Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1907-07-17
THROWING eooMERANes.
he Austrian Weapon Mastered by a
Man in Washington.

The Austrian Weapon Mastered by a
Man in Washington.
George Clarvoe of Washington has
become expert in the use Of the Aus
tralian boomerang, can hurl it indeed
with dexterity that would make him
chief from Booloomooloo to Botany
Bay.
He is AN expert instrument maker
in the Coast and Goedetic Survey.
When some years ago an English
man, who had been around the bush
with the wild Australians a spell
came to Washington and gave an ex-
hibition of boomerang throwing Nj
Clarvoe's interest in the construction
and casting of this weapon was
aroused.
He looked at the things dying and
sparing through the cir like birds
wooden birds as they w-re Then he
looked at the halfdozeE hanging on
the arm of the Englishnan-ana that
was enough for Mr.. Claryoe. He went
home and fashioned him near
boomerang.
1t didn't fly, but it f1uttered some
and made a noise like real boom
erang. That was encouraging; he
tried and tried again, varying slants,
curves and dimensions, and at last
reached a point where fiawless
boomerang was built. Then Mr.. Clar-
voc addressed himself to casting it.
1t is much like learning to ride
bicycle" said he. 1T would always go
just where / didn't aim it."
But by degrees he attained that ex
pertness which has enabled him to
rival and even surpass the black in.
ventors of the warlike wood
The weapon is about twenty inches
long over all, having a sharp bend
in the middle like the crook of an e.
bow. In shape it much resembles the
arm of man just at that stage of the
convivial proceedings when he says:
Here's ooking at you"
1t is about two inches wide and
about three-eights of an inch thick in
the middle, the bottom side fat. rhe
top beyelled down to the edges. The
two arms or branches are ,J in the
same plane, but are slanted away at
an angle of two degrees. 1t weighs
about pound.
In casting the boomerang the
thrower grasps it firmly by one end,
the other end projecting up and out
in front of him much like. the warn
ing arm of railway semaphore The
hand Is then flung back over the
shoulder and brought forward perpen.
dicularly. the boomerang being hurled
at full arms length.
Just as it leaves the grasp the hand
is snapped back with jerk, as a boy
snaps back hoop to make it return
This imparts rotary motion to the
thing, and right there is the milk in
the cocoanut, the secret of the boom
erang's bewildering flight.
Away it goes whirling through the
air, tumbling heels over head, for
distance of two or three hundred feet,
never varying in it's height from the
ground. Then, just as one thinks 1t
falling to the ground, as by all the
statues of civilized things it ought
to do, he sees it hesitate a moment
as though considering what to do
next, turn on its side. and with a few
preliminary whilrs (which have now
become horizontally, go gently sailing
away to the left, sailing away and up
and back. for the astonishing affair
instead of continuing forward or fall
ing, defies all the laws of gravitation
and acts altogether by contraries.
In a wide semicircle II sweeps, soar
ing into the air and reaching its
greatest elevation when half way
home. Thence it comes whirring and
whirling back to the thrower, its
rotary motion apparently increasing
as it nears the ground, at his feet
sometimes at his feet, oftentimes at
the head of the innocent bystander.
g friend of mine who got to think
ing ABOUT something else said Mr.
Clarvoe, once nursed a goose-egg on
the back of his head for a week. II is
the rotary motion that makes the
boomerang dangerous.
The swiftly WI Ring arm strikes a
powerful, blow, and with its soaring,
backward sweep Z can fish man out
from behind a rock or tree without
difficulty. That is 'or the thrower. II
is the realization of that mythical
rifle with the curve in the barrel that
could hit a deer around the mountain
side.
when ths boomerang at the end
Of It's forward fight halts and turns
on it's side, the rotary or spinning NO
ton acts like screw on the air,
causing II 20 worm its way upward
and backward Do you see TT"
The bystander didn't see II. All he
saw was q bewilderiDg fight OF
boomerangs that dipped and scared