Year: 1874




The Great Rife Contest.


The long expected trial of skill between the
Irish rAemen and the representative marksmen
of America takes place at Creedmoor to-day
The contest will be witnessed by thousands of
Interested spectators, and the champions will
go to their work oheered by the smile OF
beauty and urged on by the evidence of public
interest in the contest to strive with all their
skill and nerve to achieve victory. At this
hour it would be impossible to predict with
certainty the result of the struggle. 1t is
true that in the practice on Thursday the
Americans stood ahead some points, but this
was due to the remarkable score made by
Lieutenant Fulton, and which he may not be
able again to repeat On the other hand,
while the gentlemen of the Irish team were
somewhat behind, there was marked
increase in the accuracy of their
shooting due to better acquaintance with the
atmospheric conditions Of the range. But,
whatever the result of the contest may be, it
cannot fail to be creditable to the nations
represented by such skiltul marksmen. The
exhibition we have already witnessed shows
acquired honor, for the average made at prac-
tice on Thursday has never been equalled in
the annals of rifle shooting. Although the
sport is comparatively new in this country,
the American team beat the highest score ever
made at Wimbledon by forty points. This re-
c,,lf ;o Iao;Ja1lx, <ho
hope felt by tie American team and their
friends that the victory will not be won by the
Irish marksmen, although they have fulfilled
all the expectations formed of their wonderful
skill. Where the merit Of the contestants is
so close it is almost as great ON honor
to be defeated as to carry off the
victory. At most the victors will be
but shade more skilful or more
lucky than the men they defeat. A sudden
gust of wind or burst of sunlight might
cause the most skilful marksman to commit
an error that would be fatal to his final chances
of success. Under these circumstances the
defeated need not be ashamed of being con-
quered, and the victors will do well to be
generous to their less lucky rivals. The
result of the contest will, however, be looked
on with increased interest from the very
nearly equal merits of the competing teams.
Should the weather prove propitious, as we
hope it may, there will be such a gathering
of the beauty and fashion of New York city
as Creedmoor has never yet witnessed. This
contest must certainly exert a very favorable
influence on long range rife shooting in
this country, and may be the beginning of o
series of international matches which will
have the effect of drawing closer the bonds of
friendship between America and the British
Isles, represented in the contest to-day by
that race which has so much contributed to
the building up of the American nation.
Ireland sends across her team to dispute the
traditional superiority Of Americans as the
great rife shots of the world. Should our
visitors win laurels at our expense it is within
the range Of possibility that an American
team might be organized to visit Ireland in
the hope of winning back the traditional pre-
eminence of which we are so proud and
should fortune favor our American marksmen
they would no doubt be asked to cross over to
the Green Isle to give the Irish rifemen their
revenge on their own ground.