The Birmingham age-herald., 1915-01-04
By ''HOp'

1 young men to be drawn on If necessity 1 demanded. In addition to that there are. 1t Is estimated, at least 6,0o0,oo0 more men l of an age suitable for service at home. These might be from 16 to 20 and from I fi to 90, or in many cases even older With
 such an army as this available anything 1 like n successful invasion of England is l impossible.
 | It must not be thought, either, that these
 men are mere gun fodder" Nothing has l been more remarkable in recent years in England than the growth of rifle shooting
 as sport. and England owes it's large l supply of trained riflemen to the late
 Lord Roberts. That veteran soldier about | 10 years ago, foresaw what was coming. and the need that there would be for 1 the improvisation of Q great army He knew that shooting was the most essen | tia thing for soldier and at the same 1 time the hardest to teach him. and he in- l aagarated the miniature rifle movement German experts laughted at this shoot 1 Ing with toy guns" but they are not 1 laughing now, for many of the soldiers 1 whose marksmanship is working such ! havoc with tho enemy learned their first shooting with the miniature rifle, which is
 a replica of the service rifle of small 1 bore. and Is used on a 1-yard range The | targets are carefully proportioned so that 1 shooting on the 25-yard range Is equiva-
 lent to work at 800 wards with the service l rlfle and targets. There Is hardly a big | business house in London or the provinces | that has not it's miniature rifle club with range In the basement or on the roof and hardly a village where the lads do not learn shooting In a convenient Iield Lord Roberts ambition was to make rifle shooting to the modern Briton what arch cry was to his forefathers. whaa the young | men of the village spent Sunday afternoon after church at the butts These Sunday afternoons made the archers who won at Agneourt. and the week end work with the miniature rifle has made thousands of
 the riflemen who will be fighting soon in France against another foe
 Since the outbreak of the war there
 has been, of course, q great boom in
 rifle shooting. l know dozens of sober. middle-aged citizens who have rigged up ranges in their gardens and spend their Sundays shooting and teaching their boys to shoot. The crack of the miniature rifle Is now the most familiar sound in the London suburbs. The result of fl is that there are today comparatlv few Englishmen of any age who do not know how to use rifle and many of them are fair shots. A man who can not score at least n out of a possible 100 on the miniature target Is likely to feel that he is a good deal of a duff fer, and to improve his score by assd- uous practice before he begins to brag
 of it among his friends.
 1 The enthusiasm among staid citizens may seem to some to have its ludcrous l side, but to those in contact with 1t it is really inspiring. This is particularly
 so in connection with the local defense forces already mentioned. which are now to be organized as regular volunteers. Ones first feeling at seeing one of them on the march with elderly, bearded men. the local butcher and the baker and the
 milkman, with the parson and the school
 master stepping out in a muddy road,
 is to laugh, but when one realizes that
 1t means good deal for these men to
 leave their business and their comfort-
 able firesides on these December days,
 one realizes that they are not made of
 the stuff that will easily be beaten. And
 one realizes 1t still more when one sees
 them after a few weeks of training. At
 first they mere rabble of middle-
 aged men marching in almost any order.
 After a few weeks of drill they march
 like veterans and many of them seem
 to have renewed their youth.
 Copyright. 1915, by Curtis Brown)