Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-03-17
CHANGING STYLES IN WEAPONS.
The Loaded Cane and the Derringer of
Fifty Years ago.

| IL mas dlWdNS SttIIltN llllIt tui
| ious to me-" said an eX-pOlice official
who was better known a dozen years
ago than he is now. that the law for
bidding citizens to carry concealed
weapons has not been pronounced
Unconstitutional. Doesn't the consti-
tuition declare that n citizen has G
perfect right to bear arms?
Passing over that question though
did it ever occur to you to think how
many reputable citizens ignore then
and how the police seldom interfere
with a man for Carrying a weapon un'
less the man is wanted for some
other reason? You have thought OF
that? Well, did you ever think how
the custom began and what curious
fashions there have been at different
times in the style and character OF
the weapons most commonly carried
II should say, speaking in a gener-
al way, that American citizens in this
part of the country began to carry
concealed weapons as habit just be-
|
the last century, and that the habit
grew for something like twenty-five
years and after that became gradually
less prevalent, until now probably nc
more than one man in every ten car
ries a deadly weapon, whereas forty
years ago probably every third man
did So
1.-TWO things wholly unrelated to
each other happening about the same
time gave rise to the habit. Gold was
discovered in California in 1S49, and
some persons succeeded in putting a
revolving pistol on the market just
when the eastern men who started
westward in the hope Of picking up
the gold decided that it would not do
for them to go out in the wilderness
unarmed
"Of course don't forget the bowie
knife or the derringer-Which was
the original bulldog pistol. 1t was
long before 40 that southerners es-
pecially, seeing the merit Of the knife
that Col Bowie made famous, adopt
ed it, and even before that the ugly,
convenient little big bore pistol
could be found in the vest pocket of
almost any southern gentleman. 1t
was looked upon as decided step in
the progress of invention when these
derringers came to be made double
barreled. They discharged tremen-
dously heavy bullets with deadly ac-
curacy and were peculiarly effective
weapons at short range.
But in those days there was a
wide difference between the north and
south, and though the carrying Of con-
cealed weapons was almost universal
among southern gentlemen there
were few reputable men in the north
who ever went armed on ordinary oc-
casions.
"Then came the emigration to the
gold fields and every man who went
thought he had to carry a knife and
a pistol or two. The old pepper box
revolver was the latest thing in pis-
tolls and was supposed to be the best
because you could shoot six times
with it before reloading, so every
mothers son of them bought revol-
yer. 1t was, in fact one of the poor
est weapons ever invented, being
clumsy and bulky. and unreliable,
heavy, badly balanced and inaccurate.
It was gross fiattery to accuse one of
them of being a concealed weapon,
for if it was put in a pocket it made
a lump any one could see.
The men who knew what weapons
really were. used to say sneeringly that
the only way to kill man with one
of these things was to throw it at
him, and the remark became a stock
joke, but thousands of men knew
nothing about weapons, and wanting
the best suddenly bought the worst,
because they were the newest, and so
the inventor, or at least the manufac-
turers, got rich Moreover the orig
inal idea of the revolving pistol was
afterward elaborated into the Won
derful weapon of today that is car
ried by thousands Of people who are
not suspected of going armed.
ut was dozen years after that be-
fore the civil war began, and the hab-
it of going armed at all times, wheth-
er is was necessary or not, was sud-
denly stimulated, but in the interval
the custom had gained ground even
here in the east, and there were some
curious outgrowths from it,
II suppose you would call the re-
volver the national weapon today
probably, but at that time, as 1 have
explained, the revolver was far from
being what it is now, and there was
even a prejudice against it. Many
men who wanted weapons were not
satisfied with the old fashioned single
or double barreled pistol or the bowie
knife, and they tried various things.
"It was quite fad one time to car
ry a swordstick. The stick itself was
of course merely a scabbard hid. By
pressing a concealed spring the scab-
bard was loosened and could be shak-
en- off, having a naked blade from six
to thirty inches in length.
1.-The swordstick fashion did not
last long, though for time it was
very prevalent. The authorities were
generally very severe in cases in
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