120 SPORTS AND ANECDOTES. 



So much has been written about guns of late, and 

 such numerous plans for making them safe have been 

 adopted, that one would imagine that a gun could not 

 possibly go off by accident. Such, however, is not 

 the case, and I believe there are more accidents now 

 than there used to be forty or fifty years ago, for the 

 simple reason that people are less careful, and from 

 fancying that their guns can't misbehave take liberties 

 with them which are unjustifiable. 



It is always the safe and unloaded gun that shoots 

 people ; arid it is always the quietest and most reliable 

 horse you have in your stable that shies at something, 

 gets into a fright, and kicks your gig or carriage to 

 pieces. A man may be dangerous with his gun, and 

 blow his own brains out, if it suits him to do so, and 

 provided he has any ; but he has no right to put his 

 neighbour's life in jeopardy from being careless of his 

 own. Breechloaders are, no doubt, a great improve- 

 ment upon muzzle-loaders, or the now obsolete flint 

 and steel, inasmuch as that now impossible feat of 

 stuffing a gun at the muzzle is done away with, or 

 nearly so. A breechloader, however, is no safer than 

 either of the former plans when once it is loaded, unless 

 the person who shoots with it is safe himself. If he 

 carries his gun at full cock all day long, and carries it 



