Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1919-10-09
The Famous TOpperweins Perform
Wonderful Feats With Shot
gun and Rifle in Moline.
IA PETER p. CARNEY.


fNational writer on shooting topicsl
Written especially for The Argus.
Moline Yesterday was favored
with a remarkable exhibition of
shooting with varied kinds of fire.
arms by the Winchester shooting
team and the TOpperweins and up
ward of 700 persons. many of them
being of the sO-Called weaker sex,
waxed enthusiastic over the per
formances at the Moline Gun club.
The Winchester team is on
tour which Will conclude in Louis
vile. KY, on Oct. %. The tour be-
gan in Philadelphia, Pa, on Sept.
Is. During the interval the team
performs in 33 cities in nine states,
the longest jaunt ever taken by any
team of shooters in the promotion
of trapshooting And without ques-
ton the exhibition being put oyer
by the Winchester team will add to
the popularity of shooting.
The exhibition gives the Win
chester company an opportunity OF
displaying some of the things that
it hopes to popularize trapshooting
with. some time in the near future,
for new style hand traps and guns
were used by the shooters in the
various events. The exhibition OF
shooting was opened by the team
and closed by TOpperwetns.
The first event was at five tar
gets thrown from a hand trap by
Mr.. Topperwein. The targets are
thrown as one would throw a stone.
Following this 80 targets were
thrown from the regulation trap
and then 10 pairs of doubles-twO
targets thrown at once. And these
doubles were about the hardest to
break that the team has struck in
its three weeks of travel. All these
events were shot with the new rib
guns. which prevents the barrel of
the gun from becoming crooked
In the concluding events the new
4IO guage gun. being put out to
increase interest in shooting among
bovs and girls was used. Five tar
gets were shot from the small hand
trap, 10 from the stationary trap of
new design and 10 from the regu-
lation trap. This latter is a most
difficult feat in shooting and 80 per
cent of the target is regarded as
remarkable score. Therefore the 9
bv Bills and the s by Taylor are
most creditable.
The ToppeTwefns performed in
their usual clever manner. They
excited even more admiration than
they did when they were here sew
eraI years ago. One must see this
exhibition OF shooting to believe
what this pair can do. 1t is beyond
The powers of an ordinary mortal
TO tell just what they do. or how
they do it. If it can be done with a
gun they do it-and do it as If it
were play It is TO them. They
like their work, therefore it isn't
hard to them
Mrs Topperwein broke small OBJ
jects held by Mr.. Topperwein with
a pistol. some of them no larger
than a pea. and one of her shots
was to break a target with her
back to it. She used a mirror to
get Der direction. Women can dc
most anything if they can use
mirror. With a % Winchester re-
peater, she broke numerous objects
thrown in the air, including mar
bIes. balls, blocks, etc, and shot
five empty shells from the fingers
of her husband and also five pieces
of school chalk from a strap at
tached to his vest, and one from
his mouth. She did everything with
the repeater excepting the William
Tell stunt. She also used the %
automatic for a number of tricks
and broke two. three and five eggs
thrown in the air at one time with
the trench shotgun that the Ger
mans made so much noise about
when the Americans employed it
in the trenches.
Topperwein also tossed a num-
her Of objects from a distance and
Mrs. Topperwein stopped them by
using the trench guns demonstrat-
ing how hand grenades were
Topperwein did many of the
things that Mrs. Topperwein did
and some she didn't For instance
he turns somersaults and picks up