Los Angeles herald., 1906-01-15
TELLS STORY Of
MANY ADVENTURES
CHAMPION MARKSMAN GROWS
REMINISCENT
Or. William F. Carver Gives an Inter-
esting Account of His EARLY
Career as a Frontiers
man

in their expressive phraseology young
hunter, years ago, "The EVIL Spirit of
the Plains" Performances which they
could not understand, feats which no
man had done before, the. red men in
variably attributed to the spirits, in
which they are firm believers. They
called him the evil spirit of the plains,
therefore, because whenever his rife
cracked victim fell, whether the
cause was an enemy or whether 1t
was in pursuit of game. The trail of
the buffalo herd was crossed on the
hunt-he followed them for miles and
left behind him dead bison for every
100 yards of the chase.
He was a slender youth with muscles
of iron and sinews of wire. His eyes
were steely gray and keen as an
eagles. He could see game where
others could see nothing but waving
grass; he could single out an enemy
if but the smallest part of his body
was exposed. He knew no fear and
never seemed to tire; hence they came
to respect his prowess and to fear that
unerring aim of his Winchester. and
they called him the Evil Spirit of the
Plains.
Makes Farewell Tour
That young man was DR.. William F.
Carver, as he is now known to the
world, the champion rifle shot of the
NoTlu, champion endurance GlIle SIlOI
of the world, champion breaker of glass
balls, either with rife or shotgun;
champion pigeon shot champion bat
shooter and champion buffalo hunter.
Dr. Carver Is on his farewell tour,
his last trip around the world, and
when this tour shall end he will retire
on his well-earned laurels. The slen-
der youth of twenty-five years ago has
gathered weight with his years. and,
a he now stands, is a muscular. pow
erful man, six feet in height and well
proportional. He towers above all
others in any ordinary gathering. His
eye has not lost it's cunning nor his
arm its iron nerve, and his marksman-
ship is now better than ever. DIR.
Carver has discarded his famous buck
skin and no longer wears his hair in
long locks-his wild west days are
over. The wide sombrero of days gone
by is succeeded by a iaunty travelling
hat and a business suit of the latest
cut clothes his broad shoulders.
Willing to Settle Down
81 never felt in better health in my
life said he to the reporter. What
does the barometer say about the
weather tomorrow? If it is like this
today, | feel as though I could shoot
more accurately and enjoy the work
more than / have in years before. |
am only shooting on an average of
once a week now, and though I do not
train, nor need training, l am what
the horsemen call right on edge All
| want tomorrow is a fine day like this,
with a light breeze to carry away the
smoke. and there will be some shooting
that will be the best I have ever done.
Il have received the highest honors
from the Prince of Wales, from the
German emperor and the crowned
heads of Europe, and now hold the
worlds championship in the several
lines in which | am engaged, and have
held most of them for a term of years.
I cannot keep on forever and by the
time ! return from this tour ought to
be willing to settle down and cast aside
the spirit of rowing that has always
been strong within me.
Ancestors Were Rovers
II come rightly by this nomadic de-
sire, however, for it is undoubtedly in
herited through a long line of ances-
tors, among whom We're Governor Car
yer, who stepped on Plymouth Rock
in 1920; John Carver, the explorer of
Minnesota, and Fred Carver, who was
killed in the Indian massacre at Spirit
Lake, Iowa.
This is what drew me into the life
of the plains, first as a trapper, then
rs an Indian fighter and scout, and
later still as a buffalo hunter.
"How did l happen to enter the field
of exhibition shooting? Well l think
in all my career, this is the first time
that question has been sprung on me,
and I've been under reporters fire a
thousand times" said he with a smile,
but you have struck story, and it
has never been printed That l was
good shot l knew right well long
before l took up this new life, which
began seventeen years ago. I had
never been beaten on the plains, but
to be a good shot then was only an
incident of everyday life. That I was
q little better than others only served
to please me and to make my pile of
game the largest and my pack of skins
the heaviest when the hunt was over
Frozen Out of Trapper's Life
1.-The reason L abandoned hunting
and shooting is that l was literally and
figuratively frozen out of it,
During the winter of '76 l had been
on a hunting trip on the Frenchman,
a tributary of the Republican river,
and 1 had all the load of game and
hides that my horses would be able
to carry home, BY the way, it was in
this same country that Captain Mein-
holdt and his company of soldiers We're
caught in a waterspout in '73, and a
dozen or more drowned in their beds.
pitched their tents in Blackwood val
ley and about midnight wall of water
swept down from the hills. 1t was a
cloudburst, and those not drowned were
saved by clinging TO the tops of the
Cottonwoods.
Tells of Awful Blizzard
"That has nothing to do with my
story, however, but in recalling it a
dozen reeolections came over me.
was caught by a storm of an entirely
different nature. The sun was shining
brightly the day as pleasant as today,
when suddenly a black line of clouds
appeared in the west, the wind became
cuttingly cold, and in half an hour
was i'm the midst of one of the worst
billiards. that | ever experienced. To
| stop meant death, and | pressed on,
urging my animals through the storm.
soon / was encased in an icy snow,
the horses were covered with II, and
the cold was more intense as the day
advanced. My limbs stiffened and
thought that my fate would surely be
that OF so many poor fellows who per-
ish In the prairie storms. / swore then