The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1909-01-25

lodged the pebble from his sling in the
forehead of Goliath, is among the EARL
est recorded instances OF good marks
manship offhand. The distance Is not
given. but as Goliath was over II feet
tall, and had a reach in proportion,
David would not have let him get very
close
At the best the sling is an uncertain
instrument. 1t was used in David ;
time by the Etruseans and other eias-
sic people, by the French and Spanish
peasants, and. in fact, as it is a con-
trivanee of extreme simplicity, it meets
the first demands for missile weapon
However, we fail to come across reports
in detail of consistent good shooting
with it.
On the other hand good shooting with
the bow and arrow prevails through
song and story. We all know what Ro,-
in Hood did. In SCOTS "Iranhoe,' be-
fore Prince John, he split a willow
wand. slightly thicker than d mars
thumb stuck in the ground, at five
score paces-or say 100 yards. And lat
er, at the attack upon the castle, whe;s
the archers were bending their bows
from shelter below, at the edge of tu's
wood, against the defenders upon the
walls, De Bracy complained of him:
He told every rivet on my arm0r
with a cloth-yard shaft, that raped
against my ribs with as little cOmpunC-
ton as If my bones had been of irons
But Robin Hood is OutdOne in the
ballad of William of '.ClOudesle,> where
Cloudesle with an arrow cieaves a ha-
eel rod at twenty score PAGES Dr.
rectly thereafter he shoots an apple
from the top of his boys head at SIX
/ score PAGES.
The latter feat reminds US of William
Tell. but Tell used a crossbow-
Teucer was regarded as the most
skillful of the archers among the Greeks
at the siege of Troy. One or his exnt
billions, the cord fastening the dove 10
the mast having been severed, was 10
| pierce the bird itself as it flew. In
| SCOTS Anne of Geierstein" we have
the English boy Arthur duplicating this
| craftsmanship. OF the three arrows
which he shot with Incredible rapid
! ity." the first cleft the pole, the sec
ond cut the string, the third killed the
poor bird as it rose into the air." And,
\ through Arthur. Scott claims that this
was an ordinary performance of an
| English bowman.
Some of these instances as reported
! must be taken with a grain of salt
and particularly the clesving Of the ma
gel rod at 400 yards Nevertheless, when
| archery was in its heyday among the
/ English and French marvellous shoot
/ ing was done.
Our own Indians were poorer shots
/ with bow. They never arrived at the
point attained by the English and the
French bowmen. The Indian was :
| short-range archer. He wasted many
| shafts For one thing, in shooting al
an enemy in the open he was always
| afraid that he might be hit himself
| This made him a hurried, careless
maTksman. And he has been no better
with the rifle.
! The crossbow, which was successor tC
/ the longbow, and was intermediate be-
| tween it and firearms, was easier mas.
| tered, and accuracy with it was more
| readily obtained Aiming was NOR
z physical and less a mental or intJs
| tive process. At short distance tn,
| Genoese crossbowman was as good {
| shot as the English longbowman, Du'
over long distances the 6-fooI stau
maintained supremacy.
| No accuracy was attempted with TIT
early muskets and pistols, and so clum
! sv and rough were the arms that &C
! curacy was impossible.
Remarkable shooting was done by tn
old woodsmen and pioneers with tn