Forest and Stream. 



A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 



NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12, 18 9 8. 



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I VOL. XLV.— No. 15. 



] No. 818 Broadway New York. 



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| FOREST AND STREAM PUB. CO., New York, tl 



REVOLVER PRACTICE FOR THE NEW YORK 

 POLICE, 



The Board of Police Commissioners of New York 

 city are about to adopt in part the suggestions made by 

 Forest and Stream last July for familiarizing the force 

 with the use of their revolvers. The need of some system 

 of practice has long been apparent, and it is hardly an 

 exaggeration to say that heretofore the police force with 

 relation to its firearms has been more of a menace to 

 peaceable citizens than a power to restrain the unruly. 

 Compared with the long night stick the revolver has had 

 little moral effect where the criminal classes are con- 

 cerned. 



While Forest and Stream is thoroughly in sympathy 

 with the action of the Police Board, we do not think the 

 system they have decided upon for practice will be as con- 

 ducive to practical results as the plan at first proposed. 

 It differs in two important respects. The target to be 

 used will be the ordinary Creedmoor target, of' sufficient 

 size to meet the requirements of novices in the art of 

 revolver shooting, and the time for shooting any string 

 will be unlimited. Forest and Stream proposed a time 

 limit of at least one minute for strings of five shots and a 

 target the size and shape of an average man, which was 

 to be divided into three sections — head and chest, trunk 

 and arms and legs, and values given to shots on these, 

 parts relative to their deadliness. 



In view of the results to be accomplished we still 

 believe this to be the better plan, inasmuch as it repro- 

 duces actual conditions much more closely than the other, 

 and as it is calculated to teach the policeman both the 

 limitations of his weapon and its effective use in cases of 

 emergency in the most easily comprehended way, and 

 also in the shortest possible time. It would have the fur- 

 ther advantage of giving him some idea of anatomy, and 

 after he had learned to make good scores under the 

 original conditions, the rating could be reversed, so that 

 crippling shots would gain a higher percentage than those 

 likely to be fatal, and in this way the cause of humanity 

 would be served. 



The ordinary rifle or revolver target is a very deceptive 

 thing even to the practiced eye when the range is un- 

 known. To a man squinting along the sights of a revolver 

 there is little difference in the appearance of a target 

 4x6ft. in size at a distance of 50yds. and of one 10xl4in. 

 at a distance of 10yds. The one thing that interests him 

 about the target is its appearance relative to his front 

 sight. The actual distance, which for all practical pur- 

 poses is a much more important factor, is a matter of lit- 

 tle moment after his sights have been properly adjusted. 

 This is one of the main reasons for the fact, so well known 

 to sportsmen who handle the rifle, that target-shooting 

 and actual hunting are very widely separated— that a 

 man may be a good shot at a target and his accomplish- 

 ment stand him in poor stead when he comes to shoot at 

 game. 



It therefore seems not unlikely that the policeman may 

 be trained to be a reliable shot at the target and still be 



worth very little as a marksman under conditions of 

 actual service. A target at any distance is a very differ- 

 ent looking thing from a man, and the policeman may 

 practice a long time at the target without getting much 

 idea of how big a man would look through his sights, or 

 where to hold at various ranges to compensate for the 

 vicious recoil of his treacherous weapon. 



And here lies the essential diffei'ence between the two 

 systems; on the one hand, in the man target the police- 

 man is given a standard with which he is familiar and a 

 training that will clear up in his mind just those points he 

 needs to be enlightened upon, while on the other hand he 

 is taught something he has to unlearn every time he 

 brings his revolver into actual service. 



We believe that the time limit has a very practical 

 value, as it is of the utmost importance that a policeman 

 should know how to shoot effectively upon instant notice. 

 Criminals and mad dogs must be stopped quickly if they 

 are to be stopped at all, else the policeman would better 

 reserve his fire. 



To train the police to be passable marksmen at the tar- 

 get will be, in our opinion, only half doing the thing. 

 What they need is a training which shall reproduce as 

 nearly as possible the actual conditions they are likely to 

 encounter. 



A VANISHED HERO. 



In the mechanical world the passing away of the muz- 

 zleloader and the advent of the breechloader simply 

 marked transitional stages in the mechanical evolution 

 of firearms, a mere incident in the multitude of incessant 

 changes taking place in the mechanical world, a neces- 

 sity in the march of progress. In the world at large, 

 however, the introduction of the breechloader had a much 

 wider and more potent significance. The breechloading 

 rifle soon cleared the element of danger from the atmos- 

 phere of the wilderness and opened up that vast area to 

 the uses of civilized man. 



But the muzzleloader was not driven out instantly. It 

 contested the field stanchly, though steadily losing 

 ground. It had the prestige of long use and valiant 

 deeds. It was endeared by associations of success at the 

 target, of trusty service in time of deadly peril, of pleas- 

 ant associations afield. It was a friend whose life and 

 peculiarities were known. It had antecedents. It had 

 character. 



But regardless of sentiment or partial judgments, in 

 the march of progress there mu3t be change; ^.the good 

 must yield to the better, the weaker force must yield to 

 the stronger, and all things rejected from the uses of men 

 must sink into the oblivion which comes from perpetual 

 disuse. 



But of the work which the hardy pioneer, trapper, 

 miner, hunter and adventurer were able to accomplish 

 with the aid of the breechloading rifle and fixed ammuni- 

 tion in preparing the wilderness for man's peaceful pur- 

 suits, often contending against fierce beasts and savage 

 man, history has many times recounted. 



It is unnecessary to dwell upon this phase of the sub- 

 ject, but another though less direct phase is worthy of 

 more than passing attention; that is, the effect of the 

 breechloader upon the literature of the country. In this 

 respect it wrought a great change also. Its destructive- 

 ness was so great that at one swoop it wiped out the 

 materials of the romantic school which pitched its action, 

 scenes and adventures in the American wilderness. 



Had the breechloader been in use at the time of which 

 Cooper wrote, the charming Leather-Stocking tales would 

 never have been written, and the same is true of all simi- 

 lar tales, although of many of them it can truly be said 

 that if they had never been written the world would have 

 been a gainer by it. 



In literature the limited power of the muzzleloading 

 rifle, with its cumbersome accessories of powder horn, 

 bullet pouch, patches, ramrod and flint lock or percussion 

 caps, supplemented with the hunting knife in times of 

 desperate need, gave the writer every opportunity to bring 

 the personality of the hero into conspicuous play. The 

 author of fiction in particular revelled in the personal 

 prowess of his hero. If death did not result from the first 

 shot the whole dramatis personoe then came into action , the 

 hero went to the front and all the complexities and perils 

 began to swirl. If the hero or the villain had had a 

 repeater and fired eight or ten shots in rapid succession, 

 a few deaths would have resulted and the action of the 

 story would have ceased. The physical prowess of the 

 hero would, at the same time, have had no play, 



It was an easy matter for the novelist to balk the one 

 shot of the muzzleloader. A twig in the line of flight 

 deflected the bullet; the cap, being damp, failed to 

 explode; the victim stumbled at the moment and the bul- 

 let went hurtling and whistling over his head. At the 

 wortt, if a man were killed it was but one character 

 gone, and such in no wise affected the unity of the story. 

 But the shot being fired, or the besetting dangers being 

 too many for the hero to face, his physical powers and 

 mental cunning came into play against the like 

 opposing powers— the rifle, or bow and arrow, or cap- 

 tivity, being a constant menace and a possible danger, 

 a spur to the most desperate effort. Were the hero hotly 

 pursued by savages or maddened panthers or grizzly 

 bears, he loaded his rifle as he ran; and this shot failing, 

 the author had in reserve a most thrilling description of 

 a desperate knife fight. The hero, ambidextrous if neces- 

 sary, made such rapid play, had such wonderful bodily 

 activity, so clear an eye, and judgment and generalship 

 so just, that a squad of charging Indians against him were 

 no match for his lightning thrusts and bodily shiftiness. 

 But in the event that it was desired that he be over- 

 matched, then there was the long run through the woods 

 with the relentless pursuers madly on his trail; the fleet 

 runner who led his fellows; the turning back of the hero 

 to give the leader battle; the desperate encounter which 

 ended barely in time for the hero to resume his flight; the 

 desperate leap of the chasm or plunge into the deep tor- 

 rents when nature had been strained to her utmost, and 

 the escape. 



"And the breechloader changed all this. It wiped out 

 the physical prowess of the hero and all its festooning of 

 romance. In an encounter it put the physically slight 

 man on an equality with the giant, all else being equal. 

 The old school of literature was then a further impossibility. 

 As to comparing the old literature of the wilderness with 

 the new, it cannot be done, for the breechloader soon 

 ended the wilderness and made it the home of men. But 

 of the old literature, the best of it is not without interest 

 and merit. While the breechloader accomplished a great 

 good in opening up a vast country for man's habitation, 

 who is there who does not regret the passing away of the 

 wilderness and its literature? 



SNAP SHOTS. 

 .We begin the publication to-day of a new series of 

 chapters in the life history of Uncle Lisha Peggs, Samuel 

 Lovel, Solon Briggs, Pelatiah Gove and those other per- 

 sonages of Danvis in Vermont who have taken their 

 places among the worthies of the Green Mountain State, 

 and have been given lasting fame by the magic of Mr. 

 Robinson's pen. The former series, "Uncle Lisha's Shop," 

 "Sam Lovel's Camps" and "Danvis Folks," originally 

 printed in our columns, are reckoned among the classics 

 not only of sportsmen's literature, but of New England 

 life. In this new series we shall look in on Uncle Lisha 

 in his camps on the Little Otter marshes on Lake Cham- 

 plain, and the incidents and human nature to be chronicled 

 will prove not less entertaining than those that have gone 

 before. 



There is our contributor, O. H. Hampton. Follow his 

 example. When he comes across a good game country 

 where there is something left for another, he sits down at 

 his next stopping place and writes about it to the Forest 

 and Stream. Do likewise. If you know where there is 

 good shooting, tell of it in these pages. There are those 

 who want to know all about it. When we were moved 

 to write a paragraph the other day about the busy folks 

 who with all their press and push of work find time now 

 and then to go into the woods with a gun or to cast a line 

 where the bass lurks in the lake, we had Mr. Hampton in 

 mind among others. We ought all of us to admire his 

 good sense in going shooting when he can, and to be 

 grateful to him for demonstrating, as he does so well by 

 precept and example, that "you don't have to be chained 

 to business all the time if you don't want to be." 



The extreme drought which has prevailed over large 

 areas of the country has seriously affected shooting con- 

 ditions. Covers which usually contain woodcock and 

 grounds where snipe are looked for have been so parched 

 that it is useless to look to them for a solitary bill. The 

 foliage, too, is withering up, and the autumn has not in 

 store for those who go afield the gorgeous coloring which 

 makes so much of a tramp in October. 



