Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1918-04-22
Learn To Shoot
And When Everyone Can Handle u
Shotgun Properly. We Will &c
Able to Take Care of OUR
selves as Well as tho
Early Settlers Did.

How oar admiration kindlcs and
our respect dcepens as we turn back
the pages Of history and read, how
our hardy forefathers wrested n live
lihood from the frontier of a wild
and uncuitivatcd. country which de-
privation from those who challenged
its supremacy. y
Who in thi. age can conceive, let
alone appreciate, the hardships the
pioneers suffered. Generations before
the advent of the stcam engine, the
telephone and telegraph, and the
plication of electricity for lighting
purposes, i'll the days when the stage
coaches were the onty means Of.
mail over comparatively short dis
~tances was Il matter ,ofiweekS instead
of hours. when the nearest neighbors
might live a distance which could not
be covered within several days' ,trav-
ell. and such refinement as churches,
doctors. etc. were not thought of be-
cause they were beyond the, bounds of
possibility. the very nature of life on
the frontier was such as to make for
hardy vigorous and resourceful
people. 49,.
Every Shot Made Count.
Methods of removing the forests and
tilling the soil were necessarily crude,
because Of the absence of even the
imperfect tools and implements Of the
time. And SO men came to depend
in large measure for. s~ustenance, n
even life itself, upon the rifle which
was an essential part of their equip
ment. They became expert marks
men who made every shot count, be-
cause powder was expensive and diff
cult to procure, n because a shot
wasted often invited serious conse-
quences.
With the advance Of civilization,
the necessity for knowing how to
shott became less and less pressing.
with the result that while We may
not have lost our inherent love of
that the proportion. OF u men are
now expert marksmen as was the
case three or four generations back.
In time the art Of shooting even
came to be frowned. upon in certain
circles and among certain peoples.
who advanced the theory that when
you taught a man to properly care
and use firearms you also taught him
how to kill his fellow. men. and there
fore the art of shooting should be dis
pensed with as being dangerous.
Learn to Shoot Now.
And these serious. though misguid-
ed theorists, were not lacking in fol-
flowers.
Unheeded went the lessons taught
by the Boer war when time n time
again mere handfuls of South Afri-
cans who knew how to shoot defeated
some of the best-drilled regiments
that ever came out Of the British
Isles.
Unheeded were the lessons learned
in our own experiences with England,
with the indians and with Mexico.
Even GREAT Britain needed not the
Lesson learned in the Boer war. de-
spite the repeated urgings OF Lord
Roberts, and when the present war
had to be faced as a stern reality.
England was sadly lacking in mcn
who knew how to shoot.
Shooting" said Lord Roberts. ''fs
seven-tenths of q soldiers. business
When Lord Kitchener was getting
England's men ready for the present
war he asked that they be taught to
shoot. and that quickly. regardless of
whatever else they learned.
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