The evening times., 1898-11-05
A GUN ARTIST.


Adolph Toepperwein, the youngster who
has been astonishing the Londoners by
drawing pictures of Commodore Schley
and other notables with a target rifle,
is of German descent. as his name shows.
He is of the German type-burly, blonde.
blue-eyed, joyial and phlegmatic. He is
the son of small farmer who lives just
north of San Antonio, Texas. 1t Is a
country specially adapted for the devei-
opment of perfect sight the air being al
ways pure and thin and the light mellow.
and the surface of the land constant
green from the never-changing cactus
and mesquite. In this country everybody
sees well. A person less than fifty years
old wearing glasses is looked upon as one
sadly afflicted. l do not think that the
distressing instance with a little child
peering through spectacles has ever ex-
listed in Texas.
Young Toepperwein was known as re-
markabie shot in a community of good
shots when he was sixteen years old. de
has been familiar with the rifle since he
was big enough to hold one up, and has
used it steadily in the field. where blow
ing winds and running shadows and diff
ferent lights force man TO learn all that
there is to be learned OF the science of
projectile hurting. He is not only
strangely efficient long distance shot, but
he is a wonderful trick shot and it is
trick shooting that he is doing on the
other side of the water Severing swing
ing strings and splitting bullets driven
against the edges of knives, and snuffing
lighted candles 80 yards away, and bor-
ing holes through silver dollars tossed in
the air are matters of everyday practice
with him. 1t should be said of him, too
that in these exhibitions he always uses
the single ball of y caliber. Many per-
sons who have seen William f. Cody ca
reer around the ring. smashing glass balls
with Winchester carbine, are not aware
that the colonel uses a shell loaded with
fine shot. but that is what he does. He
does not use the single ball in the carbine
for two reaSons-he could not hit anything
with it except at infrequent intervals,
and the Winchester bullet has a habit of
flying a mile or so and killing the inof-
fensive stranger who is standing on the
corner not meaning any harm.
Toepperwein, before he took to shoot
| ing as business, had dreams of becom-
ing what he called "a artist meaning
thereby a newspaper cartoonist He used
to practice on The San Antonio Express,
furnishing 1t with meat-ax illustration
for the glory of seeing them signed ''Tep''
in large flowing letters in the lower right
| hand corner. The picture of Commodore
SchIey which he makes with 200 bullets
! fired with wonderful rapidity from a tar
/ get rifle, is not a speaking likeness II is
/ good to label 1t "Schley" because IL could
/ be taken as rapidly for Louis Napoleon
/ or any other man who ever wore an i'm
! perial," but it is better work, from the
i view point of resemblance, deIicacy OF
/ line, purity of method. tone. verve, CHA
| ro oscUrO, and things like that than the
remarkable figures with which he used
to adorn The Express. He draws better
with a bullet than with the lead pencil
Or carver.
! A comparatively restricted territory has
! produced three single-ball shot who are
probably the greatest the world has ever
known. Toepperwein is one of them. A
boy named Petmecky is another This
| youth, who is now in his early twenties
is the son of an Austin, Texas, gunsmith.
( Young Petmecky is as remarkable for
the rapidity of his firing as for its
! accuracy. He is able in the pictur-
esque language of the Southwest, almost
to melt the bullets together in the bar
| rel" man cannot count the shots he
fires when going at full speed any more
than he can count the beats in drum
/ roll a fayorite feat of his is to toss a
brick in the air; break il in two. and then
break both pieces before they strike the
ground This feat Is especially remark
able because nobody can toss whole
brick to a great height, and the shooting
must be done with inconceivable rapi6itg.
/ have never known any other person
| person able to repeat this performance
and I do not believe that Toepperwein
| can do it.