CHAPTER XVI. 



PIGEON-SHOOTING. 



f BEGAN to shoot pigeons in 1868, when I had 

 b<en a field-shot for more than eighteen years. 1 

 had often been invited to go and witness contests 

 of the kind, but cared nothing for them, and up 

 to 1868 had never seen a pigeon-trap. The first 

 public pigeon-shooting into which I entered was 

 a series of sweepstakes at St. Louis. I had some 

 success; so much, in fact, that R. M. Patchen, 

 who was with me, forthwith made a match, in 

 which I was to shoot against Gough Stanton of 

 Detroit for $200 a side. Expenses were to be 

 paid to whomever travelled to the other, and he 

 came to Elkhart. The match was fifty birds each. 

 He brought with him a plunge trap, the first I 

 had ever seen of that character. However, I con- 

 sented to the use of it, and won by killing forty- 

 six to his forty. I -was then just about as good 

 a shot at pigeons as I am now, except that I was 

 anxious about the money, and sometimes missed 

 owing to that. 



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