Lest we forget . . . .

Gwinnydapooh

Retired Screen Name
I'm re-reading Roughing It by Mark Twain for my Wild West class, and this passage caught my eye. Just a reminder of how good modern shooters have it:

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>I was armed to the teeth with a pitiful little Smith & Wesson's seven-shooter, which carried a ball like a homeopathic pill, and it took the whole seven to make a dose for an adult. But I thought it was grand. It appeared to me to be a dangerous weapon. It had one fault--you could not hit anything with it. One of our "conductors" practiced awhile on a cow with it, and as long as she stood still and behaved herself she was safe: but as soon as she went to moving about, and he got to shooting at oher things, she came to grief. The secretary had a small-sized Colt's revolver strapped around him for protection against Indians, and to guard against accidents he carried it uncapped. Mr. George Bemis was dismally formidable. George Bemis was our fellow traveler. We had never seen him before. He wore in his belt an old original "Allen" revolver, such as irreverent people called a "pepperbox." Simply drawing the trigger back, cocked and fired the pistol. As the trigger came back, the hammer would begin to rise and the barrel to turn over, and presently down would drop the hammer, and away would speed the ball. To aim along the turning barrel and hit the thing aimed at was feat which was probably never done with an "Allen" in the world. But George's was a reliable weapon, nevertheless, because, as one of hte stage drivers afterward said, "If she didn't get what she went after, she would fetch something else." And so she did. She went after a deuce of spades nailed against a tree, once, and fetched a mule standing about thirty yeards to the left of it. Bemis did not want the mule; but the owner came out with a double-barreled shotgun and persuaded him to buy it anyhow. It was a cheerful weapon--the "Allen." Sometimes all its six barrels would go off at once, and then there was no safe place in all the region roundabout but behind it." [/quote]

(apparently UBB doesn't accept a command if you spell on a first-grade level) :)

[This message has been edited by Gwinnydapooh (edited February 13, 2000).]
 
Sometimes it's easy to forget how good we've (still) got it!

Thanks for sharing how it was in the "good ol' days"...

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...defend the 2nd., it protects us all.
No fate but what we make...
 
Gwinny, while you are at it be sure and read "The Great French Duel." Another Twain classic dealing with the relative merits of the marksmen of his time.
 
Tbeck, believe it or not, we had to read that in high school! It's hilarious. I love Clemens. Of course, you weren't supposed to believe that he thought real men should fight real duels, just that he liked to make fun of the French. If you can post the Great French Duel, please do. I haven't had a copy for years.

For those who haven't read it, "The Great French Duel" is the supposed story of when Samuel Clemens (Twain) was in France and was asked to be a second in a French duel. He found the experience puzzling; his French counterpart was horrified at his suggestion that the duellists should use swords, knives, axes, brickbats, and other deadly implements. Finally, they chose to use matching pistols the size of his pinkies--I'd estimate .150 caliber. :) No one was killed but they made impressive noise and honor (the French version) was satisfied.
 
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