May 13, igi i.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
757 
Barnstorming in the South. 
Chattanooga, Icnn.—An enthusiastic crowd of spec 
tators and twelve amateur contestants gathered at the 
grounds ° f the Chattanooga Gun Club on the afternoor 
ot May 1 to meet Messrs. Fred Gilbert, C. O. Le Compte 
l has. A. Y oung and A. M. Hall, who were visiting ana 
shooting with the club on that occasion, and in spite 
ol a stiff wind witnessed some very high class shooting 
indeed, as the finish showed Messrs. Gilbert and Young 
.ied on 94 out of 100 for first place, with Le Compte 
Uose up with 90. Messrs. Oswald Kothe, A. E. Pooler 
and John llibbett’s, of the local club, put up some very 
creditable scores, and led the amateurs in the order 
named. 
At South Pittsburgh, Tenn, the next day, the same 
delegation, reinforced by Messrs. W. O. Le Compte and 
I. li. 1 lummer, turned in a nice average score of about 
J5 per cent, the order in which they finished being: 
r ' A - ' ° un 8 98 out of 100, F. Gilbert 96, W. O. Le 
Compte 95, C. O. Le Compte 94, P. B. Plummer 91 
Air. hfall, not joining in the contest, his place was very 
creditably filled by Billy Le Compte. 
On this occasion a crowd of two hundred spectators 
an J amateur shooters was present. Dr. Lassiter 
and Mr. \\ ill Lea, of Bridgeport, Ala., turned in the 
best scores, while Mr. J. B. Phillips and John Coffelt 
lent everything in their power toward making the occa 
sion the pronounced success that it was. 
At Sweetwater, Tenn, May 3, the first real excitement 
of the trip began, when it was discovered that Manager 
Le Compte (Farmer) had really succeeded in checking 
the baggage properly and had finished his argument with 
the gate-keeper. Each of the squad now left—for Billy 
Le Compte had deserted us—settled himself comfortably 
or otherwise to enjoy the trip up from Chattanooga, when 
suddenly Fritz Gilbert was struck with an idea. Now 
this may seem incredulous, but nevertheless it is a fact, 
and when we reached Sweetwater it had grown to such 
proportions that he could not contain it any longer and 
had to divulge it to the crowd. Now, Fatty had read in 
the paper where Frank Gotch was billed for a wrestling 
match at Knoxville on the night of the day on which 
we were to shoot there, and thinking to “put one over” 
on his old friend, likewise gain the distinction of being 
the only living man to make Gotch “take water,’’ so to 
speak, sent him a challenge to wrestle him one fall for 
?100, provided Gotch would shoot him a match at clay 
targets for $200; and with that famous smile on his face 
which might mean anything from “that’s good,” to “I 
guess that’ll hold you for a while,” turned to old man 
Le Compte and announced that he was ready to go to 
the shooting grounds. 
Sweetwater has as pretty a place to shoot as could be 
wished for, and though the two expert traps caused quite 
a little trouble during the program, on the whole, the 300 
or more spectators and fifteen amateurs enjoyed one of 
the most pleasant afternoons of the entire trip, and wit¬ 
nessed some excellent shooting, which resulted in another 
tie on 96 out of 100 bv Gilbert and Young, while Plum¬ 
mer came next with 90. Though none of the amateurs 
'completed the program, the shooting of Mr. J. L. Brown 
and J. G. Johnson, both of the local club, was very 
creditable indeed. Mr. T. B. Guthrie and John Brad’ev 
had charge of the shoot and added greatly to the 
pleasure of the squad while in their city. 
The squad reached Knoxville in good time and high 
spirits, each and everyone eager to learn the answer to 
Fritz’s challenge; but there was “nothing doing.” No 
w'ord or message awaiting us, and we all left for the 
shooting grounds feeling much elated over the prospects 
of “Fatty’s” “getting away” with it. 
At Knoxville there were twenty-seven shooters, and 
though the number of spectators was hardly as great as 
on the two previous days, yet about 150 or more enthusi¬ 
asts were present and enjoved the sport to the limit. 
One feature of this shoot, different from the others, w'as 
that nearly every one of the amateurs completed the 
program, and quite a number competed in the event at 
25 pairs. Howard Van Gilder, of the local club, though 
suffering somewhat with a troublesome tooth, managed 
to land high amateur with a good 90 per cent., with 
C. A. Burks and Sanford Burnett close up. Gilbert led 
the field with a nice 94. per cent., with C. E. Goodrich, 
of Chicago, who joined us at Knoxville, second with 91. 
C. A. Young had the misfortune to break his gun after 
having dropped but one target in 60, and could not keep 
up the excellent work he has been doing all this spring, 
and landed third professional with 89. 
After the regular program was completed an extra at 
25 pairs was pulled off, and it was while returning from 
the last round of this event that a messenger boy ap¬ 
proached Gilbert and handed him a note. Quickly we all 
gathered around him, anxious to learn its contents, for 
we knew it was from Gotch: and this is what we read: 
“Fred Gilbert, care Gun Club: Your conditional chal¬ 
lenge received I "ill accept same gladly, provided we 
wrestle first.—Gotch”. 
The train left for Morristown, and we caught it. 
A deceptive background at Morristown made the shoot¬ 
ing awfully hard for most of us, though the Wizard of 
Spirit^ Lake did not seem to notice it, while Goodrich 
and Young both took care of themselves in good shape. 
Gilbert on this occasion turned in the great score of 98 
out of 100, with Goodrich 93 and Young 92. Plummer, 
Le Compte and Hall finished in the “also rans.” 
Hugh Mims and Joe Hill looked after the arrange¬ 
ments and did some very nice shooting, though W. S. 
Murphy, of the local club, with 85 per cent., led the 
amateurs and received the applause and congratulations 
of the one hundred or more spectators. 
If there is a more enthusiastic bunch of shooters or 
cleverer lot of gentlemen than compose the Johnson City 
Club, I have never shot with them, and with Messrs. J. 
A. Slaughter and W. H. Cressman looking after the ar¬ 
rangements the week’s "barnstorming” wound up in a 
blaze or glory, with Fred Gilbert the Big Blaze. Of the 
thirty odd shooters, he led the bunch with a duplicate 
of his score yesterday at Morristown, another fine 98 
out of 1P0. Chief Sparrow Young was next with 94, and 
Goodrich tlvrd with 93. Dr. Rhea, of Bristol, and 
Messrs. Williams and St. John, of the local club, all 
three turned in good accounts of themselves in front 
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the narrative of a sportsman 
I 
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