USA > Indiana > Monroe County > The new purchase : or, seven and a half years in the Far West > Part 13
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Let none think we western people follow rifle shooting, however, for mere sport; that would be nearly as ignoble as shot gun idleness The rifle procures, at certain seasons, the only meat we ever taste; it defends our homes from wild animals
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and saves our corn fields from squirrels and our hen-roosts from foxes, owls, opossums and other "varments." With it we kill our beeves and our hogs, and cut off our fowls' heads : do all things in fact, of the sort with it, where others use an axe, or a knife, or that far east savagism, the thumb and finger. The rifle is a woodman's lasso. He carries it everywhere as (a very degrading comparison for the gun, but none other occurs), a dandy a cane. All, then, who came to our tannery or store came thus armed ; and rarely did a customer go, till his rifle had been tried at a mark, living or dead, and we had listened to achievements it had done and could do again. No wonder, in these circumstances, if I should practice; especially when it needed but the flash of a rifle pan to set off our in-bred magazine of love and tendencies towards · bullet moulds and horn loaders! No wonder, that, after many. failures, even in hitting a tree, Mr. Carlton could be seen in his glory at last, standing within lines of beholders right and left, and at forty-five yards off-hand planting bullet after bullet into the same auger hole! Reader! may you live a thousand years ; but if you must die, unless somebody will save your life by splitting an apple on your head-(William Tell size)-at fifty yards off-hand with a rifle ball, send for me-shut your eyes for fear of flinching -and at the crack-go, your life is your own.
Old Dick is one hobby often mounted literally and maybe now too often, metaphorically, the rifle is my other: But with this by no means must we bore you; and, therefore, after narrating my famous shots in behalf of the Temperance Society, we shall for the present put the gun on the rack over the fireplace.
Glenville and myself were once, on some mercantile affairs, travelling in an adjoining county, when we came suddenly on a party preparing to shoot at a mark; and from the energy of words and gestures it was plain enough a prize of unusual im- portance was proposed. . We halted a moment, and found the stake to be a half-barrel of whiskey. If ever, then and there was to be sharp-shooting; and without question, then and there was present every chap in the settlements that could split a bullet on his knife blade or take the rag off the bush.
"Glenville," said I, seized with a sudden whim, "lend me fifty cents; I mean to shoot."
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"Nonsense ! Carlton ; you can't win here; and if you could, what does the president of a temperance society want with a barrel of whiskey?"
"John, if I can find a gun here anything like my own, I can win. And although I have never before won or lost a penny, I shall risk half a dollar now for the fun of the thing, and to have the satisfaction of knocking yonder barrel in the head and letting out the stuff into the branch here."
'After some further discussion Glenville acquiesced, and we drew near the party; where dismounting, I made the following speech and proposal :
"Well, gentlemen, I think I can outshoot any man on the ground, if you will let us come in and any neighbour here will allow me to shoot his gun, in case I can find one to my notion ; and here's my fifty cents for the chance. But, gentlemen and fel- low citizens, I intend to be right out and out like a backwoods- man ; and so you must all know we are cold water men, and don't believe in whiskey; and so, in case we win, the barrel is, you know, ours, and then I shall knock the article in the head. But then we are willing to pay either in money or temperance tracts the amount of treat every gentleman will get if anybody else wins."
To this a fine, hardy looking farmer apparently some sixty years old and evidently the patriarch of the settlement, replied :
"Well, stranger, come on; you're a powerful honest man any how; and here's my hand to it; if you win, which will a sort a tough you though, you may knock the stingo in the head. And stranger, you kin have this here gun of mine, or Long Jake's thare; or any one you have a notion on. How do you shoot ?""
"Off-hand, neighbour; any allowance?"
"Yes; one hundred yards with a rest; eighty-five yards off- hand."
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
Arrangements and conditions, usual in grand contests like that before us, were these:
Ist. A place level as possible was selected and cleared of all intervening bushes, twigs, &c. 2d. A large tree was chosen.
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Against this the target shingles were to be set, and from its roots or rather trunk, were measured off towards the upper end of the cleared level, the two distances, eighty-five and one hundred yards. A pair of very fine natural dividers were used on this occasion; viz. a tall young chap's legs, who stepped with an elastic jerk, counting every step a yard; a profitable measure if one was buy- ing broadcloth; but here the little surpluses on the yards were equally to the advantage of all. 3d. Cross lines at each distance, eighty-five and one hundred yards, were drawn on the measured line; and on the first the marksman stood who fired off-hand, while on the second the rests were placed or constructed. Rests de- pended on taste and fancy ; some made their own-some used their own-some used their comrades'-and some rested the rifle against the side of a tree on the line: and of all the rests this is the best, if one is careful to place the barrel near its muzzle against the tree and not to press hard upon the barrel. Some drive in two forked stakes and place on them a horizontal piece; and some take a chair, and then seated on the ground, they have the front of the chair towards them and its legs between their feet, resting the whole gun thus upon the seat of the chair. Again, many set a small log or stone before them, and then lying down flat on their bellies, they place the muzzle on the rest and the butt of the gun on the ground near their face; and then the rifle seems as move- less as if screwed in a vice. In this way Indians and woodsmen often lie in ambuscade for deer at the licks, or enemies in war.
4th. Every man prepared a separate target. This was a poplar single, having near its middle a. spot blackened with powder or charcoal as a ground; and on this ground was nailed at its four corners a piece of white paper about an inch square and its centre formed by a diamond hole; two corners being perpendicularly up and down. From the interior angles of the diamond were scratched with a knife point two diagonals, and at their inter- section was the true centre. With a radius of four inches from this centre was then circumscribed a circle : if beyond this circum- ference any one of the allotted shots struck, ay! but a hair's breadth, all other shots, even if in the very centre, were nugatory- the unlucky marksman lost.
5. Each man had three shots. And provided the three were
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within the circle, each was to be measured by a line from the centre of the diamond to the near edge of the bullet hole-except a ball grazed the centre, and then the line went to the centre of the hole-and then, the three separate lengths added were esti- mated as one string or line, the shortest securing the prize. This is called line shooting.
6th. Each one fixed, or had fixed, his target against the tree as he pleased; and then, each man was to fire his three shots in succession, without being hurried or retarded. We occupied on an average to-day every man about fifteen minutes.
More than thirty persons were assembled, out of whom had been selected seven as the best marksmen; but these, induced by the novelty, having good-naturedly admitted me, we were now eight. Of the eight, five preferred to shoot with a rest; but the old Achates, the sapling1 woodman that had stepped off the dis- tances, and myself, were to fire off hand. All the rifles were spontaneously offered for the stranger's use. I chose, however, Tall Jake's; for although about a pound too heavy, it sighted like my own, and went as easy on the triggers, and carried one hundred and eighty to the pound-only five more than mine which carried one hundred and seventy-five.
Auditors and spectators now formed the double lines, standing, stooping, and lying in very picturesque attitudes, some fifteen feet each side the range of the firing, and that away down towards the target tree even, behind which several chaps as usual, planted themselves to announce at each crack the result of the shot. All this seems perilous; and yet accidents rarely happen. In all my sojourn in the Purchase we had but two. The first happened to a fine young fellow, who impatient at some delay, peeped out it is supposed, to ascertain the cause, when at the instant the rifle was fired, and its ball glancing entered his head and he fell dead in his tracks. The next happened to an elderly man, who was stationed behind a large tree awaiting the report, and who at the flash of the gun, fell from behind with one piercing cry of agony, bleeding and dying :- the trunk was hollow and in and opposite the place where our neighbour stood in apparent safety, was a mere shell, through which the ball had gone and entered his heart !
1 Tall Jake.
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Well, the firing at length began. I have no distinct recollection of every shot. Now and then, a central ball was announced, and that followed by two others a full inch or may be an inch and an eighth even from the centre; and once, where two successive balls were within the diamond, the third, by some mischance of the rest depended on, struck on the very edge of the grand circle. Balls, too, were sometimes planted in three different corners of the paper -- very good separate shots-yet proving want of steady and artistical sighting, or even a little experimenting with the edges of the hind sight; which was owing doubtless to drawing the bead to the edge and not the bottom.
A smart young fellow having made two very fair shots, boasted so grandly about his new rifle, that a grave, middle-aged hunter offered to bet a pound of lead, that if the young chap would al- low him after the gun was rested for the shot, to rub his hand from the lock to the muzzle, he would so bewitch the rifle that she should miss the big tree. This was all agreed to; and then, such as knew how to bewitch rifles rapidly retreated to our rear, and such as did not, were beckoned and called till they came. All ready, the young man on the ground, and his rifle on its rest, our conjuror ran his hand slowly along the barrel, pausing an instant at the muzzle, and uttering an incantation, and then going behind the marksman, he bade him fire when he liked. This he did; and marvellous enough it was-the ball not only missed the shingle, but struck no where in the tree! Great was the astonishment and mortification of the youth ; but as we magnanimously allowed him a shot extra and without witchcraft, his countenance brightened and especially when his ball now spoiled the inner edge of his diamond.
Perhaps you are curious, and wish to learn how to bewitch a rifle? I will tell on one condition :- all the spectators when a rifle is bewitched must be made to come to the rear of the firing party. Here is the recipe : let the rifle-doctor conceal in his hand a bullet small enough for the purpose, and on rubbing as far as the muzzle, let him as adroitly as possible deposit said bullet just within the said muzzle-safely betting any number of pounds of lead, that whatever else the marksman may hit, he cannot hit his shingle. N.B. See that the rifle to be bewitched has no triggers
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set, and is not on cock, otherwise two tartars of a very unpleasant character may be caught by the rifle-doctor instead of one.
One man only took to his belly (the technical term was to fire on his belly), but as his log-rest turned a little at the third shot, the unerring bullet, following the guidance of the barrel, stuck itself plump outside the circumference named, and thus nullify- ing one true central ball, and one in the lower interior point or angle of his diamond. Another man was still more unfortunate. After two most excellent shots, his gun hanging fire at the third, he bawled out, "No shot !" which being a notification before the shot could be examined and reported, entitled him to another trial ; but alas! the ball thus tabooed had grazed the centre! Again his gun hùng fire; but now he did not veto; and his bullet was found sticking in the tree an honest foot above the top even of his shingle !
And now we, who fired off-hand, and thereby professed to be "crack" shots-(yet most marksmen make a noise. there)-we began to make ready. We higgled a little as to who should lead off ; not to show politeness as well bred folks in entering rooms and carriages, but because all were, the least bit however, cowed, and each wished to see what his neighbour could do first. When that kind of spirit comes crawling over a body in rifle-shooting, it must be banished in an instant. The effect in oratory may be a very good speech-(unless you stump)-but in our art, it is always a very bad shot. Our noble art demands calmness and the most imperturbable self-possession ; and that, at the beginning, the middle, the ending of the exercises. And so I said :-
"Well, gentlemen, if you want to see where to plant your balls, I'm the one, I think, to show you"-
"Why no, stranger"-replied the old Achates-"I allow that aint fair nither, to let you lead off. We're all neighbour-like here, and 'tis only right you should see what we kin do fust. I sort a suppose maybe it will save you the trouble of shootin anyhow. So come, Long Jake, crack away and I'll foller-and arter, you, stranger, may shoot or not jist as you like best."
"Agreed, grandaddie," responded Long Jake, "so here goes." And then Jake, after returning from the old beech, where he had put up his target, took his rifle, left a moment leaning against
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a tree, and with firmness and grace stepped on the line. Two things and only two gave me hopes, viz., he shut his left eye and held on the diamond without rising or falling perpendicularly to it: but then he held that rifle as if it were the true horizon-and then-click-snap-but no report. Lucky snap for me2 I knew it must have been a central ball; but still better for me-Jake was embarrassed a little. Shaking out the damp powder he primed afresh, and again began his aim. Now, however, a very slight vibration seemed to glimmer on his barrel, and when he did fire, I was not disappointed nor greatly displeased at the cry from the fellows that leaped from behind the target tree-"rite hand corner, grazin the dimind!" Again Jake loaded, raised his piece, and fired at first sight, and the cry now came-"centre!" This increased my neighbour's confidence, and happily lessened his carefulness ; for sighting, as he himself afterwards confessed, "a leetle bit coarseish like," the cry now was-"line shot, scant quarter 'bove centre !"
"Come, grandaddie," said Jake to the old gentleman as he walked up to the line from adjusting his shingle, "you must do a little better nor that, or maybe we'll lose our stingo, for I know by the way this stranger here handles my rifle, he's naturally a hard chap to beat."
This speech was occasioned by my handling the gun, taking aim, setting triggers, &c., in order to get better acquainted with the piece ; and which experiments resulted in a secret and hearty wish for my own gun.
"Well, Jake, I allow yours kin be beat a bit," replied our veteran taking his position on the line. At a glance towards his "toot en sembell," Mr. Carlton too, allowed he had met his match-and, perhaps even with his own gun. How grand the calmness-as if in no battle! How alive muscle and feature-as if in the midst of enemies ! There he is dropping his bead-ay, his eyes both wide awake, and he raises the piece till that bead dims on the lower point of his diamond-a flash-and from the tree-"centre!" He
2 I am sorry to say it, but nobody in rifle-shooting is an Emmonite, or even a Hopkinsian; he wishes his neighbour to make good shots-but not too good. And where perfect first-rate marksmen contend, an accident only can give any of them the victory.
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was soon again ready, and at his second flash, came the cry- "upper edge, fust hole!"-and that cry was answered along the gradually narrowing and crowded lines, by the whole company -"hurraw for grandaddie-hurraw-aw!" His third shot, brought from the tree-"lee-e-tle tor'ds rite corner of dimind-jeest grazed centre !"-and was answered by-"grandaddie forever, hur- raw-aw-aw!"
"Carlton," maliciously whispered Glenville, "the stingo is safe -anti-temperance beats !"
I felt honour demanded, however, a trial; and so requesting Glenville to fix as I should direct my target, I stood on the line of firing, sighting several times with open pan and no priming ; until the mark exactly suited, when I cried out "stand clear!" And now, supposing Jake's rifle sighted like my own, and threw its ball a little above its head (as indeed is best), I drew up as usual, with rapidity, and fly just as the bead caught the lower tip of my diamond, the report instantly returned being-"inside lower pint of dimind, scant quarter, b'low centre !"
"Blame close, stranger," said the old hero, "but I allow you'll have to mend it to beat me."
"Praise from you, my old friend, is worth something-I'll try my best to satisfy you."
Jake's rifle was now understood: she sent balls exactly where she aimed, and not as mine, and most good rifles, an eighth of an inch above. Making, therefore, my front sight a hair thicker and fuller in the hind sight, and coming full on the lower angle of my diamond-"Centre!"-was echoed from the tree and along the lines-"hurraw-aw! for the stranger !"
"You're most powerful good at it," said the old gentleman, "but my line's a leetle the shortest yet."
"Well, my good old friend, here goes to make yours a little the longest"-and away, along between the unflinching lines of excited spectators, whistled my third and last ball, bringing back the cry -"lee-e-tle b'low the centre-broke in first hole!" But, while all rushed to the examination and measurements, confined to our two shingles, no exultation burst forth, it being doubtful, or, as the hunters said, "a sort of dubus whether the stingo was grandaddie's, or the stranger's." In a few moments, however, and by the most
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honourable and exact measurements, it was decided that the old Achates had "the shortest string by near about half the brenth of his bullit!" And then such uproar rose of mingled hurraws,- screams,-shrieks,-yells,-and outcries ! an uproar none but true honest-hearted far westers, unadulterated by foreign or domestic scum, ever did or can make.
The hurricane over, the victor mounting a log made the following speech :-
"Well, naburs, it's my sentimental opinyin this stranger's acted up, clean up, to the notch, and is most powerful clever. And I think if he'd a fired his own gun as how he mought a come out even, and made up the lettle matter of diff'runce atween us-and that would be near about shootin a little bit the closest of any other chap, young or old, in these 'are diggins-and so, says I, let's have three cheers for the stranger, and three more for his friend."
Oh! dear reader! could you have heard the old, dark woods ring then !- I struggled hard, you may be sure; but what was the use, the tears would come !
We both made replies to the compliment ; and in concluding, for I mounted the log last, I touched on the wish we really had to do good, and that nothing was better for hardy, brave, and noble woodsmen than temperance.
"Well, strangers, both on you," replied that very grand old man, "you shan't be disapinted. You depended on our honour- and so, says I, if these 'are naburs here aint no objection, let them that want to, first take a suck of stingo for a treat, and then, says I, lets all load up and crack away at the cask, and I'll have fust shot."
"Agreed ! agreed ! hurraw for grandaddie Tomsin-hurraw for strangers !- hurraw for the temperance society !- load up, boys, load up !- nobody wants a suck-crack away, grandaddie-crack away, we're all ready !" And crack went old Brave's rifle-crack, long Jake's-crack the brave Gyas, and the brave Cloanthus-and crack every rifle in the company : and there rolled the wounded half-barrel, pouring its own death-dealing contents through its perforated heads and sides, till soon the stingo was all absorbed in the moist earth of the forest.
Glenville and I now "gathered hossis and put out," highly
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pleased with the events : and a few weeks after we were still more pleased, at hearing that all the company at the prize shooting that day had become members of the temperance society. If, there- fore, any old fashioned temperance society (such as it was before fanaticism ruled it,) wishes champions to shoot, provided "gran- daddie Tomsin" will be one, I know where can be found another.
CHAPTER XVIII.
"Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn." --- (Obsolete-since the use of patent threshing machines.)
From the time of our arrival in and at Glenville (it being both a big and a little place), we commenced forming acquaintance with our neighbours. And this business was promoted by the many "little and big meetings" held by Mr. Hilsbury in all direc- tions, over and above the regular monthly ones in Glenville, and on three successive Sabbaths in old man Welden's settlement-for everybody, man, woman and child, was found at meeting. Nor does it interfere with attendance, if it be rainy or shiney, or mighty cloudy, or powerful skyey ; but in all weathers and seasons, and from all quarters of the woods, along roads, traces, paths, or short cuts, come horses to the preaching ; some with single riders of any sex, bursting, at a gallop, into view, through underwood thickets of spicewood and papaw, or clearing log after log, in a kind of hop, skip and jump gait. Many horses indeed have two riders, a mode of horsemanship called in the Purchase "riding twice." And some horses come with folks riding even twice and a half, or may be thrice: for instance, with a man and his wife, the latter holding in her lap a two year old child, although the child is very often carried by the father ; or with three girls ; or with one beau, having two sun-bonnetted damsels behind. Dick always figured on such occasions with a cargo on his back that doubtless made a lively impression on his feelings of past times, and of the loads he had in his earlier days seem crammed into a Conestoga wagon: and never, in fact, did he look so like a family horse as on Sundays, when he usually carried so much of our family on his back.
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In fording swollen waters, if the water came up no higher than the saddle skirts, and if depending articles (legs and so on) could be crooked up or neatly packed on the mane, in plunged all, whether riding once, twice, or morefold: nay, it was contended that the more riders the better; the heavier weight preventing the horse from being floated or losing his foothold in a strong cur- rent. But if it was certain that the creek was "swimming high," then the riders crossed on a log, the horse swimming by its side and the bridle being held by the rider. Afterwards the furniture (saddle and so on) was transported over the natural bridge.
Arrived at meeting "the critters" (alias the horses, or "hoss beasts") are hung to a swinging branch of some tree; for. such, yielding to the inquietude of the horses, prevents the snapping of reins, and yet affords ample space for the curvilinear play of the hind quarters. Nor are the horses at all backward in using their ecclesiastical privileges; especially if we are favoured with "a powerful smart preacher, that is, a fellow with a very glib tongue, who preaches by inspiration, and has the wonderful power of say- ing nothing, or something worse, over and over again, for hours. Then the hung animals, impatient maybe, begin and carry on extra dancings, rump-rangings, branch shakings, and other exercises. They champ bits !- snap their teeth at neighbouring horses !- kick, as quadrupeds should, in quadruple time !- and stamp, squeak, and squeal! In fact, they make as much noise and behave as foolishly as if they held a fanatical meeting themselves !
Often too, among the horses, are a few knowing old codgers (and Dick, I am sorry to say, cultivated their acquaintance), who have slipped their own bridles, and are now misspending the time in eating off the bridle reins of quiet animals, or in kicking and biting, with most provoking sang-froid, fastened horses, already furious and indignant. Most horses when liberated usually start home at full speed, inconsiderately leaving folks that rode once or twice to meeting, to walk away in single or double file, or to get a lift from a neighbour. Dick, however, never ran home: he pre- ferred, like luke-warm Christians, Sunday visiting; and so went to see his neighbours in settlements directly opposite the way to Glenville. Yet I must say he never made the least objection to be caught and bridled again-provided you could find him.
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