The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1901-12-01

Good Revolver Lasts for Years.
He Would Rather Face n "Gun"
Than a knife-A story to illustrate
n Point.
From the Indianapolis Journal.
The longer a man carries a revolver
the more careful he will be with it, -
remarked Secret Service officer Thorn
as E. Halls recently. Capt. Halls made
this observation in the course of a
conversation that ensued after a re-
porter entered his office and found him
busily engaged in cleaning and furbish-
ing his revolver.
Are you getting your pistol ready
for a trip?' Capt. Halls was asked.
Not necessarily" he replied, with
his usual smiling evasion. Il always
take good care Of the weapon that
takes care of me-"
You ought to know a great deal
about revolvers," suggested the visi-
tor, and I wish you would give me
the benefit of some of your knowl-
edge"
Well" replied the genial detector of
Counterleiters, II have carried a revol-
yer about thirty-two years, and l guess
] ought to know a little about them.
For one thing, / make it a rule to never
fool with pistol at all. l never point
towards myself or anybody else, even
though I know it to be unloaded.
Il believe there has been as much
change in revolvers in the past thirty
years as in anything else I know of.
Shortly after the war, when l was in
the government service, the weapon
that l carried, which was supposed to
be the best in use at that time, was
Colts revolver. 1t was a shooter
and loaded with powder and ball from
the front of the cylinder. The bullets
were round pieces of lead and they had
to be pressed down close on to the pow
der by means of d hinged ramrod that
was set in the under side of the bar
rel. The other end of the cylinder was
furnished with nipples on which per-
cussion caps were placed. Those re-
volvers had long, rified barrels, and
except for the fact that they were very
susceptible to dampness, they were ad-
mirable weapons"
Would they shoot straight?" Capt
Halls was asked.
Il can aswer your question by telling
you a story" he replied. zone time ]
was after a man named Tom Hunt,
who resided in Danville, Ill. Hunt
knew l wanted him and sent me a let
ter one morning, by a little bootblack
telling me that If I wanted to live to
be an old man / had better remain on
the west side of the Wabash Railway,
which, divided the town. You see, Hun
lived on the east side of the railway
Much to my regret, / was unable to
follow Mr.. Hunts advice, but instead
began preparations looking to his cap
tl1re. ordinary occasions ,eoI
Derringer pistol, because it was small
er and easier to carry, but this time
l thought perhaps / would do better
to take my Colts with me. So l took
it out of it's case, clean
ed and oiled it thooughl
and then set out for the east side of
the town. When l crossed the tracks
and entered the residence portion 1
soon found that Hunt had communi.
Gated to his neighbors his threat
against me, for l was followed at a
respectable distance by quite a good
sized crowd of curiosity seekers. At
that time Danville was a pretty tough
place and shooting scrapes were the
peoples principal diversion. l frequent
ly heard of my man that day, but
was unable to get a sight of him. Late
in the afternoon 1 met a fellow that
resided close to Hunt and he informed
me that the latter had repented of his
purpose to kill me on sight and was
making preparations to leave Danville.
My informant told me that Hunt in
tended to go on horseback by the near
est road out of town, which was at
the east end of the main street, and
continued east to Covington, Ind, the
state line being only four miles dis.
tant. Accordingly. l proceeded to take
up my station at a point by which |
Thought Hunt would pass, and waited
for him to put in an appearance. While
I was waiting the sheriff and chief of
police came up--they were out for q
walk-and asked me who 1 was lay
ing for l told them 1 wanted Tom
Hunt, but was about coming to the
conclusion that he had given me the
slip and left town by another route. As
l said this l saw fellow on horse
back approaching from the direction
from which / expected Hunt to appear
The man was coming along at an easy
gallop. Stepping to the edge of the
walk and taking a quick glance in that
direction, l saw that it was the man
was after. l ran at once into the mid
die of the street and held up my hand,
commanding him to stor He came to
halt and drew something from his
pocket which, by the CLEAN, / we'll
knew was a revolver Wheeling his
horse at the same instant, Hunt DASH
ed madly back in the direction from
which he had come, belaboring the an
imal at every step with the harness
strap. AT this the sheriff and chief of
police sprang to my side. and, pulling
their revolvers. cried: Why don't you
shoot. Halls?"
I" Well / replied, 4 never could get
the consent of my mind to shoot
man in the back AS / said this Hunt
had reached the street crossing, and,
evidently being afraid l would make o
target of his back, made a turn for the
corner of the nextstreet AS he did
this / saw my opportunity. and taking
a quick aim at the horse along the bar
rel of my Colts 1 moved the weapon
forward sonie distance in front to
make allowance for the speed of the
animal and then fred l aimed in a
direct line for the horses neck. only
some distance in front of him. AS soon
as / touched the trigger the horse
seemed to make one spasmodic leap
into the air. burst the saddle girth and
threw his rider far over his head into
the street. Chief of Police Lafferty
calculated with a laugh. Now you
have done it, you have killed them
both
NO. I said. plead guilty to kill
ing the horse. but IL the man is dead
the animal is responsible When we
reached the place we found the horse
giving its last gasp and an investiga-
ton disclosed that the bullet had en-
tered Just back of his ear. 1t took
some time to get Hunt into breathing
condition again, and by the time he