AMATEUR AMERICAN RIFLEMEN.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4794, 11 September 1883, Page 3

AMATEUR AMERICAN RIFLEMEN.

4 On this subject a Ckicago journ&l comments as follows : — A company of Americans went over to England this year to shoot against an equal number of English riflemen for a prize. They were beaten, aa another American amateur company was last jear. After the defeat the Americans wero " damned with j faint praise," toasted and patted oa the back, j and with ironical politeness given to un- j derßtand that wh6n they shall gro<v up to the | standard of British proficiency with the riflo , they may bop& to carry away a prize. Tho last ofaaptsr in that amateur f atce was a dinner given by tho Lord Mayor of London to the American " team," as it is called, where the ironical compliments were repeated and swallowed by the American amateurs in truo flunkey atylo. The report of this dinner makes one of the Americans say (Howard is his name, Colonel his rank,) that America is still young in rifle shooting, hut ho hoped the day would coon ooeo when Americans will become proficient. In behalf of American riflemen we disclaim this speech as untrue and ecar.daloui. The Amoricaufl Bre not young in rifle praotice. On the oontrary, the rifla is their timehonoured weapon, both for wor and hunting, as overy American knows who has ever spent a month west of the Delaware and Hudson rivors or road tho history of our wars with the English and the Indians. The American rifla won the battles of the Ccwpens, King's mountain, Tippaounoe, and tho Thames, all agaiust Britons — two against Britons and Indians together. Nor would it be difficult to find a "team" in anyone of 10'J counties in the West and South-west who could defeat any British team at any distance from forty to 1000 yarda. These are not amateurs. They ara real riflemen. With tho ordinary Western rifla they oan pick a squirrel off the top of a hickory troe at tho diataco of eighty yards off-hand, and touoh only the top of his head. They would fccorn a target such as these amateurs used at Creednioor and Wimbledon. The travelling American rifleman is a humbug. He travels for show and the uppkuao of those he regards as his superiors in tha Bccial scalp, and he io ub well pleased with this if ho fails to earn it as if tie wins. This American •' team " wag picked up mainly in tho city of Few York ; the Bolectioae mado more for the eocial than the shooting qualifications of the mombsrs. The rifle is the American weapon. Its uso has heen brought to greater perfection in our Western and Southwestern States than anywhere else in the world, and mere amateurs, the callings of oity sooiety, have oo right to represent oar rifle practioe abroad.