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RECREATION 



THE NATIONAL EIFLE MEETING. 



Editor Recreation : 



Accuracy is one of the fundamental fea- 

 tures of success in life. To be accurate in 

 thought, word and deed insures not only re- 

 spect and admiration, but also increased 

 power and physical well being. This is true 

 of a nation as well as of an individual. In the 

 case of the nation, however, a certain kind of 

 accuracy goes further in determining results 

 that are far reaching: that is, accuracy in 

 hitting an enemy who is attacking the Gov- 

 ernment either as an invader or as a rebel 

 against constituted laws. 



If we review history we will be impressed 

 with the fact that all great events which have 

 tended toward the establishment of nations 

 as individual units, together with the power 

 to protect their rights and privileges, have 

 been decided by the appeal to arms, and al- 

 ways won by the nation which had taught its 

 citizens to hit what they aimed at. This ap- 

 plies equally well to the use of stones, clubs, 

 sling shots, javelins, swords, arrows, smooth 

 bore guns and rifles. And as far as we can 

 see into the future, our rights and privileges 

 as nations will still have to be maintained by 

 our ability to protect ourselves,* for this 

 world is still far from adopting the Golden 

 Rule as a precept. 



The United States of America had its birth 

 and was baptized amid the smell of powder 

 and the singing of bullets, and since then 

 has had to protect itself repeatedly against at- 

 tacks. Historians say, "History repeats it- 

 self." If this be true, then this nation of ours 

 will again have to pass through the fire of 

 shot and shell, and the question which is agi- 

 tating the true patriots and earnest thinkers 

 of our country is how we shall stand the 

 ordeal. 



The standing army of the United States 

 numbers sixty thousand. The National 

 Guard»,or State Militia approximates one hun- 

 dred and twenty-five thousand. Combining 

 the regular army and the National Guard we 

 have a total of one hundred and eighty-five 

 thousand soldiers. Let us suppose that this 

 total strength is capable of service ; that it is 

 fully armed and equipped ; that it thoroughly 

 understands how to mobilize ; that its quar- 

 termaster and commissary departments are 

 perfect ; that its commanding general and 

 every officer down to its last second lieuten- 

 ant knows every requirement of his position ; 

 that it is an absolutely perfect army. Can it 

 shoot to hit what it aims at? If not, it had 

 better be disbanded. It is no use. 



Five years ago a group of patriotic men re- 

 alized that marksmanship in the United States 

 was by no means what it should be ; that the 

 oft-quoted saying, "the Americans are a na- 

 tion of riflemen/' was untrue. These men 

 met and formulated plans to arouse an in- 

 terest in rjfle shooting throughout the entire 



country. At first their efforts met with small 

 success ; it was hard to make people believe 

 that rifle practice was the most important 

 duty of the soldier and citizen. However, a 

 match was arranged between Ireland and the 

 United States, in which we learned a great 

 deal that we did not know about shooting, 

 and the Irishmen defeated us. In 1901 the 

 Palma Trophy, which had been presented by 

 the people of the United States in 1876 for 

 competition to the riflemen of the world, was 

 dragged out of a dusty storehouse and put 

 once more in competition. Canada sent a 

 team down and took the trophy to Canada. 

 In this match we learned much more that we 

 did not know. In 1902 the interest became 

 more general, and we sent a team to Canada 

 to try to get back the trophy. Great Britain 

 also sent a team and took the now famous 

 Palma Trophy to England. In this match 

 we imbibed more information from the Brit- 

 ish team, while the knowledge we had already 

 gained and improved upon enabled us to de- 

 feat the Canadians. The year 1903 marked a 

 turning point in the history of rifle shooting. 

 The United States sent a team to England in 

 June and. defeating the whole freld in the 

 largest international rifle match the world 

 had known, brought back the Palma Trophy 

 to the United States. (Owing to a contro- 

 versy arising over a technicality, the trophy 

 was voluntarily returned to Great Britain and 

 will probably be contested for next year). In 

 the fall of 1903 the work of the Board for 

 the Promotion of Rifle Practice appointed by 

 the then Secretary of War, Hon. Elihu Root, 

 and composed of five members from the 

 Army, Navy and Marine Corps, eight trustees 

 of the National Rifle Association and eight 

 members from the country at large, twenty- 

 one in all, began to bear fruit and the first 

 National match was shot. This match is 

 open to teams of twelve men, to two teams, 

 Infantry and Cavalry, from the regular Army, 

 one each from the Navy, the Marine Corps 

 and the District of Columbia, and from each 

 state maintaining an organized militia. The 

 meeting was held on the beautiful range of the 

 State of New Jersey at Sea Girt, and the 

 match was won by the State of New York. 

 Very little excitement was created by this : 

 most important contest excepting among the J 

 comparatively few teams competing. The 

 Eastern newspaper notices were scanf and 

 uninteresting, and the country at large scarce- 

 ly knew that such an event had happened. 



August, 1904, saw nineteen competing teams 

 — four from the Regular establishment and 

 fifteen state teams — encamped on the Repub- 

 lican Flats at Fort Riley, Kansas. The three 

 days' contest was full of excitement and the 

 contest was not decided until the last skir- 

 mish run was made. Again the State of New 

 York carried off first place. The Navy team 

 was second and the Army Infantry tiling 



