Evening Star Newspaper, March 8, 1890, Page 8

8 Us THE EVENING STAR: WASHINGTON, D.C. SATURDAY, MARCH &, 1890—TWELVE PAGES. READY! PULL! BANG Live and Clay Pigeon Shooting and How Experts Do It. HOW TO KEEP IN PRACTICE. M! Glass Balls Things of the Past—The Proper Equipment for a Club—Traps and Gans—A Sport That is Growing Popular, eee Written for Tae Evexrxa Stam, Copyrighted. OR the busy man who loves the sound of a gun, yet who can only in- dulg ein a shooting excursion once or twice s year in the season, it isastand- ing regret that bis lack of practice between seasons puts his hand out of trim for the birds. He finds that he is by no means as geod a shot at the opening of the season as he was atthe close of the previous year, and it takes very nearly his whole holiday to regain his old skill. But this is all being rapidly changed. Trap shooting, which has taken hold of the public fancy tos very large extent in recent years, affords the opportunity for prac- tice so greatly desired, and if the sportsman lucky enough to be a member of a club he can have all the practice he wants at little loss of time and smal! cost. He has the satisfaction, too, when he takes his holiday, of finding him- self no longer awkward and blundering with the gun, His hand and eye are quick, his aim for trap shooting, for atwelve-gauge gun, three dram of moses and two wads are put back of one or one and one-eighth ounces of No 6,8 or 10 chilled shot, to wind and distance. Under the rules of the National Ameri- can association, which have been revised within the last few weeks, any weight gun is permissible, but it must not be over ten-bore in caliber, The powder charge is unlimited and the charge of shot for ten-bore guns is fixed at one and one-quarter ounces. Exch contestant must shoot at three or more birds before leaving the score. In doubles both traps are sprung simultaneously and each con- testant shoots at three ne. firing at two birds while both are in the air. When the traps are set in a straight line, instead of in the segment of acircle. a rapid-firing system is used, the traps are screened and numbered and the marksman stands opposite the first trap, shoots his bird and then passes on to the right, shoot- ing from the successive traps till he reaches the end of his score, For live birds the boundaries for both singles and doubles are fixed as the segment of a fifty-yard circle and a dead line where the marksman stands, The rise for ten-bore guns is thirty yards, for twelve-bore twenty-eight yards, for four- teen and sixteen-bore twenty-six yards. The rule as to ammunition is the same as for clay birds, There are clubs in a number of states sfliliated with the American association and all shoot under the rules quoted. SOME GOOD SHOTS, The leading clubs in live-bird shooting are the Westminster kennel club of New York, the Carteret gun club, the Bergen club of New Jersey, the Country club of Westchester, N.Y., the Larchmont club and the Tuxedo club. A) of these organizations have crack shots amoug their members and many matches are made during the season and live-pigeon shooting goes ou at the grounds almost daily. Thou- sands of birds are used in these matches. In the match between Dr. Knapp and Maj. Jones, lasting three days, 2.000 were used, Knapp is true and bi able to hold his own with other eompetitors in the hunting field. THE TRAP OPEN AND SHUT. Trap ghooting was untila few years ago con- fined almost wholly to professionals, and very few amateurs were skillful enough to be ranked as experts, Now, however, there are clubs in every big city, and some of the amateur sports- men would not make at all a bad showing even by the side of such distinguished shots as Bo- gardus, Dr. Carver and other noted guns of the trap and bunting field. The glass ball, formerly so popular in matches at the traps, is now quite a thing of the past. It is no longer used in thix country. Where live pigeons are not employed. ander the Hurlingham club rules, which govern all matches shot with live birds, the a:tificial clay pigeon 1s the oniversal substitute. The glass ball was discarded for the reason that tts brit- tleness made it lisble to break at the slightest contact witn the shot, aud it was even a ques- tion whether, under certain conditions, actual contact was necessary toshatter it, AN ECONOMICAL sPonT. Trap shooting with artificial birds is one of the least expensive sports, ret one of the most enjoyable. So many improvements have been made recently im the manufacture of clay pigeons that the natural action of the bird is how simulated with remarkable fidelity and wactice at the inanit e birds is considered just ae good for the marksman as though he Were shooting at live pigeo.s, A great many clubs use the artificial birds exclusively. the Most promiuent in the east being the German gun club of New York and the Southside club of Newark, N.J. The favorite birds are the Ligowsky ciay pigeon, with clay tongue bat,” which may be thrown from a clay pigeon trap or a regular bat trap; the American clay bird, which is exceedingly hard to hit. but when hit is easily broken, and the Standard and Keystone. both of which are fac similes of the blue rock pigeon. (ne of the birds form- erly used had a paper tongue, but it was found that im wet weather this would become limp and refuse to work. The m reliable have a clay or a wooden ton: The best clay pigeons, when bought in quantities for the use of clubs, cost at out 2 cents each, Cost OF BIRDS. From a pecuniary standpoint it is a very dif- ferent thing when live birds are used, In the Season pigeons cost about 25 cents apiece, but im winter the price runs up to 60 cents and even higher. In some recent big matches the birds cost an average of $2 apiece | and in a match between Dr. Knapp. and | Maj. Floyd Jones not long ago several huu- dred birds were killed costing a dollar cach. ‘The pigeons for these contests came from dif- ferent parts of the country, but the best are from Baltimore, where the famous blue rock breed w raised. ‘The blue rock is a small bird, hard, firm and heavy for its size. A great many gunners who have not had much expe- rience in live-bird shooting make the mistake of selecting big birds under the impression that they are the strongest and the fastest flyers. Experts, however, will pick out the smail firm bird, as ther know by experience that they will fly faster and are im every way better suited for the traps. MUCK DEPENDS OX THE WEATHER. In shooting either at live or artificial birds a good deal depends upon the weather, Windy weather has an effect both on the filght of the live birds and the artificial ones. If the day be hard ang cold and pretty windy the live birds get up wilder and the clay ones naturally sail faster with the wind. All matches at artificial birds are shot from three or tive tr set 5 five yards apart, in the segament of acirele or in a straight and aumbered consecutively. ‘These traps should throw the birds from 40 to 60 vards, The puller stands 6 feet behind the shooter and pulls at the latter's command. If be _ too carly the marksman can refuse the bir dhe is then entitied to another. In single bird shootrng the rise is regulated ac- cording to the gun use runs trom 13 to 18 yards: in doubles tt is from 11 to 16 yards, With singles oue barrel only is loaded at a time ueition Position has « good deal to do with success in . Although the marksman in all except the National association clubs may as- sume any standing attitude he pleases he will find most of those of his own choice ungraceful and ineffective. The late Ira Paine used to stand with the stock of his gun almost resting on his right hip and the barrels raised to an le of forty. degrees, ready for the word. jus invariably held his gun belo with the barrel slightly raised, according to Hurlingham club rules. Dr. Carver's pose ie unique. His left arm is held perfectly straight, the left hand grasping the barrel far forward and the stock of the gun near but not Pressing the chest, below the armpit. The position officially adopted by the National association and approved by the best clubs is to have the stock of the gun held lightly below the armpit, a little higher than the elbow, the barrel rawed toa level with the chin, the head erect and the feet squarely placed, with the left foot advanced. ‘This position calls for the least change before the shot is actually delivered Carver's uniaue pose: 2, a popular postt a'hehorinciass pace eee ‘THE GUys. Another important cousideration is the gun. Eastern experi, while using a variety of guns, differing widely as to weight and bore, have about concluded that the lighter the gun the better. The day of beavy-weight guns for trap or wing shooting has passed away. The Fran- eotte the Scott, Greener, Wesley and Richards are widely used. ‘These guns cost all the way from #19 to £500. A good, hard- bicting “gun with Damascus steel barrels, Eng! walnut stock, checkered and engraved, cam be bought for $50 and upward. Lu ioading alone killing over 1,000. Among the crac amateursareé many well-known society and business men like Frederick Hoey, Seaver Page, Oakleigh Thorn, Mr. Murphy, Walker B, Smith, N. 8. Simpkins, Oliver Iselin and Mr. Brokaw, all wealthy New Yorkers of sporting proclivities, ‘These marksmen can easily average eighty- five per cent at live birds, but they would notdo so wellatclay pigeons,as all their practice is with Blue rocks and peorias, It is customary to have on the club grounds « supply of live birds at all times for emergencies. ‘he Country club charges its members from thirty to fifty cents a bird. _ This club and several others have exten- sive pigeon houses in which blue rocks are keptall the year ‘round. Some of the clubs also keep tame pigeons, but they are not so desir- able for trap shooting, jacking the gamey qualities and dash of the wild bird. Whena bird is missed at the traps, if it be a tame one, it usually finds its way back to the coops, FAMOUS SHOTS like Dr. Carver, Bogardus, Brokaw and a few others can kill ninety-nine live birds out of one hundred. Frank Class of Pinebrook, N. J., Mr. Beam and Dr. Welch of Englewood have alxo done remarkable shooting. The six brothers Lengerke of New York have run up brilliant scores at live birds, several of them averaging ninety-seven out of one hundred in both singles aud doubles. Among the ama- teurs Mr. Louis Heritage, who was formerly a famous glass ball shot; Maj. H. Brientnall of Newark, N.J.. and W. Siegler of Montclair, N. J., huve made scores that stand side by side with the best of the professionals, HOW TO ORGANIZE A CLUB, The organization ot a trap shooting club is not a very expensive affair, The best way for acompany of amateurs to proceed about it is as follows: Let them first secure their ground and then buy three traps for clay birds, which will cost them about $2. These traps can throw any kind of artificial bird and are easily changed to shoot in ail directions, A first-class afternool port at the clays won't cost the members over $2 each, allowing them forty shots apiece. They should dig a pit on the ground about three or four feet deep and pro- tect it by aserceu for the use of the men who set the traps. If they want to kill live birds a trap can be made very cheaply by any car- penter. It 1s a box-shaped device, ten by erght inches long and seven inches deep, and can be either of wood or metal, 1. Clay pigeon trap: 2, «The Rat; 3, Pigeon with ape stands uae It should be painted green, which color does not distract the eye of the marksman. The trap is secured in place by two iron pins driven through the bottom and into the ground. It consists of six pieces held together by hinges and so arranged that when sprung to release the pigeon the top and sides, front and rear shall fall outward, leaving the whole affair flat on the ground. There is a lateral sliding door on the rear end, through which the bird is ad- mitted, and the front is barred like a coop. In the center of the trap is a metal or wooden tongue, pivoted on a spring, and to this tongue ared rag 18 attached. ‘10 spring the trap the puller takes hold of a cord attached tu a leather strap on top; a single tug releases the fore end of the top and as it comes up the sides and ends fall away with aciatter, At the same instant the sping on the tongue is released agd the bird, startled by the noise and the sight of the red rag, flies upward with a rash. In two cases lately brought by the society for the prevention of cruelty to animals in Tren- ton and Philadelphia the decisions were in favor of the right of the clubs to shoot live birds, A few of the states etill prohibit pigeon shooting, Connecticut being one of them; but in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and in the west generally the sport is allowed. The Highway Cow. ‘The hue of her hide was dusky brown, Her body was lean and her neck was slim: keen of vision and long of limb; 10 nose and & short stump tall, And ribs like the hoops on 4 home-made pail, body bear, for ali things known; ky tinier Wouid grow a0 1 where it once had grown; Many a passionate parting shot Had left upon her a lasting spot Many and many a well-aimed stone, Mauy a bric! f goodly size, swiftly thrown Hawi brough: © eyes, Or bad bounded off from her bony bacw With a notes like a sound of a cule crack. Many a day hail she passed in the pound For helping herself to ber neigabor's corn; M @ cowar ly cur and bound 4 been (ran ed on Ler crumpled horn; Mauy a teapot and old tin pall Had the farmer boys tied ty ter time-worn tail, Olt Deacon Gray was a pious man, ‘Though sometimes tempted to v6 profane, 4@ weary mile he ran F out of his growing grain, ere the pranss she used to play, ‘To get her Hil aud w get away. She knew when the deacon went to town, She wsely watched when he pas ed by: He usver passed her without a frown, dan e-il gleam in each angry ey He would crack Lis whjp in a surly way, And drive long in his “one-horse shay.” ‘Then at his homestead she loved tocall, ifting bars with crumpled horn, Nimbly seating his garde: wail, Helpimg herself wo his standing corn; Eating bis cabbages one by one, lurrying Bote when her wors Was done, His human passions were quick to rise, And striding forth with a savage cry, With fury blazing from both bis eyes, As lightuings fast in a summer sky, Redder and redder his face would grow, And after the creature he would go. Over the garden, round and round, Breaking his pear and apple trees; mping bis melous into the ground, Overturning his hives of bees, ving bim angry and badly stung, Wishing the old cow's eck was wrute. na meses ere = the garden wall, e Years went by with their work and play, ‘The boys of the lilage grow strong and tal And the gray-haired farmers One by one, as thy re. leaves Talis ima But the highway cow outlived them all. —-eee-——__ The Master—“Game keeper, have Piss made ng?” by soso, mk ma for the shoo! Game Keeper: have, your excelleucy. Ali the under-keepers and beaters have been in- sured im the accideut company at the best rates.” ees Do Nor Rox tae Risk of your cold weil of itself—you may thereby arift ‘into a condition favorable to the development of some latent tendency which may give you years trouble. Better cure your cold at aes with the belp of Dr. D. Jayne's Ex it, & good healing medicine for all sore lungsand GUNS FOR THE NAVY. They are Making Some Very Big Ones at the Washington Navy Yard. MONSTERS OF ORDNANCE. ——_ Four, Six, Eight, Ten and Twelve-inch Cannon—Powder and Quick Firing Problems—How a Gun is Made—New Departure in Gun Making. ‘ MAGINE an hexagonal prism an inch S| [ac wide and possibly two-thirds of an > Jinch thick with a hole bored through che middle of it and resembling nothing so much as a chunk of wood. The last thing you would suppose it to be is what it really is—a grain of gunpowder. It is funny sort of gunpowder too. If you touch ared hot coal to it it will take seven or eight seconds to go off. Slow burning powder like this is used in cannon, because it does not strain the gun so much. The quicker the ex- plosion the greater the shock—so that in such high explosives as dynamite and _ nitro- Blycerine the rending force is so tremendous as to ruin the canuon under ordinary condi- tions, ‘This subject of gunpowder. a Srar reporter was informed, is one that is at present earn- estly engaging the attention of the experts at the Washington navy yard. To begin with, the powder of the future, it is thought, will be smokeless and its explosion will make very little noise. Thus, figh ting can go onto the best advantage and in a well-bred sort of way without the incidental deafening of the com- batants and the annoyance of having their eyes filled with ymoke. One boast of modern civ- ilization is that people can be killed so much More rapidly now than in former times, and this improvement has already progressed so far that armies nowadays very rarely get within & mile of one another, and at that comfortable bee they simply proceed to wipe each other ou GUNS AND P WDER, They make guns at the navy yard—and big ones, too—but the powder to load them with is bought from various manufacturing compa- nies, which are constantly improving the quality of their product. What is particularly wanted is a powder that will strain the cannon as little a possible. Afew years ago it was thought practicable to make an explosive which would exert a pressure in the bore of the gun on firing of only fifteen tons to the square inch, but now the pressure has been rechiced even below this. Of course the less the strain the longer will be the life of the weapon,and this 1s necessarily a matter of very serious conse- quence, The finest gun made cannot be reas- onably expected to be fit for further service after having been fired two hundred and fifty times with a fall charge of powder. At that rate it costs a good deal of money to fire off a cannon, taking into consideration the cost of the cannon to begin with and the expense of the charge of fifty or sixty pounds of powder, THE RIGHT KIND OF POWDER. ‘The manufacture of first-rate cannon powder in this country is comparatively a new thing. When the Dolphin, Chicago, Atlanta and Bos- ton were built the powder for them had to be gotfrum abroad, People speak of smokeless powder as if it was altogether a novelty, but it 1s really quite an old idea and has been talked of for a good many years. There 1s not actually any difficulty abodt making powder that is smokeless, It is simply necessary, in order thata powder shall be smokeless, that its com- bustion shall be perfect. Smoke means imper- fect combustion—vinatter unconsamed passing offin thatshape, But the trouble is that the smokeless powders made heretofore have not lasted well. ‘To be serviceable gunpowder must keep well for along period aud be not at ail affected by extremes of heat or cold. It would hardly do for a vessel ordered from a northern station to the tropics to find her powder usciess at the end of her vovage. Experiments said to have been successful have been made recently abroad with smokeless powder under the aus- pices of the German emperor, but authorities on such subjects here are dubious. No doubt sooner or later the thing will be accomplished, and gunpowder that is practically smokeless and comparatively noiseless will be used in the battles of the future. SLOW-BURNING POWDER, At the navy yard they say that an important new departure in gunnery consists in using fifty pounds, say, of slow-burning powder, where formerly only ten pounds were used for a charge, “The strain on the gun is no greater and the velocity of the projectile is enormously increased, It is worth remember- ing. by the way, that slow-burning powder does not take several seconds to go off in the gun where the temperature of the powder chamber is raised to 3,000 or 4,000 degrees Fahrenheit, The ex- plosion under such conditions is practically in- Stautaneous. But the most important project at present under consideration by gunners con- cerns the rapid-fire guns, which are sure before long to take the place of those used now, What is the use of firing two shots in three minutes, which is just about what the cannon in con- struction atthe navy yard will do, when you can just as easily discharge sixty projectiles of like weight in the same time? ‘The sort of guns made at the navy yard are as fine as any known in the world, save for this rapid-fire novelty. But, beyond’ doubt, the guns made at the uavy yard ten yeare hence will be rapid-fire cannon, Gunnery has by no means passed the experimental staye. the tuture there will be wonderful things accomplished with cannon, Powder, too, is still a thing experimental. Some day it will be an astonishing improvement on what it is now. HOW A CANNON 18 MADE, The beginning of a cannon like those turned out at the navy yard 1s a solid cast-steel cylin- der about twice as long as the gun is to be and quite twice the diameter, After it is cast one- third or more is cut off one end and also a small piece off the other, the best of the cast- ing being thus secured, without any of the un- desirable mutter that collects at the top of the moid and finds its way to the bottom, The cylinder is then taken and forged with great steel hammers that strike blows of 25 tons weight until itis reduced to one-half of its original diameter. Thus, an ingot of wonder- fully fine steel, 1t arrives at the navy yard from the firm employed to make it, In the vast gun shops there all the faciiities are at hand for turning (he steel cylinder into the gun that is to be, In the first place the cylinder must be bored with a huge lathe that, beginning at one end, cuts out a cylindrical hole through its heart. ‘The making of this hole takes ten days, maybe, but it would not do to make the boring quite full size at first. because the slightest er- ror of over-size would spoil the job, even though it were but a little gouge of one or two- thousandths of an inch out of the interior surface of the tube. So the cylinder is bored and rebored, until finally it & perfeet basis for acannon, its caliber being precisely the same throughout and the thickuess ot the tube unvarying. PUTTING ON THE JACKET. ‘The next thing is to put on the great jacket of steel that covers the breech of the gun and strengthens it over the powder chamber, where it most needs reinforcement. It is really a very wonderful sight to see such a jacket put on, Hitherto at the navy yard it has been cus- tom ary to dig a great hole outside of the build- ings to stand the tube on end in, in order to getat it couveniently, People have always come in crowds to watch the spectacle when they heard of it in advance. Now, however, there is nearly completed an enormous pit, walled with masonry and as big ax two ordinar rooms, inside the gun shop, and henceforth the jacketing of caunon will be done there. Beneath the bottom of the pit and far below the water level of the river have been sunk two mighty caissons for the gun tube to rest upon onend, Also in the pit isa gigantic farnace, built in cylindrical sections, so that by simply piling up as many sections as are desired, one upon the other, the furnace can be made of any height that’ may be required for heating a jacket of any length. HEATING THE JAcKrT. For this is the purpose of the furnace—to heat the jackets before they are put on, The expansion of steel by heat is made use of in the manufacture of a cannon very serviceably, The tube is first stood sepeteees ware i ere le & mal t it has diminished the interior ter of the tube by several thousandths of an inch— 80 energetic is its squeeze, HOOPS AKD TRUNNIONS, 8o now there is a tube with the end that is to hoid the powder and serve as the butt of the gun surrounded by a steel envelope. Between that envelope andthe muzzle of the byron, however, a number of other | mintosicied jackets and hoops must be put on, diminishing grad- ually in thickness toward the muzzle in pro- ion as the strain caused by firing diminishes the butt to the muzzle. The hoops and = are of even finer steel than the tube itself, for the reason that it is easier to make a thin piece of steel first-rate in quality thana mass of metal. Every of the gun that is pas on the tube is secured by the heat- ing and cooling process except the trunnions, on which the cannon rests when equipped with its carriage, These trunnions are placed as near the center of (ped of the gun as possi- ble and so accurately are they adjusted with this end in view that there is often a difference of only 10 or 12 pounds between the part in front and the behind, so that a child can raise or depress the muzzie of a cannon weigh- ing many thousand pounds by the effort of one han IN THE GUN SHOP. Itisa marvelous thing to see the way in which the great cranes in the gun shops oper- ate, lifting swiftly the heaviest masses of metal from any part of the buildingsand transferring them, under the direction of the engineers, to any other part. In making a new cannon the various portions must be carried hither and thither and to and fro many times before the gun is finally got together. Accordingly the hosting and carrying mechanism is constantly atwork. It presents, indeed, the most not- able feature of the machinery in the gun shop, As you enter the big gan shop at the navy yard where the boring and jacketing described are performed you find yourself in a vast building something like an exposition hall, enormously long, very high, and sky-lighted. On either side for the entire length of the building runs a line of tall irou supports holding up a sort of track, and straddling between the two tracks is something that looks like a bridge, extending, at a height of perhaps twenty-five feet, almost the whole width of the stracture. If you will imagine an elevated road upheld by two paral- lel lines of Posts 60 feet apart and with a track the same width you will havea feeble notion to begin with. The on these two rails, as it were, 60 feet apart, is the bridgelike contrivance aforemen- tioned, and this car is made to run from one end of the shop to the other by means of a re- yolving shaft extending the length of the build- ing. Thus the hoisting mechanism on the car bridge can carry anything that it can lift lengthwise of the shop. But, in order to take up a weighty object from any place and put it down in any other given spot, the hoisting machinery must also be able to move sideways, and this is just what is very ingeniously pro- vided for by making the hoisting mechanism run from side to side on rails upon the bridge, the long shaft referred to domg the whole business, including the lifting. Such is the crane and its operation in the big gun-making shops at the navy yard, It can only lift 45 tons, but one that has been ordered for the samé shop and which will be set in operation this spring is to be o” 110 tons capacity, and will be the largest crane ever used in the United States, RIFLING THE CANNON. Now, so far the cannon is merely a jacketed tube. A further boring process is next gone through to rifle it—in other words, to cut on the inside of the tube those spiral grooves which give the projectile a rotary motion as it leaves the muzzle of the gun. Very little now re- mains but to poush off the gun with files, smoothing the edges of the jackets down from square to round, every part of the weapon in its various diameters from muzzle to breech having been reduced in the lathe to precisely the size required by the specification. Finally the plug, which closes up the breech and is op- erated almost instantaneously by a crank so as to shut the cannon hermetically when it 1s to be fired, is attached and the instrument of de- struction has ouly to be “sighted” before it is finished and ready to go out of the shop. This operation of sighting is one of some difficulty and requires the greatest care, for allowance must be made for the curve of the projectile. MOUNTING THE OUN. So much for the gun itself, But it js not ready for action until ithas been mounted, And this necessity is provided for by another vast shop close by the one already described and almost equally big, which is devoted to the manutacture of gun carriages, ‘he must im- proved type of gun carriage mude nowadays, as to the lower part of it, termed the ‘slide is turned out in asingle iron casting and se to the navy yard by the manufacturer in that crude shape. The carriage proper, which runs on the groovesof the slide, 1s constructed of brass at the shop, furnishing a sort of cradie for the gun to rest in, balanced on its trunnions, Also in this shop, which has an enormous crane like that in the gun shop spoken of, the arc-shaped tracks ure made for the mounted guns to re- voive upon on the deck of the ship, so that they may be pointed toward the horizon in any di- rection desired, TESTING ITS MERITS, But the gun is not mounted on its carriage atthe navy yard, It goes first tothe proving grounds at Annapolis, whero the ten shots required by laware fired to test its quality, with fall charges of powder. Supposing that it is found satisfactory it is very likely sent di- rect from the proving grounds to the vessel that wants it, As for the carriage, it is stored at the navy yard until requisition is made for it. A third big shop at the yard is largely given up to the manufacture of ‘conical projectiles, some of cast iron, others of cast steel and others still of forged steel. Nearly all of them are loaded with a few pounds of quick-burning powder, which is exploded upon the arrival of the projectile at its destination, either by afuse or by a cap. WORN-OUT GUNS, What wears out a gun under ordinary cir- cumstances is the scoring of the polished in- side of the rifled barrel by the particles of gun- car that runs powder. Once a few scratches made, other such particles score them deeper and the weapon ig weakened and injured. Some day before long it is intended to take one of the new guns from the navy yard to the proving grounds aud destroy it by tiring in order to tind out what its resistance i, Whena gun has been incapacitated for further service in this ordinary way it is often rebored, making its caliber a little larger and making a new inside surface for the barrel with fresh rifling. Then it is ready for further work. If a gun is to be pulled to pieces the jackets have to be sliced through and wrenched off bes powerful ma- chinery. When agun is thus destroyed at the yard the men all scramble for the steel to turn flee use for their tools, it is so extraordinarily ee IN LOADING THE GUN FOR USE the plug is first pulled open from behind and the conical projectile is shoved in so that it rests just forward of the powder chamber, a copper ring about its rear end resting in a roove just at the division between the rifled arrel and the powder chamber itself, which of course occupies the breech. ‘Lhe projectile, if of the best wpe, is pointed with steel so hard that a tile will not cut it, This enables it to | sales the object hit. Around the sides, owever, its steel envelope concealing the powder with which it is loaded is more soft, for the reason that if the huge bullet were of very hard steel all over it would be too brittle and would smash up on striking such a mark as steel armor. So the projectile lies in the barrel, which it fills up, immediately forward of the powder chamber, into which is thrust a bag containing, say, 50 pounds of the bex- agonal powder grains described at the beginning of this article, The powder grains are strung on little rods before being packed in the bag, in order that the holes through them shall all be in a line to communicate the flame readily. ‘These two operations of putting in the pro- jectile pty 25 powder have required but half ‘a dozen seconds, and then all you have to do isto snap the plug in and fire, Bang! The charge explodes, and the projectile starts upon ite lightning journey, the soft copper ring at ite rear end, which is slightly bigger than the rifled barrel, being squeezed suddenly into the mold of the rifling and so ein Ie projectile the rotatory motion desired. The copper ri referred to, holding the bullet in until fire makes quite unnecessary the wad which in former had ite chief use to retain the charge the vessel rolled or the cannon on land jolted over rough ground. ‘The guns at present in process of manufac- at the navy yard are of 4, 6, 8 and 10-inch . But pretty soon they are fins se begin making 12-inch secyee dg will wi about 26 each, Watch and Wait. which bas previously been the most vy: keptinitfor hours. T! been removed IN TROPICAL CLIMES. Life in a Picturesque South Amer- ican Capital. CHIEF CITY OF COLOMBIA. Bogota and Her People—Religious Tra- tions @f the Chibchas—The Houses the Town—Lack of Conveniences— The Barracks, —.__ From Tue St4n’s Traveling Commissioner. Bogota pe Saxta Fs, Covomata, Feb. 10. OLUMBIA'S capital, yclept tho city of “holy faith,” occupies a little de- tached plateau of the Andes, 8.750 feet above the level of the sea. Away up here, half a mile higher than the very top of Mount Washington, one can almost imagine one’s self in the north temperate zone, so thin, pure and cool is the atmosphere, Though only a few degrees from the equator the temperature averages 50 de- grees Fahrenheit and most of the northern products are found flourishing amid a surpris- ing profusion of tropical fruits and flowers, ‘This mountain vailey is doubly interesting as having been the traditional heaven of the Chibchas, the ancient people who inhabited this region in the morning twilight of history. Queseda tells us that at the time of the con- quest (in 1537) they numbered about three- quarters ofa million, Here stood their sacred city, called Bo-cat-a; and the present capital, which occupies nearly the same site, evidently took its name from the older one, though the corrnpted modern word has quite a different sound, the accent being given on the final syl- lable. ‘THE CHIBCHAS, They were a curious race, those long-dead Chibchas, and around nospot on the two Americas are clustered more wild stories and improbable traditions concerning a vanished civilization, Of their remoter history the world knows absolutely nothing, except that they were a very ancient and powerfal people when the Spaniards found them, three centuries and a half ago, given to agriculture and the peaceful arts and with a form of government es- sentially patriarchal, Their most ancient im- perial capital, the residence of the emperor, was not Bocata, where the temples stood and the priests dwelt, but Manguita, on the opposite side of the plain, near the present village of Faunza, The study of Chibchan religion from the shat- tered remnants of tradition that .remain is a fascinating one; but newspaper space will not permit more than the briefest mention of it, for this rurhing generation has little time to devote to myths of the shadowy past. Their faith seems to have been a strange mixture of ancient Buddhisin, modern theosophy and Bible Christianity, but included no sauguinary sacri- fices like those that marked the rituals of many of the neighboring tribes of Central and South America, RELIGIOUS TRADITION, In Bohica, their elysium (supposed to be literally located on this high plateau), they had adivine Mediata or deity of mercy, corre- sponding somewhat to Christ the Nazarine, Like all other races, they, too, had a tradition of the flood and a character closely resembling the Hebrew Noah, the Greek Ducaiaine and the Mexican Cojcoj, |, to complete the scheme of salvation, they believed also in a spirit of evil, akin to the scriptural Satan, who was for- ever striving to get the better of the higher powers, with more or less snecess. ‘Their god of science, as typificd by earthen images, was al- most identical with the Buddhist god of wis- dom, represented in the idols that are today found in many Chinese temples, while their Chibchacum wasa fac simile of the Buddhist god of agricniture, The raoxt splendid temple of old Bocata, con- secrated to the god of agriculture, stood near the site of the present grand cathedral in the center of the modern capital. Thither twice every year went the emperor, his chief caciques and all the royal retinue to offer oblations to the deity who was believed to preside over the harvests—a ceremony not unlike the “moon feasts” that are yet celebrated in many of the interior districts of China, And so goes on the march of changing religions, as since this weary world was young, Each forgotten faith has had its followers, as devoutly sincere, no doubt, and perhaps as deserving of eternal peace (if living up to one's convictions may win heaven’s clemency) as those who today rear temples to other forms of religion—as the unbora races of coming centuries, each in its little day, will worship new gods, yet to be evolved from man's imagination, THE INHABITANTS. The present inhabitants of the Bogota plain seem a totally different people from any we have previously met in Colombia, possessing a deal more energy and a disposition to keep up within hailing distance of the the times. Here agriculture and the useful arts are at least a century ahead of their practice in the torrid valleys and along the burning coast. The wooden shovel and clumsy forked stick have given place to the iron spade and patent plow, and the quintas (farms), inclosed within sub- stantial walls of stone or adobe, have spacious houses that wear an air of palatial elegance compared with the mud and bamboo huts along the great rivers, Sentumentalists may attribute this state of things to the influence of the early owners of the soil—to the pastoral Chibchas, whose spirits yet linger in the land they loved—but the truth is that the natural conditions of the soil have more to do with the condition of the people than the peo) le have in changing the condition of the soil, While the laziest race might work to some advantage so near the stars as Bogota the most energetic Yankee would soon lose his vaunted “yim” and become utterly shiftless under the influence of the tropic sun in the humid low lands near the equator, Mr. Scruggs, late consul from the United States to Colombia (from whom much of the data I am using has been derived), says that though pure and exhilarating this climate is not conducive to lon- gevity or to mental activity. He adds: “Aman, for instance, who has been accus- tomed to eight hours daily labor in New York or Washington will here tind it impossible to apply himse.f closely more than five hours each day. If he exceeds that limit ominous symptoms of nervous prostratien will be almost sure to follow.” I have myself ob- served the same thing in other high altitudes of the far south, that people of ordinaxily calm tenrperament when in the north speedily find themselves mere bundles of nerves, strung to such tension as to induce excessive irritability, insomnia and mental exhaustion, even without any especial strain, mental or physical. PICTURESQUE OLD BOGOTA. This old Bogota somehow presents an ap- pearance of unusual picturesqueness, though in a land where all things are as quaint as was Egypt in the days of Moses, Its narrow and crooked streets, winding uphill and down, are paved with the sharpest of small stones, that make pedestrians feel like penitential pilgrim: on the way to Mecca with peas in their shoes, and in the middle of each street is cut a deep ditch or channel, through which the melted snows of the near-by mountains dance in noisy rivulets. The city has a population of some- thing over 100,000 and in many respects is quite modern, in others fully two hundred years be- hind the times, Its white-walled casas are mostly of one story, with projecting roofs of red tiles and green-painted windows latticed like those of prisons, between whose bars one sees peering eyes—the beautiful, dark eyes of Colombian women, full of wondering curiosity at sight of “las estrangeras Americanas.” Though built of adobe and unprepossessing in outside ap- poser there are many elegant homes in Co- lombia’s capital, spacious and well furmshed. The prevailing style of architecture is, of — oo — the eae ee to the early niards, eve: ouse like its bace, tlank walle bok, gach wil ths gare ment, carefully concealing from the passer-by every trace of home life, while within are bloom and beauty, sunshine’ and cheerfulness, Those casas that exult in the luxury of a second story, and there are more of them in Bogota than one often finds in a Spanish-American city, have no windows on the ground floor, the rooms front street being used ware houses and stables, for the Eroprist ven ouses: have never more than one ent and that often elaborately carved, opeuing 6 o1 @ nar- ved like the street, which leads i court has its fountains, shrubs and flowers, and striped canvas, on rollers so yan Re 1 flowers abound goes on out of doors, but in strictest privacy so far as the outer world of the street is con- cerned, because of the high, windowless walls, The city is constructed after no regular plan, but straggles down a gently sloping hillside, with three considerable streams rnuning through it, Its streets are named after the saints, famous public men or the dates of de- cisive battles—such, for example, as the Calle de San Juan Bautista (St. John street), Bolivar street, Fifth of May street, &c. A distinctive feature of Bogota is its @acaiyptus trees, of the globulous variety, which, interspersed with a few sickly willows, shade every avenue. Less than a quarter of a century ago the first euca- lyptus was introduced here, and now there are thousands of those scraggy, melancholy look- ing trees, NO CONVENTENCES, There are telegraphs and telephones, electric lights, street cars and newspapers way up here, and yet every bit of freight has to be labori- ously lugged over the Sierras on the backs of men or mules, as described in a previous letter. On this point let us again quote Mr. Scraggs. He says: “None of the commodious coaches and omnibuses apd not one of these agricultural implements were manufactured here nor else- were in Colombia, They have all been im- pt from the United States and England— ought to Honda by the river steamers, then repacked into small sections and carried piece by piece over the mountains, One peon will carry a wheel, another an axle, a third a coup- ling” pole ‘or single-tree, while the screws and bolts, packed in small boxes, are toted by the cargo mules, The upper body of the vehicle is hkewise taken to pieces and packed in sections, One man will some- time: d¢ a month in carrying a wagon wheel from Honda to Bogota, his method being to tug it from fifty to one hundred pacesand then to sit down for a long rest, barely making two miles aday.. When all the dismembered ve- hicle finally reaches its destination the pieces are collected and put together by some smithy who may have learned his art from an American or English mechanic. One scarcely knows which ought to be the greatest marvel, the tuilure to manufacture all these things in acountry where wood and iron and coal are so abundant or the obstacles that are overcome in their successful transportation from foreign countries,” Notwithstanding the enormous cost of con- structing street car lines in this isolated place— each rail being the load of half adozen men during several days of difficult mountain clanb- ing—they have proved a very profitable invest- ment to the company of NEW YORK CAPITALISTS who own them. There are few carriages in Bogota, not only because the stony streets would soon wreck the strongest vehicle but on account of the great expense of bringing them here. Therefore everybody patronizes the horse cars, and the tariff charged for a rid whether it be for five miles or a block, is Colombia real, a coin which equals in value about ten cents American money. The horse-ear drivers carry tin horns, which they are continually tooting with might and main to notity people in their houses of the train's approach, Throughout all Spanish America the street cars are never run singly, but always in groups; that is, instead of send- ing out cars five minutes apart they wait all together at the station half an hour or more and then all sally forth at once, six or eight of them close behind one another, to the other end of the le, where they wait ina group as betore. Fancy the New ¥ vated railway adopting such a plan, or the street cars of any rushing northern city! i cadia nobody is ever in a hurry. uever presses and people are content to collect on the corners and spend half an hour in friendiy gossip whi waiting for the train, Often the whole string of cars 18 halted while somebody who is coming finishes his chaten casa and goes through with the elabo- rate and long-winded adieux which are the fashion amoug these excessively polite Cas- tilanoes. And whenever a passenger gets off, especially it it be a female, another wait ensues while she embraces all her acquamtances who to be in the game car and ex- A VISITTO THE BARRACKS, The other day we visited the barracks, whose lofty blank walis line one side of a pretty plaza. Among other curiosities we were shown some oid brouze carronades, one of which is highly prized for its history—an inscription on the reech showing that the Spaniards captured it from the French at the battle of Paira, The artillery of the Colombian Guard are furnished with Armstrong mountain guns and a few Gatlings, Among the latter is one whose vicis- situdes deserve especial mention. During the last general revolution the con- servative party, which included the church ele- ment and was opposed to the so-called “liberal” government, received information that a Gat- hug gua, which shouid have been delivered to the government long before the revolution be- gan had at last arrived at Barranquilia and was about to be supped up the river to Honda, ‘The insurgents were wotully short of munitions of warfare and had almost nothing for use in the interior; therefore they determined to possess themselves of that blessed gun. But how to do it was the question—especially since it must come through Honda, which at that time was the main stronghold of the govern- ment forces. ‘They hit upon a plan which never could have been carried out except in a country like this, where men’s minds are densely clouded with religious su tion, The revolutioniste sent secret dispatches to their sympathizers on the coast, and these, having received the gun from the ocean steamer, transferred it by migut from its original case to another big box, which they Jabeled as containing THE IMAGE OF A SAINT, My designed for a church that was being built at | Manzanares; and thas they shipped it up the Magdalena.’ On its arrival at Houda other un- suspected rebel agents received it with solemn religious ceremonies and carried it through the streets to the cathedral, where they de- posited iton the platiorm in front, There it remained ail day and was publicly blessed and sprinkled with holy water in the presence of an assembied multitude, including a battalion of goverument troops, Then twelve strong men took it on their shoulders, ostensibly to carry it over the hills to the new church, Of course the ruse could never have suc- ceeded had not the priesthood been imeollusion with the insurgents, Had anybody demanded the opening of the case 60 that the saint in- stead of his coffin might be sprinkied the pear by Plaza de los Martires, which has been the scene of so many executions, would have bad another baptism of blood. So the death-dealing instrument was borne in triumph a little way up the central Cordil- lera in the direction of Manzanillo; but it soon | found its way to the couservative camp and shortly after, at the battle of Garapata, it did terrible execution against the very men through whose carelessuess it had been allowed to pass. 2 litle way from the barracks is one of the most interesting structures in Bogota—the old CONVENT OF SAN DIEGO, which is now used asa hospital for the poor. ‘This ancient pile was the headquarters of the army which defended the Colombian capital in the war of 1860, It was finally captured by Gen. Mosquera; but, being considered the key to the positiou, was seized only after great slaughter, In the convent garden there is an old stone crucifix which—so sys tradition—was used by the cruel Spanish a as a whipping post for the subjugated indians, For any fault, real or imaginary, the victim was compelled to kneel at the foot of the cross and put his arms around it, when his hands were securely tied on the other side, Lashes were then adminis- tered on his bare back; and in the intervals of the punishment, when his tormenters stopped to rest, he was compelled to repeat the creed and a number of prayers, after which the whip- ping recommenced. "Many miserable wretches were tortured to death in this manner and the stones around lace have been slippery with human b! Probably these circumstances gave rise to the ghost stories that abound concerning the locality and the belief prevsiling among the lower classes that shrieks, cries and groans are tS a a A Protestant school now occupies part of the huge convent, and what was once its garden—a 130 square—is used for a market Faxsre B, Wann, 1200 and 1202 Penna. ave. aw., WASHINGTON, D. 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