Sept. 24, 1898,] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
253 
Confabulations of the Cadi.— V. 
The local gun club, of which the Cadi was president, was called 
the Egyptian Gun Club, although its real title should have been 
The Egyptian Company, Retail Target Dealers. Its constitution 
was that of a joint stock company, and the profits derived from 
the sale of targets to members and non-members — sales made under 
the cloak of merchandise shoots, etc.— were divided among the 
stockholders, so that the latter secured their own shooting for 
nothing, and made a profit from their thrifty sportsmanship be- 
sides. 
The club had decided to give a tournament, and the members 
who did all the work convened by appointment at the home of 
the Cadi, who, though barred from all else in club matters ex- 
cepting that rare and disinterested privilege of shooting "for tar- 
gets only," bore no resentment whatever. He accepted the situa- 
tion with the philosophical resignation that it was "all for the best,'' 
and that as between drinking hard cider on the shady side of the 
house and shooting in the sun hour after hour there were certain 
comforting advantages in favor of the cider— such are the blessings 
of a phlegmatic temperament, combined with contentment for 
what is, instead of grieving for the things which might be. 
Five of the working members were present: for it is a peculiar 
feature of club sportsmanship that the drudgery always falls to 
a few members who have to do the thinking and the management. 
As a consequence they become quite expert in thinking, as do 
the others in shooting. In a way, it is quite as difficult to become 
. a 95 per cent, thinker as it is to become the same per cent, 
shooter. The thinker sometimes gets the money. 
The committee of arrangements convened beside the lodge, under 
the comforting shadow of the great oak tree, each member seated 
on such object as best suited his comparative anatomy, or which 
in a manner designated his own greater or lesser importance in the 
gathering; for in every assemblage, be the same great or humble, 
there are those who lead and those who are led. 
The size of the company required that true hospitality should 
not be circumscribed by a pitcher, and this the sympathetic host 
promptly recognized by providing a bucket of elder instead. Each 
one gracefully balanced the bucket on his right hand and drank 
out of it with admirable ease, grace and endurance. Andy Coxey 
was last to tilt it, and after sundry stranglings and long breaths 
before he could resolve to let go, he placed the bucket close by 
him, within reach, wiped his mouth carefully on his coat sleeve 
and opened the meeting. "Gentleman and friends, about this here 
tournament. Perhaps I may be wrong, but then ag'in perhaps 
I hain't. I'm here to say that we want class shootin'. That gives 
us amatoors a chance in the money. We are agreed on every- 
thing but the system, and I want you to know that if you don't 
have class shootin' you can count me out; and if I don't shoot 
there are lots of others that won't shoot," and Coxey glared 
around the circle to see if there was one who dared to incur his 
displeasure by opposing him. 
There was an uneasy silence. Each looked at the other, and 
each sat with his elbows and knees pointing at uncanny angles 
in the embarrassment which came with the honors of formal 
statesmanship and the need of taking a definite stand on the 
subject 
'- At last a thought seemed to dawn on Moke, who said: "I 
make a motion that the Cadi be made chairman of this meeting.'' 
"Second it," said Ephraim. 
"Carried," said the Cadi, "and now the meeting will please 
come to order. You, as secretary, will keep the minutes, Moke." 
"I rise to a point of order," said Remus le Loup, of Coon 
Hollow, who was distinguished by a much-worn and soiled calico 
shirt. 
"I second the point," said Sandy Montague, of Razor Back 
Hill. 
"It seems to me that your action is overhurried and irregular, 
Mr. Chairman," continued Le Loup. "Don't we vote on the 
motion first to determine whether or not you are elected? Or 
do we vote cn it next week?" 
"I have already ruled on the matter," said the Cadi. 
"But according to Cushing and other parliamentary authori- 
ties there must be a vote on the motion," persisted Le Loup. 
"Not on your life," said the Cadi, with emphasis. "You forget 
that this is a gun club meeting, and Cushing therefore is not 
knee-high here." 
"I appeal from the chair to the meeting," said Le Loup, ex- 
citedly. 
"Before you appeal," said the Cadi, gravely, "answer these 
questions. Did Cushing ever win a pigeon match? Did he ever 
make a great score on 100 targets? Did he," and here the Cadi 
shook his finger straight at Le Loup, "did he ever belong to a 
gun club?" 
"But all that is—" 
"Answer the question, yes or no," commanded the Cadi. 
"No,"- said Le Loup. 
"Brothers," said the Cadi, in mellifluous tones, "the gentleman 
from Coon Hollow admits that Cushing didn't know how to 
shoot, and knew nothing of the affairs of gun clubs, therefore I 
would ask the gentleman from the Hollow what Cushing has to 
do with the business of this meeting. Perhaps the gentleman 
has an eye on a seat in this chair for the Coon Hollow delegate. 
If so I'll retire in his favor, if any member will rise and make an 
objection to me." Here all the members looked hard at Le 
Loup as if he had been caught stealing sheep. "The gentleman 
from Coorf Hollow may appeal to the meeting now if he wishes," 
concluded the chairman. 
"I have changed my mind," --said Le Loup, scornfully. 
"Mr. Secretary, you will inscribe on the minutes that the gen- 
tleman from Coon Hollow has changed his mind, and by way of 
emendation, and as expressing the sense of this meeing, you may 
add that it would be his gain and our pleasure if he would also 
change his shirt before Christmas time," added the chairman. 
"Ha, ha, haw, haw — " 
"Order, order! Gentlemen, order!" said the Cadi, as he kicked 
the side of the lodge with his boot in lieu of a desk and gavel. 
"I intend to run this meeting in an up-to-date manner, I have 
noticed that it is good modern usage at gun club meetings for 
the chairman to do nearly all of the talking himself, and to 
decide votes and things as best suits his own notions, besides 
selecting entertaining reminiscent and gossipy matters for sub- 
jects, so that all the important business of the meeting must needs 
be postponed and transacted at an adjourned meeting. Any 
objections, gentlemen?" and he placed his ponderous feet on the 
back of a chair reposefully. 
Not a member dared to raise an objection, as is the common 
manner at such meetings. 
"You, Coxey, will take off your hat and stand up when you 
address the chair, if you wish to say formally what you just now 
said informally." 
"Not by a long shot," retorted Coxey. "This is a free country. 
In regards to and concerning this here shoot, I say that we 
ought to have class shootin', and don't you forget it. You don't 
ketch me in this here tournament if you have any other system, 
and my friends won't shoot if 1 don't." 
"What friends?" queried Moke. 
"Never you mind what friends. I'll attend to that part my- 
self," said Coxey, angrily. 
"Order, order, gentlemen! This is not an old lady's tea party 
where everybody can carry on a conversation with everyone 
else simultaneously. You will please address the chair." 
"Mr. Chairman," said Moke, rising, with an I-ate-the-canary ex- 
pression on his face, "I heard you once tell some things about your 
ideas of class shooting, and perhaps for the benefit of the as- 
sembled officers of our noble organization you would give us 
some information on the subject. 1 feel that in making this request 
I am voicing the sentiments of the members present." 
"Yes, yes," exclaimed all together, glad to be relieved of the 
trouble of thinking. 
CLASS SHOOTING. 
"This is an unexpected honor, gentlemen all," said the Cadi, 
"so to begin the matter mildly I will say that class shooting 
is the rottenest system that ever was devised to govern a com- 
petition. It is utterly against the principles of equity and of 
sportsmanship. It recognizes and fosters a gambling spirit by 
its peculiar workings, and instead of being specially favorable to 
the amateur, as our learned brother so spiritedly remarked just 
now, it is against him, as it is against all others, as any system 
devoid of equity must needs be. 
"Let me illustrate the point with an example. Suppose that 
there are thirty contestants in an event at 15 targets, $1.50 en- 
trance, money divided 50, 30 and 20 per cent., targets deducted 
at 2 cents each, and that four tie on 15, two tie on 14 and one Is 
third alone on 12. Keep this in mind, gentlemen, for I have 
further figuring." 
"I declare to goodness, Cadi," exclaimed Ephraim, "I'm all 
mixed up in my mind already. Can't you go a little slower." 
"The good Lord is bountiful to all his children, gentle Ephraim," 
said the Cadi, with slow enunciation. "To some he gives great 
beauty; to others great wealth; to others again voluptuous ears. 
Even to you, Ephraim, humble as you are, he has given a lavish 
smearing of calf's foot jelly instead of gray matter in your 
sensorium. Remove the jelly, and you would no longer be the 
sprightly, intellectual companion whom we all know and love 
so well. Now I will try again, and if you fail to understand this 
time, I quit." 
The good Cadi then took a pencil and illustrated his subject as 
follows: 
Thirty contestants at $1.50 $45.00 
Targets, 450, at 2 cents 9.00 
$36.00 
"This amount, divided 50, 30 and 20 per cent., gives $18, $10.80 
and $7.20. 
"To make it clear to your eye, gentle Ephraim, I will arrange 
the winners and their winnings thus: 
First money. A. 
$18.00 $4.50 
B. C. D. Broke. 
$4.50 $4.50 $4.50 15 targets. 
Second money. E. F. Broke. 
$10.80 .$5.40 $5.40 14 targets. 
Third money. G. Broke. 
$7-20 $7.20 12 targets. 
"Now, good folks, will you please to explain to me on what 
principles of equity, or sportsmanship or anything that is founded 
on fairness and good sense, G gets more for breaking 12 targets 
than A, B, C and D do, who broke them all, or more than E 
and F, who were next to first? 
"The incentive in a competition is to excel one's fellows. All 
principles of sportsmanship recognize that the victor should 
have the greatest honors and the greatest rewards. 
"Class shooting is not a sportsmanlike competition, for (he 
incentive is not for each to excel his fellow, but to win money 
and to drop alone in. a place if possible to thereby secure the 
most money. Dropping into the most paying hole is largely a 
matter of chance instead of skill; therefore there is mixed into 
the system chance and skill; and a matter which involves 
the putting up money on a chance more or iess is accordingly 
a gambling institution. It is absurd to attempt to defend a system 
which eliminates largely all considerations of skill, and leaves 
the rewards of the shooter to a matter of chance, with the absurd 
result that the man who performed the worst may be rewarded 
the best, 
"Now, if the Rose system had governed in the above example, 
and the ratios had been 5, 3 and 2, the results would have been a 
perfectly equitable division on those ratios, with the gambling 
chance of dropping into hole alone entirely eliminated. It is 
.true that there would not be any very big winners under this 
system as compared with the gambling chance of the straight 
class system, but on the other hand there would not be such a 
melancholy group of losers; for where one man wins a lot there 
must be a number who lose correspondingly. The Rose system 
is absolutely the only system applied to class shooting which 
adjusts itself to any and all classes of ties, and still preserves 
invariably the equity of the division of the money. In the above 
example, under the Rose system, the results would have been 
as follows ; 
"Four men, 5 points each, 20 points; two men, 3 points each, 
6 points; one man, 2 points; a total of 28 points. Thirty-six dol- 
lar^ divided by 28 gives $1.28 for each point; therefore each first 
would receive $6.40; second would receive $3.84; third would re- 
ceive $1.28, as equitable division as one could Imagine." 
"But breaking 12 was a matter of skill." interposed Moke. 
"Quite true, Moke; but we a* considering the 12 as it relates 
to other scores and the rewards.' and not by itself. Breaking 14 
and 15 are matters of greater skill, and yei they are rewarded 
the poorest in (his instance." 
"But it doesn't always happen so," protested Moke, 
"The chances, as happens actually in tournaments, may com- 
bine in an infinite number of ways, as you can readily note by 
changing the number of men in the ties, and you can develop all 
kinds of absurd results. In practice, the workings of the system, 
so called— although it is no competitive system at all, inasmuch as 
no competitive results are attempted or obtained aside from 
money considerations— are absurdly ridiculous.'' 
"If it is all you say," queried Coxey, "how is it that it has been 
sojong in use, and so many times adopted by eminent clubs?" 
"As to the first part of your query, I may answer," replied the 
Cadi, "that the chances of dropping into a place alone are quite 
as seductive as the temptation to bet on a horse when the odds 
are 20 to 1 or 10 to 1. The odds are all against the win, but men 
have won and men may win again, as the deluded ones reason, 
though the men who take the long chances are the delight of the 
book-makers. It is the element of chance which makes it so 
tempting, and yet it works disaster to the sport, since first there 
are no honors in winnings where so many are tied, and last many 
shooters are led on to shoot beyond their means on the chance 
of a lucky landing into a hole alone. As to your second 
question, clubs adopt such systems as they consider most success- 
ful to their shoots, and therefore they adopt ones which they 
consider most pleasing to the majority of the shooters. A gen- 
uine competition contemplates that there will oe honors as well 
as rewards. Tn the old days, when the ties were shot out to a 
finish, there were some honors as well as rewards, but the 
shooters were too impatient to wait till ties could be shot off, 
and dropping for place added to the dissatisfaction, so the present 
so-called system came into vogue. Furthermore, it is not popu- 
lar, as you imply." 
"How could there be dropping for place when the ties were 
shot off?" queried Ephraim. 
"Easily," replied the Cadi. "Suppose that, in the above ex- 
ample, A, B and C are steady professional shots, and being 
nearly alike in skill and out strictly for the money, they Uis- 
like to compete against each other. If they do compete against each 
other they are continually shooting each other out of the money. 
Therefore they conspire together to win all the money and divide. 
So, in the above example, B would miss one bird and drop into 
,the ties with E and F; C would miss two birds and drop into 
a tie with G. In the shoot-off, the three steady shots. A, B and 
C, would shoot all the others out and divide all the money. The 
remedy was easy, if there had been any clubs with backbone 
enough to bar such dishonest shooters. Had there been a national 
organization, no doubt many beneficent reforms would have been 
established years since." 
DROPPING FOR PLACE. 
"Well," said Coxey, "we have stopped that dishonest practice 
of dropping for place now." 
"Bah! you haven't stopped the practice of dropping for place, 
and it is not dishonest," retorted the Cadi, promptly. 
"I was speaking of the old system. Dropping for place under the 
present system of class shooting is honest and allowable. Class 
shooting contemplates only the money phase of the matter, and 
as you are a shooter you know that it is devoid of all principles of 
equity both in theory and in practice. Referring again to the 
above example, what peculiar claim has G to the $7.20 that makes 
it unsportsmanlike for any one to drop a target and tie with 
him? Answer that. Supposing now that there were four who 
tied on 14, would it not be far more equitable for one to drop 
in with G, and thereby make a much fairer division of the 
money. You say that that would be contrary to the principles 
of a competition. So it would if this Were a genuine competition; 
but dropping for place is complementary to this rotten system, 
and you must not mistake the incidental feature for the thing 
itself." 
"I think that it is very wrong to drop for place," said Ephraim, 
pursing up his lips in a virtuous manner. 
"Why do you think so?" the Cadi asked in gentle tones. 
"Well, there are a lot of people who think so, and that's goo,dt 
enough for me," was the retort. 
"I don't care a hang how many people think so," said the 
Cadi, "if they can give no substantial reason for their think, and 
if it is wrong on the face of it. There are no end of people in 
the world who think differently and who think alike; and most 
of them, you will find, try to think on the popurar side, regardless 
of the merits of any given case. But before I attach 'any weight 
to any man's think, I want him to produce some substantial 
reasons for believing his think, or considering his think seriously. 
Mere assertion proves nothing, even if repeated to tiresomeness. I 
have many times heard it asserted that dropping for place was 
wrong— yes, outrageously wrong — yet I never have known of one 
good reason advanced for the assertion." 
"But nearly all the clubs say that 'dropping for place will not be 
tolerated,' " objected Coxey. 
"That is a fictitious parade of an honesty which does not exist- 
First of all, neither you nor any one else can tell whether a 
man misses a target to drop for place, or whether he misses it be- 
cause he cannot help missing. His last target might be missed 
at a juncture which would drop him into e. good place; but 
what man can take upon himself to say that the target was missed 
purposely. It is against all principles of justice that any. man. 
should be required to shoot under a system which puts him in 
a position where his honesty of purpose comes in question re- 
peatedly by the circumstances incident to a falsity of competition, 
and wherein the offense itself is a matter of mere assertion, without 
a logical leg to stand upon. 
"In law, the party who induces another to commit an illegal 
act is considered an accessory, and equally g,Utty with the chief 
offender. What shall we say of a management adopting a system 
which tempts a contestant or contestants to commit an offense— 
which, by the way, is an offense only by virtue of emotional asser- 
tion—and then when a contestant succumbs to the temptation 
offered, the accessory— that is to say, the management— punishes 
its partner in crime. I accept only for the moment your view 
that it is wrong, merely to show you where it lands you, for if 
it is wrong for a contestant to commit the offense, it is equally 
wrong for the management to offer the opportunity and the 
temptation. Both are parties to the same artificial offense as 
principal and accessory." 
"You are likely to get into trouble if you go on talking this 
way, my good friend," said Moke. 
"Bah!" said the Cadi. "If any one wishes to argue this sub- 
ject, I will be delighted to entertain him. All I ask is that- he 
produce something more substantial than a 'think.' If the Rose 
system were used in this headless juggle called class shooting, there 
then would always be an equitable adjustmeat of the moneys; 
but so long as managements pander to the passion for taking 
chances at long odds, just so long will there be wonderment as 
to why many of the shooters who once shot so regularly shoot 
now no longer." 
"We haven't got very far along in our tournament matters," 
said Coxey. 
"Committees never do at the first sitting," replied the Cadi, 
calmly. "Pass around the bucket, Moke, and this meeting 
stands adjourned to two weeks from to-day." 
Bernard Waters. 
A Three-Cornered Match. 
Centerdale, R. I., Sept. 13.— A pleasant three-cornered tareet 
match was shot to-day between Hugh Bain, R. C. Root and N F 
Reiner, on the Providence Gun Club grounds. Mr. Bain won with' 
hi. the score was: 
R. C. Root 78, H Bain 84. N. F. Reiner 76. ' 
This match was for $2.50 a corner. jj. p R EINEk 
At the Coimty Fair shoot at Fulton, N. %, recently, Charley 
ST"v r, ™& Hu ? ter Anns C.'s gun tester, and Jack Fannin* 
shot at 100 targets, Wagner breaking 90 per cent., Fanning 87 
