FOREST AND STREAM. 
857 
wonderful • ‘ private score," and when he gets into a 
match, only able to make about half as many. 
Mr. Havens lias practiced archery more or less for the 
past four years; has a very easy, methodical style of 
drawing, a perfect loose, and seems possessed of a cool 
and reliable nerve. He has practiced very little at the 
larger ranges, having coufined himself almost entirely to 
the forty, fifty and sixty yard ranges, evidently believing 
in the principle that it is better to become master of the 
shorter ranges before attempting the longer, and in this I 
am of the opinion that he is right, as evidenced by the 
sorry failure of nearly every archer at the Chicago Na¬ 
tional meeting, who attempted the longer ranges. Mr. 
Havens promises to be present at the next Grand National, 
and hopes to bring his team with him, in which eveut it 
is no two to one that some of the best prizes don’t go to 
California, While Mr. Frank Havens represents the 
highest skill in archery on the coast', he has no unskillful 
ri vals in Messrs. Bush, Darneal, O’Connell, A. W. Havens 
Ward, Stratford, and many others, to whom the writeris 
under obligation for the many courtesies shown him. 
A match has been arranged for a telegraphic shoot be- 
tween the Oakland Ben Club of San Francisco, and the 
Archery Association for Thanksgiving day. 
If successful in their match with the Chicagoes (winch 
the writer is sorry to admit they are very apt to he) they 
purpose going for some of the bigger game, and some in¬ 
teresting telegrapio matches between the Atlantic and 
Pacific clubs may be expected. 
A. G. Spalding. 
Archery Scoring, —Editor Forest and Stream :—It is 
one of Die boasts of this noble pastime that it is free from 
the charge of unfairness, and holds out no inducement to 
fraud ; that all who practice it together occupy.equal 
ground, and stand or fall in proportion to their merit. As 
in the game of chess both parties start equal, so with 
this. All have the same position and distance, aim at a 
similar target, ily the same number of shafts, and, in case 
of hits, the punctured cynosure tells the result without 
prevarication or opportunity of deception. Whereas, in 
many games this fairness and freedom from trickery 
does not exist. Even wheu the start is equal, the sharper 
will generally win, although his competitor, in a fair 
field, might be his superior. 
I have tried to see how this boast of archery would 
hold out. Mr. Brownell, president of the E. A. A., 
thinks that the present value of colors is not the proper 
one ; that the making of three blacks, for instance, at a 
single end, evinces more talent than a gold with one ar¬ 
row, while the other two go horn spoon. Yet the score 
is the same ; and he suggests that the colors be rated in 
single numerals from one to five, as more appropriately 
awarding merit than the present system. 
In all this, however, craft does not come in. In what I 
am about to allude to It seems tome that it may. I mean 
the rule that an arrow cutting two colors shall be 
counted to the highest. There could be no objection to 
this were the size of arrow tips alike — that is, uniform in 
size. 
Several girls at play agreed that she who could throw 
her bonnet the highest should be queen of tbe day. One, 
more artful than the rest, secured a stone inside of hers, 
and thus beat all competitors. And it is evident that large 
arrows (leaving skill in shooting out of the question) will 
break more lines than small ones ; and is not here an in¬ 
ducement to gain an improper advantage by using the 
largest arrows possible "< 
Ladies’ arrows are necessarily smaller than those of 
gentlemen, and are not their owners thus disadvantaged 
when shooting with gentlemen? In using small targets, 
as in short range shooting, the inequality or unfairness 
in question becomes all the greater. Why not let the 
centre of the arrow, rather than its extreme, decide the 
score in all cases ? This would give perfect equality to 
all shooters, and make all finesse in the size of arrow: 
superfluous. Geo. A. Dudley. 
Ellenville, N. J, , Nov. 14£/t. 
—One of the most promising of American archers is 
Mr. O. W. Kyle, of the Highland Park Club. He pro¬ 
cured his first bow in October, 1878, and is now scoring 
like an archer of five year’s practice. He shoots in beau¬ 
tiful style, so strikingly graceful as to draw the remark 
from Mr. Maurice Thompson at the Chicago meeting that 
,, lie would rank in the best four at the next National 
Meeting.” Since the first of October he has averaged 135 
points with thirty arrows at sixty yards. 
On the last round of ninety arrows at sixty yards, shot 
October 39th. he scored as follows : — 
1st 30. id 30. 3(130. Total. 
0. W. Kyle. £8-103 29-149 28-150 85-461 
Shooting ninety-six arrows at eighty yards on the 
afternoon of Oot. 39th, he scored thus :— 
1st 48. 2(148. Total 
O.W. Kyle. 41-151 33-150 63-301 
Shooting like the above will yield a Double York Round 
of 800 points. 
Nov. 3 cl .—Four members'shot the York Round, and the 
following scores were made :— 
^100 Yd'S.-. ^80 Yds.-, .—60 Yds.-, —Total—, 
Mils:. Score.. Sits. Score. Bits. Score. Sits.Score. 
Will H. Thompson 33 113 38 173 34 148 05 433 
Maurice Thompson.31 107 34 164 17 03 S3 364 
John A. linoe . 28 81 27 110 18 78 08 376 
Theo. MoMeehan. 19 77 24 04 2U 98 03 269 
Nov. 8th .—The Club shot 216 arrows at 100 yards, and 
the following best scores were made :— 
1st 72 2(14 72 3(172 Total 
Will H. Thompson. 43 169 40 154 44 186 127 509 
Maurice Thompson. . 83 145 39 131 34 144 06 420 
John A, Boon. 21 83 37 115 38 112 70 310 
M. C. Klein . 13 41 18 53 11 41 40 134 
Oh the same day two ladies shot tho English National 
Round:— 
-00 Yds.-, r~ 50 Yds.-, 
48 Arrows 34 Arrows Total. 
Mrs. John Lee. . 35 163 30 102 55 265 
Mrs. M. C. Klein. 25 113 22 123 47 235 
This was the finest scoring ever achieved by the ladies 
of this Club. _ 
Oritani Archers. —The prize meeting last Saturday 
was a very successful one. Mr. W. C. Beecher won the 
—All the archers attending the National Meeting at 
Chicago will remember the happy face and joyful voice 
of Miss Laura Owen, of the Dus Moines Toxophililes. 
She was then apparently in the best of health, and bid 
fair to live formany pleasant years, But now, alas ! that 
bright young toxophilite is no more ! She ceased to be, on 
the 39th day of October last, and Mi's, W. F. Hackney 
immediately took possession of her bow and arrows, and 
proposes to attend the next National meeting in her 
place. Our band to the bridgegroom ! We rejoice that 
he has more owin’ to him than formerly. This is no hack¬ 
neyed pun 1 
New York Archery Club.—A t the field meeting Sat¬ 
urday last Mr. John W. Sutton won tho Gentlemen’s 
Badge by a score of 193. 
The ladies did not shoot on account of the cold. A 
grand “shoot” will take place Thanksgiving Day at 10 
o'clock a.m. at Mount Morris Square, One Hundred and 
Twenty-fourth street and Fifth avenue. Tile regular 
monthly meeting will he held at the residence of Mr. Geo. 
W, Pond, 327 West Twenty-third street, Saturday even¬ 
ing, November 39th, where applications for membership 
will be received. 
THE BEST BOW. 
gentlemen’s club championship, and Mrs. W. H. Holber- 
ton the ladies’ championship. The Forest and Stream 
subscription was awarded to Mr,. J. J. Berry, of Hackan- 
I ENTER with great hesitation into the discussion going 
on in these columns with reference to the relative 
merits of American and English bows. Most of such dis¬ 
cussions are provoked by rivalry betweeu dealers, and 
being carried on in a Bpirit of bitterness are productive of 
uo good result. That it is right for makers and dealers 
to advertise their goods by every fair means, no one 
should deny, but no permanent success can come of any¬ 
thing less than real merit. A bow is not an easy weapon 
to make or wield, and almost as much skill is necessary 
to produce one as to attain profioiency in its use. I iiave 
always naturally leaned to the side of our own country 
when any rivalry rose between it and any other land, 
and am therefore frank to admit a slight prejudice ; but 
my interest in archery has been so great that I feel sure 
that I have tried faithfully to find and use the best tackle 
in the world. One does not like to pay several hundred 
dollars for archery goods without using some care to get 
the best. I have used in the last four years in my own 
practice the following bows : — 
Five self-lance, three backed-lance, three rosewood 
(backed), six beef wood (backed), four snakewood (backed), 
two self-snake (grooved back), four self-lemon (citrouella) 
and one backed wood, unknown to me—made by High- 
field, London; two self-Spanish ye w, one lance and hick¬ 
ory and one self-lance— made by Aldred, London; one 
self-snake— made by E. & W. Madie, London ; Span¬ 
ish self-yew, four snake (and lemon-back), two beef- 
wood (lemon-back), two rosewood (lemon-back), one ama¬ 
ranth (lemon-back), two lance and hickory and one aelf- 
lunce—made by Horsman, New York ; one rosewood 
(swamp ash-back)—made by King, of Kokoma, Ind.: 
four Bois d’Arc (hiokory-back), one self-Bois d’Arc, one 
lance and hickory and one three-piece (hickory, cocoa- 
nut and hickory)— -made by Reckard, of Crawfordsville, 
Ind. ; one split bamboo—made by Conroy, Bissett & Mal- 
leson, New York. Also arrows by each of the above 
makers ; also by Walter Granger, of Buffalo, N. Y.. and 
by one or two other Americans and several English 
makers. Several of these makers have kindly sent me 
for examination, test and approval or disapproval, sam¬ 
ples of their goods, and I have tried to give my true ideas 
of the goods regardless of the result. Now nearly all the 
goods had some defects. It seems scarcely possible to o- e t 
a bow with no defect in it. Yet while the English bows 
were the most accurately constructed, the American 
bows proved by far the most enduring. The principal 
defect in tlie American bows lies in the lack of sufficient 
wood in tile centre, causing the bow to bend in the 
handle, and thus jar greatly, and both tire the arm and 
destroy the accuracy of the shooting. The split bamboo 
did nut Iiave this fault, but it bent most in the lower 
limb, the exact reverse of what it should. It has been 
put through the utmost steam a bow could have, and 
stood it perfectly, and has at last partially yielded only 
to neglect in allowing it to stand against a damp wall all 
night, whereby the glue in the lower limb became 
softened, A friend from Marietta, Ohio, writes me that 
his experience with the split bamboo was disastrous ; but 
1 can only say from my own experience that, barring the 
faulty bend, my bamboo was a magnificent bow. 
The Mafile self-snake bow proved a failure, shooting 
very well for a short time, and then breaking into dust, 
almost, with a 37-inch draw. The rosewood-backed, 
with swamp ash, by King, was almost perfect, but before 
giving it a just trial I suffered it to stand in a room in a 
brick house where there was no fire; it got damp ; tho 
glue parted, and it was ruined. The Bois d’Arc bows, 
by Reckard, were very fair, but warped a little sideways 
by reason of the insufficiency of the seasoning of the 
timber. The three-pieoe coeoanut was excellent for a 
few weeks, hut broke by reason of the failure of the 
glue. 
The lance (self) bows of Highfield all finally yielded by 
pinching, and so did the Aldred sell’-lance. However, 
one of the Highfields endured a vast amount of work, 
The three backed-lanco bows and the three backed rose¬ 
wood of Highfields all yielded very soon by the parting 
of the glue, probably weakened by tbe ocean voyage. 
One of the beefwoods went in the same way, while the 
other stood splendidly, shot as well as any hardwood 
bow could shoot, and finally yielded to the clumsy knee 
of an interloper at a private shoot, who was too poor to 
pay and too large to chastise. The self-snake was too 
heavy m the baud : the backed snakewoods were good 
for a short time but broke, and the lemon bows (citron- 
ella), beside being heavy in the hand, soon set so badly 
that they were useless, Now, do not understand me to 
insinuate that Mr. Highfield is not a good maker. He is 
one of the very best in the world. The trouble is that 
there are only three sorts of good bows. First — A good 
self-Spanish or Italian yew. Second— A. good yew-backed 
yew. Third— A good hardwood-backed bow. In my 
opinion, based on careful experience, no self-hardwood 
bow iB good. Now the trouble with Highfield's baoked- 
hardwood bows was that the salt water damp of the voy¬ 
age weakened the glue so that they were soon ruined. 
Mr. Highfield himself, in a long letter to me, affirmed 
this fact, It was not his fault, but jnisfqjctune, that. he 
lived on the wrong side of the pond. The lancewood 
self-bow of Aldred pinched, and the backed-lance was 
broken by being stuck through the wheel of a moving- 
cart. So it would be impossible to say what its history 
might have been. Tho two yews of Aldred were beau¬ 
ties, one of fifty-seven pounds costing $77. and the other, 
fifty pounds, costing $49. The heaviest bew was appar¬ 
ently perfect and shot as well at first as any bow ever 
made. 1 scored 860 at the Double York Round with it in 
a rushing wind, tbe first attempt in a match with H. C. 
Carver and Ford P. Hall, of Highland Park, Ill., and 
Charles A. Jay, of Kokomo. But within a few days it 
began to shoot to the right. I could not for a time im¬ 
agine the cause, but I soon found that it was gradually 
wringing in the handle. Within a period of three weeks 
it turned so much as to be useless, and finally pulled to 
pieces. The fifty pound bow has proved to be perfect 
so far, and no swifter or more regular shooting how ever 
sent an arrow to a mark. Now the heavy bow was just 
as good, except that the grafting in the middle had in 
some way failed. I do not suppose it could have been 
done better by any one on earth, but I have learned 
enough about timber to know that while a piece may 
bend straight with the grain and never wat p or twist 
while in the billet, it may twist when sawed out and 
grafted. The bow proved to be worthless when neither 
maker nor archer could have foretold such a result. 
Of the Horsman bows the self-lance broke short off six 
inches from the upper horn, after short use; the two 
lance backed with liickory have stood well so fur,hut have 
not been much used. The amaranth backed with lemon 
has not been shot over thirty times, hut shoots well, 
casting, or setting, however, a little more than it should 
do. The two rosewood bows have stood well, with one of 
which Ihave made the second highest score with thirty 
arrows at sixty yards I have ever made—192. The two 
beefwood bows have stood perfectly, and bid fair to stay 
with me permanently. The four snakewood bows have 
proved to be the best hardwood bows I ever saw, in which 
opinion I am joined by every member of the Wabash 
Merry Bowmen. 
Mr. John A. Booe, who is one of the most brilliant 
shot3 in this country, has one of these snakewood backed 
bows, and says it is better than the finest Spanish yew 
bows, two very fine specimens of which, made by 
Aldred, are in his ascham. Here, of course, I cannot 
agree with him, as I think no bow equal to a Spanish 
self-yew—not that the yew will give you any greater 
score, for it will not, hut the shooting is more pleasant by 
reason of the soft recoil. . I can shoot any one of my 
snakewood bows on one day and my yew on another,and 
average as high scores with one as the other; but the 
yew is my favorite because of its gentle recoil. Being- 
sure that an American could m a k e as good a yew bow as 
an Englishman, Mr. Maurice Thompson and myself in¬ 
duced Hr. Horsmen to send to Europe for a few billets of 
Spanish yew, and attempt the manufacture of a self-yew 
bow for eacli of us. He did so, and the result was that 
the bow for Mr. Maurice Thompson has proved to be the 
most perfect Spanish yew bow I have yet seen in 
America, and for which he would not take $800. The 
bow made for myself was just as perfectly fashioned and 
shot as well, but there was a defect in the wood of the 
lower limb, and it at once began to pinch. 
Tiffs was uo fault of the maker, but arose from the 
fact that there are so many bad places in billets of yew 
that are concealed until, perhaps, the last finish reveals 
them. Sometimes these defects are not quite reached in 
finishing the how, being yet barely under the surface, 
and are revealed only by the strain of stringing and 
shooting the bow. 
So I come to the conclusion that there is really very 
little difference in the actual value of a bow made by an 
Englishman and one made by an American, provided 
each uses the same sort of timber. But the American has 
the advantage of delivering bis bows to lffs customers 
without the damaging ocean voyage. So that if I were 
choosing between a best hardwood backed bow of Ameri¬ 
can make and one of English make, I should choose the 
American bow, on the ground of its durability, and I 
would thereby not disparage the excellent workmanship 
of the Englishman, for his bow will endure much better 
hi England that would that of bis American rival, if it 
were sent over there. The English arrows do not seem to 
ho so much affected by the voyage, or, rather, there being 
no lateral strain upon them, the glue is still sufficiently 
Strong to hold. 
Therefore, so far as arrows are concerned there is little 
choice between the best arrows of any maker. I feel no 
hesitation in saying that I can shoot equally well with 
arrows of Highfield’s, Bown’s, Aldred's, Madle’s Buch¬ 
anan’s, Muir’s or Feltham's, imported to this country, or 
with Horsman’s, Granger’s, Conroy, Bissott & Malleaou’s, 
or any other first-class maker’s best goods. The steel 
piles of most American arrows have been rather too tlffu, 
but Mr. Horsman, in a letter before me, says be is now 
boring tbe piles out of solid steel. This will be a great 
improvement. Now it is not at all strange if a dealer hi 
Aldred's guods should deem them best, or one who uses a 
favorite yew bow with the Magio name “ Muir ” on the 
back should cleave to it as the *' best bow on earth,” as 
one glorious old archer of England writes me. One ar¬ 
cher will like the goods of the maker who made a certain 
favorite bow which has served him faithfully, while 
another who lias bad ill luolc with hows of the same 
maker, be he American or English, will be too prone to 
conclude that tho maker is not reliable. The simple truth 
is that a perfect bow is very hard to get, but 1 feel sure 
that one who wishes a bow to cost from $3 to $20, 
should buy an American bow. 1 have no one to adver¬ 
tise, and do not intend to have, and I sincerely trust no 
writer will seek to make the Archery Department of the 
Forest and Stream a - • dark and bloody ground ” w hereon 
the rival makers or dealers in archery shall meet to fight 
the battles of the bow. Tho puffery of goods should be 
put into the regular advertising column, and duly paid 
for, while the archery department should be for the inter¬ 
change of ideas about archery, pleasant and profitable. Of 
course the mere mention of the name of the maker of any 
archer's bow or arrows, is perfectly proper, but it is a 
v?vy delicate matter to call particular .attention to any 
©ne maker. 
Further, I feel no hesitation in Baying to manufacturers 
that if they will make their bows all good ones they will 
have no difficulty in selling next year, all they can by 
any possibility prepare, 'Wlu* H, Thompson* 
