March 30, 1895. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
Syracuse Gun Club. 
Syracuse, N. Y,, March 21.— Thirteen members of the Syra- 
cuse Gun Club shot for the Club's medals this afternoon. 
Messrs. Rayland, of Rome, N. Y., and Dalley, of Baldwinville, 
N..Y., were guests of the Club. The scores were affected by 
the high and cold wind, which made the flight of the targets 
very erratic. Becker won class A medal, Morris the class B 
medal, Eddy winning the medal in class C. After the medal 
shoot the following shooters had a race at 50 targets, unknown 
anerle. Mowrey 46, Rayland 44, Morris 40, Becker 37, G-inty 36, 
Fuller 32, Dalley 29, Boyd 27. Gening broke 26 out of 40, while 
Simpson, Case and Arno broke 24, 22 and 27 out of 30 res- 
pectively. Scores in medal shoot: 
Class A. 
Ginty, 50 , 1100111111010001000001110 
1101001111010111110110111—31 
Chas Becker, 50 1110111111101111111110111 
0110111111111011100110111—41 
D Lefever, 50 1111010101111110111111011 
1111111111001101111110011—40 
GeoMosher, 50 1111111110110111101101001 
1111111111111011001010110— 3S 
Wilcox, 46 110111 0111011111001111011 
011111111101111111111 —38 
Arno, 46 llllllOUllllllllOllllllO 
110101011001101011111 —36 
Willard, 50 0110101111111111010010011 
0111111100111111011111101—37 
Mowry, 45 0011111110000111101111101 
11011010111101111111 —33 
Class B. 
Morris, 48 0111111111111111111110011 
11101111111111001111101 —41 
F. Lefever, 45 0100010111100000101001110 
11111101111111111001 —28 
Blizard, 45 0011111011101100111001011 
11001111011111000100 —33 
Class C 
Eddy, 50 .1111111111011101110111101 
0001111111111110110001111—39 
Dey, 50 1011110110010110011011111 
1111011011110011110101111—36 
Syracuse, N. Y., March 23. — The Syracuse shooters are 
working faithfully, practicing for the Dean Richmond Cup 
contest at Saratoga, hoping to do credit to the clubs they 
represent. The grounds are at Messina Springs, shoots being 
held every Saturday. The shooters making the best averages 
will compose the team. The birds shot at this afternoon were 
a good lot, very few duffers among them, a good number being 
really fast. Scores: 
C F Arno 0201220021211110112211021—19 
H M Chase 1112221110100111221021220—20 
W A Holden 1222102111211002202020021—18 
H White .2010211001221122120121212—20 
A S Wilson ^ 1121121121011111121111221—24 
Geo Mosier - 2002122112020221222020112—19 
Geo Wilcox 210112221221110 w —13 
A. R. K. 
Cobwebs Defeat the Newburghs. 
"West Farms, N. Y., March 21.— The Cobweb Gun Club 
turned the tables on the West Newburgh Gun and Rifle Asso- 
ciation of Newburgh, N. Y., in the second team race between 
these two clubs. The race was 10 men a side, 10 live birds each 
man, the Cobwebs winning by 77 to 71. The weather was clear 
and bright, with a northeast wind blowing across the traps 
from left to right. The birds were only a fair lot, several extra 
good ones leaving the traps occasionally. Knapp and Higgin- 
son were high men for their respective sides. Scores: 
Cobweb Gun Club. West Newburgh Gun Club. 
Pilkington. .12H '222110— 8 Taylor 1220021212— 8 
McKeon. . . .1002202011— 6 Likely 0012222112— 8 
Hendricks . .02*2201122— 7 Lenone 2100000120— 4 
Elliott 2222222202— 9 Halstead . ...2021002100— 5 
White 2022200012— 6 Dain 1220111021— 8 
Train 2102012111— 8 Wood 2**0202210— 5 
O'Dell 2222010112— 8 Higginson . .1112222212—10 
Knapp 1222221222—10 Dickson . . . .2101011001— 6 
Donnelly ...222112122*— 9 Horton 2221122202— 9 
Capt Loomisl020*12201— 6—77 CaptTaggartlll0220212— 8—71 
The Climax Gun Club Won. 
Plainfield, N. J., March 25. — The first of the series of three 
matches at live birds between teams of the Keystone Shooting 
League, of Philadelphia, Pa., and the Climax Gun Club of 
Plaiufield, N. J., was decided to-day on the grounds of the lat- 
ter club at Fanwood, N. J. The Climax boys won by 7 birds, 
scoring the excellent total of 159 out of 180, an average of 88 1-3 
per cent. Full scores of both teams: 
Climax Club. Keystone League. 
D Terry 15 B Landis 14 
A Woodruff 14 W M Pack 14 
"Dutchy" Smith 14 W H Wolstencroft 13 
Scott Terry 14 JWBudd 13 
Capt M mey 14 W Wilson 13 
Neaf Apgar 14 J W Wolstencroft 13 
F Van Dyke 13 A James 13 
P "Jay" 13 H Thurman 12 
E M Cooper 12 J Rothacker 12 
T H Keller 12 | W H Pack 12 
C Zwirlein 12 J Learning 12 
W Sigler 12—159 J H Wolstencroft 11—152 
Idle Hour Gun Club. 
The Idle Hour Gun Club, of Brooklyn, N. Y., celebrated the 
anniversary of its initial shoot on March 18, by holding a shoot 
at Dexter Park, L. I., and also enjoying a good dinner prior to 
the annual meeting and the pigeon shooting. The officers 
chosen at the meeting to serve for the ensuing 12 months are : 
President, Henry Hoffman; Vice-Pi-esident, vV illiam Burrows; 
Treasurer, J. F. C. Elfers; Secretary, Christopher Lakeman; 
Captain, John Bamberger. Three medals were presented to 
the club for competition: A diamond badge by President Hoff- 
man, a gold medal by Fred Elfers; and a silver medal by Chas. 
Pyne. These medals will be first, second and third prizes re- 
spectively during the year. The club shoot at 7 live birds re- 
sulted as follows: 
G Helmstedt, 25 ... .11*113*— 5 H Welshman, 23. . . .0011100—3 
Ch Coors, 25 021*121—5 H Huckfield, 23. . . ..0101001—3 
Ch Lakeman, 23 2222010—5 Wm Burrows, 25. . ..0000021-2 
H Boemmermann,25.0010111— 4 J Bamberger, 25. . . .0001200—2 
J F C Elfers, 25 201*101—4 M Malone, 23 0000100—1 
Wm Schmidt, 23. .. .0211010— 4 L Friese, 23 OOOOw —0 
H Meyer, 23 0102100—3 
Vernon Gun Club* 
Vernon, Tex., March 11. — The Vernon Gun Club held its 
regular shoot this afternoon with the following result: 
Club shoot, 25 singles and 3 pairs: 
G M Cook 1111111110111110011111111 11 10 11—27 
J G Matthews 1111011111011101011101111 11 10 10—24 
B Houssels 0011110101101010101110011 11 11 01—21 
G W Gales 1010100100111011110001111 11 11 11—20 
LG Hawkins 1001011110111100110101001 11 11 10—20 
L. G. HAWKINS, Sec'y. 
Jeannette Jagd Club. 
The March shoot of the Jeannette Jagd Club took place re- 
cently at Guttenberg, N. J. The club shoot is at 10 live birds. 
Mr. H. Rothman acted as referee. Score: 
D Boesch 1112122011— 9 Wm P Rink hoff. 0121 2011 12— 8 
C Offermann. ...2012121012— 8 F H Karsten. ...1021021102— 7 
H Rothmanu. ...1122101212— 9 J H Kroeger. . . .2111211011— 9 
CNBrunie ....1211111111—10 *C Steffens 1111212221—10 
F Ehlen .1201201220— 7 H Winter 0112111220— 8 
L Lehing 1020120211— 7 EG Loeble 1202011212— 8 
*A J Chester. ...1112012121— 9 H Raub 2012200212— 7 
H Otten 1211021211— 9 
*C. Steffens won Class A gold medal, A. J. Chester taking the 
Class B gold medal. 
Outwater Defeats Johnson. 
On Tuesday, March 19, John H. Outwater, of Moonachie, Ber- 
gen county, N. J., and Adrian Johnson, of North Bergen, N.J., 
shot a race on the grounds of the Union Hill Gun Club at Gut- 
tenberg, N. J. The conditions were: 50 live birds per man, 
26yds. rise, use of both barrels, gun below the elbow until the 
bird was on toe wing, $100 a side. A strong wind helped the 
birds very materially; without the wind the birds would have 
been classed as goad ones. At the end of the 43d round Johnson 
withdrew, being hopelessly in the rear, the score standing 34-25 
in favor of Outwater, who was doing some excellent work with 
his first barrel. Score: 
J H Outwater 1010212121112121001100111—19 
121112111100122011 -15—34 
Adrian J ohnson 02201002100201220221 10000—13 
101121112002012020W —11—25 
of their truth, he would never pass them by, as the Herald has 
done, without a word of comment on their import. So far as the 
Herald is concerned, it has evidently accepted them without an 
idea of their m eaning or a doubt as to their authenticity. 
In mentioning the report which was generally circulated about 
a month ago, to the effect that Mr. Watson had chosen nickel 
steel as the material for the skin of the new Valkyrie, we ex- 
pressed the opinion that he had not yet found good grounds for 
abandoning the composite for the all-metal construction, and that 
the new boat would be practically identical with Queen Mab, 
Britannia and Valkyrie II. We can now state positively that 
this is the case, and that Valkyrie III. will be built with keel, 
stem, sternpost and dead woods of teak, frames, stringers and ties 
of nickel steel, and wood planking. The keel was oast about 
March 4, the wood keel has been bolted to the lead, and the stem 
and sternpost set up, the frames rivetted and set up and the rib . 
bands run. In model the new boat is similar to Britannia and 
Valkyrie, a keel cutter, but with her leading features carried to a 
greater extreme. The yacht will not he ready much before the 
Clyde races in July, and will only meet Britannia and Ail«a on 
the Clyde before sailing for New York. 
Model Yachting. 
The new tronhy of the American Model Y. C. is likely to give a 
boom to model yacht sailing; and, in common with yachting and 
canoeing, a lively season is promised. We hope that the club may 
receive a challenge, as an international race of model yachts 
would come in well with the proposed races for both 90-footers 
and half-raters next September. 
The difficulty, if not the impossibility, of obtaining true and 
reliable information about new yachts, is shown almost every 
day by the alleged news set forth under startling headlines, only 
to be replaced next day by something quite different and even 
more startling. The "exclusive" stories thus far published about 
the new Cup defender, her model, material and sailing master' 
would of themselves fill a large book: and yet but little is posi- 
tively known beyond a few main points. The attitude of the 
owners and designers, and the demand of the public for news, 
offers a strong temptation to indulge the imagination at the ex- 
pense of truth, a temptation to which some of our esteemed con- 
temporaries have readily succumbed. 
Among those which have been foremost in spreading sensational 
and unreliable reports, the Boston Herald has long held deservedly 
the first place. Our readers will remember our exposure of its 
silly and sensational "fake" design of the Thistle in 1886; and 
from that time down to the present the Herald has been responsi- 
ble for much of the misinformation on yachting matters which 
has found its way into the American press. False and foolish as 
the Thistle fake was, it has been quite surpassed by the Herald's 
latest exploit in giving the dimensions of the new Cup defender in 
a three-column story which appeared on March 16. 
Divested of a great deal of irrelevant matter in the shape of self- 
laudation and mere idle chatter to fill space, the Herald's story is 
reduced to two plain statements; one of them new but not true, 
the other true but not new. The first statement relates to the as 
yet unknown dimensions of beam and draft, which are positively 
vouched for by the Herald writer as 22ft. plus some inches beam, 
and 22ft. 10 in. draft. The Herald's statements on these points 
are worth giving verbatim: "The Pilgrim outclasses by nearly a 
foot in draft. Isn't this a surprise? Everybody scared off in ex- 
treme draft except the Bristol man. What boats does she come 
nearest to on either side for beam dimensions? The Valkyrie and 
the Jubilee. Both of these measure 22ft. 6 in. extreme beam. 
The Cup defender does not measure quite as much as this; the 
above, however, are not far out from the correct dimensions. The 
Boston Herald knows them exactly. Pretty close, is it not, Mr. 
John B.? Few inches, eh! What boat on either side does she most 
resemble in draft, type for type? The Valkyrie, she is not far out 
from the Pilgrim's draft, although she is a different type of boat. 
In draft. Designer Herreshoff has seen Watson and gone him in 
feet hardly as many as there are fingers and thumbs on one's 
hand. It is not far off, though, the shortage being in line with 
baseball men's fingers, those that have bent up and shortened 
a little off their natural stretched-out length. There is about the 
same difference in the length of the draft, 22ft 10 in., that there is 
in the short fingers of baseball players. Still the above is pur- 
posely put, so as not to be absolutely exact. Pretty close, how- 
ever, is it not, Mr. Superintendent?" 
These dimensions, which are stated thus positively within the 
limits of a few inches, are accompanied by a sketch of a midship 
section similarly vouched; for as practically that of the new boat. 
Assuming the beam given by the Herald, about 22ft., this fake 
section scales to a draft of but 17ft., instead of 23ft. These dimen- 
sions are something extraordinary, the alleged draft is not only 
unprecedented in any keel yacht, but is far in excess of what is 
desirable or even necessary; and the beam would indicate that 
while all designers have been taking more and more beam for two 
years, Mr. Herreshoff had in this one important boat resorted to 
less beam than the unsuccessful Navahoe. From whatever source 
they came, no intelligent yachtsman would accept such dimen- 
sions without the if ullest corroboration; and Lit. finally convinced 
So much for what is new but not true; now for the part that is 
true but not new. For several years there has prevailed among 
yacht designers a unanhnity of opinion never hef ore known; and, 
one and all, they have worked to greater extremes each year in 
several important particulars, greater beam and draft , smaller 
displacement and area of midship section, reduced lateral plane, 
higher center of buoyancy; and lower ballast, through deeper 
bulb-fins or heavily weighted centerplates. Herreshoff, Watson, 
Fife, Payne, Nicholson, Soper, Hope, the latter in fact, in the very 
small boats, going to the greatest extreme, have vied with each 
other in this cutting away of everything in the search for higher 
speed; and with most advantageous results. Now comes the 
Herald with the exclusive information that in the now Oup de- 
fender Mr. Herreshoff is doing just what he, as well as other 
designers, has been doing in previous boats; and Just what every- 
one has confidently looked for in the present case. 
There" are a great'many interesting things about the new boat 
which are yet unknown; in fact all that is definitely and positively 
certain is that she will be a keel boat, of great draft, and with 
steel frames, plated on the bottom with a bronze alloy, and possi- 
bly on the topsides as well. The general construction of the keel 
proper is also known, of three bronze castings of peculiar form. 
The dimensions, details of form, rake of stem and sternpost, 
shape, construction and position of rudder, are all unknown at 
the time of writing. Without claiming any inside Bources of in- 
formation, and admitting a doubt'as to the new boat being a keel 
a centerboard or a fin craft, or of 3teel, bronze or composite con- 
struction, yachtsmen generally have from the first looked for cer 
tain things from Mr. Herreshoff in his next large boat, as the re- 
sult of the races of Vigilant in the past two seasons. It has been 
confidently expected that the new hoat would turn much more 
quickly, that she would have a hollower 'section and lower lead 
than Vigilant, that the lines would be fined and faired all over, 
giving an easier form, and that the very faulty sail plan of Vigi- 
lant, with the center of effort abnormally forward, would be im- 
proved by a lessening of the headsails and a proportionately larger 
mainsail, as in the British boats. It woidd indeed be news that 
only the unexpected had happened, and that Mr. Herreshoff had 
gone in exactly the opposite direction; but it is no news, as the 
Herald would '.have us believe, that he has done what every one 
looked for him to do. 
One characteristic item of the Herald's exclusive news is that 
relating to the bulb keel, that it is acorn shaped in cross section, 
ta pering fore and aft, and has its greatest section forward of the 
center. In these three respects it is exactly like the smaller and 
older bulbs from the Bristol shops, on Dacotah, Wenonah, Drusilla 
El Chico, and many more, to say nothing of the use of the same 
form by all other designers. 
This wonderful story of the Boston Herald appeared next day 
in more condensed form in a number of papers in other cities, 
being in some cases credited to the Herald, in others being passed 
off as the work of the paper's special correspondent at Bristol. 
What is particularly amusing is the fact that this copying was 
done with so little knowledge of the matter in hand that the co- 
efficient of the midship section was given as 35ft. instead of 35 per 
cent. 
Before these stories were fairly off the press, however, the 
Herald was again to the fore with another exclusive announce- 
ment, as follows, in its issue of March 17: "In using the word 
'draft' for 'depth' in yesterday morning's Herald, an en-or was 
made which led to a wrong comparison of the Bristol boat with 
others. The depth of the Cup defender is 23ft, while the draft 
is 19ft." The oft -repeated statements of the dimensions through- 
out the first article, some of which we have qtioted above, show 
beyond question that there was no mere clerical or typographical 
error, as the Herald claims, but that the Herald writer actually 
believed the figures which he vouched for so boastfully. 
But this is not all, after a little characteristic chatter to divert 
the attention of the reader, the article continues: "The exact 
dimensions of the Cup defender were purposely not stated yes- 
terday, but they are given to-day. No doubt one dimension, that 
of beam, will cause surprise, for it puts a somewhat different 
aspect on the outcome, the following are the figures: extreme 
beam, 27ft.; extreme draft. 19ft." The article closes very briefly!, 
with none of the boasts and bluster that characterize the first 
story. 
Any doubt which might exist in the mind after reading the first 
story, that it was a most unwarrantable piece of sensationalism < 
is at once dispelled on reading the very lame attempt at its cor- 
rection. The only tenable supposition is that in its search for 
sensation, the Herald has once more fallen a victim to its own 
blind credulity, and has accepted as true a most improbable and 
absurd fiction which it has palmed off upon its readers as truth 
and news. Had the figures been somewhat le3s extreme, the mat- 
ter might have been passed over until some new fake could have 
been found to attract attention from it. 
In the case of the Thistle fraud, there is reason to suspect that 
when it became known to Mr. Watson that the agent of the Herald 
was endeavoring to obtain the di - awing by unwarranted means, 
the said agent was allowed to get possession of the rough drawings 
made for securing estimates, and m no way representing the 
form of the boat. As we showed at the time, and as subsequent 
events proved, the drawings were impossible ones, and should 
have deceived no one of ordinary intelligence or knowledge of 
yachting. In the present case, we should not be in the least sur- 
prised to find that the dimensions given in the Herald's first 
article had come more or less indirectly from the Herreshoffs 
themselves, in retaliation for the Herald's attempts to obtain the 
true dimensions in some way peculiar to itself. At any rate, we 
warrant that no one read the self-confessed failure of the Her- 
ald's exclusive "scoop" with more pleasure than Mr. John B 
Herreshoff. 
The position of the yachting writer to-day is by no means an 
easy or a pleasant one, he is .expected to know everything that is 
going on in the yachting world, especially in. the shops and draft 
ing-rooms; and he is denied by owners, designers and builders 
together, even the most unimportant items of news. He is supposed 
to be fully posted on ail the points of a new yacht before her first 
race, while he is denied all opportunity of seeing her until she i 
finally hauled out to clean or paint, in midsummer. 
The ethical question of how far a man may honestly go, in his 
legitimate business as a news-gatherer, in obtaining information 
which is denied him, is one that each writer must decide for 
himself many times in a season. The attitude of many designers 
and owners is not of itself calculated to inspire any high motives 
in the breast of a writer, as they usually treat all alike, giving no 
more aid to those of established reputation and known veracity 
