230 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[Feb. 8, 1908. 
Registered Tournaments. 
Idiana^olis, Ind., Jan. 30.—Considered from the ama¬ 
teur's viewpoint, what effect will the recent action taken 
by the Interstate Association, with reference to registered 
tournaments, have? Will it be for the weal or woe of 
the game? 
These are questions that naturally arose in the rpinds 
of the amateur shooters' immediately upon receipt by 
them of the widely distributed announcement explaining 
the innovation, realizing, as they did, that it emanated 
front a source that was possibly influenced by considera¬ 
tions of personal pecuniary gain, rather than that of the 
good of the cause, as viewed from the amateur's stand¬ 
point: 
Among the conclusions formed by many amateurs, after 
a superficial examination of the new plan, are these: 
That it was none other than a concerted effort upon the 
part of the trade manufacturers to dictate to the un¬ 
organized body of shooters that they should thereafter 
do thus and so, or sever their connections with the shoot¬ 
ing interests; that the manufacturers were thus trying to 
force them into using a greater quantity of their products; 
that their cherished home clubs were to be absorbed, and 
their individuality be completely overshadowed by the 
preponderance of Interstate Association auspices; and 
that this very likely was but the first step in a pro¬ 
gramme yet to be devised by the manufacturers, whereby 
the prerogatives of the individual shooter and the gun 
clubs throughout the country would be further curtailed 
and domineered. 
A more deliberate analysis of the registered tournament 
scheme, however, does not justify the permanency of 
these random conclusions. The Interstate Association in 
the past has always dealt with the shooters fairly, frankly 
and honorably, and by pursuing this policy has accom¬ 
plished colossal good for the game. Therefore, until it 
has broken faith with the shooters, it is entitled to a 
continuance of that same measure of confidence which 
they have reposed in it in the past; and not until that 
time may its avowed intentions be justly discredited. 
Granting that the tacit purpose of the Interstate Asso¬ 
ciation is that of mutual trade protection and of further¬ 
ing the allied commercial interests of its stockholders by 
co-operative organization, or combination (which is en¬ 
tirely speculative, and totally at variance with the ex¬ 
pressed object of its formation), if, at the same time, it 
performs for the adherents of the sport the good offices 
that an elective assembly or congress of their own mem¬ 
bers could perform, why should there be objection to an 
assumption of control by the Association, even though it 
were feasible at the present to substitute therefor a 
representative controlling body? Thus far the Interstate 
Association has not overstepped the bounds of propriety 
In formulating rules for the government of amateurs while 
engaged in shooting contests; nor has it taken any action 
whatever with reference to the amateur class of shooters 
except such as their duly elected representatives might, 
to their great credit, have enacted and decreed—the most 
recent device, the registered tournament, not excepted. 
And as long as the Association continues to exercise the 
same intelligent and zealous solicitude for the welfare 
•of the shooters as it has heretofore exhibited, it must, 
perforce of its occupation of the office of control, con¬ 
tinue in that capacity; at least until such time as a 
flagrant failure, either by act of omission or commission, 
shall bring about a spontaneous uprising of the shooters 
in protest thereto. Revolutionary movements are only 
thus born, as a responsive solution to great emergencies. 
The ever present possibility of such a contingency is an 
effective check upon the possible avarice of the Asso¬ 
ciation, and there is nothing in the present order of 
things to warrant the fear of a calamity. 
The Interstate Association contrived the Grand Ameri¬ 
can Handicap tournament, and under its masterly direc¬ 
tion this event has grown, until it now occupies a posi¬ 
tion in the esteem of the shooters that is second to none 
in the whole world. If the Association’s early inven¬ 
tions are so signally and permanently successful, it is 
reasonable to anticipate that those arising from a riper 
experience and a wider knowledge of existing conditions 
and needs shall at least bring forth equivalent results. 
The registered tournament scheme evidently contem¬ 
plates, and is a step toward, a standard of uniformity 
of good practice in smaller tournament endeavors similar 
to that which has been accomplished in the larger. 
That the Association was actuated by other than 
ulterior motives in devising it is readily discernible, in 
that it has created and is to maintain what might be 
termed a bureau of statistics, at its own expense, and 
at no cost whatever to the shooter, the benefits of which 
will accrue as much to the satisfaction and pleasure of 
the shooter as it will be commercially valuable to the 
stockholders in the Association. It also assumes a large 
responsibility in granting to. the gun clubs of the coun¬ 
try the gratuitous use of its honorable and exemplary 
auspices, thereby practically becoming guarantor of good 
practices and fair treatment by any club that may avail 
itself of the advantages that are to be derived from 
“registering” its tournament. It will require but very 
few delinquencies to tarnish the exalted reputation which 
such auspices now reflect on the shooting fraternity, and 
the Association must therefore vigilantly guard against 
a possible perversion of .the jClementary principles upon 
which good tournament practice is founded when it thus 
hazards _ its good_ name in lending its moral support. 
And this centralized, zealous supervision will tend to 
elevate the standard of present-day practice, and make it 
better, good though it may now be. 
The primary object of a well-ordered shooting tourna¬ 
ment is to afford the devotees of the sport an opportunity 
to strive among themselves for supremacy under given 
rules and conditions of contest. Secondary to this, in 
the order of their precedence, are ( 1 ) that the contestants 
shall have an enjoyable time socially, and ( 2 ) that the 
club or organization giving or holding the contest shall 
have commensurate return for its efforts in promoting the 
contest. And any attempt to reverse or interchange the 
given order of these objects or purposes, to that extent 
perverts and stultifies the functions of a tournament. 
It cannot be denied that, in the past, in occasional 
instances, clubs have held shooting tournaments with 
but one purpose in view, and that simplv to make as 
much money out of the enterprise as was possible, totally 
disregarding the fundamental principles upon which- it 
should have been erected. It is true that pronounced 
instances of this kind have been rare, and it is indeed 
fortunate that it has been so. One such tournament, 
with all its attendant evils of “running” of its own 
momentum, haphazard and without the- intelligent guid¬ 
ance of a responsible or capable executive head, a com¬ 
plex mass of confusion from beginning to end, will 
inflict more injury to personal interest and zeal for the 
sport than a dozen orderly tournaments can restore. An 
amateur's fondness for the shooting game is as much due 
to his fascination for congenial companionship as to his 
bent for firing a gun and burning up ammunition. The 
essential counterpart of a gun is a companion, even 
though he be but a dog. If there were no one to shoot 
with or compete against, the most zealous shooter would 
soon abandon the sport. The amateur, therefore, is (or 
at least should be) as much concerned in maintaining 
and stimulating a lively interest in the game as are the 
manufacturers, whose products he consumes. It would 
be much better for all concerned if tournaments of the 
kind mentioned above, with their disastrously repellent 
effect, were never held. Any measure that will tend to 
promote good sportsmanship and elevate it to a higher 
plane, will also be influential in attracting the novice, 
reclaiming the backslider, and imparting renewed zeal to 
the veteran; and any plan that will effectually distinguish 
the orderly tournament front the questionable or danger¬ 
ous one will likewise serve a timely purpose. This seem¬ 
ingly is preisely the very object that it is intended the 
registered tournament shall accomplish, as such tourna¬ 
ments must be conducted strictly in accordance with the 
recognized standards of good practice and under the 
direction of responsible management. 
Then, too, the registered tournament plan seeks to 
supply a remedy for a woeful deficiency that has existed 
in club tournament experience, even when under the 
rqost competent management, ever since the game was 
first begun. And that is the perpetuation of its results 
in a feasible and an acceptable manner. Heretofore the 
ordinary club tournaments, at the best, have been but 
little better than mere farces. They have been transitory 
and well-nigh meaningless; the contestants would to-day 
vie with each other to their utmost and to-morrow forget 
all about it. The achievements which they may have 
accomplished during the one or two days of the com¬ 
petition have amounted to nothing more than to determine 
the relative skill or abilities of the comparatively small 
group of shooteis who were then and there engaged in 
the contest—on that particular day or days, and under 
the conditions that then happened to prevail—alone. 
The scores made in these tournaments have had no 
bearing or relation whatever to those that were being 
made by a vastly larger number of shooters, who were 
engaged in contests of similar character, at other points 
throughout the country, nor have they even ever had 
any relation to those that were made by the same indi¬ 
viduals in preceding or succeeding tournaments. These 
tournaments have been utterly void of any incentive for 
the amateur to exercise any greater skill than was neces¬ 
sary to defeat an attending friendly opponent; and their 
value has been so fragmentary as to render them almost 
as useless as the old-fashioned picnic—an appointed place 
for whiling away the time. All these shortcomings will 
be effectually corrected through the instrumentality of the 
registered tournament, as it embraces the feature of 
recording and compiling all the scores that are made 
therein by both amateurs and professionals, and provides 
for their publication at suitable intervals. The club 
tournaments, therefore, in the future, like the Grand 
American Handicap tournament, will have a well-defined, 
continuous and worthy purpose to fulfill—quite in con¬ 
trast to the lack of an extended and definite mission to 
perform as in the past. 
It is scarcely possible that the betterment which the 
registered tournament plan contemplates shall come to 
pass instantaneously; the evils which it seeks to remedy 
are of long standing and deeply rooted in the habits of 
the shooters, and consequently, the readjustment will, 
like all meritorious reform undertakings, be more or less 
gradual. It cannot be expected that the plan at the very 
moment of its inception is perfect in its every detail. Its 
actual application -will undoubtedly from time to time 
suggest certain modifications or enlargements that may be 
made with beneficial results. But it is a most excellent 
beginning. It is sufficiently well contrived to remove 
many of the hinderances which for years past have 
operated as a bar to the healthy development of the 
sport. 
The registered tournament is destined to occupy a posi¬ 
tion among the decisive and important acts of the Inter¬ 
state Association that will be second only tp the one of 
several years ago by which the shooters were’ divided into 
two distinct classes—the amateurs and professionals. It is 
such an extremely, yet efficient, remedy for the ills that 
have for so long a time afflicted the game that we may 
justly wonder why the scheme did not suggest itself to 
our minds years ago. The mind that did at last con¬ 
ceive it is certainly worthy of and is entitled to the 
unstinted laudation of every shooter who has a sincere 
interest in the promotion of good sportsmanship. Its 
early success will depend very largely upon the spirit in 
which it is received and held by the amateurs. The In¬ 
terstate Association has well and fully performed its 
part, in formulating the plan, and in inviting co-operation 
from the amateurs; and the problem is now up to the 
gun clubs of the country for furtherance. If they are 
keenly alert to their duty, and appreciate fully the op¬ 
portunity they now have for helping in a systematic, 
concerted way to enliven the interest in the foremost of 
gentlemantly sports, hereafter all tournaments will be 
registered tournaments. 
Harry W. Denny, 
Sec’y Indianapolis Gun Club. 
Mountain View Gun Club. 
Troy, N. Y., Feb. 1.—Despite the heavy snowstorm 
which prevailed here to-day, twenty-seven shooters par¬ 
ticipated in the regular weekly shoot of the Mountain 
View Gun Club this afternoon. Owing to this storm, 
good scores were an impossibility. Valentine was high 
gun with 80 out of 100 targets. 
Senator White, of Syracuse; Mr. Talman, of Dane- 
mora, and Mr. Platt, of Albany, were our guests to-da’ 
The lady members of the club treated the boys to' 
good old-fashioned clam chowder, which they prepare 
at the club house. After the chowder came pies vvhic 
were made at home. It was a great treat, and was er 
joyed by all present. The ladies were given a vote l 
thanks. 
The handicap for the Ballistite and Empire gold medt 
was commenced to-day, but owing to the bad weathe 
conditions only six of the boys shot the first lee 
Messrs. Valentine and Sanders were tied with 22 eacl 
The scores were: 
Shot at. Broke 
Shot at. Brok 
Roberts 
.150 
103 
Mrs Butler 
. 50 
< 
Sanders ... 
. 125 
89 
1 hitcher ... 
. 50 
2 
Milliman . 
.125 
S9 
Collins .... 
. 50 
1 
Farrell ... 
. 125 
77 
ITancox ... 
. 50 
Butler .... 
.125 
S3 
Yrooman ... 
..... 50 
k 
Lee . 
. 125 
47 
II Smith .. 
. 50 
dalman 
. 125 
64 
Miss Ruth 
. 40 
Valentine . 
. 100 
SO 
Harper . 
. 25 
White . 
. 100 
41 
King . 
. 25 
] 
Platt . 
. 75 
41 
9K 
i 
Thompson 
. 75 
39 
Miss Boltwood.. 20 
L Miller .. 
. 75 
36 
Ruth . 
. 15 
Sharp . 
. 75 
35 
Lord . 
Vollmer .. 
. 50 
23 
J. J. Farrell, Sec’y. 
Crescent Athletic Club. 
Brooklyn, L. I., Feb. 1.—The grounds were in ai 
overflowed condition from the storm. There was a high 
cold wind. The sky was darkly overcast. The scores 
however, were much better than one might anticipati 
under the unfavorable circumstances. Three of the con 
testants tied for the February cup, namely, Messrs. II 
Kryn, G. G. Stephenson, Jr., and T. W. Stake, henc. 
each has 23 targets to his credit, the three best score: 
of the month determining the winner. In the scratcl 
eyent, Mr. H. M. Brigham broke 15 straight and wa: 
high. The leg on the Stake trophy event was score! 
by Mr. F. B. Stephenson. There were two teams in thi 
two-man team contest, Kryn and Brigham scoring higl 
with 46, though Stephenson scored 25 from scratch ir 
his team. Scores: 
Trophy shoot, 15 targets: 
H. T. H. T 
F B Stephenson_ 0 12 H Kryn . 1 1 
H M Brigham. 0 12 Grinnell, Jr. 1 
Trophy shoot, 15 targets: 
I Kryn . 1 12 F B Stephenson_ 0 1 
H M Brigham. 0 12 Grinnell, Jr. 1 
Trophy shoot, 15 targets: 
H Kryn . 1 15 H M Brigham. 0 
T W Stake . 3 10 Grinnell, Jr. 1 
F B Stephenson.... 0 9 
Stake trophy, 25 targets: 
F B Stephenson_ 0 23 H M Brigham. 0 1 
C G Stephenson... 3 20 H Kryn . 2 1< 
Grinnell, Jr. 0 16 
February cup, 25 targets: 
H Kryn . 2 23 H M Brigham....... 0 2 
G G Stephenson, Tr 3 23 F B Stephenson ... 0 1! 
T W Stake. 5 23 L M Palmer, Jr.... 0 l: 
Grinnell, Jr. 2 22 
Scratch shoot, 15 targets: 
H M Brigham . 15 F B Stephenson .,. I 
H Kryn . 14 . Grinnell, Jr. 1 
Team shoot, 25 targets: 
H Kryn . 2 23 F B Stephenson... 0 21 
H M Brigham. 0 23 L M Palmer, Jr. 0 1! 
46 41 
Registered Tournaments. 
Pittsburg, Pa., Feb. 1.—Herewith is a list of touina 
ments tegistered with the Interstate Association during 
the week ending this date: 
Elmer E. Shaner, Sec’y-Mgr. 
New, Haven Gun Club, New Haven, Conn., Feb. 22 
Wm. T. Minor, Sec’y. 
North East Gun Club, at North East, Md., Feb. 29 
W. A. Blackwell, Sec’y. 
Mississippi Valley Gun Club, at Burlington, la., Apri 
28 to 30. E. Beckwith, Sec’y. 
Vicksburg Gun Club, at Vicksburg, Miss., May 10 t< 
12. J. J. Bradfield, Sec’y. 
Walla Walla Gun Club, at Walla Walla, Wash., May 
12 to 14. J. F. Smails Sec’y. 
Mt. Pleasant Gun Club, at Mt. Pleasant, la., May 1! 
to 21. E. Beckwith, Sec’y. 
Clarence Rod and Gun Club, at Snow Shoe, Pa., May 
21 and 22. C. H. Watson, Sec’y. 
West End Gun and Fishing Club, at Shamokin, Pa. 
May 29 and 30. George E. Crone, Sec’y. 
Mechanicville Gun Club, at Mechanicville, N. Y., Maj 
30. George Slingerland, Sec’y. 
Sylvan Beach Gun Club, at Sylvan Beach, N. Y., Jum 
5. M. Cavana^ Mgr. 
Champlain Gun Club, at Champlain, N. Y., June 1? 
E. F. Tiedemann, Sec’y. 
National Park Gun Club, Montana State tournament, 
at Livingston, Mont., June 19 to 21. Eug. F. Confarr, 
Sec’y. 
Manning Gun Club, at Manning, la., July 14 and 15, 
G. A. Rober, Sec’y. 
Iowa Falls Gun Club, at Iowa Falls, la., July 16 ano 
17. Jas. T. Brown, Pres. 
Sylvan Beach Gun Club, at Sylvan Beach, N. Y., Aug. 
5 and 6 . M. Cavana, Mgr. 
Dominion of Canada Trapshooting Association’s eighth 
annual tournament at Sherbrooke, P. Q., Canada, Aug. 
5 to 7. C. G. Thompson, Sec’y. 
