The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1938-11-29


IL admirable citizen, with a
firm belief in God, an ostenta-
tious love for his fellow man,
a nEe ice-and-coal business
and a hobby that, while it ran
its course, brought him in more
money in a year than his regu-
lar business did in ten.
Guns fascinated Ernest. any
kind of a gun from l2-gauge shot
gun to a German Luger automatic
pistol. The smell of gun oil had
the same effect upon him as
opium has upon an addict. The
sight of a lethal weapon gave his
fingers the itch to fondle it as
lover would fondle his beloved.
He was, per Sc. ballistic ex-
pert. He knew the exact powder
charge in a cartridge which would
drive bullet any given distance.
He knew the tearing power of a
soft-nose slug as compared to that
of a steel-jacketed bullet.
He could take the most complex
automatic apart and slap it to-
gether again in the twinkle of an
elephants eye. He could correct
a jam in mid-fire, had done so.
He knew every grade of powder,
how it was made, its chemical
constituents and its explosive
power. He knew trajectory, i'm
pact, tearing capacity, machine
gun, sub-machine-or tommy"
gun, silencers. In other words,
he was a complete armament ex-
pert.
LABORATORY WORK"
II he had it to do all over
again, he acknowledged to him
self not long ago, he might have
allied himself with either an arms
company or the federal or local
peace officers, as an expert.
He could have made almost as
much out of such career as he
did out of the one he had followed.
But, like all the rest of us, he was
a better second than first guesser.
When he had reached this con-
clusion, it was too late.
Ernest was a dubious man. He
was mild-mannered, a good hus-
band to Eliza, his wife of % years
and a doting father to his son,
Richard, who was %.
When he was a young man,
Ernest had inherited a small
neighborhood ice business from
his father. The business never
amounted to much. It helped
Ernest because it kept him in
such fine physical condition that
he wouldn't have had the slightest
chance of getting out of the draft
If he hadn't been married. AS it
was, he didn't take advantage of
his natural exemption, as a mar
ried man, though Richard was
two when he went into the war.
Even then, guns had a faScina-
ton for him and it was the secret
wish to study them under what
you might call laboratory con-
ditions" rather than any special
patriotism which sent him to en-
List h a National Guard regi,
nient.
Then he returned home and
pointed out to Eliza that if he were
killed, she would get $4,000 ar
insurance, a sum that he could
not make in 20 years. He pointed
out, also, that she already had
proven herself fine business
woman and he was entrusting the
business to her. And off he went
Luckily, he was assigned to q
machine gun company and for q
year in France he watched the
effects of the impact of steel or
armament, earth, and the human
body. He was not averse to watch
ing it secondhand but he pre-
ferred to be the experimenter.
He became dead shot with 6
rifle and hence, naturally 6
scout" the army's harmless!
name for a Sniper.
EVIDENCES OF SKILL
IS, He got all the first-hand in
formation he needed by killing
the enemy at distances up to 5000
yards. He received the Congress
sional Medal for putting a ma
chine gun nest out of existence