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FOREST AND STREAM. 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL, 



kvotbd to field and aquatic sports, practical natural fjlstort, 

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 iH Out-Door Recreation and Study : 



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NEW TORE, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 10, 1878. 



To Correspondents. 



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tr Trade supplied by American News Company. 

 CHABXEB HAIXOCK, Editor. 



T. C. BANES, 

 Business manager. 



S. H. TURRILL, Chicago, 



Western Manager. 



The American Cricketers. — The typical American is not 

 given to under-rating Iris ability in any contests of skill with 

 foreign competitors. But there was a curious lack of confidence 

 displayed in our cricketers who had been selected to meet the 

 Australians. However commendable such a modest estimate 

 of the prowess of America at the wicket, the results of the 

 New York and Philadelphia games have done much to re- 

 assure the faint-hearts. The Philadelphians surprised them- 

 selves, their friends and the Australians, and drew from their 

 opponents words of well merited praise. The Germantowu 

 grounds were the centre of intense interest last week. We 

 look for a greater popularity of this admirable gentleman's 



game. mx 



The Walk-Over.— A correspondent asks whether the work 

 Of the American team of 1878 was really a walk-over. The 

 conditions require that a team of eight men shall fire over the 

 800, 900 and 1,000 yard ranges, thirty shots at each range, 

 equally divided over two days. This would make a total of 

 730 shots, whereas but 703 were actually fired, whence our 

 correspondent concludes that as the course was not covered it 

 was not a walk-over. Perhaps some member of the team of 

 1877 may found an argument upon this when called upon to 

 surrender the Palma. 



The New Haven Steamboat Link.— The great steamboat 

 Q. H. Northam, recently restored, and two weeks ago replaced 

 upon the .New Haven Line, is probably the staunchest and 

 best appointed steamboat in the world. Her accommodations 

 are most luxurious, and hundreds daily make the round trip 

 from this city to New Haven simply to enjoy the delightful 

 experience. She leaves at 3 p, m. of any given day, and is 

 back to her New York wharf by 5 o'clock the next morning, 

 giving three or four hours' visit in New Haven. Capt. 

 Bownea commands, and Horace Clark is the clerk. Both gen- 

 tlemen have been steadily on this route for several centuries, 

 or at least as long ago as we can remember. 



THE FUTURE OF THE PALMA. 



NOW that the walk-over match has been gone through 

 with and the fact demonstrated that there has been no 

 retrogression in the ability of our small-bore experts, it is time 

 to look at the question of the International match in all its 

 bearings, and consider whether something should not be done 

 it the series of matches is to continue. Under date of Sept. 

 21 John Rigby writes from Dublin and takes bold, reasonable 

 ground in speaking of this very topic, and when this leader of 

 the enthusiastic Irish marksmen says, "I must confess that I 

 see no stirrings among our riflemen to indicato an intention to 

 face the burning sun and puzzling fishtails of Creedmoor in 

 1879," it should be taken as the warning note to the managers 

 of the Palma on this side of the water. When the enthusiastic 

 inaugurators of the series of international matches grow so 

 despondent in face of the conditions which have been tacked 

 on to the Centennial trophy the idea may strike the Directors of 

 the National Rifle Association that a few more reconsidera- 

 tions of the conditions may be of service. The Directors in 

 question have been most generously treated by the public at 

 large, but a few more blunders in the long chapter of them in 

 the history of this trophy and the Directors may find them- 

 selves called to account for all. When the popular subscrip- 

 tion placed this fine trophy in the hands of the N. R. A. it 

 was with the understanding that the trust was to be intelli- 

 gently executed. It certainly will not be so carried out if after 

 a couple of gallant attempts on the part of our British and Co- 

 lonial cousins to wrest the honors from us, the whole affair 

 should be permitted to fall into a decaying neglect. Sir Henry 

 Halford echoes the opinions of "the Irish Bodine," and he 

 speaks as the accredited representative of the National Rifle 

 Association of Great Britain. These opinions were written 

 before the walk-overof the 25th and 26lh ult. was performed, 

 and that when known abroad in its significance and in its 

 figures can only add the more point to their objections to 

 tempt defeat again at Creedmoor. The Palma was intended 

 to be a popular badge of battle, and tke-public stand ready to 

 give a generous support to anything approaching a real test of 

 skill and strength, but to such tame affairs as a walk-over the 

 experience of the past fortnight shows that nothing but neg- 

 lect can be expected. A few more such pantomimes and the 

 life will be crushed out of the Palma. 



The Directors have quietly taken the trophy entirely under 

 their wing, and the Boston team who went through the dumb 

 show of September will find they have only acquired the right 

 to put the bauble on show in a Boston shop-window, or stow 

 it away in a Boston safe-deposit vault. This move was, seem- 

 ingly, a very clever one, but it remains to see whether it was 

 a politic one. What is needed is not restriction, but freedom. 

 In place of narrowing down the conditions they should be am- 

 plified, and made so broad and liberal that each year should 

 see a match fought through with the keenest zest. It is a 

 ridiculous notion to suppose that the range at Creedmoor will 

 sink into insignificance if the Palma match is not contested 

 there ; whereas, the prospect now is that one will go down 

 with the other. John Rigby strikes the " best possible car- 

 ton" on the matter when he says : " To insure an annual con- 

 test, and to make the Palma a truly international and not 

 merely a Creedmoor trophy, it is only necessary to revise the 

 rules with a view to locating the match in Europe on alternate 

 years." This is a confession of weakness on the part of the 

 Irish riflemen by their great leader, and as such must be highly 

 flattering to the American riflemen. Mr. Rigby may put 

 the ground of his plaint on the expense and difficulty of 

 sendiug a team across, but if that team, picked from among 

 thousands of rifle users, were the experts they conceived 

 themselves to be the Palma would not now be resting in pos- 

 session of the country which first offered it. The British 

 riflemen had for years given the world to understand that as 

 riflemen they were invincible. They were taken at their 

 word by the rest of the world, and before America had fired a 

 long-range shot she was taunted to a lost, stood it successfully, 

 and now when the best efforts to overcome her have failed, 

 those who had been champions when there were none to op- 

 pose now beg for more favorable terras. The question now 

 is can America afford to give these terms. Surely if the ac- 

 tion of the Directors in amending one portion of the condi- 

 tions is legal they possess the power to go further and make 

 the amendment which Mr. Rigby suggests. It would be in 

 every respect politic, for it would revive interest, where now 

 it is dying out, and rouse the popular feeling to the points 

 seen in '75, '76 and '77, when the struggles were real and not 

 simulated. We have yet to find an American rifleman who 

 is willing to express a fear that in a fair field and an equal fight, 

 in America or abroad soil, they would suffer defeat. Put- 

 ting the matter then on the low ground of seeking to preserve 

 an undue advantage, there is nothing to dread in going upon 

 any range the world over and proving our ability to hold the 

 Palma against all comers. We have a right to be boastful, 

 for should defeat be in store for us what has been dono is 

 enough to stamp our marksmen the equals of any. If we are 

 to suffer a break in our series of victories we have at least the 

 satisfaction of knowing that in men and rifles, system and 

 position we are far in advance of what the British champions 

 of five years ago ever dreamed of. America can afford to be 

 generous in this matter. She can do more and be just. She 

 can meet every demand which the British riflemen, smarting 

 under defeat, can make upon her, and then, when the new line 

 of victories shall be ours it will be time enough to cast about 

 and meet the fresh difflcultiea which may then arise. 



Now is the time to fix upon the course to be taken for 1879 



and succeeding years. It must be patent to all that the con- 

 test is tp be one for years to come between Great Britain and 

 America. A conference between the representative riflemen 

 of those two countries could now, in the light of past experi- 

 ence, draw up a model code of procedure fur the matches of 

 the future. Do it at once and 1879 will witness another great 

 battle of the butts. Neglect it and another walk-over, even 

 tamer than the last, will come, while the present eagerness of 

 the transatlantic shots may be turned to apathy and years pass 

 by before the subject be revived. 



THE CHAMPION SCULLER OF 

 AMERICA. 



THE great race has been rowed, and to Hanlan.of Toronto, 

 falls the title of " Champion of America.'' Those of 

 our readers who followed closely the columns of the Forest 

 and Stream will have no cause for regret at the issue, so far 

 as they are personally concerned, however much their laudable 

 patriotism might make them wish for a different ending to the 

 match at Lachiue. Courtney, of Union Springs, is a power- 

 ful sculler ; it takes a good man to hang as he did to the like 

 of Hanlan, but it is equally certain that the latter had a large 

 reserve to draw upon and that he rowed, for his own purposes, 

 a "waiting race." He pulled hard, but never did his best. It 

 is one of the characteristics of this quiet, unassum 

 dian, that he holds back and does not show what he can do 

 unless there is need of it. In none of his fermer races with 

 much lighter timber than Courtney has he done his utmost. 

 "Hold your man, near the close give him a twist ;" that seems 

 to have beeu his maxim in all the many races ho has pulled 

 during the season. The plan worked well, for while " Char- 

 ley" was industriously pulling races in the daily papers, chal- 

 lenging everybody and meeting only rustics of the Dempsey 

 stripe, defeating Hanlan over and over again with very much 

 confidence on paper, if reported interviews with him are to be 

 credited, the wiry Canadian was filling his backers' and his 

 own pocket with sheckles and coins gathered industriously 

 from all comers in the United States and across the border. 

 A good sculler he was, every one granted ; few suspected the 

 full extent of his powers, for he found it policy to keep them 

 shady and bide his time. Bide it he did. His friends caught 

 Courtney and his backers over-coDfident, wheedled them into 

 a race on rough, strange waters, over a tideway, put the whole 

 pot on the winner, and kept their man in the dark. A wilier 

 game, legitimate though it was, has seldom been played. 

 Courtney's wonderful confidence held well on paper to the 

 last minute and, after hardly half a dozen spins over the 

 course, he found himself face to face at the start with a man of 

 whose real capability he and his friends knew nothing at all. 

 Hanlan, in a very business-like way, disposed of his adversary 

 and can do so over again any day and on any water you may 

 select. It is certain that the rough sea affected Courtney some- 

 what, but it is equally as certain that the Toronto lad had 

 plenty of wind and muscle to spsre, and if Courtney's back- 

 ers are blind enough not to see this they will find their man 

 pulling a stern chase again. To be beaten by such a sculler 

 as Hanlan has shown himself to be is no disgrace; to hang to 

 him as Courtney did is an honor few or none can claim. 



A great deal of noise has been made, by those too read; to 

 judge others by themselves, over the presumed dishonesty of 

 one of the contestants. At this day, when the race is a week 

 old, not a single particle of tangible evidence of any dishonest 

 action has come to light. Insinuations, plausible generalities, 

 plenty; but nothing that would stand as evidence in court. 

 These rumors can be traced to the gambling fraternity in the 

 first place.the sensation and gossip mongers in the second, and 

 finally to those in whose eyes dishonesty seems more readily 

 borne than defeat. The race was beyond doubt an honest one 

 and well fought from beginning to end. Whatever we may 

 say in mitigation of Courtney's defeat we are not blind to the 

 fact that he was actually overpowered by Hanlan and that the 

 latter had him well in hand throughout the course. The 

 championship has gone to the best man in Amen 

 opine it will be a long while ere any one wrests it from his 

 safekeeping. 



THE GLADIATORIAL SHOWS IN 

 NEW YORK. 



THE result of the O'Leary-Hughes walk at Gilmore's Gar- 

 den was from the first a foregone conclusion. It was 

 a hopeless struggle of over-weening confidence, brute endur- 

 ance and senseless expenditure of strength pitted against in- 

 telligent and scientific effort. Nothing save certain defeat 

 could have been predicted for the man who began a si?; days' 

 contest by running like a deer for the first few hours, drinking 

 immoderately at first of milk, and later in the contest, exuding 

 the vigilant eye of his trainer, swallowing his champagoeand 

 tumbling into a drunken snooze from which he sullenly re- 

 fused to return to the track. Such escapades would be fatal 

 to a cast-iron "pedestrian's" record, even when offset by the 

 strange enmity displayed by Hughes toward his rival and 

 the loudly-vaunted resolution to " bate that O'Leary or die 

 on the thrack." It was something worth while to sec the me- 

 thodical, systematic work of O'Leary. Every stride had the 

 regularity and precision of a machine. We do not wonder at 

 the plaudits showered upon the champion as he went on and 

 on around the track, nor at the ovation he received when his 

 task was completed. 



But we protest that the spectacle of his opponent was pain- 

 ful ; it was disgraceful. Had a galled and jaded horse been 

 urged by blows about the ring in Gilmore's Garden the agent 



