SHARP SHOOTING.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3958, 27 March 1884, Page 4

SHARP SHOOTING.

Mr G-arnot Walch thus describes in tho Argus ono thnig he saw in the Mauritius : — I Wiis spending a day at the house of a genthinan whom wo will call Mr P. During dejeuMV tho conversation turned upon rifleshooting. "lam a pretty fair shot," said ouif host, "but I ' givo tho cuko' " (ho was an American of tho first water) "to my wifo. After tUje-Aiwr she shall show you what ulio can do in that lino." Mrs P. at first declined to mako exhibition of her skill, but at length succumbed to pressure. So soon as wo had enjoyed our cofe jjotraud >i stfiorfc siesta,.we adjourned to tho garden, and took our places beneath tho branches of a hugo mango. Thou P. produced a conplo of saloon rifles from his gunroom ; he had quite a little Woolwich of weapons, chiefly rifles of various patterns, and Globe Trotfor and I opened tho tournament. Tho target was a sheet of paper fixed against the trunk of another tree 'ill yards or 130 yards ofp. Wo mado some fair shots and some desperately bad ones. P. followed us, and placed 10 pellets in succession within a ring not larger than tho top of a fair-sized teacup. Then came Mrs P.'s turn. Her target was a match-box—ono of Bryant and May's smaller "safety" boxes, and this was held up by her husband between his finger and thumb. So infallibly did sho knock tho match-box away from tho marital digits that at last Globe Trotter and I took heart and held tho box ourselves, " just to feel how it felt." Tho sensation was certainly novel, but ono gradually developed such confidence in tho fair riffowoman that anything in tho shape of nervousness vanished, and one would, soon have placed the box on one's l\eacb as betwoeu ono's fingers. P. toid us that, whenever a chicken was reriuixed- for the cuisbi" —and curried fowl is iy Unily dish in tho "Mauritius—his wifo simply ' took tho pca-riflo, stood on the back steps, and shot ono or more birds through the head. If Mrs P. should over be persuaded to exhibit her wonderful prowo.ss to tho world at largo, Captain Bogardus and his many imitators had hotter look to their laurels.