24'. 



TJic American A)iglcr. 



made upon brain, eye and finger, all at 

 the same time and all at the single bird 

 then leaving the trap. The flights of 

 our i)igcons differ not alone in their 

 direction, but they vary as much in 

 speed as they do in flight direction. A 

 judgment has to be formed at the 

 instant the trap is opened. The pigeon 

 may be as speed}' as a cyclone. It may 

 be as tardy on wing as the climbing 

 movement of the vSouth American 

 sloth. The eye must take in the move- 

 ment, the brain must answer the eye 

 in judging of the correct spot "to 

 hold," and the fingers must answer at 

 once the brain's command. Each and 

 all must work in unison and in the 

 quickest manner. Given a pigeon 

 whirling down wind at a speed of sixty 

 miles an hoixr, or eighty-eight feet a 

 second, and one has but little oppor- 

 tunity to cogitate over the matter. 

 Long and continued practice will ever 

 make a good shot, but the great cracks 

 at the work are born, not made. With 

 them, shooting becoines instin6live. 

 There is apparently no judgment re- 

 quired. The three senses work abso- 

 lutely in unison — eye, touch and mind 

 move with the precision of machiner}^ 

 and this makes the victors of the sport 

 of pigeon shooting, or, for that matter, 

 in field shooting as well. Celerity and 

 accuracy are the twin gifts that lead to 

 positive success. These are gifts and 

 not to be acquired. 



A GENIAL COMPANION. 



Captain B. A. Bartlett, the genial 

 representative of the Winchester Arms 

 Company, has been sojourning for some 

 time on the California coast. As all at 

 the East are aware, the Captain is one 

 of the best exponents of the repeating 

 shot gun now living. Besides being 

 one of the best of marksmen with a 

 smooth bore, he is so rapid in his hand- 



ling of his favorite weapon, that, when 

 he gives an exhibition of what can be 

 done with the arm in question, he well 

 nigh breaks up all other shooting that 

 ina}- be going on. During the shooting 

 tournament recently held at Stockton, 

 California, he did some shooting that, 

 to those who had never seen the Cap- 

 tain, seemed bordering upon the incred- 

 ible. One of the most interesting of 

 these feats of quickness and correctness 

 was the balancing, upon his right foot, 

 of the loaded Winchester. Holding two 

 targets in his hand, he throws both in 

 the air, lifting the gun up with a quick 

 movement of the foot at the same mo- 

 ment. The gun is caught by the hands, 

 put to the shoulder, and both targets 

 are shot at and broken in air before 

 they near the ground. This is a feat 

 that is ever greeted with a round of 

 applause. Another captivating bit of 

 work is when he places his gun on the 

 ground, then, throwing two targets in 

 the air, he turns a somersault. Upon 

 striking an upright position, after the 

 hand-spring, he seizes his gun and 

 breaks both of the whirling discs before 

 they are anywhere near the earth. One 

 of the most successful bits of the 

 Captain's work is when he throws in 

 air five targets, as rapidly as the work 

 can be done b)- hand, and then breaks 

 the whole five before any one of them 

 touches the sod. The Captain's most 

 pleased spe6tators at these performances 

 are, perhaps, the ladies and children; 

 the boys especially outdoing themselves 

 in loud applause. 



THE TRADE PROSPECT. 



In recent visits to the gun dealers, 

 the policy of the Republican party re- 

 garding the tariff was frequent subject 

 of discussion. Are duties to be en- 

 hanced upon the installing of the new 

 administration, or are things to run 



