The silver messenger. (Challis, Idaho) 1890-1912, 1901-07-30
Training Boys to Shoot.

training Boys to cnooE
IF American schoolboys were
trained to handle a rife properly this
country would soon have little use for
standing army, the taxpayers would
save money and the land would be safe
from the invasion of all the troops of
Europe put together"
Such is the opinion of Maj. F. R.
Durham, the famous American scout,
who served with the British in South
Africa For a man to be a really
good vielinist,'' continues the major.
they say - hand should be trained
almost from the time he is a baby. 1t
is the same with the rife, and l be-
lieve sehoolboys should begin practice
at the age of with small-sized rife
and light cartridges. Properly man
aged. there would be absolutely no
danger Only two guns would be re-
quired for each school and they would
never be handled except when the boy
steps up to the range and receives the
weapon from the man at his side
Il am convinced that with rifle
ranges generally in use in the schools
shooting accidents would be far less
numerous than now. The didn't-know-
it-was-loaded fool would gradually dis
appear. With a little ingenuity and at
slight expense the target could consist
of various moving figures of reduced
size. Boys thus trained, say, every
Friday afternoon, between the ages of
O d l.,
did marksmen, and two weeks prac-
tice would accustom them to the heavy
cartridge now in use for long range.
1t would be admirable discipline for
them, too, besides being an idea that
would appeal to every healthy boy.
Their effectiveness as defenders of
THEN country would be greatly in
creased by an occasional field day, in
which they could be trained in the first
principles of the art of getting out of
sight and moving rapidly without at
tracing notice. Turn a lot of boys
loose, set an officer with a field glass
to watch them and give some little
prize to the boy who takes the most in
telligent advantage of Whatever means
of concealment the field affords, and
you not only delight the boys, but give
to them some valuable experience In
the kind of thing that the soldier of
the future is going to want most
The foe of the future will be an
unseen foe, and that is the kind of
enemy that the soldier drilled in the
old school cannot withstand. / have
seen plenty of men who seemed re-
CARELESS of their own lives when the
bullets flying about came from visi-
BILE enemy, but when the shots poured
in from a foe unseen that same band
would lose its nerve with wonderful
promptness.
THE cost of teaching American boys
to handle a rifle could be kept down to
500 a year for each school, and it
would be one of the most economical
of expenses, for the chances are that it
would in time save far more than it
cost. 1t would give the sort of train
ing that the warfare of the future is
going to call for. The young fellow
who can shoot quick and straight, who
can keep himself out of sight, who can
use his brains. is going to be worth a
dozen of the old-style. barrack-drilled
automatic fighting machines who were
all right in the old days. but who are
of little use before accurate rife firing
at long range from men who can't be
seen. For the same reason it used tc
take three or four men on the offensive
to beat one on the defensive. Under
present conditions the proportion is
something like ten to one, and it may
become fourteen or fifteen to one be-
fore long. Utica Globe.