A MARVELLOUS MARKSMAN.

Western Star, Issue 261, 7 September 1878, Page 7

A MARVELLOUS MARKSMAN.

A marvellous marksman, has arrived at New York. His name is Dr Carver, and he is supposed to be the most wonderful rifle shot in the world. He was carried off when a child by the Dakota Indians, and lived with them sixteen years. At the age of nine he began to shoot birds on the wing with a rifle, and subsequently became so expert at shooting that the Dakotas considered him superhuman. He rarely missed a shot at a bird even when on horseback, and killed buffalo and deer shooting Horn the hip, never raising the rifle to his eye when shooting at sitting or standing game. After leaving the Dakotas he shot in matches at Sau Francisco and elsewhere, and his wonderful exploits “electrified the Pacific coast.” One of his most extraordinary feats was breaking all but seven glass balls out of 2000 with a rifle at ten paces. This feat was performed at Oakland, California. On another occasion he broke 50 successive glass balls while riding a horse at full speed. The horse was a “ green animal ” from a livery stable, from whose back a gun had never before been fired. He prides himself especially upon his fancy shots. From the hip he claims to be a dead shot, at anything stationary within a reasonable distance. A ball being thrown twenty or thirty feet in the air, before it falls ho will fire at it and reload his gun twice, breaking it on the third shot. At from twelve to fifteen yards he will break as many balls as one man can keep in the air, thrown as high as possible, reloading at every shot. He shatters a ball thrown straight at his head by a man thirty yards distant. He shoots right and left with a man on each side throwing the b ills in the air. At the crack of the rifle the balls are cracked. He throws two balls into the air at once, breaking one, loading his rifle and shattering the other before it reaches the ground. At Logansport he hit with a rifle ball seventeen successive trade dollars thrown over a tree. He shoots at half-dollars and dimes tossed in the air, and knocks the spots out of nickles. He declares that he has broken glass balls whil i he was mounted and his horse was in the act cf leaping a fence feet high. Dr Carver asseits that he can shoot by sound almost as well as by sight. He has appeared on the stage blindfolded, and sent the ball through a bell rung behind him. He can give no explanation of his skill, but states that it “comes natural.”