GUNS AND THEIR PROPER CHARGES. 37 



sportsmen. I was for some time after breech-load- 

 ing guns came out of a contrary opinion, but 

 results convinced me of my error. Results always 

 convince reasonable men that is to say, a great 

 preponderance of results. When such a man has 

 held a cherished opinion upon what seems to be 

 sufficient grounds, he does not abandon it all at 

 once because something happens which seems to 

 tell against it. He tries the matter again and 

 again, and when, after a large number of trials, 

 there is a great preponderance of results against 

 his preconceived opinion, he changes it. Now the 

 fool never changes his. No matter what happens, 

 the obstinate blockhead will not admit of change 

 in consequence of discovery. His motto is, " What 

 I says I stands to ! " 



I first began to shoot with an old musket flint- 

 lock, of course, and probably one of those specimens 

 of " Brown Bess " which had been used in wars 

 against the French and Indians before the Revolu- 

 tion. I was then a boy, and soon found out that for 

 the game about Albany County, New York, " Brown 

 Bess " would not do. As soon as by hard work 

 and careful saving I had got together twenty-five 

 dollars (twenty-five dollars was rather hard to get 

 in those days) I bought a muzzle-loader. It was a 



