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Show 6 Ti I K FINK MARKSMANSHIP OF Till HOICKS. The Boer of hSSl wan the best marksman in the world. He was a ViHrtnkler who loved the wilderness, and dailv shot game for food, and natives for sport. There were lions by the score to tempt his skill with the rille, herds of trumpeting elephants, buffaloes and giraffes, swift little oribi, graceful antelopes, ami blue striped :t Ih'fstcs by the hundreds. He was a lover of -- magnificent distances and in town or village he felt ill at ease and longed for the wilderness or the limitless veldt. From the time from Cape they voortrckkcJ northward s of their Colony they spent time in shooting either the wild animals or wilder savages the fighting Kaffirs who contested every square foot of territory with them. The rifle of the early Koers was an muzzle-loadinaffair, and this trusty rooier is largely in use today. In the wilderness amunition was scarce, and every cartridge had to count. When a Hoer went hunting he took three or four cartridges "IVc.ium- in his with him. Why so few: I own words, only mean to bring home That superb confithree or four buck's. dence in his skill with the rifle was justified. At 7C0 yards the mighty nimiods of South Africa could bring down a running buck everv time. At ;co aids a living bird co: Id be brougl t to earth with o. e shot. It was slow and dumsy woik leading the old muzzle-loadin- g rfles, and when tin: hunter met a lion at close range he knew that lie must kill him or be killed, lie never retreated, but unerringly brought his savage game down with the first bullet. In ten years these patriarchal Boers cleared the country of five or six thousand lions, and almost exterminated the wild buffaloes, longnecked giraffes, and elephants in the Transvaal country. When a single hunter was attacked by several wild Zulus or Kaffirs, he cooly waited until within 800 yards of him; then he would shoot the foremost, and have time to load up for the next before the distance between them could be covered. He never counted upon missing his enemy, and the natives soon learned to know this. The first to approach a Hoer hunter knew that he would be killed, and in time it was hard work for a native chief to induce his followers to attack even a single Hoer. Their only hope was to surprise him without his trusty rifle in hand. It was this class of sturdy hunters who fought the English at Majuba hill. It is said that not a shot was wasted by the Boers in that famous battle. Every shot that left a rifle aimed by a Boer either killed or After the wounded an English soldier. battle an examination of the dead showed that nearly every English soldier hud been shot in the head, which is considered one of the best evidences in the world of superior markmanship. There was no pattering of three-fourth- old-fashion- g - w ed HICK. bullets on the locks about llie English on Majuba bill, or whittling of shower of bulb ts a they llcw past them; simply dull thuds as lun and then a soldier fell backward dead or wounded. The smallest part of the head above the rocks was sufficient target for the unerring rille of the Hoer army. In less than an hour twenty officers and 266 privates of the English forces were dead. That was all the result of long experience in the woods and on the veldt in hunting wild game, birds and Kaffirs, Hut the teeming multitudes of wild beasts have long since been cleaned out of the Transvaal, and the natives have been quiet and peaceful for years. The liners have bad little opportunity to keep up their rille practice. The present generation have not been brought up from infancy with rifles in their hands, with the injunction to kill whatever aimed at. As a substitute for daily exercise with the rille in the hunting-fiel- d there have been regular tivappcii'Shou:v-ing- s or rille contests, in every country dorp, or village, while in the cities there have not even been these opportunities for practicing. In these friendly contests the skill of the eontra-- t Hoer has been in sad with that of the generation now present-da- y rapidly passing awav. The old-tim- e lmnt-ei- s marksmanship that their fathers won at Majuba hill. Leslie's 11 eeky. lime was when all western young men who wanted a coUge education bail to come east to get it, bat time passed long since, but the greater eastern univer-itie- s still draw heavily on the west (or students. That will always be, because it will always seem ad- vantagenus to some of the western parents that their sons should spend a term ol years in touch with eastern civilization. To go to a college that is far enough away from home to give one a new environment increases ones ability to compare, and has itsobvous advantages. Hut its a poor rule that dont work both ways, and it is reasonable to wonder bow long it will be before eastern parents, remarking the virility and enterprise of the mitblle west, will begin to suspect that it may be profitable for their sons to spend four years in that exuberant region and try to absorb some of its electrifying spirit. That Boston and New York will presently be sending students to Chicago, Ann Arbor, and even San Francisco is not so unlikely ns it may appear. Something of a kindred sort is happening already in the transfer of western-breteachers to eastern universities, and vice versa. Cleveland, Ohio, is pretty near the present intellectual center of the American universe, and the exceedingly n and remunerative Ohio idea is penetrating doubtless as prevailent there as anywhere. It is interesting to note that the heads of three departments at Yale arc graduates of the Western Reserve University at Cleveland, and two other Yale professors taught, respectively, ten and five years in this same university before going to New Haven. If the Ohio idea can be absorbed in New Haven from persons who have assimilated in its native lair, of course that saves trouble. The case of Yale and the Western Reserve is probably not exceptional, for most of the greater eastern and western universities are pretty nearly related in these days, and give and take freely, according to need and visible supply. Harper s Weekly. 'I d n who distinguished themand luuik.-aselves at .Majuba lull have been succeeded by a (K generate- class nf shooters w ho cannot kit a bottle at two or three hundred ards as often as their ancestors could pull down a llet ing buck at six or seven hundred. v A few of the older geneiation are still in the field, but it is a question whether in their declining years they can depend upon their aim as formerly. They may have the fire and spirit to repeat the battle of Majuba hill, but it is a question whether they have the nerve and strength to do it. Kruger was e one of the best of the hunters, and his aim was unerring. Hut his eyesight would not permit him to hit a small target at 600 yards if he had the skill and precision of aim that he once boasted of. Ten years ago he could plant a bullet in the brain of a Cumso There are said to be fortv-seve- n lion at 800 yards nearly every time, and kill society editors in New York City. the animal instantly; but a few years ago, at Cavvker That is all right. New York s , he took part in one of the society needs editing. one of the contests to show the young bucks how to shoot. After failing to hit his mark NOTHING NEW UNDER THE SUN. rifle his he of handed twice out three times, Isnt that a funny name to designate a to a friend, with the remark: These youngman who wants free silver? I wonder how sters dont know how to shoot, but my eyes it originated, said Maude, referring to the are failing me, and I cannot teach them. as applied to one of After that Kruger rarely took a rifle in cognomen popocrat that body of v oters who are not quite sure his hand; he was wise enough to know that of the meaning of free silver. his hunting days were over. So it is with Maude, returned her literary most of the veterans of Majuba hill. They friendWhy, Ida; do you mean to say you dont are too old to teach the present generation remember reading Holmes Pope crat at the how to shoot, and they cannot see their Breakfast Table? In to the shoot. themselves present target will not face the war the Boers of 1881 Never argue politics with a fool unless be it will a question whether youre a fool yourself. English, and It takes a fool to the sustain reputation for vanquish a fool. they begin to - old-tim- wappen-chouiving- , |