The Hartford herald., 1910-03-16
KILLED WITHOUT HITTING.
Daniel Boone Was a Wonderful
Marksman and Never
Missed.

As a small boy Tip heard an old
gentleman, upward of 100, tell about
seeing Daniel Boone, and about some
81 of his mighty doings when this old
gentleman himself was small boy.
He said that Boone was very large
man, something over six feet, deep
chested, very heavy shouldered, but
was small n the belly, with long,
thin, strong legs, large, hard hands
and feet, and iron gray hair and ha-
4. eel eyes, very large and with sights
q always opening and shutting, working
actively like the nervous pupil Oh
.she eye Of a game rooster. Boone
WAS passing through from a trip out
West and had with him only his
hatchet. hunting knife and rifle, and
was without dogs or companions.
( He had or only a coonskin cap, buck
akin hunting shirt down To his knees,
Z high-laced cowskin moccasins and no
rants or underclothes. His rifle was
as tall as Boone himself, and very
heavy, with long, thin, white hick-
ory ramrod. This old man had been
a hunter all his life, and said the
p rifIe was the biggest and heaviest
he had over seen.
The great thing was to see Boone
shoot. Boone, without taking a res''
hit a spot every time rs big as a
mans hat at 200 yards, aiming very
slowly and deliberately, for that was
quick snap shooting. Boone at AZ
before the days of cartridges and
or 80 yards "barked" two squirrels,
then an unheard-of marvel, though
-cOmmon- enough nowA.,. lie. hit lhe
bark Of the tree right under where
the squirrel was sitting crouching,
and when the rifle said pop Mr..
Squirrel was blown up into the air
five or six feet, and picked up stone
dead without so much as a scratch on
him. Killing q tough old fox squir-
rel without bullet touching him or
drawing a drop Of blood looked like
big magic or witchcraft TO early So
tiers and Indians.
Boone drove a nail or two, and
showed how he loaded his gun. He
had a small powder horn filled with
finest grain powder, about as hard
md clean from smut as the best mod
zn; n little i, How powder measure
made Of elderwood, such as boys
make whistles Of And he showed
how he gdaged his powder by laying
the rifle bullet in the palm of his
hand, then pouring on powder until
the bullet was just exactly hid in the
pile of powder. This was the right
JOad, 50 he cut his elder TO this
measure. After pouring the powder
down the barrel he laid a piece of
creased linen patching of finest,
smOCthest homespun over the end,
and forced It down the barrel with
the butt end Of his knife, cut off the
patching sticking out, then showing
the bullet home with the ramrcd-a
hard. tightjob With a quick jerk
Of tho wrist he would pack tight the
bullet and powder, and drive so hard
that the ramrod almost jumped "Hr "t
the gun on the rebound.
Boones rifle stock WIS the short -
est and most angularly curved # any
in the village. And this same Daniel
BoOne stock seen for the first time
by this old Gentleman, has now been
adopted rs a world model by all
armies and manufactures. AF "
matter Of fact, some Of tie iu,s
Yankee wholesale manufacture Gelih
era,cly copied the Kentucky ''fe
stock as their model, as Dr.. No'vin
Green, the organizer and first Pre- -
dent Of the Western Union t.. graph
Company, long ago told.-tN"w Work.
Press
Lovers