776 



SHOT-GUNS. 



SOUTH CAROLINA. 



Malmesbury (1798 to 1840) affords a basis of 

 computation as to the consumption of materials 

 by an average sportsman. According to his au- 

 thority, he spent 8.045 days in shooting. During 

 that time he fired 54,187 times, using 750 pounds 

 of powder and 4 tons of shot. He killed 38,221 

 times, and missed 15.966 times. Assuming that 

 he walked 2.J- miles an hour, he covered about 36,- 

 200 miles, and during the forty-two years of his 

 shooting experience he was never confined to his 

 bed a single day by sickness or accident. His lord- 

 ship's record of successful shots has of ten been ex- 

 ceeded in modern breech-loading days, as many 

 as 10,000 head having been credited to one gun 

 in a single shooting season. A " game-marker," 

 capable of being set in the stock of any gun, is 

 in use which records the number of shots fired 

 or the " head " of game killed by pressure of a 

 spring. It is mainly valuable to match -shooters, 

 or to sportsmen of a statistical turn of mind. f 



In England 100 brace of birds, shooting over 

 dogs, is considered exceptionally good sport, and 

 about double that number in driving, under like 

 conditions. A ' pheasant battue " is a favorite 

 subject for the derision of newspaper reporters 

 of the day, but the phrase is not used at all by 

 genuine sportsmen. A "battue," as it is ironi- 

 cally described by the press, is a very rare occur- 

 rence in the British Isles so, at least, says Sir 

 Ralph Payne Gall way. In the best stocked pre- 

 serves it is always the purpose of the host, or of 

 the head keeper, to send the game flying as wide 

 and high over the guns as possible. Pheasant 

 shooting, indeed, affords a day's outing and good 

 pay to a considerable number of laborers who 

 are employed as beaters, and who greatly enjoy 

 it. It gives, moreover, permanent employment 

 to a large number of regular game-keepers; it 

 provides thousands of middle-class people with 

 pheasants at the price of chickens, or even less. 

 For instance, during the latest season concern- 

 ing which records are accessible fine cock pheas-' 

 ants could be bought in London markets at two 

 shillings apiece, whereas, if there were no great 

 shooting days, the price would be a guinea a 

 brace. These great drives, or occasions of shoot- 

 ing, will probably always afford a subject of sar- 

 casm for cockney artists and the writers of lead- 

 ing articles in the sporting newspapers ; but in 

 point of fact there is hardly a class in the com- 

 munity that is not more or less benefited by 

 them. In America the conditions are such that 

 these claims are hardly justified. The policy of 

 dealers in the city markets is apparently to keep 

 the price of game far above the reach of ordi- 

 nary pockets, and this will probably continue to 

 be the case until radical changes take place in 

 our practices regarding game and its preserva- 

 tion. It would seem, indeed, that practical ex- 

 termination is the destiny of American game. 

 Every improvement in guns reduces the cost of 

 the last preceding improvement, and the convic- 

 tion that all wild creatiires are public property 

 is so deeply implanted in the American mind 

 that no legislative enactments can be properly 

 enforced. The purchase of vast tracts of wild 

 lands by sporting clubs will, no doubt, continue, 

 and stragglers, from these great preserves will 

 break bounds and fall victims to pot hunters in 

 season and out of season for many years to come. 

 Skill in the use of firearms is, no doubt, a desir- 



able accomplishment in case of war, but deadly 

 weapons in the hands of hair-brained young- 

 sters should be sternly restricted, as well for the 

 security of human life as for reasonable preserva- 

 tion of the wild creatures with which Nature has 

 so plentifully supplied the American continent. 



SOUTH CAROLINA, a Southern State, one 

 of the original thirteen ; ratified the Constitu- 

 tion May 23, 1788; area, 30,570 square miles. 

 The population, according to each decennial 

 census, was: 249,073 in 1790; 345,591 in 1800; 

 415,115 in 1810; 502.741 in 1820 ; 581,185 in 1830 ; 

 594,398 in 1840; 668,507 in 1850; 703,708 in 1860 

 705,606 in 1870 ; 995,577 in 1880 ; and 1,151,149 

 in 1890. Capital, Columbia. 



Government. The following were the State 

 officers during the year : Governor, John P. 

 Richardson. Democrat, succeeded on Dec. 4 by 

 Benjamin R. Tillman, Democrat: Lieutenant- 

 Governor, William L. Mauldin, succeeded by E. 

 B. Gary ; Secretary of State, J. F. Marshall, suc- 

 ceeded by J. E. Tindal ; Treasurer, E. R. Mclver, 

 succeeded by W.T.C. Bates; Comptroller-General. 

 J. S. Verner, succeeded by W. H. Ellerbe; At- 

 torney-General, Joseph H. Earle. succeeded by 

 Y. J. Pope ; Superintendent of Education, James 

 H. Rice, succeeded by W. D. Mayfield ; Commis- 

 sioner of Agriculture, A. P. Butler (this office 

 was abolished by act of the Legislature in De- 

 cember); Railroad Commissioners, D'Arcy P. 

 Duncan, Milledge L. Bonham, who died on Aug. 

 26, and Eugene P. Jervey ; Chief Justice of the 

 Supreme Court, W. D. Simpson, who died on 

 Dec. 26 ; Associate Justices, Henry Mclver and 

 Samuel McGowan. 



* Decrease. 



