April 12, 1913 
FOREST AND STREAM 
469 
Forest and Stream is the official organ of the National Archery Association. 
About Teaching Beginners. 
BY ROBERT PAGE LINCOLN. 
With the resurrection of archery as a 
pastime among the outdoor kindred, there is 
gradually coming to light what we are pleased 
to call, "hints to the amateur.” There you have 
it: hints to the amateur, but while there has 
been cpiite a bit dispensed through the columns 
of Forest and Stream. I have yet to find the 
man that has said anything which the crude—the 
downright crude—beginner can build upon. 
There has been a mass of scientific twaddle 
by E. J. Rendtorff purporting to serve as step¬ 
ping stones to success, but honest, it has almost 
broken my back. Think of starting in to teach 
amateurs about archery w’ith the sky-soariug 
dope this professor hands out! If he would use 
common low-brow language and leave some of 
his high-brow feelings at home, I think the 
amateur would be more generally pleased, and 
he would know more about what to do than he 
does now' after wading through this fellow's 
scientific outbursts. Why in the name of all 
things does he not get down to bottom facts 
and give us the rudiments of it—the first prin¬ 
ciples? Instead, he starts right in as though 
everybody knows or should know the foundation 
facts, forgetting that there are some people not 
as quick-minded and scientific as others. If I 
were the expert some of these archers claim 
themselves to be, I would first of all in starting- 
out to tell beginners how to do things in this 
line what sort of wood to use for a bow. Notice 
how scrupulously free Mr. Rendtorff's articles 
have been on this point. I think it was three 
or four weeks ago that an ‘'insignificant” 
amateur asked through these columns just what 
sort of wood one should use in a bow, but to 
date I notice no experts have come to the front 
with valuable, straight from the front, material. 
That is the first point, my dear and obliging 
experts, and believe me it is one of the main 
ones of the whole business. Get that dowm pat. 
And right here comes in one big one, and it 
directly hinges upon the above remark. The 
obliging and scientific professor had a Duff 
lemonwood bow weighing fifty-five pounds. With 
this bow he has made alleged remarkable scores, 
and he has hardly been in the game more than 
a year, and somewhere I believe he made men¬ 
tion of the fact that he is below normal in 
muscular arm development. But that has nothing 
to do with what I am striving for. It is this: 
Imagine this professor holding a fifty-five-pound 
how at arm’s length and shooting with it! I 
am from Missouri, and you have got to show 
me. Fifty-five pounds — get that! Fifty-five 
pounds! I have never been more surprised in 
my life. What in the world are these things 
like? Are they on the order of gas pipes? 
Recollect, my dear brother amateurs, that we do 
not know what sort of wood these tournament 
ginks are using. But fifty-five pounds, and even 
then look how they are trimmed down. I won¬ 
der if the professor, when he weighted this bow, 
wasn't standing on the scales also? Honest, I 
can’t see where the amusement in archery comes 
in when one is using a bow of this weight. 
I have shot with many bows, but the weights 
of them have been so insignificant compared 
with this that I refrain from setting down the 
same for fear I will be promptly ridiculed by 
the upper bunc’n who seem to be so aloof from 
the amateur clan. I have wondered many times 
HOMER Vf. BISHOP. 
President Chicago Archery Cluh, 1912. 
if archery is not for the favored few, just as in 
all other things. I wonder if this is a poor 
man’s pastime after all. I have never been near 
totirnaments—never will. It smacks of the elite. 
I have been lured to come, but where would 
an amateur be with the uppers? But I am going 
beyond my subject. I have shot with bows of 
comparatively small weight. I received my arch¬ 
ery education when a small kid from an Indian 
youth, and what I learned was bottom facts. 
His bow was made of ironwood. I have since 
constructed and used such bows of such wood 
with success, but some of the trees I have shaped 
them from have not weighed fifty-five pounds. 
I have never purchased a how ready made. The 
joy of it all centers around the constructing of 
them. I wonder how many of our "experts” 
make their own bows or have made their own 
bows? But fifty-five pounds for a bow—think 
of it! If it is true, then please let us know 
what variety of breakfast food or book-learning- 
one must eat to become powerful enough to 
draw a string back to the chin with a fifty-five- 
pound bow, hold it while getting the point of 
aim and elevation—before the final release. I 
admit tinblushingly that I am astonished. I have 
a photograph of Edward Weston, the dean of 
the American archers. If in that picture the bow 
weighs even one-third of Mr. Rendtorff's bow. 
I will admit myself befuddled eternally, and will 
withdraw without as much noise as a mouse. 
Mr. Weston holds his bow with apparent 
ease. He has not the vitality of a younger man 
and still he holds the bow with ease. I would 
like to see a photo of the ardent and scientific 
professor standing thus with his fifty-five-pound 
lemonwood bow at arm’s length before I will 
give it any thought at all. And it would be very 
nice and befitting if the “experts” would come 
forward and give their ideas of bows, their 
weight, where to get the wood, what variety of 
wood, how many kinds there are worthy of 
attention; just what hardwood to take and what 
not to take and reasons for such without col¬ 
lecting an aggregation of spell-binders and scien¬ 
tific paddlers enough to choke a mule; where 
such wood might be obtained outside of those 
purchased ready made. Then start in and tell 
what the professor did not tell; tell what tools 
to use, how thick the bow should be at the grip 
and how thick the limbs should be. Tell how 
to make the notches at the ends where the 
looped cord or string slips in, and what sort 
of a string to use; why a certain kind of string; 
point out some inferior ones; tell about how to 
care for the string; what preparation to put on 
it, if any; tell the amateurs how they shall pull 
the cord on a fifty-five-pound bow without tear¬ 
ing- their fingers out of joint. Because you know, 
my dear amateurs, you hook the fingers around 
the cord, the arrow notched between, and when 
you are ready to release, after you have found 
your elevation and point of aim, you allow the 
string to gradually slip off. You never use the 
pinch; that is to say, by pulling the notched back 
between the thumb and the fore-finger. That’s 
something the professor in his eagerness forgot 
to tell you. Also he said nothing about blood 
stung finger tips; the use of gloves and wrist 
guard, or why one should wear such. 
I would like to know where the eminent 
professor got his information on how to season 
the bow. I wonder if he has ever seasoned or 
made a bow himself? If he has. certainly he 
could do better than what he put down in black 
and white just recently. He infers, or theo¬ 
rizes, he does not give it as actual results from 
experiments. Note that! There will have to be 
