Jan. 5, 1895.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
19 
Some Christmas Trap Meditation. 
[From a Staff Correspondent.] 
BESEMBLANCE TO OTHELLO. 
Chicago, 111., Deo. 25.— On this bright and happy Christmas 
morning, when ail the world is full of pieces of tniuga and occa- 
sionally a bit of good will, I hud it difficult to harbor animosity 
to everybody, and can even confess to a feeling of pity for cer- 
tain individuals. I pity the fellow who hasn't got a lick of sense 
on earth. I pity the man who breaks up his own business and 
the man who eats transitory goose instead of continuous egg 
sandwiches. I pity the man who pretty soon won't have any 
Christmas stocking, and who won't have any Christmas, and 
who will not know what it is to hear the scraping of Santa Claus 
as he humps himself down the steam coils. 
This is indeed a hard Christmas for the dropper, the man who 
goes around to trap shoots and plays a crooked game, and makes 
a bad reputation for a good aport. It is going to be a bad time 
for the dropping business, and before the year is over there is 
going to be a lot of droppers who will resemble old man Othedo 
in two ways— they will be black in the face, and they will be out 
of a job. 
1 can very well remember the time when old John "Watson and 
I used to laugh at ourselves for trying to "elevate the trap," and 
seeking to stop the open practice of dishonest shooting. Nobody 
else over the country was saying a word, so far as 1 remember 
now. John the Baptist, whose voice was as of one crying in the 
wilderness, was right in the heart of the city compared to John 
Watson. Fobest and Stbeam was the only paper that dared to 
say a word against, what was even in those early days confessed 
to be a general practice and a dishonest one. The practice was 
thought to be too strongly grounded to be successfully com- 
bated. Self-interest on the part of many shooters, and timidity 
on the part of all papers but Forest and Stbeam, kept a muzzle 
on criticism. The dropper was king. He sat on his rocky slope 
and looked down on men and ships and things, aud allowed he 
had a cinch. But when the sun set, I mean when Christmas 
came, where were they, and where was he at? He is still on the 
rocky slope, and it will get rockier and rockier for him this year. 
I'm sorry for him, this glorious Christmas morning. Pity the 
poor dropper, gentlemen. He has a wife and seven children, 
and he was too crooked to be straight. 
THE PIES! HEAVX GUN. 
The scattered writings which appeared from time to time in 
Forest and Stbeam (nowhere else), voicing the John Watson 
beliefs as to the "elevation of the trap" were like tbe skirmish 
fire preceding the opening of a battle, and their effect was rela- 
tively light. None the less they presaged as well as preceded an 
aotual battle, the first heavy gun of which was heard in the 
Forest and Stbeam editorial headed "Control of Trap Shooting," 
m the issue of Dec. 1. There have been Jew editorials printed 
in sportiug journalism which ever impinged more promptly and 
unmistakably. The responses to it came irom so many good 
men in a way admitting of no doubt. Without doubt, tne battle 
is now on between tne honest shooters of this country and the 
d.shonest ones, between the spirit of fair play and straight sport 
and that of treachery, crookedness and theft. The conclusion is 
foregone. I can only rejieat that the sole wonder to me is that 
the battle has been postponed so long, and that a state of affairs 
so anomalous and so injurious nas been so long allowed to exist 
and flourish, to the detriment of a sport wtiich has in it naturally 
every element to commend it to gentlemen, and which should 
always and under all circumstances have been kept free to offer 
to gentlemen its ownnatural invitation to fearless, equal, unsus- 
pecting, gentlemanly competition. 
It is too late in the day now, after the events of the past four 
weeks, to go back to the threshing of old straw, and to take up 
a useless and absurd argument as to whether or not there is or 
has been any dishonesty in the prevalent practices of trap- 
shooting tournaments. There will always be men who for 
reasons of interest or ignorance will believe there never was a 
French Revolution nor a Eeign of Terror, because they didn't 
see it. I do not wish for a moment to state, or to be garblingly 
quoted as stating, that all trap-shooters are dishonest, or that 
all trap tournaments have disnonest shooting in tnem, or that 
the practice of crooked shooting prevails in all clubs and asso- 
ciations shooting at the trap. 1 do not wish to say that tne fifty 
trap-shooters at whose door we may rightly lay most of the dis- 
repute into which tournament-shooting has fallen should be 
said to have instituted an actual reign of terror. The growth of 
the sport, the sale of targets and ammunition, the forming of 
new clubs, ail show that the evil has not been fatal. But an 
evil may be not fatal and still not desirable. Tnat the evil of 
dropping, in and out shooting, pooling and combining has been 
a general one all over the trap circuit, East and West, is known 
to every one not ignorant or interested. 
a well-covered vice. 
It is not easy to detect, even wnen in full swing and under 
opea observation, and that is the very reason why it has grown 
bo, and that is the very reason why it should be cerreted out and 
exposed and made public and shameful. In the rush and swing 
of a tournament there may be a regularly organized gang 
quietly "shooting in" and saying nothing. A busy man or one 
not acquainted with the game could not detect the crooked 
work. Even those who were looking for it and who knew the 
ins and outs of the various shooters and their doings would be 
unable to prove their positive beliefs in anythiug like a positive 
nianuer. (There is no evidence that can be actually collected. 
If you tried a man you couldn't prove anything against him. 
The most peculiar thing about this whole question is this inabil- 
ity to get proof. It may look like injustice to order a man out of 
a squad and off the grounds because you have a suspicion that 
he is not shooting his best, but singularly enough this very sus- 
ficion must always be the test, and not the weigning of evidence, 
a the past, managements have been afraid to act on such sus- 
picions. In the future they will not be so much afraid. They 
will post due legal notice in their progratnmes that they are re- 
serviag the right to decline the money of any man they prefer 
not to have in their sweeps. If the man comes there under that 
notice, he ha^ no recourse. All the dropper can do will be to 
boycott shoots which he thinks are going to be honest.) Such 
being the veiled conditions of affairs, it is no wonder that the 
custom of dropping grew, and that it often went on unsuspected. 
My friend Jack Parker says there isn't so much of it as there 
once was. i hope not, and I have more respect for Jack Parker's 
i'udgment on shooting matters than for almost any one's I know, 
iut I could take Jack Parker and we could pick a third man, 
and we could go to any big shoot o£ the '94 circuit, and we would 
not fail to find in any instance some case or cases of dropping 
or combining. They are there when you look for them right 
and nobody knows that better than Jack. In my own small ex- 
periences I have seen so much of that sort of thing that I have 
almost been disgusted with tournament shooting— so much that 
I don't mind saying all over again that these fifty men or so who 
do most of that dishonest work have put a stigma on the sport, 
so that it is as they practice it, "more dishonorable, more cor- 
rupt, rottener than ever horse racing was." This is true, and 
the shooting public knows it to be true. In spite of this the 
better features of trap-shooting grow. But how much more 
might they otherwise have grown? If every shooter of the land 
knew he would get an absolutely fair show at our big tourna- 
ments, what would not those tournaments be? But are not the 
common shooters wary of those tournaments? Why are they 
so? Any shooter can give you the answer. I say you can make 
rules, and handicaps, and classifications till you are gray, but 
you won't begin to get the confidence of the common shooters 
till you begin to take droppers and combiners and crooks at the 
trap by the back of the neck and Kick them out of the grounds 
and out of the game. You can do this by a national association, 
and you can do it in the newspapers, and you can do it right at 
home. It is going to be done. A few dishonest men are not 
forever going to be allowed to Injure the reputation and the 
success of a manly and pox^ular sport such as that of shooting 
at the trap. 
AXL ABOUT THE WASHERWOMAN. 
If Mr. Banks will pardon me, I should like to revert to a 
statement of his published some weeks ago in comment on 
what I had tried to make a straightforward aud fearless setting 
forth of praotically these same features. Mr. Banks is good 
enough to say: 
"Mr. Hough has evidently had but a limited acquaintance with 
either one or the other of the branches of the sport he names, 
horse-racing or trap-shootiag." * 
Quite right. I have had a very limited acquaintance with 
either of them, or both ot them, or any other line of sport. He, 
nor anyone else, must not mistake me to be claiming very 
much of an acquaintance with anything, and I am very far from 
wishing to pose as an authority, ior I don't feel that I am one. 
All that I claim to be able to do is to see a load of hay, and all I 
claim to be is a newspaper reporter not airaid to print the truth 
about said load of hay. Probably that is one of the thinga Mr. 
Banks would rather not have said, however, because it wasn't 
in very good form, you know, really. Besides, it has the same 
bearing on tliis case as would Mr. Banks's personal opinion as 
to tne color of my best girl's h.tir, or the especial nature of the 
articles of bijouterie with which my washerwoman may Bee fit 
to adorn herself . Iled up to this comparison by stating that 
horse-racing had become crooked enough to drive the Washing- 
ton Park Club, of Chicago, one of the most, prominent racing 
bodies of the land, quite out of the practice of it. I am not 
anxious to split hairs, or stand on comparisons, or discover too 
accurately which is the worse of two things, either of which is 
bad enough. But the best possible answer to any criticism on 
the accuracy and justice of my comparison is to be found over 
Mr. Banks's own .signature, and in the very column in which 
he doubts the justice of my comparison. In the story of the 
"Public Outrage," wherein Mr. Banks fearlessly and fairly prints 
the disgraceful truth about the Morfey-Batsch race, he uncon- 
sciously puts on record a piece of rottenness which in quality, 
if not in size, it would puzzle the annals of the turf to equal. 
These things are much a matter of opinion. It has been the ap- 
proved cuBtom for the crooked trap-shooter to rob his associates. 
This custom should be changed. It is changing. It will be 
changed. Nothing will change it more quickly than the con- 
demnation of the decent sporting press. That the evil m case 
has long had proportions sufficient to warrant such condemna- 
tion has been very fully proved by the editorial position of Fob- 
est and Stbeam, taken since the time of publication of the mat- 
ter above alluded to. and by the comment from the soundest 
men of the country thereon, and by the published opinion of 
Fobest and Stbeam thereon in the Trap department, notably 
where it is stated in the same issue of Dec. 22: 
"The letters we continue to receive on the proposed National 
Association of Trap-Shooters, all have the same sound ring. 
There is a sentiment abroad that something must be done, and 
that speedily, if trap-shooting is to retain its popularity, to pre- 
vent dropping lor place and pooling or combining." 
if we are' to have a National Association, what is it for? To 
control something which doesn't exist? It is going quite too 
far back on the trail to argue much about that. For one more 
good instance in point, see Col. Anthony's comment in Fobest 
and Stbeam of Dec. 22, where he mentions shooters on the firing 
line cautioning each other "not to tie." I never knew jockeys 
at a fixed horse-race to publicly announce their intentions of 
throwing a race or of fixing it up among themselves. Those 
who don't believe tournament trap-shooting to be openly and 
generally rotten had better make a hurried investigation of t he 
facts, or they will soon be behind the time. The wave started 
slow, but she's rolling mighty fast now, honey. 
THE REPRESENTATIVES OP THE TRADE. 
It has been intimated that in some of my earlier remarks I 
have been too severe on "rounders'' and traveling representa- 
tives of the trade who attend shoots. For the crooked rounder, 
who travels in the systematic trade of treacherous cheating, 1 
can think of no word severe enough, and I shall go after him 
while I have my health, and spoil his business if I can. For the 
representative of the sporting goods trade we should have no 
reverence on earth except what his character as a man and a 
gentleman demand. I know practically all of these men person- 
ally, and tew classes of men average higher. I want no better 
friends than some of them, and they need no better friend than 
Fobest and Stbeam. Yet Fobest and Stbeam is fearless and in- 
dependent and wise enough to print these words of comment 
on these men in last week's issue : 
"The principal manufacturers of shooters' supplies have trav- 
eling representatives at tournaments, to show their goods to 
shooters aud to prove their excellence by taking part in the con- 
tests at the trap. Such representatives are the most faithful at- 
tendants at all shoots ; they are usually men of agreeable person- 
ality, and among them are some of the very best shots in the 
land. For these a. id other reasons they are of great influence in 
the trap-stiooting world. Their words and actions carry weight. 
Most of them, no doubt, are honest shooters, but some are open 
to the suspicion oi now and then dropping for place. The truth 
is that the whole atmosphere of trap-shooting tournaments has 
become so vitiated that the moral sense of the most honest man 
may become hardened, and he may now view with indifference 
acts that a lew years ago he would have roundly condemned." 
I have known many and many a ease of proved or acknowl- 
edged dropping or combining by trade representatives at tour- 
naments. I could print names and dates and instances which 
would cause considerable commotion, if this were wise to do. 
Later on it may be wise, and for my part then I shall have no 
reverence lor any man except that which his character as a man 
and gentleman inspire. A newspaper should print the news. 
But I believe the bulk of these men do shoot straight, and others 
would shoot straight if there Avere anywhere made a stand for a 
better sentiment. The best of them always have shot honestly. 
Almost all of them maybe believed when they say they are goiug 
to shoot square. At Knoxville shoot last summer one of the very 
most prominent target shots of the world said to Tom Divine, 
who invited him to come to Memphis shoot next June; 
"Mr. Divine, I admit that I have at times dropped birds for 
the money there was in it, and have combined with others, and 
I don't know of any man on the circuit who hasn't. But if I 
come to your shoot, and say I will shoot square, you can believe 
what I tell you." 
Mr. Divine did believe it and so do I. What is needed is a 
ra'.lying point. Tne change in sentiment will turn some shooters 
in the honest path. The fear of a disbarment or an inquiry will 
check many others. The establishment of a national board of 
oontrol would in thirty days make a revolution in tournament 
matters — provided always that the members of the board were 
not timid or over-cautious, provided they had no axes to grind, 
and provided they did not look for or wait for a strictly legal 
class ol proof against an offender. The latter they could never 
have. Missing the last bird or entering low down on the entry 
list is by no means evidence of the only crooked work going at 
the score. It may exist in the very first squad to enter, among 
high-class experts, who pay the whole day's entry in a lump. I 
knew of a glaring case of just this sort at a tournament I 
lecently attended, and the fact was so open that two of the men 
in that very hrst squad, who had that same place all through 
that tournament, will next year he invite! "not to attend." 
(These were not representatives of the trade.) If they once had 
the publicity of being summoned before a national board of 
control the mere publication of the fact wutild be notice of warn- 
ing to other towns against them. They would be straight 
shooters after that, or would be out of a chance to shoot. This 
always in case that the board were composed of the ruht men. 
A few weak sisters there could do infinitely more harm than 
good and the battle would have to be fought all over again by 
the individual clubs. 
I never thought that a man who was paid to shoot, who drew 
a salary or expense money for that, or was otherwise paid for 
it, ought to be allowed to shoot in on the same basis with 
amateurs who pay their own expenses, even where the bkill of 
both parties is the same. About all the better clasB traveling 
men agree to this. Mr. B. B. Organ of this city suggests that 
such paid experts should be taxed an extra entrance fee, say $3 
in a $2 3weep. At Memphis shoot last summer there were 
about two dozen such paid shooters, and they made the local 
shooters of that country feel very sore. 
HABD EOB DEOPPEBS AT MEMPHIS. 
The public blackboard is an invitation for a shooter to drop 
At the coming Memphis shoot the blackboard will either be abol- 
ished or put above the firing Hue, so that shooters cannot see it. 
This will help make crookedness harder. I have already Bpoken 
of Memphis tournament, often as the only one I ever attended 
where the management had sand enough to back up its pub- 
lished warning that dropping for place would not be permitted. 
There have been so many pitiable examples of managements 
who have hung up that warning and then weakly ignored it. It 
has always been like hanging a card on a stone dog, saying, 
"Beware* the dog." The shooters have always known the dog 
was dead. At Memphis next June the dog is going to be alive 
and wideawake, and ready to do business. There has at last 
been discovered one town with a gun club willing to make the 
risky experiment of holding an honest shoot — one which will be 
placarded as honest and which will be kept honest at any cost of 
money. These Memphis men are not afraid, and they mean what 
they say. They will really give a square shoot. For it I bespeak 
the support of all men wao love fair play and a day of gentle- 
manly spjrt at the traps. If there is any jockeying tried at that 
shoot Ave are likely to hear of some fun. The Memphis Gun Club 
will reserve the right to accept only such entries as it chooses. 
Should it lose money on this novel experiment of holding a shoot 
absolutely fearless and honest, would it not be an odd com- 
mentary on the status of tournament shooting in America? Let 
us see whether or not Memphis is boycotted by the "gang," and 
if so, how much ! All honor, I say, to the Southern city which 
has been first of all the laud to take the stand against dishonesty 
in shooting, and all shame to the North, where the stand has 
been so long needed and so long delayed. 
FOBEST AND STREAM'S PLAN. 
But the stand has been taken now, and the banner set, wisely, 
calmly, dispassionately and fearlessly, as has always been the 
custom with the actions of Forest and Stream. The paper de- 
serves the congratulations of the fraternity of shooters at the 
trap, and ot those who would like to shoot at the trap. Nowhere 
does it deserve heartier congratulations than from the great 
trade interests lying back oE an industry whose best interests 
have been injured only too long and seriously. The trade and 
the representatives of the trade will be among the first to show 
their satisfaction with a new order of things. As to any enemies 
that may be inade by a policy such as that laid down by Forest 
and Stream', I don't imagine that cuts much figure. If there 
are any, they can be picked out from about fifty shooters, East 
and West, who shoot for business and not for sport, and who 
shoot dishonestly, who are treacherous, who steal. These fifty 
men have kept, so far as we know to the contrary, 500 other men 
away from the trap who would like to shoot for sport, not for 
business. Which body would be better for the life and growth 
and perpetuity of the sport? For my part, if I were to pick 
enemies, I would choose them from among men who rob their 
friends. That's the sort of enemies Forest and Stbeam can 
afford to have. It won't have even those very long. 
ORGANIZE IT. 
Certainly then, form the national hoard of control. Do it 
quickly. Organise it at once. The season of 1895 will soon be 
upon us. It will be a red-letter season for the sport if it sees a 
systematic organized effort to set that right which has so long 
been wrong. 
Thus far I have wandered, on this bright and cheerful Christ- 
mas day, when I ought to be eating apples and sliding down the 
cellar door, from my original purpose of wishing his late majesty, 
the Dropper, a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.: He'll 
do well here. He'd lay up money. I know he'll like the place. 
E. Hough. 
909 Security Building, Chicago, Christmas, 1894. 
Fred Hoey Defeats Nathaniel. 
On Friday, Dec. 21. an interesting pigeon match was decided 
at the Wostminster Kennel Club's grounds, Babylon, L. I. Fred 
Hoey was booked to concede two yards to E. C. Nathaniel, a 
member of the Westchester (N. Y) Country Club. Nathaniel's 
record is not nearly as well known as Fred Hoey's, but he has 
made a name i or himself on his own club's grounds, winning 
the Westchester Cup twice and scoring a run of 53 straight on 
Saturday, Dec. 15. When the match was made it was decided 
to toss for choice of grounds; as Hoey won he chose the Ken- 
nel Club's grounds. The day was decidedly favorable to high 
scores, but little breeze blowing during the first half of the 
match. The largest run was made by Nathaniel, who killed his 
first 20 straight ; Hoey had runs of 19 and 16. George de Forest 
Grant acted as referee. Score: 
Fred Hoey (30) 2222222221112112*22222222—24 
0222122222222222*22222221—23 
222222102 ,222222*^2212221— 22 
1222222221202211122222222—24—93 
K C Nathaniel (28) 222.22222122222222220*222—23 
2222202222222222*22220222—22 
2220222222202222222222222—23 
202222222*022222202222222—21-89 
Meehanicville's New Gun Club. 
Mechanicville, N. Y., Dec. 25. — We have recently organized a 
Bod and Gun Club in this village. The club has 27 members 
and has elected as its officers for 1895 the following: President, 
A. C. Johnson; Yice-President, Find Hayner; Secretary, W, L. 
Howlancl; Treasurer, A. J. Harvey; Captain, F. C. Yernon; Di- 
rectors, T. L. Pratt, S. J. Moore and Chas Brothers. The club's 
grounds are south of the Paper Mill, on North Main street. Our 
regular shooting days are every second Friday. To-day we had 
a practice shoot in the morning ; during the afternoon we shot 
ior a club championship medal, E. S. Moore winning with 20 out 
of 25. Score : 
Club championship, 25 targets per man: 
A 0 Johnson .1110101111011100010100011—15 
E S Moore ,1011110111111111011010111—20 
8 J Moore 0111111011011111110011100-18 
Luther Moon 1101111001101101100010111—16 
H S Miller 0010000000011000101001100— 7 
W L Ho wlan'd .OOOlllOOOllOlOOlloOCOllll— 12 
L L Pratt 0100000000001100100010110— 7 
Chas Brothers 0111010110000011111001110— 14 
Frank Bonton lOOOlOlOlOOllOlOOlOlOOulO— 10 
A B Oreutt.... 0011010101001110001000001— lu 
J B Bradt ... .lllllGOOOllllulOlllOlOOOl— 15 
W. L. Howland, Secretary. 
The Anderson Brothers Won. 
Pittsburg, Pa., Dec. 22, — An interesting live-bird event took 
place yesterday on the private shooting grounds of J. S.. Mc- 
intosh, Spring Hill, Pa. Among the contestants were several ol 
the best live-bird shots in Western Pennsylvania. The main 
event at 25 pigeons, the scores of Avhich are given below, was 
really a match between the Anderson brothers and Messrs. Mc- 
IntOBh, McCance, Boyd and McNaughter As will be seen, the 
Anderson brothers won easily by the score of 83— 73. Scores in 
detail : 
G B Anderson 2012220122211212220222122— £2 
W M C Jones .2011211211010222120222222—21 
3 S Mcrntosh.... 1121220102121220201121112—21 
J G Anderson 2220222220021222202221222-21 
C Anderson 0112222012222120021221022—20 
J N Anderson 0212222210212222022220022—20 
Boyd 0102022211121101201021110—18 
McNaughter 0000202202121101121121121 -18 
McCance 2110210102212012112001100—17 
