no 



RECREA TION. 



OUR CONTRIBUTORS. 



IV. 



There are few men in Indiana more 

 widely known than Colonel W.T. 

 Dennis, of Richmond. He was 

 born in New York in 1816, but went to 

 Indiana with his parents when a lad. 

 He is a successful lawyer and has held 

 many positions of honor and trust under 

 the state and federal governments. 



COL. W. T. DENNIS. 



During the war he was State Military 

 Agent, at Washington. For many years 

 thereafter he was Secretary of the State 

 Board of Agriculture. In 1889 he was 

 appointed a member of the State Fish 

 Commission, and reappointed in 1891 ; 

 is now Vice-President for his state, of 

 the National Fish and Game Protective 

 Association. Colonel Dennis is an ardent 

 sportsman and an easy, graceful writer, 

 as is shown by his article printed in 

 this number of Recreation, on " Bass 

 Fishing in Indiana." 



CLEVER BOY SHOOTERS. 



III. 

 LAWRENCE MESSNER. 



Here is one of the youngest sports- 

 men in the world. He was born 

 March 28th, 1887. When five 

 years old he did his first shooting 

 with a .44 gauge shot gun, at targets, 

 placed for him by his father, and did 

 well. Mr. Messner says : "When Law- 

 rence was 6^2 years old I took him to 

 the woods with me. On reaching the 

 timber I saw a squirrel, sitting on a 

 stump. I called Lawrence's attention 

 to it; handed him his gun, loaded, and 

 told him to walk up, and shoot it. He 

 went only a short distance, when he pulled 

 up and fired, killing the squirrel as neatly 

 as I could have done it. I measured the 

 distance and found it to be 54 feet." 



Lawrence has since shot numerous 

 birds, squirrels, etc. On May nth, last, 



LAWRENCE MESSNER. 



Subscribe for Recreation. Show it 

 to your friends and ask them to sub- 

 scribe. $1 a year, 10 cents a copy. 



when only two months over seven years 

 old, he killed his first bird on the wing, 

 and has made some splendid wing shots 

 since, some good long ones. He does it 

 so mechanically, and in such a matter of 



