CLOSING REMARKS. 247 



street, in the cars, or at a gathering for any kind of 

 shooting. 



A sportsman can tell at a glance, by noticing how 

 a person handles and carries his gun, whether he is 

 well up to his work in shooting. The poor shooter 

 will usually be recognized, when walking, by his car- 

 rying his gun horizontally, at some distance from 

 his body, and generally with half a yard or so of 

 the meanest kind of a cloth gun-case hanging down 

 from the muzzle ; when at a shooting-gathering, by 

 his carrying it on his shoulder, with the muzzle 

 poking far out behind, so that every time he turns 

 suddenly in the crowd, some one gets an ugly rap. 

 At other times he appears with his gun heavily load- 

 ed, caps on and hammers down, — especially if he 

 be a countryman, — ready to shoot at the trap or tar- 

 get, or perhaps at some companion if the gun should 

 accidentally go off. Again he will be seen with the 

 muzzles of his loaded gun resting on the ground, and 

 his body leaning against the breech, or resting his 

 arms or body on the muzzles of his loaded barrels 

 in various careless ways. All these slovenly ways of 

 carrying and handling guns may frequently be seen in 

 any large collection of sportsmen, and being proofs of 

 great ignorance or carelessness, they serve to indicate 

 to the looker-on who the poor shots are; for no one 

 can be an expert, excelling in any kind of artistic or 

 mechanical employment, without showing a fitting ele- 

 gance and ease of movement when about his business. 



The attention of sportsmen should be especially di- 

 rected to the needed improvements in cartridges for 



