322 BIG GAME OF NORTH AMERICA. 



concern, and I believe that Americans should patronize 

 American manufacturers. And, to cap the climax, the 

 Winchester is about the only sporting-rifle that has come 

 up to the -hypercritical and fastidious scrutiny of the Eng- 

 lish sportsmen, than whom none are better judges, owing 

 to their early education and vast experience. These men 

 shoot wild and dangerous game all over the globe, and 

 know a good rifle when they see it. Moreover, as none but 

 the wealthy among them can indulge in such sport, the 

 price paid for their weapons is a matter of no concern what- 

 ever, its absolute reliability and accuracy being the sine 

 qua non of the arm. When, therefore, the plain but thor- 

 oughly sound and serviceable Winchester, costing say £4, 

 supplants the elaborate double rifle of twenty times its 

 value, something inherent to the Yankee rifle must be there 

 to back it up. 



Aside from all this, memory carries me back to many a 

 cabin, dotting a boundless plain, where upright in the 

 corner stands the king of all rifles — ever-ready death-dealer 

 — the Winchester ; or, perhaps, carelessly swung to the 

 antlers of some monarch of the forest, or resting on those of 

 the now extinct Bison, together with the buckskin belt 

 studded with cartridges, in which also hangs the best, hand- 

 somest, most accurate revolver the world has ever seen— 

 the Smith & Wesson. These are quasi the whole, or, at 

 any rate, the most valuable furniture that adorns the 

 cheerless cabin; but, of their kind, they stand to-day para- 

 mount. On their merits the hermit occupant has been 

 wont, mayhap, to trust his life against savage and beast — 

 not a life the loss of which, perhaps, would be much 

 mourned, or over whose grave eloquent orators, weeping 

 women, or frantic parents might, with untold grief, lov- 

 ingly and fondly linger, but his life, his all. His scalp, his 

 herd, and, if more fortunate than the great majority of these 

 dauntless pioneers, his wife, his little ones, his dogs — all 

 have been taught, by oft-repeated lessons and never-failing 

 deeds, that his selection of weapons has been wise, for they 

 never have failed him at the critical moment. With these 



