FOREST AiND STREAM. 
A Qmet Day^s Pigeon Shooting. 
It !s not possibly well known to the members and frequenters o£ 
Hurlingham that there are ■ still many good old-fashioned pig^eon 
gatherings held in the northern counties, where, though the birds 
are of the most pronounced barn-door type, the guns unwieldy 
lumps of shoulder artillery, and the traps of a rather primitive 
dovecot pattern, very good sport is sometimes aflforded. The bet- 
ting at these gatherings is very heavy, beyond the odd carts of 
coals, bushels of corn, and loads of turnips freely laid by the 
farmers, to say nothing of "cow's grass for a twelvemonth" some- 
times risked unhesitatingly on a single shot. 
It was at one of these meetings that a well-known country gen- 
tleman of the old-fashioned type now commonly to be met with at 
cattle shows was asked the question, "Were you really ever had 
in your life? for from my experience of you I can scarcely believe 
it. You buy better in most cattle markets, and no man, not even 
the village butcher, agrees that he ever did well buying from you." 
"No!" was the cool, complacent reply, accompanied by a quiet 
glance. "I'm glad of that; I make it a rule to have the best of 
every transaction if I can. If a man has the better of me once, 
well, then " Here he shook his head. 
"Ah! you wait, I see." 
"Oh, no. I knew a man once who was down in his luck, and or- 
dered m a cask of whisky and sat down and waited." 
"And luck came, of course!" 
"Nothing of the kind; just a fit of the blues and a man for the 
price of the whisky. No, no; you must do something more than 
wait." 
"Wait and watch, then." 
"That'll do," said the Squire; "watch and wait, rather. And now, 
if you'll just let me fill my pipe, I'll tell you the whole story. It 
just takes a full pipeful of tobacco to tell it over, and the puffs 
allow a man to gether his memory together a bit. Now, did you 
ever hear of one Stickleg Jones, the pigeon shot? No! Well, I 
am astonished, but I daresay you've heard of Major Jones, R. N,?" 
"Major Jones, R. A., you mean. Oh, hang! you must not begitl. 
that way, you know; that'll do for the marines. Admir^il Jones, if 
j'ou like, or Commodore." 
"Major Jones, R, N., I tell you. You see, it was this way: 
When Jones came about our little country place it was on the 
day that our great man died, a Capt. Wilkes, R. N., so Jones con- 
cluded to be a cut above him. You will see now the sort of a 
man I have to deal with in the story." 
"All right, fire away," was my rep'ly to this. 'T have no doubt 
you obtained him promotion before you had done with him." 
"Well, he exchanged out of our lot very quick, I tell you, w^hen 
I left him off; but just you wait. You say I tell a story fairly 
well. Then take a hint: Never interrupt a man who can tell a 
story; learn out of compliment to be a good listener. Help your- 
self to a pipeful of 'baccy, and wait. 
"Well, when Jones arrived at our little country place, we had a 
nice little pigeon shooting club, which held a meeting every week. 
There were some fair good game shots among us— men who could 
stop snipe in the very rush-tops, or bring down a rocketing pheas- 
ant from the very clouds, but were nothing to your Hurlingham 
or Gun Club men over traps. I was about the best man of the 
lot myself, and I had to stand l%yds. behind everyone. About the 
third week after he came to the place the Major, to the astonish- 
ment of everybody, joined the club. I say to the astonishment of 
everybody, for the Major had lost his right leg in active service 
on board his ship on the coast of Timbuctoo, or some other place, 
he used to say, and from his knee downward he was supported by 
a limb of wood; hence his sobriquet of Stickleg Jones. Howeverj 
we soon found that that did not interfere with his shooting; in 
fact, a right leg of wood gives a man a great advantage, more 
especially over traps, as he has only to stick the point of it in 
the ground, and using it as a pivot describe the arc of a circle 
with a 2Syd. radius, and bowl over his bird like a sort of pivot 
gun. This he used to do day after day, and limp home with the 
.stakes in his pocket, to the great disgust of the members of the 
club. One afternoon, however, he crowed so triumphantly that I 
offered to shoot him next day for a 'pony' 30yds. rise, five traps, 
10 birds each. 'Done!' was his ready call; 'the usual conditions as 
to birds,' he said. 'What are those?' I asked. 'Oh!' says he, in 
the mildest manner, 'you find the birds I am to shoot at, and 
I'll find you yours. "There can be nothihg fairer than that, you 
know.' Certainly,' I said, for I was greener then than I am now. 
Well, next day we met his man, a sharp Londoner, carrying his 
birds for me to shoot at in his basket, and me with a pannier full 
of the hardiest flyers I could find in my dovecot at home. Well, 
wc started oil in fair view of a full gathering of members of the 
club, 1 pulling his trap, and he pulling mine. He wanted nothing 
but fair play, did Major Jones, R. N. 
"Sticking the right stump deep into brown clay, he gave the 
call 'Pull,' and in five seconds afterward one of my nice h\g black- 
brown-and-whitc pea-fed favorites was fluttering its last on the 
ground as the Major stumped back with the same triumphant 
stalk that he used to walk the deck of his man-o'-war. It was 
now my turn, and he took up the string. 'Pull,' I called, and he 
pulled, and up sprang from the left corner trap an infernal little 
blue thing no bigger than a cricket ball, and went off like a 
rocket, seeming inclined to be grateful for my kindness in firing 
a couple of shots as a farewell salute. There was a roar of laughter 
from the crowd, and I heard the landlord of the Swan, our chief 
hotel, say, 'Squire's caught for once.' Caught I was, there was no 
doubt; and I can tell you I was never more glad in my life of 
anything when the job was over, for the Major killed eight of my 
barn-doors, while I was only able to grass 5 "of his beat bluerocks, 
which he had sent for to London over night; so I paid my 'pony, 
and laid up my gun in its old place in the rack." 
"Then you caved in at once. That's not like your form!" I said. 
"You just wait a little and you shall hear." 
"Ah! I see, you resolved to watch and wait!" 
"Just so. Nothing would tempt me to go in for pigeon shooting 
again, but all over the country when buying mj' young rams — for 
you know I like to do my own farming — I kept continually asking, 
'Do you ever come , across any man with a wooden leg that can 
shoot well?' The horse dealers at Horncastle Fair used to look 
twice at me to see if I was joking, and when they found I wasn't, 
they said, 'Squire has .a bee in his honnet!' 
"But surely you do not really mean to think that the Major's 
wooden leg was an advantage to him in pigeon shooting? It was 
good birds that lost you the match. Why, if you had wanted to 
worst him, you had onh^ to get down some of our best Hurling- 
ham shots, like Capt. Lei.ghtan, Turner-Turner, or some of them, 
and they would have given 2yds. in 30 and a bird in 7." 
"Just you let me tell my stoi'y, if you plea.se," said the Squire, 
"As 1 said, 1 kept on inquiring after one-legged shots, till I 
known as the -Squire who had a craze for sound horses and lame 
men. Sometimes they did send me up one. but they were fearful 
failures; railway pointsmen and the like, who had lost their legs 
at their occupation and could put thirty pellets in the side of a 
coal truck at twenty yjaces, if the truck were safe in a siding and 
the brake on. 1 generally gave tlieuj, tlieir dinner and sent them 
home again. Uut one day an old fellow limped up to the front 
door, with a double-barreled gun and a Inrchcr at his foot, bear- 
ing a note from an old frieird to sav that he was a notorious 
poacher who had his leg shot oh in a poaching affray, and \vas 
second to no man in the kingdom in handling a gun- Well, 1 
tried him myself and found that the certilicate was a genuine one. 
I concealed him, lurcher and all, aliout the premises, got him 
down a hundred bluerocks from London for practice, and on the 
day of the annual shoot drove him over in the dogcarl to the 
ground, and bade him sit still and watch the sport. Kverybody 
made me welcome, and no man pr<jfet.sed liimself more glad to 
see me than Major Jones, R. N. Ju.'-U to put him in y good 
humor, I lost a £5 note to him, and he was in the end jubilant, 
having won the stakes. My time, I knew, was just about to come, 
but I felt terribly afraid it wouldn't. The Major was in the habit 
of making peculiar challenges when victorious. Come it did! 
'I'll shoot any man in the company for £10. and any man on the 
ground with a wooden leg for £100.' 'Done!' I said. 'It's a bet, 
Major.' 'The ten, of course,' he said, laughing. 'No, the hundred,' 
as at the same time my poacher champion descended from the dog- 
cart and limped up to where I stood. He was the Major's very cotm- 
terpart, and his appearance was greeted with roars of laughter; but 
the Major did not seem to care to join in the general hilarity. 
Ten birds each, 30yds. rise, were the conditions fixed. I posted 
my hundred, and the Major covered it. Bird and bird both men 
proved equal, but the Major failed at the 6th, grassed the 7th, 
missed the eighth. With the 9th successive bird the ex-poacher 
won, and I repeated the challenge on his behalf, but the Major 
had had enough of it. I lifted the stakes, gave £10 to the win- 
ning shot, and drove home. I never saw the Major or that man 
afterward. Possibly they formed a wooden-leg gun partnership, 
and are starring it abroad. The landlord of the Swan said I was 
a man to beware of, and to this day tells how I got a crack shot's 
leg lopped off and healed up again to effect my purpose, rather 
than be beat. I have never had anything to do since with blue- 
rocks and blacklegs, wooden or otherwise, but that was the most 
diffiult time I ever had in making things square."— Rockwood in 
Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News (London). 
The date of the Haverhill Gun Club's tournament, Haverhill, 
Mass., has been c^ianged to Aug. 8, from Aug, U, 
Confabulations of the. Cadi^—XVIH. 
That delightful season of the year had come when the softer 
light and cooler air had superseded the glare and heat of summer. 
Tintings of browns, purples and yellows enriched the summer 
green which was still to be seen on all vegetation, while pumpkins 
and corn galore, and pigs of larger size, were substantial proof 
that nature, though beautiful, was purposeful. Herin lies a matter 
of deep ingratitude, or lack of true perception, shown by a class 
■who profess to be nature's most devout worshipers, namely, the 
poets; for, while they will grind out acres of "odes to spring or 
summer or fall," not one of them would compose an ode to corn- 
bread and bacon, the material part for which they are directly in- 
debted. They, with such success as may be, love to dwell on 
color, light, sound and passion, designing to play on the readers' 
emotions, thus ungratefully ignoring the source of all emotion, 
to wit, corn-bread and bacon. 
At this auspicious season there was great happiness in the 
home of the Cadi, for his wife's father, whom he deeply re- 
spected for his self-supporting ability, was a revered guest under 
the good Cadi's leaky roof. Stockily built and sturdy in bearing, 
Writh a homely yet good face, out of which bristled a wiry, 
healthy, full beard and a watch eye, this father-in-law was a man 
of more than ordinary individuality. His abundant uncombed and 
uncut gray tresses rested in graceful negligee, as they listed, while 
his garments, severely plain, had the chaste coloring made by the 
blended dust of many summers and the mud of many winters, the 
waistcoat in addition bearing a minute historical chart of his daily 
menu of many years. The .strata of the earth, in its transition 
from chaos to the present high stage of trap-shooting, tells jiot the 
storj' of its ffions, as did father-in-law's waistcoqt, in its endless 
laminae, tell of breakfasts, dinners and suppers eaten day by day 
through the far past. 
The children, each with a thumb in his or her mouth and 
swinging on one foot in steady, rhj^hmic movement, something 
after the manner of a needle in a disturbed compass, would stand 
by the hour a few feet or yards away, gazing on him with mixed 
emotions of wonderment, deference and expectancy; for, first 
of all, did he not come from a strange, far away region, fully 
three counties distant? Was he not a very important personage 
in that he was the father of their mother? ^nd was it not a possi- 
bility that he had candy or gingerbread in his pockets which he 
might produce in good time, and thereby repay them for 
patient, goggle-eyed waiting? But grandpaw was different from 
the visitors- who came from the great cities, for he produced 
nothing in the way of gifts. Still in his simple way he was very 
happy at the loving interest manifested toward him by his sweet 
grandchildren, while they in turn were quite happy in anticipa- 
tion of Avhat he might produce in good time. 
He had noted with deep concern the Cadi's habit of rest in 
company with his kindred idlers; so, with a view to reforming 
the household, he tentatively remarked to his daughter after 
breakfast, the Cadi being in the shade of the lodge outside mean- 
while: "Hopie, I hain't not no. jedge in yore fambly matters, 
but it 'pfears like to me zif ther Cadi's growin' nior' 'n' more 
dratted lazy every year. He hain't not no 'count no more." 
"Paw," Hopie replied, "you mustn't talk erbout ther Cadi that- 
erway. He's a sick man, 'n'' I don't care what ornery low-down 
folks says, he isn't. Me 'n' him gets, erlong all right, 'a.' I 
think hit hain't nobody's business if me 'n' him's suited. The 
idee!" aftec which she slapped and slammed things around in a 
way which both expressed her disapproval and relieved her feel- 
ings. "Paw" heaved a sigh, and concluded that it was better to 
remain simply a visitor than to attempt a reformation which 
was sure to end in trouble. 
Now, had he been at all versed in domestic diplomacy he would 
have said that the Cadi was the best and most industrious of 
husbands, with the immediate result that the Cadi in all probabil- 
ity would have had to cook his own meals and provide for himself 
thereafter; for Hopie Jane had the true spirit of a long line of 
ancestrj' which reached back to Eve. She had up to that time 
foregone all farm work in honor of her sire's visit, but, feeling 
that the dignity of the family had been attacked, she, after in- 
numerable commands, got the children under control and went 
afield to work. 
To her, as she saw things in her little world, the Cadi, poor 
man, was physically unfit for work; and if he had a certain 
natural repugnance for effort, mental or physical, it came from 
his higher mentality, more refined sensibilities and general 
superiority over other men. Withal^ he was ill; too ill to work, and 
yet well enough to be about. In her inarticulate way she believed 
that the Cadi's healthy, rugged exterior, supplemented as it 
was by a good sharp hunger for three meals a day and a most 
excellent thirst at all times, was an irrelevant circumstance; all 
his ailings were internal, and therefore out of the world's view 
and sympathies. Furthermore, he gravely assured her, there was 
something quite wrong .with his right kidney, over which he 
would place his right hand, by way of accentuating his story, his 
face meanwhile taking on the most agonized twistings and stretch- 
ings; and if these exterior signs of pain were a true index, no 
martyr at rest ever suffered more grievous tortures. Nevertheless 
he bore his pains with a certain degree of fortitude and dignity, 
for he never made a complaint in words, though at -proper times 
he groaned famously and had therewith a trick of half-closing his 
eyes and taking a pot hook curve in one corner of his mouth, 
setting his features very hard meanwhile, all of which impressed 
Hopie Jane with fears that the dear, good ' husband was on the 
verge of the gulf wherein men disappear and rest forever. If he 
had died, he thereby might have vindicated his claims to in- 
validism from the standpoint of the public; or even if he had 
grown thin or lost his appetite there would have been a point 
on which to hang an inference •that hiS health was failing; but 
he ate well, drank better, lilept soundly and worked not.. 
"Paw" gravely sought a seat near him, and Moke shortly after- 
ward joined them. He shook hands cordially Avith "Paw," sea.ted 
himself comfortably, placed his bare feet on the back of a chair, 
then said: "Cadi, I've about made up my mind to shake the dust 
of trap-shooting off my feet and quit." 
"I swow to goodness," said Paw, as he gazed at Moke's feet. 
"I don't think as how you could shake it off." 
"I mean that I am going to stop shooting," Moke explained, with 
extra gravity, looking hard at Paw and at the same time taking 
down his feet from their spectacular perch. 
"What has occurred to bring about this resolve, friend Moke?" 
queried the Cadi, in tones of concern. 
"-Oh, things are not what they used to be," replied Moke. 
"There was a time in the years not so long ago when a fellow 
could go to a shoot and win something; but shooting is going 
to the dogs generally these days. There are no more big tourna- 
ments, and there isn't the interest in powders and guns and loads 
and how to load, and everything else that there used to be. Some 
one ought to do something to revive shooting. We need a new 
plan or something or other, I don't know exactly what," and 
Moke sighed, as he knocked the ashes out of his pipe, pre- 
paratory to filling it and musing over the decay of trap-shooting. 
"YoM are an instance of the large class o£ men who think at 
ran'lom and talk a gi'eat deal about what they think.. Did it ever 
occur to you that shooters, first of all« for business reasons, cannot 
shoot all the time, and that if they could shoot all the time it would 
soon cease to be pleasure? Big tournaments, if they involve a large 
outlay on the part of the shooters, check shooting for a time, since 
in a short time they afford a great deal of sport to a great number 
of people, many of whom must refill their purses before they again 
can venture to engage in trap-shooting competitions. Few men 
care for any sport week after week, consecutively and actively. 
Considering the variety of good sports which have come into 
vogue and into competition with trap-shooting in the past few 
years, the fact that it has held its own so well— yes, more, that it 
has increased so much— is a most gratfying testimonial to the 
sterling worth of the sport. As a sport, people at large can use 
but a certain part of their revenue for it. They also can spare 
but a small part of their time. While there are not so many big 
tournaments, there are more small clubs throughout the country, 
for there is no town of any pretension to the name but has its 
gun club. One club of any activity will shoot away as much 
ammunition in a year as will be shot at a big tournament; so you 
will perceive that a multiplicity of small clubs are of much more 
importance in the shooting world than a few big tournaments, with 
their few big winners and their many losers." 
■■'But things are so different from what they used to be!" Moke 
exclaimed, with inconsequential tone which men assume when 
they ..ate- gpttiewlia* vague on the subject which they are consider- 
ing. 
•'Why shouldn't tbey be diflferent?'' queried the Cadi. "Dou 
you think that the world will remain at a standstill to oblige you 
or any one else? With more shooting and opportunities for disci- 
pline and instruction, it was perfectly natural that a class of first- 
rate shooters would be developed in time, not to mention a host 
of second-raters who are very close to the first. It also was 
very natural that the average shooter, being a man of intelligence, 
learned that a tournament was not the best school in which to 
learn the art of shooting. It was for the graduate, not the pupil. 
The local club has sprung up with gratifying numbers throughout 
the land. Your own personal observation is very poor data for a 
general conclusion, for what you observe in this neck of the woods 
must not be considered the standard of the whole country. Trap- 
shooting clubs have multiplied, and while there may not be so 
much interest in the big tournaments, for reasons Which we have 
before considered, the aggregate of shooting is much greater. 
The great gun factories have not been so busy in years. The 
shell makers have contracts far ahead, and in short there is a gen- 
" cral revival in ail that pertains to the gun and its use. This of 
itself is absolute proof that tliere is more shooting." 
"Perhaps the war has something to do with it," remarked Moke. 
"Which war? the Revolution or Mexican?" father-in-law asked. 
"Moke refers to the Mexican, Paw," and the Cadi winked one 
of his puffy ey£s at Moke. 
"A war always adds to .the shooting interest," Moke added. 
■'The big tournament filled a public need, in a way," continued 
the Cadi, "for it gave an opportunity to men far and near to 
contest with each other, and thereby determined relative ability. 
But there came a time when every shdoter knew eveiry other 
shooter, and when every shooter knew who would be first, second 
and third in the list of winners. In the meantime, a large class 
of very skillful shots were developed, and now, aside from the 
home club competition for pleasure, the demand seems to be for a 
competition which carries with it more distinctly personal honcu-s, 
and which exacts a higher degree of skill on the part of its com- 
petitors. That this is tecognized by the leaders in thought and 
action is evidenced by the great trap-shooting grounds in con- 
templation East and West, which certainly would not be seriously 
considered if shooting is on the decline. In the big events the 
trap-shooting gladiators, who are nearly equal in skill, can struggle 
to determine who has the truest eye, hand and endurance. It is 
folly at this stage of trap-shooting development to imagine that 
the v/eak shooters will meet the strong shooters on even terms in 
the same 'cheerful manner and such goodly numbers as they dis- 
played in years gone by. The average .shooters, beside studying 
shooting, have paid some attention to the mathematics of the 
sport. But, to return: There is a most commendable emulation 
foi* the higher honors, and a general participation in the shooting 
at the home club. When managements pay m6re attention to 
the equity of a handicap instead of the juggle of systems there 
will be a revival of tournament interests." 
. Bernard Waters. 
Calhoun Park G«n Club. 
PxTT.SBURC, July 16.— Herewith ai-e the scores of the Calhoun 
Park Gun Club's one-day tournament at inanimate targets. The 
morning opened up with a drizzling rain, and it continued until 
the afternoon. About the starting time there was a regular down- 
pour, which accounts for the small number of entries. The Ser- 
geant three-trap system, which was used, made a very good 
impression on the shooters present. Mr. Charles G. Grubb, Pitts- 
burg agent of the King Powder Co., of Cincinnati, O., refereed 
the shoot, and Mr. Saxil T. MacClarren was official scorer. 
Pills, Pittsburg's Fanning, made the only straight score in the 
shoot. Why? He shot Gold Dust during the downpour. Old 
Hoss' Brown's store squad scored a straight pour down across — 
you know Hoss don't miss many that way, through his glasses. 
He has found scales on catfish since he yost got home from his 
two weeks' vacation at his old home. 
Mr. S. H. Vandergrift's pigeon-retrieving Engli.sh 'setter dog 
Art died 5th inst. at the Herron Hill Gun Club grounds with 
jaundice. He retrieved pigeons at Elkwood Park during the 
Grand American Handicaps of lS9fi and 1897. Mr. W. S. King 
lost his fine English pointer Vic last week. .She is the second 
pointer he has lo.st within a yean Mr. J. O'H. Denny has 
presented him with a setter dog pup. He w'ill, be trained for the 
Monoiagahela Valley Kield Trials this fall. 
H. P. Shaner, secretary of the New Castle Gun Club, took part 
in the dift'erent events and announced that his club would give a 
two-days' shoot next month, and extended an invitation to local 
shots to attend. The results follow: ' 
Targets: IS 15 20 15 15 25 15 15 20 15 
H P Shaner 13 12 17 14 13 20 11 12 16 13 
C D Hagerman.. 11 12 12 ll 14 20 10 10 17 11 
Glenn 10 12 12 11 12 19 14 11 14 12 
Pills 1,^ 13 .19 11 12 13 15 11 18 14 
Cochran = S 8 10 8 7 .. 12 10 13 10 
Zeumer 10 12 14 11 14 
Calhoun 13 11 14 9 .'. 
Sandy - .: 1312 11 
Stevenson C .. 
Mains 9 
Scott 141611121712 9 12 8 
Porter 612 4.. 10 
Johnson Defeats Bocfcwaltcr, 
On July 12, on the grounds of the Keystone Stone Shooting 
League, Mr. Edward S. Johnson, of Atlantic City, defeated Mr. 
Harry E. Buckwalter, of Phcenixville, by the score of 97 to 95. 
Fine weather prevailed. There was a wind which blew from the 
shooters straightaway— a 6 o'clock wind. John Rothaker acted as 
referee. The scores: 
E S Johnson, 28 2212222222*21222222222222—24 
2222121121222022221221222-24 
2222202121222221211221121—24 
2211222122212222222222122—25—97 
H E Buckwalter, 28 1022222222222212222202122—23 
. 22220112222221*21*2211221—22 
1211112221222221122222222—25 
?21W2S1218l2382223221212-25-9S 
