LITTLE MISS SURE-SHOT.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 225, 22 September 1928, Page 18 (Supplement)

LITTLE MISS SURE-SHOT.

AN AMAZING CAREER.

ANTsTIE OAKLEY, SHARPSHOOTER.

Annie Oakley was the greatest woman rifle shot the world has ever seen. And . her early youth was spent in a [ manner almost sufficient .to stifle . the . desire to live., When barely six years old, Annie was doing her share to support the poverty--1 stricken family in the wilds of America by trapping birds. A year later her tomboyish eyes saw a tremendous 40in cap and ball rifle that hung on the wall ■ of the bungalow. Her first experience ' with a rifle resulted in a red and bulbous nose—the result of a kick of an overload. At nine, living the life of a slave with a cruel family to whom she had gone in the hope of improving her position, she was forced to do work that would have killed many a grown woman. Eventually she escaped and returned to her mother, near Cincinnati. She had bought a new gun, and every spare moment was spent in the field, for there was a good market for game. The family entered upon a period of prosperity it had never before known—all because of a muzzle-loading gun in the hands of a girl not yet thirteen! Two Million Shots. Her feats were talked about, and before long she started out to build up a career as the world's most famous markswoman. She is said to have fired no fewer than two million shots. She was fifteen when the famous team of Butler and Company arrived in Cin- j cinnati. An hotelkeeper suggested a shooting match between Butler, famous for deeds of. daring with firearms, and an unknown challenger. Butler found his opponent the small, pretty country girl, Annie Oakley. She beat him, married him and won worldwide fame. Oakley and Butler went from success to success until they became stars with Buffalo Bill. In 1887, Buffalo Bill came to Ixmdon to add to the entertainments of Queen Victoria's Jubilee Year, and after seeing the markswoman at a command performance, the Prince of Wales wrote to Buffalo Bill: "Will the little girl, Annie Oakley, who shoots so cleverly in your show, object to shooting a friendly match with the Grand Duke Michael of Russia? We will arrive at Earl's Court at 10.30 this morning.—Edward." The Grand Duke, one of the finest shots in Russia,* missed fourteen of the fifty targets; Annie Oakley missed only three. As time went on no tricks seemed too hard fori "Little Miss Sue-Shot." Four balls were thrown into the air and she broke them all before they reached the ground, changing her double-barrelled gun in the midst of the feat. Another trick was to stand twenty yards behind ] her gun, wait until two balls had been thrown up, and then rush forward and ' break them'both while they were still ' in the air. ' She shot at the thin edge of a playing , card held in her husband's hand and ■ sliced the card in two. She knocked ; a coin from oetween his thumb and < forefinger at thirty paces, and hit a • swinging ball as it circled about his head at the end of a st ing. Once, in a contest, she fired one thou- I sand shots at composition balls thrown into the air. She hit 943 times. Perhaps her greatest feat was to fire five thousand rounds in a di*y, doing the loading herself. Of the first thousand shots jshe missed some twenty. Of the second, only sixteen. Then, tiring, her misses, became roor frequent, but she ended up by establishing a record of hitting 4772 flying targets out of a possible five thousand.

Annie Oakley became the pet of London society and gave wessons at £1 a day. Soon, in tuition i .es, siie was earning £200 a week.