Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-08-23
District Rifle Contingent Ready
for Big Battle.
PERSONNEL OF THE TEAM
Sketches Of the Experts Represent.
ing National Capital.
RECORD. OF MAJ. JAMES E. BELL
Military Career and Achievements
Of Maj. Alfred p. Robbins.
Work Of Other Members.

Special Dispatch to The Star.
CAMP PERRY, Ohio, August 22.-With
the final practice for the national matches
closed. the fifty United States service and
National Guard rife teams which are en-
camped here for the sixth annual COM
petitions of the national board for the
promotion of rifle practice are tonight
resting on their arms. The last day of
preparation was a strenuous one. Early
today the teams went to the thousand
yard range for final shots at long-range
bulls-eyes. This afternoon skirmish fir
Ing was the general order. All the teams
had a run and some of them two.
Lieut.. Col. r. X. Evans, United States
army, the executive officer of the meet.
today called the attention of all team
captains to the mandatory regulation that
each team must have q representative In
the pit during the contests or be debarred
from them. He also warned all rif1emen
from firing on the grounds. excepting
from the firing point and at the target.
Steps were taken today at the meeting
of former members and officers of Ameri-
can International rifle teams to form an
association. Gen. Bird w. Spencer of
New Jersey presided.
Scores in Regimental Match.
The District rife team at 5 o'clock this
afternoon fired its final practice shots
for the National match.
In the championship regimental. won
by the 9th Massachusetts, at 775. in which
the I'd District finished eleventh and the
LIST District fifteenth, high District score
at LOCO yards was A, by Holt and Wind
sor. The scores follow:
First District of Columbia-Forsythe
Al; Alderman, 40; Powers, 40; Brown, q.
Schriver, 10. and Windsor. a. Total. 232.
Second District of Columbia-Summers,
SO: McAnally, 43; Holt. A; Heidenreich,
43: Farrow. 40, and Clausel 40. Total
246
Personnel of the Team.
Under the brigade rifle team banner the
pick of the District of Columbia's rifle
shots will, tomorrow morning, go forth
to battle in the national match. They are
here because they are good shots. good
officers, good men.
Maj J. E. Bell, the District militia's In
1897, has been connected with the District
team ever since it was organized. He
was captain Of 1t in 1898 and since, ex-
cepting two years ago and last year, and
is the teams range officer this year HIS
team broke the Massachusetts Hilton
record of 1,096. which stood for many
years, and he has won the National
Rife Associations inspectors and state
secretaries match--the latter a year ago.
when he alone took home a prize. Maj.
Bell is the patentee of new bullet,
which is likely to be heard from in the
matches, and is the author of two manu-
ais on rifle shooting, and the special
course C., under which national guards
men are now qualifying, is practically
his production. He introduced before the
National Rifle Association the resolution
which put that organization on record
as fayoring the adoption of rife shooting
in public schools and colleges as means
of educating American youth for efficient
citizenship, and in view of the fact that
II was he who introduced at the National
Rifle Associations meeting at Sea Grit In
1901 the resolution looking to the secur-
ing of government recognition of rifle
shooting Maj. Bell may properly be
considered as the originator of the move
ment which has given the country the
mammot.l rife tournament now in prog
reSS.
Mai. Robbins, Team Captain.
Mai. Alfred p Robbins. team captain
field general of the Districts forces in the
fight with the regulars and the guards
men of forty-three states-a native Of the
District, was a shooting member of the
team from 1900 to 1907, last year ranking
second on the team in the national match.
with a score of 276. When the new rule
excluded him as a major from shooting
this year Gen. Harries appointed him
captains position he is filling with that
efficiency that was to be expected of him.
Always giving the impression that ne
knows his mind, of precision. directness
and dispatch in expression. strict put
fair and courteous disciplinarian. Mai.
Robbins has the high respect OF every
man on the team, and gives everybody
the impression that he knows his business
and is attending to 1t.
Maj. George Henderson. surgeon gen.
eral of the District Militia, surgeon for
the team and kind father to the camp,
is the SENIOR National Guard surgeon gem
eral in the United States, having served
twenty years and eight months. With the
late DR.. Nicholas Sem of Chicago ne
organized in 1888 the Association of Mill
tary Surgeons Of the National Guard.
which afterward became the Association
of Military Surgeons of the United States,
chartered by Congress. In the sanitation
of the National Guard. District of CO.
lumbia, annual camps he has worked a
revolution. and he worked another here
at Camp Perry last year. when he went
after the camp authorities and forced
them to abolish a dirty canteen.
Leads Men to Victory.
Can't. Alexander Summers of the I'd
Regiment has shot for the District five
years The captain led company rs
team to victory five years in succession
at the National Rifle Associations Sea
Grit shoot in the championship company
several places in the associations pistol
and rife matches.
Capt. Samuel Forsythe. company NJ. LIST
Regiment. is serving on the District team
the second year. having been here in 1907
He has won third place in the revolver
re-entry match In the Districts COMPETE
ton.
First Lieut. Frank w. Holt of the Sd
Battalion, I'd Regiment. Is in point of
service the dean Of the Districts rifle
aerps. For ten years he has represented
ne District at the tournament. In the
District competitions he has won the
Woodward & Lothrop match and many
revolver honors and at Sea Girt he has
won a place many times in the National
and the New Jersey rifle association s
contests He has been In the guard
seventeen years and has been shooting
fourteen years He was member of the
Districts twelve when they won a place
sixth-in the national match at Fort
Riley In 1904
Possesses International Reputation.
Lieut. w Milton FarrQw, the coach OF