
ming horse. This wonderful feat of
breaking glass balls on horseback is
accomplished by substituting small shot
or bullets in the cartridges employed"
We'll, but a Winchester rife would
not fire shot and the rife cartridges
are held UP TO the sight of the audi
ence?"
ITO all appearances the rife is the
ordinary Winchester express rifle, but
the barrel has been bored out smooth
inside and the cartridges, instead of
containing bullets. are filed with a
charge of fine bird shot. OF course a
majority Of the people know a Win
chester when they see it. and when a
man armed with one of them dashes
round or a horse breaking glass balls
it is taken for granted that he is firing
bullets, especially as the cartridges are
held up before the view of the audi
ence. The cartridges are, however,
never handed round for inspection.
Should you ever get hold of one just
take out your knife and cut into the
bullet, and you viii find it a very
clever imitation formed of lead-colored
PAPER mache, and just beneath the
bullet point you will discover a good
charge of fine shot 4 man ought to
be able to ride astride of a streak of
excited lightning and burst glass
globes with such an outfit as that"
DO you think, captain, that practice
in the shooting galleries would help a
man in any way to become a good shot
in the open?f
Certainly not; nor will practice
even on the range make men good off
hand shots. A man may do beautiful
work on the range and cover himself
all over with markSmen'S badges and
be no good when it comes to hitting
moving objects at unknown distances.
You see, those crack shots shoot over
perfectly level ground at targets of
regulation size placed at carefully
measured distances from the firing
point. They use telescope sights for
the longer distances have gauges to
mark the velocity of the wind, know
just how far to raise the sights of the
piece for such distance as they de-
sire to shoot. Why, under such cir
cumstances, anv one who is at all
familiar with handling a rifle ought to
be able to stab the bulls eye with
nearly every shot. But take one of
those crack range shots down to New
Mexico and bring him out on the hills
after game and he would be as much
out of place as an Apache Indian would
be in that land of pure delight where
saints immortal reign"
| I'm what way?"
well, you see the average game
animal is not of a very accommodating
disposition and would respectfully de-
cline to select a level stretch of country,
step off one, two, three or five hundred
! yards, notify the hunter OF the exact
distance and present to him a broad
side to be shot at. In hunting q man
| must be able. to measure distance with
the eye and to know the Deculiarities
of the ground between himself and his
game. A gulch crossing the course of
a flying bullet will draw it downward
or depress it, and unless the hunter is
aware of this fact and holds his sight
accordingly he Will understood While
L was in Wyoming territory few
years ago, one of the cracks of the
famous Creedmoor team came out on
a hunting trip and / took him around
and showed him where antelope were
plenty. I have seen some bad shoot
ing, but he was certainly entitled to
the gingersnap. With my winchester 1
struck game easily but he hit only
! once out Of 20 shots. He made wild
guesses at distances-you know how
deceiving distances are in that clear
atmosphere land an antelope 300 yards
off he would reckon as being only one
third that distance, and of course the
! bullet from his rifle would hit the
ground far short of the mark. He was
about the rnaddest man I ever saw.
He didn't know what to make of it."
100000
Gould Well Believe It.
Cincinnati Enquirer: Wallace-Hear
about that young woman elocutionist who